Raymarine C-80 (old)

[Sandero]

Update...

I can get the unit to work by restarting the GPS in the menu settings... and sometimes it acquires the fix on its own.
I bit the bullet and bought the new 130 antenna and seatalk interface kit. The "instructions" in the user manual are very poorly written... and I had a computer tech person with me when I tried to set it up (before removing the old antenna).
The new one did not work at all. The GPS settings showed no satellites and there was no data stream from the antenna. The LED code was either red or orange and even that is hard to determine on the antenna. But both indicate no signal. Perhaps the antenna is defective or maybe it takes a long time to acquire satellites when first fired up...????
I'll call Ray tech support and see what they recommend. Old antenna remains on duty.

[Sandero]

Raymarine tech told me that the new seatalk interface needs to have the terminators plugged in... to the two blue ports... I try this weekend...

[Sandero]

This gets curioser and curioser...

Ray now seems to work on it's own getting a fix.. albeit a bit slower than before.

When I set up MFD I had input from a LVH sail comp 103AC and a NASA AIS and Icom VHF for use of DSC... to make this all work with different data baud rates and NEMA 183 I had to use a a Brookhouse MUX multiplexer and a Ray 8501 seatalk interface.

To use the new 130 antenna I am told to splice the seatalk wires (3) from the Ray 8501 to the new seatalk Network NG interface and then plug that into the back of the C80... and I will have all the data flowing where it's supposed to go.

So I was about to do this... and the thing was working fine and decided to postpone this install... and then after a 5 hrs sail the c80 began to act totally weird... turning itself on and off and I simply could not get it to "stabilize"... I began to think the GPS problem was a C80 problem of corrupt firmware or something. I had done a hard reset a few weeks ago and it began to work quasi normally... and then this.

I am not inspired by Ray's reliability and thinking about some other solutions... but

Do I move to a whole (expensive) new MFD, AIS, fluxgate, cockpit repeaters? Electronics seems to turn to antiques after 3 or 4 years. Who uses an 3 yrs old smart phone? But a new nav system is pretty expensive and I want it to last... and I was fine with the functionality of the C80...

Really what sort of information am I missing which would change my sailing and my life?

Oh when I finally got to the mooring and managed to shut off the c80 and restart it 10 minutes later... it worked again.

Go figure

[transmitterdan]

Sandero,

I think the DC bus voltage is the first suspect when any MFD starts acting "wierd" such as restarting or shutting down. After a day of sailing probably the batteries are a little lower in voltage and so glitches from things like refrigeration or water makers switching on can cause problems.

Dan

[hlev00]

Originally Posted by Sandero

Here's a strange twist.... new antenna/GPS did not arrive. I go out to the boat and turn the unit on.... 10 minutes it works! Next day... Sat AM we set off for a little outting... and again no FIX.... but wait a few minutes later YES it works... What's with that? Worked fine for 5 hrs... Now after dinner on the hook I fire it up...and waiting...no fix...

I restarted the GPS in the GPS menu and after a few minutes YES it did produce a fix!

ooops now it crashed...

rebooted and it works... very suspicious

I am having the very same problem. It started two weeks ago.

[ReneJK]

Had the same issue , opened the gps receiver (white mushroom ) measured battery (0 volt) soldered new battery in , problem solved