Electronics Matters - Day 31 - Grand Harbor Marina, Luca, MS

Two failures occurred recently that impacted our ability to efficiently navigate with our the electronics at the helm.

So that you can appreciate the progress we made, I will first explain the state of the art electronics package and then speak to the problems that had to be solved. 

The photo below shows the complete electronics display.  Starting from the right, just above the helm, and moving from right to left is the Raymarine E120, the Sea Navigator II, the autopilot and the SmartCraft.  Above the navigation devices are the engine instruments consisting of a tachometers and gauge package (temperature, oil pressure, voltages) for each engine.  Above that, at the center of the panel, is the compass.

Controls at the bridge

The Raymarine E120 is a multi-function display unit.  Ours has five functionalities: GPS, chartplotter, Sirius Satellite Weather, AIS (a transponder) and a fishfinder.  The photo below shows one of the five "pages" (i.e., screens) and, for us, the key page that displays all five at once.  On the left side of the page is our GPS position displayed on a representation of a nautical chart (i.e., vector chart).  While difficult to see, the small triangle at the center of the chart is a transponder return of a downbound tow, which tells us the boat's name, location, heading, speed and lots more including a discreet VHF phone number (MMSI).  In the upper right quadrant is the Sirius Satellite Weather System and below that is the fishfinder, which in shows in addition to fish, the depth and the bottom contour.  We had this unit installed by the dealer to serve as a back-up GPS/chartplotter.  Over the years, we have added all of the other functionality.

Raymarine E120

The 48 Sundancer came equipped with the Sea Ray Navigator shown in the photo below.  This is a Windows based computer featuring touch screen capability.  It is our primary navigation device with the capability to display radar data and our GPS position overlayed onto a US Government (NOAA) chart (i.e., raster chart)  The ability to see our position on the actual NOAA chart is particularly valuable especially when operating on the inland waterways.

The next photo shows the Raymarine autopilot and the Cummins SmartCraft.  The autopilot has the ability to hold a course or correct for wind and current (also know as cross track error - XTE) using data from either the E120 or the Sea Ray Navigator.

The SmartCraft contains multiple pages displaying engine and navigation data.  The screen shown in the photo shows RPM, temperature, oil pressure, voltage and fuel flow (GPH) and is the page we use while underway.

Note: All of these devises can do for more than I have described.  In fact to describe all the functions would take several pages.  Technology overload is also a fair description for these devices.  It has taken me several years to use, maybe, 25% of their functionality.  Pure technology overload.  Perhaps some of you can relate.

In addition to the electronics, we have the paper chart for the area we are traversing, cruising guides open to that section, binoculars and our log book.  Why the paper charts you ask?  Simple.  Electronics, while highly reliable most of the time, can go to failure or, as explained below, be functioning perfectly and still be useless.

The first problem, which I failed to mention earlier, occurred as we entered the Tennessee River.  In the flick of an eye, the Sea Ray Navigator became useless as, much to my surprise, it did not have the Tennessee River charts.  This was a more of annoyance than a safety issue as we still had the E120.  However, I particularly like the Navigator as it displays our GPS position on the NOAA chart in relation to the sailing line (or where you should be in the channel).  Without the local chart the unit was useless and we shut it down.  Note: In clear weather we do not run our radar.

The second problem occurred after we exited the Pickwick Lock (where we had the challenging locking experience described in yesterday's article).  The E120 went into a shut-down/boot up cycle rendering it useless.  This problem was caused in 2006 when Skipper Buds improperly wired the unit directly to the engine battery with no circuit breaker or separate switch.  Again a note.  All other equipment has a switch on the panel in addition to a separate on/off switch on the unit.  Unfortunately, if you have the E120 operating when you start the engine it causes an electrical overload that cause the unit to reboot.  Not good.  Unfortunately, I forgot to shut it down before starting the engines while waiting at the lock.  Sure enough, we exited the lock and it went into the reboot cycle.  Note: Good things come in bunches, like bananas. So do bad things.

So, just like that we went back 20 years to paper charts and binoculars.

Restoring the E120 required the equivalent of a hard shut-down, which restored the system but lost all of my setting.  Fortunately, I remembered how to restore my settings and over the next ten miles brought the E120 back to its normal helpful self.

Restoring the Sea Ray Navigator required getting the missing charts and loading them into the computer.  Here another note is required.  Sea Ray licensed the Navigator System from Maptech, which for some unknown reason (at least to me), no longer supports it and neither does Sea Ray (shame on them).  However, last year I found Mark Pringle of NSI (Navigational Solutions International) who knows the system and provides support.  Without Mark, my very expensive unit which had gone to total failure, would have essentially been junk.  Mark installed a new solid state hard drive, a new power supply and all (well almost all) of the US Government charts.

So, a quick phone call to Mark and he overnights the missing charts.  As soon as they arrived, I called him and he talked me through their installation, which as you will see below was a bit complicated.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Let's see.  The first photo shows the Navigator loading the charts.  You can see the disk package on top of the paper charts and cruising guides.  Notice the orange cable, which is supplying 115 volt power to the portable disk drive located just to the right of the helm (see second photo).  The disk drive is plugged into a USB port on the panel just below and to the right of the helm (and hard to get at).  The cursor control and clickers (left and right) are mounted on the dash at the ten o'clock position just behind the wheel.  In effect a full blown windows computer just in separate pieces.  Note: We even have a keyboard module (which was not needed for this operation).

Overview of the process

Portable disk drive and cell phone in speaker mode

A lovely sight.  The dialogue box showing that the charts are loading

The cell phone, shown in the second photo, was in speaker mode so that I could talk to Mark while carrying out each task.  The total technology on our boat is really amazing.

So, as of this moment, the full electronics package is fully operational.

Written by Les