B & G Radar stopped Transmitting

[Gripfast]

First my three year old B&G wind instruments stopped working, then two months later on my passage from Florida to the Chesapeke, my B&G 4G Radar just quit. One minute it was working, (showing reflections), and the next time I glanced at it, no targets, no shore, nothing but a small dot in the middle. B&G multifunctin display works jut fine on Chart mode, or any split screen showing the chart, but the Radar looks like its not transmitting.

I have checked all connections, fuses.


The boat was located in a marina in Titusville that had very little protection from the North and East, so the boat was pounded by waves at the marina for several days before the return trip. Thats the only thing I could think of is the constant jarring from the waves, but I thought these things were pretty solid.

Before I take the unit down and send for repairs, does any one have an idea what could be the problem or had a similar experience.

I am begining to think that replacing old Raymarine equipment with B&G was a mistake. It all worked for 15 years. This B&G stuff has not lasted 4 years.

[Smokeys Kitchen]

We have had the same B&G setup for 4 years with no issues. We did, however, have some friends that had the same thing happen to them as you described about 3 years ago. They sent theirs in to B&G for repairs and B&G just sent back a new unit when they sent theirs in.

I would contact B&G to see what they say

[wyb2]

Originally Posted by Gripfast

…

I have checked all connections, fuses.

…:

All wires too?

When this happened to me it turned out the steering chain had eaten some wires inside the pedestal. The damage was far enough out of sight that it wasn’t obvious just by taking the compass off. That combined with a misdiagnoses by a tech meant I spent several months without radar over a problem that ended up taking a single afternoon to fix.

[wrwakefield]

Our B&G 4G is still going strong since 2014, so they can and do last... <I'm knocking on wood...>

It wasn't clear whether you tried the RADAR only screen on your (B&G?) chart plotter. (vs. RADAR overlay on chart- which requires a functioning rate compass.)

Also- assuming B&G chartplotter- when we get a rare RADAR malfunction, an error message appears in the upper left corner of the screen where the animated RADAR icon otherwise appears. What do you see in that area of the chartplotter screen?

If RADAR works on the RADAR only screen, then it may be the connection to, or the rate compass itself preventing RADAR overlay on your charts.

Do let us know what you discover.

In case this is helpful.

Cheers, Bill

[noelex 77]

Our 4G radar failed as well.

An internet search revealed the most common failure was the R/10 interface box. I bypassed the radar power supply so that the power supply was provided directly rather than via the R/10 box and this worked for 6 months. It then failed again. The R/10 provides both DC power to the radar and the data link.

Fortunately, the R/10 interface box is not essential. The 4G radar was sold without this accessory and it still works. To use the radar without the R/10 involves splicing the RJ45 data connection to an ethernet cable or buying the accessory cable that makes this easy. I purchased the accessory cable and it has worked flawlessly since.

Of course your problem may completely different, but it does seem a common failure mode. There are only three components, the radar dome, the R/10 and the chart plotter. The fault has to lie in one of these devices. The cable is not too expensive. It is cheap way to replace the fault prone R/10, so it may be worth a try.

[Franziska]

We have a B&G 4G with direct 12V connection and a cross over network cable which plugs directly into our notebooks network socket.
Works great with OpenCPN.

No interface box needed.

[Bycrick]

The radar will work just fine without the RI10. It’s used to take the Compass Heading data from N2K system and provide it to radar. The radar needs this for things like MARPA and radar/chart overlay.

[Franziska]

If anyone needs heading info to use Marpa, this is a reasonably priced heading sensor:

https://www.quark-elec.com/product/q...titude-sensor/

They have a NMEA 0183 model and another one which additionally supports N2K and USB.

We use the later one, works great.

[Gripfast]

Originally Posted by Smokeys Kitchen

We have had the same B&G setup for 4 years with no issues. We did, however, have some friends that had the same thing happen to them as you described about 3 years ago. They sent theirs in to B&G for repairs and B&G just sent back a new unit when they sent theirs in.

I would contact B&G to see what they say

I will. Thanks.

[Gripfast]

Originally Posted by wyb2

All wires too?

When this happened to me it turned out the steering chain had eaten some wires inside the pedestal. The damage was far enough out of sight that it wasn’t obvious just by taking the compass off. That combined with a misdiagnoses by a tech meant I spent several months without radar over a problem that ended up taking a single afternoon to fix.

Good point, I will check that out as well.

[Gripfast]

Originally Posted by wrwakefield

Our B&G 4G is still going strong since 2014, so they can and do last... <I'm knocking on wood...>

It wasn't clear whether you tried the RADAR only screen on your (B&G?) chart plotter. (vs. RADAR overlay on chart- which requires a functioning rate compass.)

Also- assuming B&G chartplotter- when we get a rare RADAR malfunction, an error message appears in the upper left corner of the screen where the animated RADAR icon otherwise appears. What do you see in that area of the chartplotter screen?

If RADAR works on the RADAR only screen, then it may be the connection to, or the rate compass itself preventing RADAR overlay on your charts.

Do let us know what you discover.

In case this is helpful.

Cheers, Bill

Yes, I tried the full screen Radar mode and had the same results. Thanks.

I have never upgraded my compas to one that is fast enough to enable the overlay. maybe one day.