KVH tracvision?

B

Boulder GT3

New Member
Jan 28, 2008
336
Fort Lauderdale
Boat Info
56 Viking
MAN cr1550
Engines
C12
I've got an M3. You can hear it running, searching most of the time. It works fine it just seems odd that it's always "cycling" even when the boat is stationary. Does anyone know if this is normal? Thanks.
 
I do not hear ours once it locks in at dock.

Was it windy?

It is too noisy to hear underway but I bet it is always tracking as I get a message once in a while on the E120 screen (don't beat me up) indicating it temporarily lost signal. I can't remember the exact message.
 
missnmountains said:
I do not hear ours once it locks in at dock.

Was it windy?

It is too noisy to hear underway but I bet it is always tracking as I get a message once in a while on the E120 screen (don't beat me up) indicating it temporarily lost signal. I can't remember the exact message.
Click to expand...

I can only hear it when the motors and anything else that makes noise is off. Not windy at all. In fact, tied up snug on 6 lines.

Mine doesn't lose signal at all that I'm aware of.

It still doesn't seem right that it's "whirring" all the time.

Thanks for the response.
 
Pretty sure it's just a tiara thing. Sorry, but I had to say that. I have the same unit, mine will make some noise, but it does cycle on and then is quiet for a while. Definitely not a continuous noise.
 
SR400DB said:
Pretty sure it's just a tiara thing. Sorry, but I had to say that. I have the same unit, mine will make some noise, but it does cycle on and then is quiet for a while. Definitely not a continuous noise.
Click to expand...

I'm stretching it some. It probably runs 50% of the time at the dock which still seems like a lot if the boat isn't moving. Is that about what you experience?

Could be a Tiara thing. Just another noise to listen to when anchored at night and everything seems to have a potential consequence.
 
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What you are experiencing is your antenna coming out of sleep mode (the antenna gyro turns off in sleep mode). When you are docked and the antenna doesn't detect much of a directional change, it goes into sleep mode. When the boat drifts just a few degrees, the thing wakes up and goes "where the hell am I?" and starts whirring with the step motors and spinning around trying to figure out where it is by scanning the sky looking for sat signals. Five minutes later, it finds out where it is and goes back to sleep (turns the gyro back off) only to have your boat drift a few degrees back to where it was and the cycle continuously repeats itself until you want to pry it off the top of the boat and toss it in the water.

You can hook up a laptop to the thing and disable sleep mode... good thing to do... I'm sure some college co-op student was working at KVH for the summer and came up with the hair brained idea that a boat won't drift a few degrees in the slip...
 
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Four Suns said:
What you are experiencing is your antenna coming out of sleep mode (the antenna gyro turns off in sleep mode). When you are docked and the antenna doesn't detect much of a directional change, it goes into sleep mode. When the boat drifts just a few degrees, the thing wakes up and goes "where the hell am I?" and starts whirring with the step motors and spinning around trying to figure out where it is by scanning the sky looking for sat signals. Five minutes later, it finds out where it is and goes back to sleep (turns the gyro back off) only to have your boat drift a few degrees back to where it was and the cycle continuously repeats itself until you want to pry it off the top of the boat and toss it in the water.

You can hook up a laptop to the thing and disable sleep mode... good thing to do... I'm sure some college co-op student was working at KVH for the summer and came up with the hair brained idea that a boat won't drift a few degrees in the slip...
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Brilliant. That is exactly the cycle that is going on. I had a tracvision before and it never exhibited the trait. This one is going to wear itself out searching.

Thanks very much for the answer.
 
Gary, you are usually correct, but I do not see that you can use the laptop to change any of the settings on the M3. I know that on the M5 thru M9 this is possible, but I do not see any option for this on the M3 version. Do you have any more info on this?
 
Boulder GT3 said:
I'm stretching it some. It probably runs 50% of the time at the dock which still seems like a lot if the boat isn't moving. Is that about what you experience?

Could be a Tiara thing. Just another noise to listen to when anchored at night and everything seems to have a potential consequence.
Click to expand...

It's not a "Tiara thing". I have an M3 and at the dock it will run on start up but after it locks on you don't hear it again. I have my M 3 mounted directly to the hardtop so it's really noticeable when it goes into search mode. See below:
 

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Thats what I remember from when I bought my system. No user defined parameters allowed. So, must be a Tiara thing....actually I think mine probably searchs about 1/3 of the time at anchor. You mentioned that you think it is 50%, what else did the tech say?
 
SR400DB said:
Thats what I remember from when I bought my system. No user defined parameters allowed. So, must be a Tiara thing....actually I think mine probably searchs about 1/3 of the time at anchor. You mentioned that you think it is 50%, what else did the tech say?
Click to expand...

In the M3 anytime there is a movement or more than 2 degrees the unit fires up the " I don't know where I am" function. Basically, if the boat moves at all it starts to search. I'm not a sat guy but my guess is that this is because the aperture on that unit is so small it can't catch good signal if it's not dead on. That would explain why the bigger unit I had was less busy. He added that the units are designed to have 100% duty cycle so no worries about the extra work the unit is doing. I'm not buying that. Mine is on a breaker so I turn it off at night or when I'm not on the boat. Although, IIRC with my Direct TV on the other boat if you power the Direct TV unit off for more than a couple of weeks you have to call them and have them reset the ID.
 
SR400DB said:
Gary, you are usually correct, but I do not see that you can use the laptop to change any of the settings on the M3. I know that on the M5 thru M9 this is possible, but I do not see any option for this on the M3 version. Do you have any more info on this?
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I guess I'm "1/2 wrong" or "1/2 right"...

I didn't know you couldn't turn off the useless sleep mode on the lower-end units. See what you get for being cheap? No 49 cent serial port.

You should have asked the tech if the parts are rated for 100% duty cycle (whatever that means) then why are they implementing a "sleep" feature? To annoy the customers? Does anyone at KVH own a boat?

I turned my sleep mode off and now the system works as well at the dock as it does being tossed around on the water. If the gyro burns up, so be it... the thing is going to be obsolete in a year or so anyway.
 
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I would have to fire up the generator to make margaritas... and die of CO poisoning waiting for the antenna.
 
SEEG said:
It's not a "Tiara thing". I have an M3 and at the dock it will run on start up but after it locks on you don't hear it again. I have my M 3 mounted directly to the hardtop so it's really noticeable when it goes into search mode. See below:
Click to expand...


Dan,

Nice setup. Do you have any issues with the radar and sat ant in your setup? How high is the radar mount?
 
Four Suns said:
I guess I'm "1/2 wrong" or "1/2 right"...

I didn't know you couldn't turn off the useless sleep mode on the lower-end units. See what you get for being cheap? No 49 cent serial port.

You should have asked the tech if the parts are rated for 100% duty cycle (whatever that means) then why are they implementing a "sleep" feature? To annoy the customers? Does anyone at KVH own a boat?

I turned my sleep mode off and now the system works as well at the dock as it does being tossed around on the water. If the gyro burns up, so be it... the thing is going to be obsolete in a year or so anyway.
Click to expand...

The party line is that the sleep mode is there to conserve 12VDC. Don't even start. I'm just reporting not creating.

Mine takes no more than 30 seconds to find itself and put a signal on the TV after the power is off. No program guide for a while though.

FWIW, I went to my neighbors boat that has a bigger unit, M5 I think, and while mine is hunting his is quiet.
 
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