Electronic Repair
- Thread starter ziggy
- Start date
scott craven
Well-Known Member
ziggy
Well-Known Member
Thanks Scott, phoned this morning and they said you can't get parts and it's essentially a throw away.
Contacted Raymarine and they basically said the same. Replacement for first year then if it breaks its toast!
So as far as I'm concerned, lesson learned Raymarine after sales support is garbage. Anyone looking for a plotter sounder take note.
Contacted Raymarine and they basically said the same. Replacement for first year then if it breaks its toast!
So as far as I'm concerned, lesson learned Raymarine after sales support is garbage. Anyone looking for a plotter sounder take note.
scott craven
Well-Known Member
Yeah, unfortunately we live in a throw away world.
ziggy
Well-Known Member
I can accept that for disposable razors, but not for expensive electronics. Seems a little unethical, not to mention poor corporate citizenship. But who knows maybe that's the way these outfits roll. Thanks for the suggestion though, it was worth a shot.
Sr SQ
Well-Known Member
Its not just RM, as Scott mentioned they are all the same, Furuno is a little bit better but you pay for a longer life span up front with them.
Sad but all electronics are the same, when was the last time you seen a 4+ year old cell phone.......
TheBigGuy
Well-Known Member
Sad but true, once your warranty period is over most of the companies don't give a dam about you. Most only stock parts for a very short time and they're not looking to repair your old model. They want you to buy a new one.
The one exception seems to be Furuno. They have a huge following on the west coast in the states because of their great after sales support for their customers. They stock parts to their units for ages. I believe I've also read if they can't repair your unit they will give you a credit towards a new purchase. I don't know if that's still the case. Things change rapidly these days, so maybe they are no longer so good that way. Everything I've read about Furuno down south was they were the best in that respect. I've never owned one so I can't say first hand. Very frustrating for sure, I feel for you.
ziggy
Well-Known Member
Sadly we seem to have lost our way. We spend countless hours recycling paper, plastic,tin and glass in our homes, not to mention green waste and table scraps. Don't know how much time and effort the average family spends "keeping things out of the landfill", through sorting and recycling. Suffice to say it's significant. Yet we tolerate over packaging, and throw away products, because that's progress.
You make a good point about 4 year old cell phones. Sadly most still work fine, but who wants a 5 once the 6 hits the market? So much for things getting less wasteful and more environmentally friendly! Just makes me want to throw my bottled water at my obsolete two year old tv!
You make a good point about 4 year old cell phones. Sadly most still work fine, but who wants a 5 once the 6 hits the market? So much for things getting less wasteful and more environmentally friendly! Just makes me want to throw my bottled water at my obsolete two year old tv!
TheBigGuy
Well-Known Member
I'm not a technician, but if you were dead set on salvaging the unit I'd think it could be done. It may not last but it's worth a try. My thoughts would be:
Carefully disassemble the unit to remove the back cover.
Cut the wires as closely to the broken pins as possible on the inside of the back cover.
Solder on new wires to the broken pin wires.
Drill a hole for the new soldered on wire to exit.
Find a watertight connection at an electronics distributor with at least as many pins as your old connector.
Seal the exit hole on the cover, and reassemble. You may want to run a small bead of black silicone sealant around the housing before you close it up again.
Cut the old connector off and solder on the new external connector to the cable.
Seal everything with glue melt and heat shrink on all your connections.
You will now have an external connector instead of one mounted directly to your unit, but so what.
Worth a try, if you're handy with wiring. You may find the screen fogs on cold mornings after doing a home repair, but it will probably go away quickly once the unit warms up. If your boat is well covered and usually dry inside the repair may last many years. If you don't mind tinkering I'd give it a shot. Just my opinion
Carefully disassemble the unit to remove the back cover.
Cut the wires as closely to the broken pins as possible on the inside of the back cover.
Solder on new wires to the broken pin wires.
Drill a hole for the new soldered on wire to exit.
Find a watertight connection at an electronics distributor with at least as many pins as your old connector.
Seal the exit hole on the cover, and reassemble. You may want to run a small bead of black silicone sealant around the housing before you close it up again.
Cut the old connector off and solder on the new external connector to the cable.
Seal everything with glue melt and heat shrink on all your connections.
You will now have an external connector instead of one mounted directly to your unit, but so what.
Worth a try, if you're handy with wiring. You may find the screen fogs on cold mornings after doing a home repair, but it will probably go away quickly once the unit warms up. If your boat is well covered and usually dry inside the repair may last many years. If you don't mind tinkering I'd give it a shot. Just my opinion
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RageWelding
Well-Known Member
I was told Japan electronics http://www.japanelectronics.ca/
Stosh
Well-Known Member
This happened to me years ago on the morning of a derby - in the dark as usually is the case.
I ended up building an electronics box mounted on top of my dash. I leave everything connected and a flip up door opens up exposing the units.
I realize this is not practical in most small boats.
It sure would be nice if the electronics manufacturers made in- line connections possible, rather than having to plug in the back of the units - often in the dark.
Stosh
I ended up building an electronics box mounted on top of my dash. I leave everything connected and a flip up door opens up exposing the units.
I realize this is not practical in most small boats.
It sure would be nice if the electronics manufacturers made in- line connections possible, rather than having to plug in the back of the units - often in the dark.
Stosh
ziggy
Well-Known Member
The problem with all these units is that they are encased in mounded plastic and can't be opened up, and if they were can't be resealed again. The repair is not a problem so much as the designed in,redundancy. The manufacturer has designed them as a throwaway. Not sure if Lowrance,Simrad, Hummingbird etc, have the similar design or if you can open them for access to the electronics. What I find annoying is that we have become such a throwaway society we accept the fact that expensive electronics are designed in such a manner that they can't be repaired. It's the old repair by replacement.
TheBigGuy
Well-Known Member
Well if you can't take them apart you don't have anything to lose by getting creative. Take an electric soldering iron with a fine tip and melt a circle around the connector. Pop the connector out and hope there is enough slack in the wire to crimp or solder on an extension wire. It may be inelegant but if it works great. If it doesn't nothing wagered nothing gained. If it can't be fixed that way, your no worse off than you were before.
ziggy
Well-Known Member
Appreciate the suggestions guys , but the non repairable isn't just my assessment. I've had it looked at by a local electronics tech that carries the Raymarine line, talked to another tech that confirmed it was a throwaway ( can't get parts) and even called Ray marine where I was told I could send it in, but it was likely unfixable. They would replace it if it was under a year old, but other than that .....
I get what you're saying bones, but unless you have a unit you can canibalize ( no parts available, tech 2) you are hooped. My point in this rant is that the units are designed to discourage repair, which is IMO very wasteful
I get what you're saying bones, but unless you have a unit you can canibalize ( no parts available, tech 2) you are hooped. My point in this rant is that the units are designed to discourage repair, which is IMO very wasteful
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Your bang on Ziggy. In most cases manufactures of consumer electronics long ago designed them as non-repairable. If a device fails during the warranty period in many cases it is far cheaper for them to replace it with a new one, rather than maintain a dealer repair network and more importantly a parts inventory and distribution system for every device, model and even different manufacturing runs of the same model.
Something to consider; whenever I buy new electronics I use a MasterCard because MasterCard doubles the warranty period as a perk for using their card. In my experience they are very good about claims and don't give you a lot of grief like those third party extended warranty plans that Electronics Sales types push.
Something to consider; whenever I buy new electronics I use a MasterCard because MasterCard doubles the warranty period as a perk for using their card. In my experience they are very good about claims and don't give you a lot of grief like those third party extended warranty plans that Electronics Sales types push.
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