What electronic gear have you had fail ?

[idlerboat 116]

Hi all,

It has come to my attention that some electronic gear is having a very high failure rate.

The gear spectrum is chart plotters, auto pilots, tiller pilots and black box fish finders.

I am going to point the finger at raymarine for starters.

Whole recalls ...(you can do a search and see).

New chartplotter units here in Oz that have had power supply electronics fail....now these are top dollar units.

 

Tiller pilots that fill with water...whattha?

Strip the linear actuator threads or simply break the internal housing.

 

Wheel pilots that the current sensing simply dosnt work.

The belts strip teeth or break way (!) before it cuts in.

Wrong grease in the planetary gear train that then melts and burns out the motor.

The list goes on...

 

Now before anyone jumps up and down....these things should be WAY over rated.

It is a marine environment and critical pieces of equipment..

If the manual says that it has fail safes, it should work.

After all regardless the sea may put pressures that are reasonably above the loads that these things should take. It should shut down....beep like mad ...and get you to rebalance or whatever....

No Good if its stuffed and you now have to hand steer for hours (days) after.

 

SO...

What gear has failed for you and what gear has been solid in all conditions.

 

This sh*t is way over priced and way under built.

I am sick of the argument that its because its built in limited volumes for a speciality market.

There is NOTHING special about the electronics....a toy drone has more in it these days.

The hardware is just junk !!

The design stinks of "It wont be used much, and we will deal with the wingers"....

.......

And seriously...$7K for a top end chart plotter ?

No wonder that people are going to sea with laptops and Ipads......They do heaps more !

Rant over...

Tell us the good and the bad.

(I know that Navman/northstar of old had problems on this site...)

What about simrad ?...has B n G got problems ?

Garmin ...Furuno ?...

[Black Panther 1,581]

My sextant has never failed.

[Elenya 33]

We have done a few miles over the years and have had very few failures (so far). The ones we have had have been

 

Autohelm 1000 .This fits onto our windvane self steering for use when motoring so has very little load on it. This suffered dampness inside when crossing the equator. Very heavy rain of course and was easily fixed by opening up and drying. I made a cover for it but this did not solve the problem. I believe the ram moving in and out draws warm moist air into the unit. When it rains, and the temperature drops, this condensates out.

 

Magellan GPS; This was one of the original fixed unit GPS sets. Failed in 2008 after a three month refit, just failed to work after being switched off. 20 years use though so not too shabby!

 

and that's it. Still have an original seafarer spinning echo sounder, going great and 20 years old also.

[BNG 44]

...has B n G got problems ?

 

None that I want to discuss on here...

[Black Panther 1,581]

...has B n G got problems ?

 

None that I want to discuss on here...

If you PM me I can recommend a therapist.

[Island Time 1,230]

OK, similar to my Autopilot post. Some of the stuff is really not up to the task, esp Autopilots. Remember that I get involved in helping people on other boats, so not all of this is mine, and it is only what comes to mind as I'm writing this!

 

Over 40 mumble years of sailing;

 

3 Tiller pilots, different brands, ALL suffered water ingress. Ok across the harbor, on a nice day, no good in open ocean or heavy weather. IMO.

 

2 more Tiller Pilots, different brands, ram failures. Disassembled to find plastic parts in the drive mechanism. Failures both due to this. Crap quality. Ok across the harbor, on a nice day, no good in open ocean or heavy weather. IMO.

 

At this point I gave up on tiller pilots, and tell people to find another solution, unless just local sailing, with the support of warranty and a local dealer.

 

When I bought Island Time, she had a belt drive wheel pilot. It was crap. When loaded, the belt would jump teeth. The bracket that mounted it to the steering pedestal was plastic, and to weak, and not UV proof. It also got soft and flexed too much, causing the belt problems. The motor drive unit filled with water. Biffed that unit.

 

I installed an autohelm (4000 I think?) unit with a worm drive and electronics under the deck in another boat. Ram failed. Unscrewed itself, instead of moving in and out, multiple times. Loctited it, tried everyting. Had a new ram under warranty, did the same thing! He junked it, and went hydraulic. That unit is still going...

 

A Simrad AP 26 computer unit (I forget the model of the computer for this AP). Started making peculiar course changes all by itself, until it was completely unusable. Replaced with a newer model AP (AP24/28)

 

Other electronics. Heaps of bilge switches, until I found the smartswitch ones (see Neptune's Gear Advert alongside). A couple of VHF radios - one wet, the other I don't know. 2 or three sets of "marine" instrumentation systems (wind, speed etc) all water ingress. Lots of Nav lights and fittings until the advent of LED. Now I don't touch them, they just work! A few plotter units - water in one, lcd in one, power in another. In all three cases we changed to a PC. Oh yeah, and 2 pc's as well. One with failed cooling systems, one with a dead main board. An Interphase fwd sonar. The case has finally given in to UV after 10 years in the sun - allowing water ingress. I think the cabling to the transducer is also stuffed due to corrosion.

 

So, thats it for now, but I'm sure there would be more if I really thought about it!

 

Some of this stuff was pretty new (under 2yrs) some was old. What do you all think is an acceptable life for electronics in the marine environment?

[John B 106]

Interesting about the newer raymarine stuff, I have a C80 plotter/ fishfinder , perhaps 5 years,6? ....and its been great. I actually don't want to upgrade it. rather do one of Matt's systems in parallel for redundancy.

 

After a Tonga trip in 11 on another boat I hate touch screen plotters with a vengance.This one was a garmin. It is just such a ridiculous concept to have a touch screen in the weather, every splot of rain , wet fingers ,and the thing was absolutely F*&^%$#@# useless.

If you have one or plan on getting one , get one where that feature can be turned off and you can go to buttons, or get a cover and someone to come up from down below with dry hands anytime you want to operate it.

 

No doubt great for launchies and pilot houses.

[Island Time 1,230]

Interesting John B, I was considering "upgrading" my cockpit screen to a touchscreen. My wife's cousin, who is head of the Water police, put me off. He said that they had tried them, and went back for similar reasons! So, I currently actually use an app on my waterproof phone as a mouse and keyboard when in the cockpit. I'm trying to find an IP67 trackball....

[Guest]

Never really had any issues with purpose built marine gear. Had some B&G die years ago but to be fair I think it was the series designed by Adam when Eve wasn't putting out so I'd pick that as more an old age thing than a failure.

 

Had Navman for years, never had an issue. That gear is now in another boat and is still going fine.

 

Had many failures with none marine built gear though, hence my extreme reluctance to use gear not designed for use in boat in a boat.

[Bimini Babe 0]

My sextant has never failed.

That's probably 'coz you're not old enough yet. Give it time.

[Jon 360]

I personally rate marine electronics at approx 10 years

If buying new I'd be disappointed if you get less and buying a boat with electronics of 10 years or more as having no value or 5 years as being half f ed

Equally recently sold a yacht that was 23 years old and it still had some original gear but most I had replaced in our 10 years of ownership, the ap controller head we went through 3 in one summer and at over 1 k each fortunately they were on warranty

[too_tall 15]

Interesting John B, I was considering "upgrading" my cockpit screen to a touchscreen. My wife's cousin, who is head of the Water police, put me off. He said that they had tried them, and went back for similar reasons! So, I currently actually use an app on my waterproof phone as a mouse and keyboard when in the cockpit. I'm trying to find an IP67 trackball....

 

Get an ip rated joystick as opposed to a trackball. I use them on the PC's in cowsheds - touchscreens being useless with wet hands. The joysticks are very good, working well after 5 years in one shed. That environment is every bit as bad as marine I feel.They are made by CTI.

 

Not low cost, but they last.

[Island Time 1,230]

Hey TT, thanks for that. I've sent them an email inquiring about a dealership! The AP2000-Bx Series Pointing Device looks ideal!!

Matt

[Guest]

Tactic digital compass / speed network and Garmin GPS,s (4x).

 

Autopilots, Volume knobs on Most VHF's, wind gear full stop.

 

Garmin gear has become unreliable. Even my Car GPS's, never last longer than about 18 months.

[too_tall 15]

Hey TT, thanks for that. I've sent them an email inquiring about a dealership! The AP2000-Bx Series Pointing Device looks ideal!!

Matt

 

No problem. They have some pretty good options. I am sure that there are plenty of alternate manufacturers around worth looking at. Those are just the ones which were supplied for my industrial IP rated PC's. The PC's are by STX but I am not sure that the joystick device is not added by GEA/westfalia ( milking machine peoples )

[Clipper 343]

Tactic digital compass / speed network and Garmin GPS,s (4x).

 

Autopilots, Volume knobs on Most VHF's, wind gear full stop.

 

Garmin gear has become unreliable. Even my Car GPS's, never last longer than about 18 months.

 

I have a 7 year old hand held garmin that has the charts for the north island in it. It has been awesome, power button no a bit tricky to turn on, but the unit has been abused, taken dinghy sailing, lived in the wet pockets of my wet weather gear, found sloshing around in bilge water one day. the batter terminal ar starting to corrode, but i reckon, given how its been used, the thing is amazing.

 

My relatively expensive uniden handheld VHF is useless. knobs corroding up, even though it spent its whole life in a protecting bag. It supposed to be a submersible one. yeah right.

[Chewing Gum 17]

We have 20 year old raymarine wind gear still going great and newer about 7 years Autopilot ST6000+ with gyro compass and computer driving a ram (non hydraulic) and it is brilliant over heaps of miles with excellent course keeping. We hardly ever steered all the way around NZ. Very low current draw as well. Lowrance 7in plotter about 7 years old and excellent. The most troublesome and expensive bit of kit is the engine driven freezer. But having said that it is brilliant for keeping stuff cold. We had freezer full of meat for 2.5 months and took a third of it home again and it was still good after going around the country.

[smithy09 50]

Got all Raymarine gear on the Marshall. New 7" and 9" chartplotters. On the E7 I found the touch screen useless and turned it off. Also the E7 has a software fault where bearings are displayed in true rather than magnetic even though it is switched to magnetic and states magnetic!!!!! Gotta sort this one out soonish. The 9" plotter (chart table) has no problems.

 

I interfaced the E7 and A9 with all the wind gear, autopilot and compass etc and it worked first time. Amazed.. the interface gear, backbone etc is very pricey and a rip off for sure but it works..

 

I installed a new ram for the autopilot for the RNI and used the old one as a spare, but neither have given any issues. Autopilot works pretty well, even when pressed..

 

I installed a Northstar VHF a few years ago and it is rubbish. I got it for its outside remote unit but that failed early on. Due for replacement. Poor reception and transmission.

 

Installed a Isatphone pro with aerial and waterproof station etc. Works pretty well, but I cannot interface it with my laptop to get grib files which was a pain in the RNI.. Might have to have a talk to IT about this!!

 

All in all I have found most electronic problems to be wiring problems.... Maybe I am lucky??

[Chewing Gum 17]

We also have a Raymarine VHF which seems to work pretty well.

 

Sometime ago we did replac ethe ram on our autopilot as although it was still working it began to get a little noisy but that was after a lot of miles (It is inside and directly driving the quadrant). We are probably max size for the particular model we have.

 

For around NZ we bought a Predictwind communicator which is a great piece of kit for anyone heading offshore. We are now thinking to sell it at a good discount if anyone is interested. It was new in November and is transferable. It works through the Iridium network but is less costly to operate than a Satphone and is fully automatic with wireless connection to your Laptop. Installation is extremely simple - just a wire for power. Useing the system is also very simple. It does not give you voice but does give you twice daily weather forecasts, Email capability (no attachments) and Tracking which is good for safety and updates every couple of hours. A lot of people were watching the tracker during our trip on the net. There is no standing charge when you are not using it and it has very low battery consumption, almost neglible. PM me if you would like further info. Check out the Predictwind site also for info.