My simrad 4G radar is not detected

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by Cap Erict3

The end is nigh. Again


------------------------------
Looking for another pretty place to work on the boat.

Its not a conspiracy its a goddamn coincidence huh?

[wyb2]

Resurrecting this thread because I'm having a similar issue with a Zeus2 and 3G radar dome (connected with ethernet via a RI unit).

Worked fine when I bench tested it and for a handful of times after install. One time the display didn't see any radar, but fixed itself after a few seconds of waiting. A few days later same thing, but this time it never fixed itself.

Put a multimeter on the radar circuit, pulls ~100 mA for a second, then ~600 mA for a few seconds, then settles back to ~200 mA indefinitely. Seems to me like a reasonable power draw for booting and then going into standby, so it seems the radar is behaving normally.

Looking for any other insights/experiences that might be out there. Plan on contacting Navico support as soon a I have time to deal with it.

[Seman]

I have had the same problem with my 3,5 year old 4G.
The radar dome was faulty. Navico don't sell any components or circuit boards I was told in Spain. Had to buy a new 4G, 40% factory discount still cost me Euro1700, which is more than I payed for the original purchase. Now 4 weeks later this almost brand new radar is intermittently faulty. In Italy, contacted Simrad Italy. After initial correspondence and the offer of replacing the 4G, if an update to the HDS7 is not fixing the problem, service is ignoring my 4 emails. I need the radar urgently, we are trying to get ready to head across the Atlantic. No response at all any more. Great service!!
Where can I go from here?

[wyb2]

Originally Posted by Seman

I have had the same problem with my 3,5 year old 4G.
The radar dome was faulty. Navico don't sell any components or circuit boards I was told in Spain. Had to buy a new 4G, 40% factory discount still cost me Euro1700, which is more than I payed for the original purchase. Now 4 weeks later this almost brand new radar is intermittently faulty. In Italy, contacted Simrad Italy. After initial correspondence and the offer of replacing the 4G, if an update to the HDS7 is not fixing the problem, service is ignoring my 4 emails. I need the radar urgently, we are trying to get ready to head across the Atlantic. No response at all any more. Great service!!
Where can I go from here?

How did they establish that the first dome was faulty? Navico US tech support told me I could send it in for testing, but it would go to a facility in Mexico, and turn-around time would be long. Their suggestion was to have a certified dealer/service tech look at it, if the tech identified faulty parts, then we could get them replaced under warranty.

Check with Navico for dealers in your area. Tech support said don't worry about B&G vs Lowrance vs Simrad, the hardware is identical.

[Seman]

Originally Posted by wyb2

How did they establish that the first dome was faulty? Navico US tech support told me I could send it in for testing, but it would go to a facility in Mexico, and turn-around time would be long. Their suggestion was to have a certified dealer/service tech look at it, if the tech identified faulty parts, then we could get them replaced under warranty.

Check with Navico for dealers in your area. Tech support said don't worry about B&G vs Lowrance vs Simrad, the hardware is identical.

I removed the radar & cable from the mast& set it up in my cockpit.
The tech had a brand new radar with him.
after checking voltage & connections he plugged in the new unit and all was ok.
I paid 1750 Euro and all was good for 3 weeks.
I just heard back from the local service, they will come to see me on Wednesday. Not sure whats going to happen, as the fault on my radar is intermittent. Sometimes it works for a day or 2 without fail.
However, I will try to extend the factory warranty to 5 years.
This Navico equipment is obviously of very poor quality, & so is their service.

[syMoka]

I have a similar problem, no radar connected (Simrad 4G radar). At first I tested with RI10 interface connected directly to Zeus 8T mfd. No radar was discovered. Cables and interface checked. When I try to connect the RJ45 from the cable directly to an ethernet dongle there is no traffic, and no light to indicate a connection. Since the unit is out of warranty I opened it up. There is a red LED, close to J1, which is on constantly, and another red LED, close to J13, which blinks intermittently with ~5 sec period. There is very little power draw. It starts off around 50-60mA, then falls off to 7-8mA..


The unit doesn't seem very service friendly, and I've found very little information about the internals. But maybe someone here knows what those LEDs mean?

[wyb2]

Can't tell you what those LEDs mean, but I can tell you mine was a severed cable. Had a service tech come look at it, they ran a test ethernet cable down from the radar to the Ri10, said must be a bad dome. Got the dome back maybe 2 months later, no problems found, still no radar. Turned out the cable from the Ri10 to the MFD had been severed. Figured the tech would have known enough to check that, bad assumption. Replaced the cable, all was well.

[Gr8tewhite]

I too had this exact same issue. Unfortunately, my radar was about 45 days out of warranty. Just as unfortunate was that Simrad did not cover it. That said, I would suggest looking at two areas. Firstly, check to make sure that your female terminator is good and fits snugly into the backbone. Secondly, if the radar is accessible, activate it and via a quick feel, you should be able to to determine if the radome is rotating.

In my case, it turns out that the unit was not rotating. Further investigation revealed that the aluminum housing that encased the circuit boards was installed from the factory without a gasket, even though it was channeled for one, resulting in the circuit boards being flooded with salt water during a microburst.

I hope this helps.

[Bycrick]

Several years ago, a 4G radar on a friends boat has a similar problem. Take it down and test it in the shop; OK. Bypass the RI10; still doesn’t work. Try new cables; still not found by MFD. I finally stumbled on a menu selection that allowed the selection of multiple attached radars; check-marked the one which wasn’t selected and it all worked. How the second radar entry was created, I never found out. I saw another thread much later where a similar-appearing problem was fixed by doing a hard-reset on the MFD.

[DreamCatcher37]

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I run B and G Zeus2 and B and G 4G radar on pole on NM2000

well has ANYONE Gotten this Radar message with their 4G radar not turning on?

MY B and G Zeus2 radar screens for Transmit, for Install and otherwise tell me this and only this:

(Invalid) 4G-976 A


grrrrr no radar turning on and holding up 1100nm sail to La Paz MX, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Suijin]

Have you called Navico tech support? They are extremely helpful and will run through troubleshooting routines with you even if your stuff is out of warranty.

[DreamCatcher37]

It's the weekend no one in at B and G til Monday 8am east coast.

No googling helps find what "(Invalid) 4G-976 A" means when my Zeus2 tells me that for what my "Radar Source" is.

I had a horrid history of uploading 18.3 BNG firmware early this year from BNG which fried my Wifi 1 --- they gave me a new, I installed it, all good til now and testing 4G radar on board for trip south Monday.

MFD will not allow me access to anything past the informaton
Radar Source
(Invalid) 4G-976 A

Arg
Bryon

[lateral]

Care to update us on this?
Could be useful.

[groundtackle]

Hi Lateral,
I ended up with Simrad providing a replacement dome as it was still on warranty. It’s been perfect since then. I Still have no idea what exactly was the problem.
Nick