Tazling
Veteran Member
- Joined
- May 17, 2021
- Messages
- 71
- Vessel Name
- DARXIDE
- Vessel Make
- Grand Banks 32
My boat came with a Raymarine C80, so when the video finally died on that unit (known problem with a connector) I bought a refurb off Ebay. The guy had a good rep and the unit arrived in working condition so I was fairly confident -- it behaved well on two week-long shakedown trips, so I set out on the major summer trip, about 6 weeks.
Well, about 5 days into the long trip it failed while under way -- sounded an alarm and then the screen went black, unit powered down spontaneously. While running down a fairly narrow channel in reduced viz (heavy rain), great timing. Fortunately I have TZ on my iPad so very quickly had another chartplotter screen in front of me. But the C80 also was my main helm station depth sounder. I feel blind without it.
When I tried to power the C80 up again, I got the Raymarine logo/splash screen for a few seconds, then the unit turned itself off. This behaviour is consistent -- it has never worked again, and always fails in exactly the same way.
So of course I unplugged all the cables and plugged them back in again. I did a factory reset. I read the manual (useless). So I now own one original broken C80 that boots OK but has scrambled video, and this new (refurb) C80 also broken, which seems to have OK video but won't power up. And cost me almost a grand.
If anyone out there knows a whole lot about older Raymarine combo (depth/radar/gps) units like the C80, and understands what this "turn self off" failure mode means, I would sure like to know what the problem is and whether it can be fixed. Or if anyone knows of a good, honest marine electronics repair outfit in BC (Canada) that can fix these things...
Gotta say I feel like I got ripped off -- and have written a pretty forthright email to the guy who sold it to me -- but who knows if that will get me anywhere (Ebay seller, and I already left good feedback because the unit worked on arrival).
Alternatively if I have to just write this off as a bad purchase (ouch!) and take a different approach, is it possible to adapt the Raymarine transducer to some other, fairly cheap, simple, very basic depth sounder? I could happily use the iPad for navigation (it's better than the Raymarine chart anyway) as long as I also have the depth sounder.
(by the way, there's also a chartplotter and depth sounder on the flybridge -- so don't worry, I didn't spend the last 5 weeks groping around the central BC coast with no depth sounder! -- just have to drive from "upstairs" to use it)
Well, about 5 days into the long trip it failed while under way -- sounded an alarm and then the screen went black, unit powered down spontaneously. While running down a fairly narrow channel in reduced viz (heavy rain), great timing. Fortunately I have TZ on my iPad so very quickly had another chartplotter screen in front of me. But the C80 also was my main helm station depth sounder. I feel blind without it.
When I tried to power the C80 up again, I got the Raymarine logo/splash screen for a few seconds, then the unit turned itself off. This behaviour is consistent -- it has never worked again, and always fails in exactly the same way.
So of course I unplugged all the cables and plugged them back in again. I did a factory reset. I read the manual (useless). So I now own one original broken C80 that boots OK but has scrambled video, and this new (refurb) C80 also broken, which seems to have OK video but won't power up. And cost me almost a grand.
If anyone out there knows a whole lot about older Raymarine combo (depth/radar/gps) units like the C80, and understands what this "turn self off" failure mode means, I would sure like to know what the problem is and whether it can be fixed. Or if anyone knows of a good, honest marine electronics repair outfit in BC (Canada) that can fix these things...
Gotta say I feel like I got ripped off -- and have written a pretty forthright email to the guy who sold it to me -- but who knows if that will get me anywhere (Ebay seller, and I already left good feedback because the unit worked on arrival).
Alternatively if I have to just write this off as a bad purchase (ouch!) and take a different approach, is it possible to adapt the Raymarine transducer to some other, fairly cheap, simple, very basic depth sounder? I could happily use the iPad for navigation (it's better than the Raymarine chart anyway) as long as I also have the depth sounder.
(by the way, there's also a chartplotter and depth sounder on the flybridge -- so don't worry, I didn't spend the last 5 weeks groping around the central BC coast with no depth sounder! -- just have to drive from "upstairs" to use it)