AWI Acting Odd

[Sandero]

My 25 year old B&G AWI just begun to act weird and I am trying to figure out what's up.

On my last sail of about 4 hours, after 45 minutes the wind speed showed 0 and this was clearly impossible because the wind was not dead astern and at the speed I was motoring.

As I arrived it began to work again but showed wind speeds over 20 which seemed much too high, although at that location and at that height above the water it could be perhaps windier than at deck level. However I don't trust it to be correct.

The wind direction seems to be working, but with no speed report the dial simply will swing all over the place.

So if there is some wind, and it reports none and no wind angle I assume that the wind angle will not work without a positive value for wind speed. When the mast swings about and there's no wind the wind angle dial also twirls around the dial... probably mimicking to some extent the windvane at the mast top. Can watch both at the same time however.

Does this sound like a faulty connection or a faulty bit of electronics up inside the AWI on the masthead? Could it be a faulty control head which is not processing the data and the AWI is sending it properly?

What is the best means to test this?

[mike d.]

first i would check your grounds and then your elec. connections. then check the bearing at the masthead unit my bearing went south and the awi was all over the place. not showing wind when there was sometimes showing slow only then only higher wind speed.

[AnchorageGuy]

We have had the transducers on the masthead fail all of the time. For the most part they are not repairable. But do check all connections first, including the plug at the masthead and the connectors on the back of the display. Chuck

[Sandero]

Thanks guys... I plan to get up the mast and do an close inspection of the connections. However, visually I am tentatively ruling out bearings as the cups are spinning faster than any of the neighboring boats. I am thinking it's a processing failure which "reads" the transducer input at the AWI or at the unit itself. If I had another working one to connect to the main unit I could rule out one or the other. If it seemed to work it would be the AWI unit or some place between it and the main unit. If the readings were nonsense it would mean that the main unit was bonkers.

I was at the boat yesterday and when I turned the unit on there was no reading. A few minutes later it was show 8 -12. I believe there was some wind when I turned it on so I don't feel it is working properly.

I will try to get up the mast and report my findings.

[Sandero]

I sent an email to B&G in FL. Jake sent me a test procedure to follow to determine the location of the problem.

The first test involved getting to the junction box at the base of the mast (inside the boat) to jump two wires to simulate the pulses from the transducer up top - one test for the speed and another for wind angle.

I opened up the access panel and pulled the wires and the junction box free.

Lo and behold everything worked fine. I suspect a faulty connection or corroded wires. I'll clean all that up and see if everything remains working. Hopefully it will and the problem will have been.... once again... corrosion.

Stay tuned for update.