Raymarine E120 Beeps, freezes and Reboots

[IanClarke]

Hello, I am asking for some diagnostic help. Our Raymarine E120 chart plotter was repaired last year by the Raymarine Service centre because in Night Mode the display on the unit would flicker then go out. The main part of the chart plotter was still functioning fine because the external display connected to Video Out displayed what would normally be on the E120 display. Occasionally the E120 would reboot, and go back to normal operation. Until this happened again.
After the repair last year the E120 did a couple of reboots.
This year the unit is doing the same thing, Flicker in night mode, and the occasional reboot. I sent it back to Raymarine for warranty repair. They could not find any fault with the unit and returned it saying there is a fault on our boat.

Has anyone any suggestions as to what is the cause of the fault showing the following symptoms.

- The reboot seems to occur at times that there is motion of the boat ... bigger waves, bigger wind etc.
- The E120 beeps for about 10 seconds with no pop up warnings being displayed for AIS or Sirius Weather or any other pop up.
- The E120 freezes, it will not respond to any button presses, cursor movement, zoom in or out.
- Then the E120 reboots.
- Boots up OK and works normally.
- Whenever the screen on the E120 goes blank in night mode, the chart and all other display images still display perfectly on the external VGA monitor connected to Video out.

Connected to the display are:
Wind speed, Water speed, Sirius Weather, Raymarine Radar, Raymarine Smart Pilot, ICOM M604 VHF (has GPS connection via NMEA 0183.

We have monitored the Input voltage and it seems OK. Tried wriggling cables and input connectors to the E120 and cannot generate the reboot.
Checked out the connections and cables at the Radar unit up the past. Inside the Radar unit looks perfect, clean and dry like new.
All of this gear will be about 5 years old.

Any help and suggestions would be appreciated. The Raymarine repair centre tech cannot offer any more help or ideas other than it is something on our boat and to try it in another boat. I would not ask another to do this. That is stretching a friendship way to far.

Regards all.

[Lake-Effect]

(Disclaimer - electronic experience but not specifically with Raymarine)

Does it fail ONLY when in night mode?

Unmount the E120 but leave everything connected. Power everything up, then after 3 or 4 hours, grab the E120 and shake it vigorously. Change settings frequently. Tap it and bump it (not too hard). If you get a failure, the problem is most likely an internal connection.

The type of freeze also suggests a firmware hang and reboot. Are you running the latest firmware for that unit?

try it in another boat. I would not ask another to do this. That is stretching a friendship way to far.

If you have a friend with the same series unit, it's not that unreasonable. The ideal arrangement is someone with the identical unit, and you simply swap units for a weekend, and see if the fault stays with the boat, or follows the unit.

[BocaIII]

The Classic C & E series machine are very sensitive to low voltage. I mean even 11.9 to 12 volts could cause this issues you are describing.

Suggest you check the supply voltage, best if you can keep it above 12.5 volts.
Capt. Jack

[Opie91]

Definitely check the voltage. Are you running all that stuff through the same switch? If so, you could have a serious voltage drop when everything is powered up.

Question: Are you running the engine while this is happening or on battery power? If on battery power at night you probably have a pretty big draw on your bank which could result in low voltage to the E120.

Another thing to try: With Sirius weather mentioned it sounds like this unit is networked. If so try it unplugged from the network and see what happens.

Check all power connections positive and negative all the way to the battery bank.

Good Luck!

[Bruce Beard]

We had one (e-120) doing this last season before a long cruise. After verifying good voltage to the unit and then performing a master reset several times Raymarine tech support decided that the unit had to be returned for repair. $300 later a new lighting power supply board within the unit made it all better.
I can't remember the combination of keys that will reset the unit but according to Raymarine this usually corrects the weirdness. In our case it didn't help.
Bruce

[IanClarke]

Hi Guys,
finally got a change to get online again to say thank you for you suggestions. I will try them. Regards Ian

[IanClarke]

Thanks again to those that posted replies to my issue with the E120 Classic reboot issue. Here is an update on it, in case anyone else has the same issue.
Raymarine Tech support looked at the wiring diagram of what was connected to the chart plotter. The only change they suggested was to power the Seatalk HS bus from a separate 12Volt supply, not from the 12volt output of the old Sea talk bus. This change was made.

We set sail from Pasadena Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay to Port Hawkesbury Nova Scotia. About 1/2 and hour after leaving Pasadena ( Close to Baltimore harbour ) the chart plotter did its beeping and reboot sequence. Oh sh@#t this is going to be a long stressful trip.

However I it was not. The chart plotter was stable and worked like a charm all the way to Nova Scotia and back down the USA coast until we were approaching Newport Road Island, and then it started having a hissy fit again. Beeping and rebooting regularly. This continued until we left Newport. All was stable until we got closer to New York coming down Long Island sound. Same problem.

Side Note! Had a fantastic sail down the East river with Genoa only. Rolled up the Genoa just before Hell Gate, 3-4 knot current - yee haa what a ride past Manhattan Island. Anchored overnight for free and with a view of the Statue of Liberty less than 1/2 a mile away. Does it get any better than this?

As soon as we left the New York area, the chart plotter was stable again, all the way back to Pasadena arriving at 3:00am (Note! not much AIS traffic at this time of night. )

Went out for a sail this long weekend. ( Note, lots of sailors out) and within 1/2 and hour the chart plotter goes into its routine.

OK, it looks like the issue is related to the amount of AIS traffic about. To stop the AIS data getting into the Chart plotter I changed the baud rate setting for the AIS interface. The chart plotter was stable for the next 3 hours until I changed the baud rate back to check out where a large cargo ship coming out of Baltimore was headed. Within in 10 minutes the chart plotter did its frustrating beeping and reboot sequence.

To me this issue seems very much related to the amount of AIS traffic. If it is too much the chart plotter gets very slow in it responses to button presses, the amount of disk usage ( solid state I imagine) gets up to 99%
and reboot here we come. We did monitor the disc space usage, and I have seen it reboot at levels around 95%.

Anyway, I have contacted Raymarine tech support with this new diagnostic info and await a response.
Hopefully I have made some silly configuration mistake in the software that when corrected will fix this issue. But in the mean time if I want to have my chart plotter and RADAR up and running in a busy AIS area, I have a workaround which is to stop the AIS data getting to the chart plotter by changing the Baud rate.

We had a fantastic trip to Nova Scotia. Went through our fist lock and got onto the Bras d'Or Lakes. Beautiful area. Fantastic weather this time of year ( August), VERY VERY friendly and welcoming people. I would encourage any sailor to go there if you have a change.

Regards Ian

[Lake-Effect]

Thanks for the follow-up. Let us know what RM says.

Glad you're having a great trip. Bras d'or is on our bucket-list.

[chala]

I have C80’s, A50’s, and C95. Basically Ray Mfd’s do not have the power required to handle too much data. By keeping routes, tracks and may be AIS to a minimum the Classic series become more reliable. The new models (C95, NMEA 2000) is unable to keep up with the wind data, the filtering must be insufficient because the i70 has no problem displaying that data. Opening a data page will crash the unit that may explain why graphic data is no longer available with these units. These things are made for marinas and may be gentle weather. In demanding condition they let you down.

[IanClarke]

Hello Chala,
thanks for the reply. I will try your suggestion of removing routes and tracks etc. However I think we did remove all my routes as part of the -- try this --- try that --- testing we did. I know of no way to reduce the amount of AIS traffic except to get away from the area that you say these units were designed for ... the marinas.
When we were away from the high traffic areas .. marinas etc. out at sea on a bee line from Cape May to Nova Scotia the unit was totally stable and worked well.
I still have not heard from Raymarine. Will post when I do.
Regards

[IanClarke]

Hi to those following this thread.
I spoke to a helpful tech (Mark) at Raymarine today.
He suggested that I remove all tracks and routes and turn off tracking and check the version number of the AIS firmware on the new AIS unit I had just installed. It should be 1.10. I will do this. I had already removed all my routes and tracks etc in prior testing. I asked him what the normal disk usage figure should be. This can be seen from the Diagnostics screen. On my chart plotter after boot up it is about 95% or more. Mark also confirmed that if the disk space available becomes zero the chart plotter will reboot. From several years in the computer industry in tech support, running most operating systems with a disk utilisation over 75% is asking for trouble. Over 95% you have opened the door and let trouble right in. At 100% almost any operating system will panic and reboot.
Most operating systems ( I think the E120 is running a Linux operating system) create log files, and can over a long period of time fill up their disk space with junk.
I asked Mark what the disk usage is on one of his test units, before and after a MASTER RESET. ( The Master Reset brings the system back to its "Out of the box state".) and should clear out all of these log files.

Here are the figures. I expected some difference, but not as much as he stated.
Before Master Reset. Disk usage was 95%.
After Master Reset. Disk usage was 1%.
That is significant.
So my current theory is this. The disk utilisation is 95%, which leaves a very small amount of space for any operating system to operate in. If I get too many AIS targets, ( assuming the system uses this space to store AIS info) the system will run out of space and fall over. This is pretty much what happens.

I will check the AIS version number ( should be 1.10), record all my system settings and back up remaining way points etc. and try a Master Reset.
I will post the results. I would have to laugh if this is all that was causing this issue all this time.
Regards Ian

[Myoutlet]

I have almost the same problem .... The E120 worked for two days when I was on the hook..... But with in two minutes of putting the boat in forward ... The STHS dropped out and the displays rebooted...


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[nigel1]

Thanks for the update Ian.
I'm having a spot of trouble with a new e125, and like you, I think it is down to AIS traffic.
Only glitch I have is that occasionally the plotter goes into alarm and reports a lost heading data. I have found this only happens when the AIS (Vespermarine) is connected and picking up a lot of traffic.

I am very surprised at those figures with regard to disc usage before and after a re-boot, thats a huge difference.

I have spoken to Raymarine about my issues, they have been sympathetic, but like me, are left scratching their heads.
I only just performed a master resest after a software upgrade, but it made no difference to the problem.

That was another puzzle. Upgraded to their latest software, and now my charts only display in Feet, the only way to revert to meters is to disconnect the echo sounder input. On raymarines advise, I retrograded back to the original software version and all is well. RM cannot figure that one either, hoping that the next software upgrade will not have the same problem.

[richnjohn]

If you do a master reset, does it take you back to the original firmware version? If so, do you have to reinstall all the firmware updates in sequence or can you just jump directly to the most current firmware version?


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[r.furborough]

No, the firmware remains at the last updated version.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum