Garmin 7212 Issues

[buoyohbuoy]

We got our R25SC out of winter storage last week and took her for a short cruise yesterday to make sure everything was performing as it should. Everything was, with the exception of the Garmin chartplotter. It started out fine, but half an hour out of the marina, a large black square appeared as an overlay on one corner of the screen. Shortly thereafter, we lost all Sat imagery and all we had was a light blue screen with the boat icon and past tracks and waypoints. The GPS heading was working as was the lat and long positioning, sonar, engine data, etc. But the radar was gone, the depth contours too and switching to the various other chart views was no help. There was no detail. The depth sounder worked intermittently, but lost bottom and flashed showing shallow depths when the boat was in more than 200 feet of water. The autopilot would not engage in "guide to" mode because it "thought" the water depth unsafe although the "route to" mode did function. I guess that's why carrying paper charts and knowing how to use them is a good thing!
I plan to call Garmin's tech support tomorrow, but thought I would see if the collective wisdom of the Tugnuts out there could help me out. I haven't done anything at all yet and I'm not much of a techie so anything more than unplugging and plugging back in would be out of my league. But I thought that kind of fix seemed unlikely anyway given the fact that some aspects were functioning normally. Any suggestions?

Cheers,
Mike
2014 R25SC
"Daria"
Deep Bay, BC

 

[nzfisher]

Sounds scary. Hopefully you were in familiar territory. Your story is yet another push for me to get some kind of a back up laptop. Hope it is an easy fix and your electronics are still under warranty.

 

[knotflying]

Sometimes when one component goes out it affects everything. Can you get to the component menu and see if it is recognizing everything? Very often the radar is the culprit. Disconnect it from the system and see if your issue clears up.
Here is my suspicions in general regarding the radar issues others have had. I think when traveling or storing and the mast is down it makes all the connections susceptible to water infiltration. It is important to service these points to ensure that there is no corrosion forming and applying a bit of dialectic grease.

Additionally, I have considered installing a flexible plastic shield from underneath the radar support to the front, covering those connection points. This would allow water to shed off when the mast is in the retracted position.

Mike Rizzo

 

[baz]

Bummer...

What type of 'winter storage' did you use ? Was it covered or open storage ? Was a tarp used to protect the boat ? Was it stored along with other boats ? Did you lay out any kind of critter traps ? Was mast lowered ?

Small critters can find their way into the smallest crevices and have a nice meal on juicy wiring etc.

Check cabin roof top for any tell tale signs; any droppings seen ?

The significant aspect of your symptom to me is that all was well for a period of time and then suddenly the problem raised its ugly head...

My guesses/thoughts are... (not in any priority order)

1) Wire damage of some kind (per above)
2) Loose wire(s) caused by movement of the boat... was the boat rocking about to any large degree ?
3) Did the problem start immediately after having done a configuration change on the chart plotter ?
4) Power off the electronics and leave in this state for a few minutes and then power back on.
5) Check all the wiring in and around the radar assembly / housing.
6) Has the problem persisted after having returned to the marina and then gone out for a short trip ?
7)

If you get in touch with Garmin and they shed any light on the issue with a step by step approach for determining the cause, please post back those steps for the rest of us, as this problem could very well inflict any one of us. Thanks... 🙂

...and yes, backup Nav aids is paramount.... paper charts, Nav software for iPad, Cell Phone, laptop etc, and even a second chart plotter as can easily be installed in the new R-29S.

Good luck.