Maintaining Vintage Electronics

Jacob

New Member
Sep 30, 2007
228
Vancouver Island
Boat Info
1998 Bayliner 4788 (sold).
1999 Sea Ray 480 DB (sold)
2005 Grady-White Marlin 300
Engines
Yamaha F250's
Our 1999 Sea Ray has factory Raytheon electronics which are now discontinued and as a result, are not supported in most cases by Raymarine in terms of spare parts. To update the all the Raytheon gear on the boat is a fairly pricey proposition and is in fact, unnecessary.

By perusing the used electronics sources such as eBay and the for sale sections of boating forums, you can often find good used gear at reasonable prices. But at times you may want to repair your existing gear. I have two Nav398 GPS control units which needed new on board batteries which maintain the memory settings.

After discovering Jaytron Marine Electronics on the "Hull Truth" forum, (http://www.thehulltruth.com/members/marine-electronics-repair.html) I contacted Steve Senft for advice regarding the removal and replacement of these soldered on batteries. Steve was quite willing to provide tips on how to do it, and also provided a supplier for the batteries. So I tried the repairs myself on both units without too much grief:

jacobz06-albums-just-chance-picture56957-dscn0312-xga.jpg


Subsequently, I had a problem with my RayPilot Type 100 course computer blowing fuses. After speaking with Steve, I pulled the circuit board and discovered this:

jacobz06-albums-just-chance-picture56956-dscn0298-xga.jpg


A new Raymarine SPX10 course computer which is a direct replacement for the Q067 circuit board on this Type 100 course computer is a little pricey at around $1450 in Canada.

Steve described how they could do the repairs to my existing board and test the unit. Since this repair was beyond my willingness to experiment (and no doubt screw up the board), I shipped the unit to their shop. In fairly short order Steve reported progress back with photos:

jacobz06-albums-just-chance-picture56960-pilotrepair1.jpg


He then reported back the testing success with a photo of their test setup:

jacobz06-albums-just-chance-picture56961-pilotrepair2.jpg


Their cost to repair was a fraction of a replacement unit and in the process they upgraded the power handling capabilities of this unit by installing extra heavy duty FET's. Also, they have a way of communicating with the customer which instills confidence that they are the folks to get the job done.

http://www.jaytron.com/index.htm

Certainly I would not hesitate to recommend these folks to anyone looking to repair their vintage electronics.

Jacob
 
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This is a great find. I hate getting rid of electronics when they should still be useful if only someone would repair them.

John
 
Thank you Jacob.... nice post, description, pictures and link.... (although his company website is offline..?)
 
This is excellent information with a great presentation.

I recently took a side flash lightening strike that blew out a few things including my Garmin 3006c chart plotter. My insurance carrier basically depreciated the items down to pennies on the dollar and I didn't want to spring the $2k + to start an upgrade. Although Garmin listed this unit as obsolete and not supported I found that to be misleading with 1 phone call. This unit is certainly near the end of their support list and will probably be phased out soon but I was able to send mine in and get a refurbished unit for $318.00 including shipping.
This was a HUGE savings and I am satisfied with the capabilities of this unit for my needs. So the point of this is to also checkout your mfr before tossing out your old electronics.

One thing that amazes me is how Sea Ray can stop supporting parts for a boat in 10 years or so and how quickly this also happens with electronics. My Garmin unit was manufactured from 2007-2010 and is soon to be "No longer supported". That's Silly!
 

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