Tacktick Wind All Dashes

[fla.sailor]

Hey folks,

The weather is finally breaking here in FL and after an extended vacation from the boat, I found my wind indicator is displaying all dashes. So..... is it a mast head issue or the display? Does the mast head battery ever go bad? The unit is the t033 and is just over 2 years old.

thanks!
-dennis

[TheOffice]

Call Raymarine in Nashua NH. The engineers know their stuff.

[bgallinger]

I have just been through the same thing and I can't figure it out either! I discovered the display would start working again on its own after varying periods of time. The general consensus seems to be to get up on the mast and send both units in for bench test. In fact, I just did that. There is another theory running around about cellphone/RF interference. I struggled to understand how my Tacktick worked fine for 2 years, then suddenly stopped due to cellphones!

[fla.sailor]

I've already got a service tag with Raymarine (3 days ago), but when they bought TackTick I knew support would never be the same...

Keep the ideas coming!

thanks!
-dennis

[cwyckham]

Is the solar panel on the transducer clean?

If you haven't used it in a while and the batteries died, I think they can sometimes forget their network. Dig up the instructions, go into the set-up and there's a diagnostic that will tell you whether it thinks there should be a wind transducer and if so, how the signal is.

If it's forgotten about the wind transducer, then it's simple to fix. You do have to get within 18" to re-introduce it to the network, though (so that you don't accidentally pick up a neighbour's unit).

[bgallinger]

Oddly enough, I left the boat for 5 weeks and it suddenly started working (sporadically) on my return. We had a problem with cormorants on our masts so I raised a water hose up there thinking I might clean off the solar panels. Again, no improvement!

[starchaser 2011]

Raymarine help desk is way better than tacktic. I could not even get them on the phone. If you spend some time with your display you can get to a diagnostic page. Toggle around on that for a bit. I had the same problem and it turned out to be the mast head, but it could be a simple connectivity problem. The techs at Ray are very helpful. If you call them while you are on board where you can operate the display they will put you on the right track.

[bgallinger]

Yep did that and Raymarine suggested I send the unit in based on what I saw on the diagnostics. Here's my beef...the Tacktick unit is only 3 years old. It just shouldn't die after 3 years! In addition to the aggravation I spent $80 to send someone up the mast and $50 to send it all to Raymarine.

[starchaser 2011]

Believe me. I understand. Mine went bad after 7 months. I was in the Virgin islands and my ability to communicate with Raymarine and receive a package was challenging to say the least.
I love the fact that its a wireless system, but I just can't recommend the product.

[CaptNery]

Dennis, I saw a post in which you had changed your centerboards. I have new centerboards and i am ready to drill the pivot point holes and install them, thus my problem. I do not have enough space to put my hands in the centerboard well to get the rope through the pad eyes. I can not remove the clutch drum without breaking the centerboard well. I bought the boat in October and basically all the hardware from the boards was missing. I had new boards made by Chesapeake Light Craft. The new boards are lighter and asymmetrical. All the graphics and videos I have seen do not show how the line is attached to the last pad eye (the one facing the aft part of the boat) You can see my project pictures and my problems at About Time Sailing - www.about-time-sailing.com Be sure to read the ongoing entries but also to look at the Project Photos. You will find them at the top left under "Project Photos" Any feedback is appreciated. Please share this with folks that you know have gone through this exercise.
Thanks