Category Archives: Electronics

Electronics, Engine

Wiring of Terminal Strip at Engine C380 Westerbeke

Leave a comment

My terminal strip is not numbered so I call pin/ terminal #1 = green/ black wires (adjacent is heavy red wires).   Color a/ color b denotes color on engine side / color on panel side. ( this is for Westerbekes; Yanmars should be the same functionally, but colors on engine side may be different. Westerbekes see P 48/49 of engine manual)

 

  1.  -12 v / ground.        Green/ black
  2.  +12 v Battery         Red/red
  3.   Temperature sender.   Yellow / brown
  4.   Tach sender.         Brown / grey
  5.   Glow plugs.         Violet / white
  6.   Not used.             Orange / not used (Oil pressure gauge option)
  7.   Alt./ ignition.      Red white / purple. (see term. 9)
  8.   Starter.                White / yellow red
  9.  Alarm power.        Pink / not used (tied to 7)
  10. Not used.             Grey / not used ( charge light option)
  11. Oil pres switch.    Lt. Blue / Lt. Blue black
  12. Water temp switch.  Tan / tan black

To complete on cockpit

You need to be logged in to see the rest of this content.  Catalina380-IA members, please login.

To join please fill out a membership application (Association->Membership Application) and send a check to the address on the form.

Electrical/Electronics, Electronics

Electrical Overloads

Leave a comment

We have a mini 1200watt heater from west marine.  We have used it for a few years mostly on the starboard circuit.  We put it on the port circuit this past weekend and it caused a fire on the white wire going to the block on the starboard wall behind the breaker panel.  The end of the wire that was on the block burnt clear through. This line came from the shore power breaker and went directly to the wall panel.  The wire was a 12awg but the main breaker is 30 amp.  The breaker does have two connections…so I was wondering if it breaks down the amps into two 15 amp lines?  If not then the wiring is undersized!  30 amp should be on 10awg.

I replaced the burnt wire with a 10awg and tightened all of the other connections as well.  The breaker never tripped… The only two

You need to be logged in to see the rest of this content.  Catalina380-IA members, please login.

To join please fill out a membership application (Association->Membership Application) and send a check to the address on the form.

Electronics

Add a wind instrument w/o removing mast?

Leave a comment

I have a 2004 C387 without a wind instrument.  I would like to install the Garmin GMI 10.  Does anyone have experience fishing the cable down the mast?  I had a local electronics company look at it and they said the mast would have to come down.  Then they recommended a wireless Raymarine.  I have a coax TV cable  up the mast that I do not use.  Could that be used to pull the new wind instrument cable down?Thanks,

John Kaplan

You need to be logged in to see the rest of this content.  Catalina380-IA members, please login.

To join please fill out a membership application (Association->Membership Application) and send a check to the address on the form.

Electronics, Repair/Replace/Maintain, Uncategorized

Raymarine RayStar Battery Replacement

Leave a comment

Tom Brantigan
C387 #96 Toccata in Sea

The only reason to write this is that it was a surprise to me that it needed to be done and turned out to be so easy.  The problem was that my Raymarine C80 chart plotter took forever to find its GPS location.  From another association member, I learned that there is a battery inside that needs periodic replacement.  The battery evidently stores the last known location so has a place to start when finding itself next time.

It is easy to do, too.

Step 1:

On my boat the GPS antenna is mounted on the transom with two threaded screws easily removed.  There was an adhesive gasket also holding it to the transom and this needs to be dislodged.

Step 2:

Remove the 6 small screws from the underside of the antenna and then carefully pry up the bottom plate of the

You need to be logged in to see the rest of this content.  Catalina380-IA members, please login.

To join please fill out a membership application (Association->Membership Application) and send a check to the address on the form.

Electronics

Raymarine GPS Not Finding the Location — a battery!

Leave a comment

Some of you might’ve seen my message from last week about my Raymarine E80 not finding me upon boot up.  But for some reason being able to find me after 10-15 mins.  Based upon every comment and prior history of Raystar 120/125 discussions I assumed it was a problem with my GPS antenna.  Thinking was focused upon crud that might’ve developed in the connections. And if not not there the Raystar would need to be replaced.

So I tried to remove the cable from the bottom of the Raystar, but couldn’t get it free, I tried this tool and that, no luck.  Eventually I decided it was time to dismantle the Raystar antenna.  And what did I find when I took off the cover/dome?  A CR2032 battery and holder that undoubtedly was designed to store your last known location, so that it would be there on boot up.  This explained

You need to be logged in to see the rest of this content.  Catalina380-IA members, please login.

To join please fill out a membership application (Association->Membership Application) and send a check to the address on the form.

Electronics, Repair/Replace/Maintain

Raymarine C80 Tide and Current Problems?

Leave a comment

We noticed on our cruise that my Raymarine C80 was displaying incorrect tide and current data. Traced it down to the Raystar 125 GPS sensor which was having Deja Vu, and believed it was still 2AM in 1983. This was kind of insidious since you don’t note that the time and date information is off unless you check the GPS status page on my C80. That and the current was clearly against us when it was supposed to be with us. We picked up on this right away thanks to several smart phones being used on board.

After checking around…several experts indicated that this is a known problem, due to a design flaw and a buffer overflow. While Raymarine acknowledged that this was true of the older Raystar 120, they denied it applied to the newer 125, and that it must be failing. I wonder how forthright Raymarine is being

You need to be logged in to see the rest of this content.  Catalina380-IA members, please login.

To join please fill out a membership application (Association->Membership Application) and send a check to the address on the form.

Electronics, Repair/Replace/Maintain

Dim glowing of Reverse Polarity Light

Leave a comment

When using my Honda 2000 generator, I noticed that the reverse polarity light glows dimly.

Tom,

The reason you see the reverse polarity light glowing is because the Honda generator has a floating ground, meaning that there is no connection between neutral and ground, like your shore power connection has back at the service on shore.

If you want to eliminate the flicker, and operate the generator more safely, where you’re GFCI outlets trip on fault, make up a plug with jumper wire between the ground and neutral and plug it into one of the generators AC outlets.

Jim Turner
“Makana Kai”, 2000 C380, #227

LEDs are low voltage (about 2-4 v), low current devices and so require a series resistor to drop typical circuit voltage into their range, thereby also limiting the current to reasonable (operating) values.

The 25 k resistor referred to allows the led to operate near

You need to be logged in to see the rest of this content.  Catalina380-IA members, please login.

To join please fill out a membership application (Association->Membership Application) and send a check to the address on the form.

Electrical/Electronics, Electronics, Repair/Replace/Maintain

Raymarine E7 Experience

Leave a comment

We were heading out on our annual trip to the San Juan and Gulf islands and found that the Radar wasn’t working. We have had to go in fog the last couple times and decide not to go without radar. Raymarine doesn’t make the old non digital raydomes anymore. They will service the old raydomes for $575. But it will take several weeks. The new digital Raydomes are not compatible with my RL70C chartplotter so I am considering buying the E7 and a new Digital Raydome. I would love to hear comments from anyone who has this setup. Specifically how it works with the old Seatalk 6000 plus autopilot, depth, wind, and speed instruments.

Paul McManus
Sea Sea Rider C380 #185
Port Orchard, WA

Paul,

I do not have the radar but I bought a new c125 this year. It’s the same family as the e7 just bigger and without

You need to be logged in to see the rest of this content.  Catalina380-IA members, please login.

To join please fill out a membership application (Association->Membership Application) and send a check to the address on the form.

Electronics, Mast, Repair/Replace/Maintain

Climbing the Mast

Leave a comment

I use another method for going up the mast that works for me, a big guy whose crew is half my size. Here is my method:

  1. Use two halyards – one halyard to lift/support you and another halyard with the bottom end fixed to the deck at the foot of the mast
  2. Tie a Prussic knot to the fixed halyard – see:  http://www.animatedknots.com/prusik/index.php?Categ=rescue&LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com  Make the Prussic knot loop about 3’ long
  3. I use both a safety harness and a boson’s chair
  4. The boson’s chair is attached to the free halyard.  As Phill pointed out, since you need to get above the top of the mast you need to have very short connections on all the tie-off points
  5. Slide the safety harness climbing device as you move up or down the mast.  Entire setups are available in Home Depot that works just fine
  6. Ascending:
  7. Put one foot in the Prussic knot

You need to be logged in to see the rest of this content.  Catalina380-IA members, please login.

To join please fill out a membership application (Association->Membership Application) and send a check to the address on the form.