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Author Topic:   I fixed my Raymarine Chartplotter

John McBride posted 08-29-2007 04:13 PM ET (US)
Maybe someone here may benefit from this.
Well, the plotter I bought off ebay a couple of years ago and it recently would no longer store waypoints or preferences once I powered the unit down. I figured it must have an internal battery to keep RAM memory alive and that it must have died.
I brought the unit home from the boat and looked up Ramarine's website. They wanted $250 flat rate repair and I could not stomach that. Looking at the back of the unit I saw lots of phillips-head screws so I opened her up. The case splits in half and has a rubber seal between the halves so I thought I had a good shot at sealing it back if I were to open it. Luckily it is not a nitrogen filled, electronically welded together affair!
After I took the back off, the battery was very evident. I measured for voltage and there was nada. Problem was it is not the easily replacable, pop the old out, pop a new one in veriety as you see frequently on computer motherboards but a standard 3V 2032 battery with legs soldered to it which are then soldered into the circuit board.
A Google search for "2032 board mount" yielded a how to page on replacing this on a MOOG synthesizer. It speced a DigiKey part number that allows you to replace batteries without unsoldering, etc.
The part arrived today and I had it installed in 20 minutes. The battery socket and a new battery were $13 with $8 being shipping and handling.
On my circuit baord, I would have had to unsolder the legs for the old battery backup from a fairly inaccessable side of the board. I was able to pop the solder spots from the old battery and use these legs to solder the new socket to. I put a spot of silicon behind the new socket as it stands off the board by a 1/4" and I would like it to stay put without being prone to getting loose from getting jostled around. I have plenty of clearance inside the plotter enclosure so this standing off will not prevent proper reassembly.
I have some silicon grease that came with my dry suit that you put, periodically, on the waterproof zipper. I rubbed this down both sides of the rubber case gasket and screwed it back together. I then wiped a bit of silicon caulk into the many recessed screw holes to prevent ingress of moisture there. I did this in a dry but not too cool environment to cut down on moisture inside the unit but not creating a future expansion/contraction issue because of the temperature at resealing.
Pretty satisfying fixing this kind of thing for $13 rather than $250 I must say.

HarryWhisman posted 09-02-2007 10:49 AM ET (US)
I also get a thrill out of fixing the seemingly unfixable for nothing. Congrats!
I wouldn't be putting silicone grease on my dry suit zipper though. Use wax instead and save the silicone for o-rings.
Chuck Tribolet posted 09-02-2007 02:27 PM ET (US)
I wouldn't put silicone grease on a drysuit zipper OR an
unknown rubber gasket. Dunno about the Raymarine, but my
Humminbird has what seems to be a silicone gasket, and silicone
grease will melt silicone gaskets.

Chuck
John McBride posted 09-04-2007 06:47 PM ET (US)
Thanks for the advice. I ass-u-med it was silicon grease that came with the drysuit. They probably supply it with that to make sure it eats up the latex seals at the neck and arms faster. LOL
I will keep a close eye on the case seal for degradation.
Nice catch gents.
John McBride posted 09-20-2007 11:39 PM ET (US)
I was just aked so I thought I should record the part number from Digikey. Other brands may have similar issues.
The Digikey part number for the socket I used was BH32T-C.
The correct battery (2032, 3V) is Digikey part number N189-ND. I know the batteries are easy to find, it is just that Digikey's price is a paltry $.35 each.

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Author	Topic: I fixed my Raymarine Chartplotter
John McBride	posted 08-29-2007 04:13 PM ET (US) Maybe someone here may benefit from this. Well, the plotter I bought off ebay a couple of years ago and it recently would no longer store waypoints or preferences once I powered the unit down. I figured it must have an internal battery to keep RAM memory alive and that it must have died. I brought the unit home from the boat and looked up Ramarine's website. They wanted $250 flat rate repair and I could not stomach that. Looking at the back of the unit I saw lots of phillips-head screws so I opened her up. The case splits in half and has a rubber seal between the halves so I thought I had a good shot at sealing it back if I were to open it. Luckily it is not a nitrogen filled, electronically welded together affair! After I took the back off, the battery was very evident. I measured for voltage and there was nada. Problem was it is not the easily replacable, pop the old out, pop a new one in veriety as you see frequently on computer motherboards but a standard 3V 2032 battery with legs soldered to it which are then soldered into the circuit board. A Google search for "2032 board mount" yielded a how to page on replacing this on a MOOG synthesizer. It speced a DigiKey part number that allows you to replace batteries without unsoldering, etc. The part arrived today and I had it installed in 20 minutes. The battery socket and a new battery were $13 with $8 being shipping and handling. On my circuit baord, I would have had to unsolder the legs for the old battery backup from a fairly inaccessable side of the board. I was able to pop the solder spots from the old battery and use these legs to solder the new socket to. I put a spot of silicon behind the new socket as it stands off the board by a 1/4" and I would like it to stay put without being prone to getting loose from getting jostled around. I have plenty of clearance inside the plotter enclosure so this standing off will not prevent proper reassembly. I have some silicon grease that came with my dry suit that you put, periodically, on the waterproof zipper. I rubbed this down both sides of the rubber case gasket and screwed it back together. I then wiped a bit of silicon caulk into the many recessed screw holes to prevent ingress of moisture there. I did this in a dry but not too cool environment to cut down on moisture inside the unit but not creating a future expansion/contraction issue because of the temperature at resealing. Pretty satisfying fixing this kind of thing for $13 rather than $250 I must say.
HarryWhisman	posted 09-02-2007 10:49 AM ET (US) I also get a thrill out of fixing the seemingly unfixable for nothing. Congrats! I wouldn't be putting silicone grease on my dry suit zipper though. Use wax instead and save the silicone for o-rings.
Chuck Tribolet	posted 09-02-2007 02:27 PM ET (US) I wouldn't put silicone grease on a drysuit zipper OR an unknown rubber gasket. Dunno about the Raymarine, but my Humminbird has what seems to be a silicone gasket, and silicone grease will melt silicone gaskets. Chuck
John McBride	posted 09-04-2007 06:47 PM ET (US) Thanks for the advice. I ass-u-med it was silicon grease that came with the drysuit. They probably supply it with that to make sure it eats up the latex seals at the neck and arms faster. LOL I will keep a close eye on the case seal for degradation. Nice catch gents.
John McBride	posted 09-20-2007 11:39 PM ET (US) I was just aked so I thought I should record the part number from Digikey. Other brands may have similar issues. The Digikey part number for the socket I used was BH32T-C. The correct battery (2032, 3V) is Digikey part number N189-ND. I know the batteries are easy to find, it is just that Digikey's price is a paltry $.35 each.