Radar problem on E80 Chartplotter

[CaptJamesCook]

see attached photos the bright white spot is my camera flash
My E80 Chartplotter is not recieving a scan from my radar dome. I have checked connections. I have replaced the radar dome with another unit I know works. Any ideas?

[CaptJamesCook]

[Pitchondesign]

What were the error indications from the built in diagnostics?

[CaptJamesCook]

Thanks for the reply
Okay just ran that. It says video card is bad, all the other screens work. Wonder what to do now? Worth repairing or replacing, or upgrade? if upgrading to what?

[Pete7]

Replacing with new is big $$. Second hand you may find a C80 is more reliable, there have been some posts about this on here in the past which I thought curious. Folk were trying to swop E80 for C80s. I'll keep our C80.

Raymarine have a forum were you can quizz their technicians. Also might be worth opening it up and seeing if its a loose ribbon cable etc which would be an easy fix.

Pete

[Pitchondesign]

I have an e80 and an e120. Both OK for now, but I did look into repair, just in case. The good news is these units can be repaired. The bad news is a repair of any kind will seldom be less than $500. There are plenty of used units on eBay. In my case, my nav system is complex, integrated, with lots of wiring in difficult places. I decided to keep the old system running with used eBay parts. That has worked for the last 8 years. In a stand alone application, I might have made a different decision.

[Pizzazz]

It is a bit unclear what you problem is. If the video card on the E80 is bad, you will not see a picture at all. Usually, it is the backlight that goes bad. If it is the video card on the scanner, then replacing the scanner would have fixed the problem. Most likely, you have a bad video connection between the scanner and the unit. Try with a different cable and check the coax video sub cable in the radar cable.

Regarding repairing the E80, it is not worth it. These devices are power hogs, using 20W in direct sunlight. The C80 is better at only 9W and modern LCD displays draw half that. In a way you are better off with the old RL series displays if power is a problem (on a recent trip, I had the E80, the radar, some night camera and some other electronics drawing around around 10A at night. This is way too much for a sailor.

[Gary Matthesen]

I wrote this for my Yacht Club newsletter, but sounds like the same problem...

Solder and a Hammer
By Gary Matthesen

It all started with the Raymarine chartplotter and radar unit functioning on an intermittent nature. This could be expected of course, as the chartplotter unit was on my boat that sank in hurricane Sandy. While the boat went down against a bulkhead on the beach, it was possible the unit had remained above water level. Shop testing of the radar antenna and the unit showed it as still working, only needing a new wiring harness as the old one could not be removed from the tangle of debris in the sunken hull.
So a logical place to inspect the radar dysfunction would be in the wiring harness, as it was purchased from the rebuild shop and spliced together. The antenna was lowered while still attached to the backstay, the cover then removed to expose the 12 conductor female plug inside the antenna housing. Continuity could then be checked to the male end on the steering pedestal (yes, a wide spread to handle alone).
Naturally, all wires showed continuity, so what’s next, reassemble and test, where of course, everything worked fine… for awhile.
It failed again, same symptoms, no radar antenna signal…
Bring the antenna down again (PITA) and recheck all 12 wires. Guess what, everything is fine again, what’s next…
Put the antenna back up, turn it on and did not work, but it fired up again after a shut down. I hate when things work and you have done no clear corrective action!
By now the computer savvy people in the group have figured it out. Computers have infiltrated our lives. Be it your car, your home security system or your boat, things that used to be easy to fix, now are controlled by circuit boards and diodes. First check these days seems to be to reboot.
Gone are the nostalgic days of the past, when if your car didn't start, you smack the battery terminal with a hammer, slap the side of a T.V. or for a radio or navigation light on the boat that didn’t work, check for a loose wire and resolder it.
I miss those simpler times, were you could fix anything with a hammer and a soldering iron.

[hpeer]

I just sent in 2 C80s for repair. One was repairable, the other not cost effective to repair. I bought a used C80 as a replacement.

I got the sense that RM will stop repair in the C80 soon.

But in any case send them an email, I did and they got back to me reasonably quickly. They will do a diagnostic and give you a repair estimate. The diagnostic costs something but I think it goes against the repair. Something like that.

OR seek a used C/E80 and swap it out.

[Pitchondesign]

When you ran radar diagnostics, did you get any errors? The video card error suggests an e80 problem. If the radar diagnostics show no error, it is likely the scanner and cable are ok.

[CaptJamesCook]

I will run diagnostics again when I get back to boat this weekend
.
I have reconnected the the cables but will try and disconnect and reconnect cables again.
I may look at the C80's thanks for the tip.

The repair is questionable cost wise. A used unit or upgrade makes more sense I think.