Hearing my Radar alarm

[Bill Estes]

I am having a problem hearing my radar alarm. Don't West Marine sell something that I can hook up to my radar so can here the alarm the alarm when it go's off?

[Lepke]

Your radar may have a plugin for a remote alarm. Another way is to find the alarm, do something to set it off and measure the voltage going to the alarm. Maybe you could get that info out of the manual.
Buy a relay with a coil the same voltage as you measured. The coil pulls the contacts together whenever the alarm goes off. Wire an alarm of your choice activated by the contacts.

[donradcliffe]

Hook this to the external alarm contacts, and ain't nobody going to be sleeping.

https://www.radioshack.com/products/...ant=5717351301

[Bill Estes]

Thanks Don; The Radio Shack sounds like the way to go. It's cheep and easy to install.
I am going to Radio Shack today and hope to buy one. I will let you know if it works.

[chuckr]

My only complaint with our Raymarine system is the alarms are not loud enough - especially when we run the anchor alarm at night - anybody have any thoughts??

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by chuckr

My only complaint with our Raymarine system is the alarms are not loud enough - especially when we run the anchor alarm at night - anybody have any thoughts??

There's always the KISS method of wiring up a mic. next to the system's current alarm. And then connect said mic. to an accessory speaker which has a built in volume control. => Add enough wire, & mount it where ever you wish.
And if you want to go overkill, add a 200w amp, & wire it to some similarly rated speakers. That, & some flashing lights. Which, much like when you see them in your rear view mirror, are often quite enough of an addition by themselves.

Note: Just don't put in any which will fry your night vision. And it'd also be wise to install a manual disconnect switch on any of these aftermarket setups. So that the lights & sound don't inhibit your concentration so much that you can't sort out the original problem.

[exMaggieDrum]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Hook this to the external alarm contacts, and ain't nobody going to be sleeping.

https://www.radioshack.com/products/...ant=5717351301

Thanks for this. I too can't hear my radar alarm, nor my bilge alarm. I put in relays already with separate alarms but they just aren't loud enough. I'll try this one.

My Furuno, and many other radars/chartplotters, have an alarm signal wire in the 0183 data outputs. It normally goes positive when the alarm goes off. You can send that positive to either direct to the alarm, or if needed to a separate automotive style small relay/solenoid. You wire, and fuse, a power wire to the #30 terminal, one to ground, and the NO contact to the separate alarm, which is grounded on the other wire. I get the ones that are sealed and corrosion resistant. They are pretty cheap, as are the buzzers.

[reed1v]

The ultimate KISS would be to get a hearing aid.

[exMaggieDrum]

Hearing aids are anything but KISS. They break down a lot and are very, very expensive. They also don't wake up the crew when needed.

[redhead]

What???????

[akprb]

This is a GREAT question and I'm surprised Raymarine has not addressed.

I've tried a Bluetooth speaker liked to the E7, nope, the iPad repeater app does not do sound also.

I use this feature ALOT, will call raymarine and get back to this thread. Has to be a software solution.

[oleman]

Worthless sonar-leart based alarms (high pitched beep), difficult to hear and even harder to determine where the sound is coming from. The older you get the worse the sound is.
I discovered years ago the solution, add a FIRE alarm BELL alarm using a relay or other interface. That's what Detroit Diesel used as an alarm on their old 2 stroke engines. That type of hammer and bell alarm is available from the fire alarm companies for industrial applications, they come in various dc voltages and AC voltages.
It will need to be decoupled from the rest of the circuit because it is electrically very noisy as well as mechanically loud.
It does what it needs to do, get your attention NOW!
Actually overshadows a 2 stroke 71 at 1800 RPM.
The smaller size is about the size of a round coffee roll.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Bill Estes

I am having a problem hearing my radar alarm. Don't West Marine sell something that I can hook up to my radar so can here the alarm the alarm when it go's off?

I found you can buy programmable piezoelectric alarms. Program your own wake-up call. "Look-out!! Wake up Dopy! ALERT!!! THE END IS NEAR"; Pull up - stall;

Projects Unlimited 12VDC Programmable Buzzer | API-4260-LW150-R (API4260LW150R) | Projects Unlimited


I figure the depth alarm should say Shallow; Anchor watch - Dragging; Engine oil - LOW PRESSURE etc.

[reed1v]

Actually you can , if you have a central command modular system that allows all the components to plug into it. But that is only possible with either custom systems or the very newest systems. In our old boat we had DEC configure a simple CCCI system for our ws43. Expensive way back then but worked like a champ. Nowadays for about 4k should be able to get the entire package for your boat. that way voice alarms will tell you what is going on so you do not have to figure out alarm or light signals. But for the majority of folks who only weekend sail around their little ponds, not worth it. If you have a custom made boat, you can have every square foot covered with sensors to know exactly the stress and status of the boat from stem to stern.

[exMaggieDrum]

Originally Posted by reed1v

Actually you can , if you have a central command modular system that allows all the components to plug into it. But that is only possible with either custom systems or the very newest systems. In our old boat we had DEC configure a simple CCCI system for our ws43. Expensive way back then but worked like a champ. Nowadays for about 4k should be able to get the entire package for your boat. that way voice alarms will tell you what is going on so you do not have to figure out alarm or light signals. But for the majority of folks who only weekend sail around their little ponds, not worth it. If you have a custom made boat, you can have every square foot covered with sensors to know exactly the stress and status of the boat from stem to stern.

The previous owner of my boat put in a fire alarm bell just as you describe. There are numerous alarms, e.g. no raw water flow, high engine temp for genset and main, etc. etc. Eight switches for eight different alarm circuits so you can turn off any one of them to turn off the bell until you can fix the one problem. That is important. I put blade fuses on my two extra alarms so I could easily remove the fuse to do the same thing, but each of those are isolated to either the radar/AIS or the bilge pump. Otherwise you will go crazy listening to an alarm you already know about.