Brunswick Landing Marina - Georgia
Magic Friday
Phil, Di and Annelise
Mon 30 Oct 2017 18:23
Monday morning dawns with a very sticky problem to solve - the instrument "Bus" is off - no it hadn't been a bad dream or even righted itself overnight (electronics never do)! Back to the investigations.what would Sherlock Holmes do?
The last instrument to have been adjusted on the system was the wind anemometer - on top of the mast. No choice but to haul up (wind a little calmer) and bring it down. Was this the problem? Unfortunately as the anemometer had a terminator built in -without this connected any more trouble shooting was not possible.
So, off to West marine - bite the bullet and buy a new one (Simrad now replaced by a B&G model - but thankfully fully compatible, sadly $400-500 worth! Well, advice from West Marine was it was probably poor contacts, something shorting somewhere. Best to try to clean, use an electrolite grease and try again before buying a replacement . worth a try and possibly save the financial outlay!
Contacts, cleaned, back up the mast, reconnected . no nothing - no lat/long, no wind, no depth etc. Decision to leave it connected to continue troubleshooting whilst a new one was on order.
Back to the cruisers forum .. what was that one comment (posted back in 2009) that Navico instruments create a lot of "chatter" on the "bus" which can cause it to shut down.. The AIS is Navico - but I had checked this worked, its own GPS locked on - all good. BUT on removing he system from the bus (a simple cable disconnection.hey presto - all other instruments back on, a GPS fix, a depth, even the wind anemometer was working!!
We had a chance to leave the next day - albeit with the AIS talking to the chart plotter (although still transmitting our position tom other passing ships. Not a bad compromise for a "half-solution" and at least not out-of-pocket for a new wind anemometer! Although not a full solution as yet, I should post an 8 year update to the forum that I agree - Navico can cause the "bus" to go down!!
Sundowners in the cockpit (with fleece due to the rapidly dropping temperature) ina better mood having isolated the problem.
Phil and Di
