Raymarine C80 losing position

[M Prod]

Hey all ...I'm sure this has been discussed here, so apologies in advance. I've got a Raymarine C80 unit on my '05 340, and it keeps losing it's position every now and then. Every time it does it, it sounds a very annoying alarm (which I also can't figure out how to turn off), and then the only fix for it seems to be restarting the unit ....at which point it will happen again within 10-15 minutes or so. I've seen some posts about needing to replace the GPS sensor up on the arch, or at least find a way to replace the battery? It's been raining cats and dogs here lately so I haven't had the chance to go to the boat to see which sensor I have (boat is still new to me), but I'm guessing it's the Raystar 125. (That's what it looks like anyway from afar). Surely the only way to correct this problem isn't to buy a new sensor?

So ...anyone experience this problem with their C80, and what was your experience fixing it? Also, any way to turn off that alarm?

Thanks!

 

[M Prod]

I found a post over at the Hull Truth forum about this. Perhaps this is what I need to do. Would still like to hear from anyone else who has experienced similar issues with the C80 ..and how to turn off that damn alarm!


From "JoNoFo" @ The Hull Truth:

"If you have (not so) older Raymarine gear like C or E Classic series and your GPS takes a long time to get a fix, then you likely need to replace the GPS unit's internal battery. This is a very easy job. Don't fall for Raymarine's line that you need to buy a new RS130 unit along with converter etc.
First, confirm you don't have any other problems, like a totally dead GPS unit. On top of the GPS (what a lot of people think is the antenna) is a tri-color LED. In the manual you can see what the different blinks mean. Slow blink yellow means no fix. Blinking green means it has a fix. Slow or fast blinking green is to signify different connection, nmea or seatalk, can't remember which. In either case, if your MFD shows no fix and the GPS LED shows no fix, then after a period of time it gets a fix and both the MFD and the LED on the GPS agree, then it is working. I don't know what red LED means but it's probably not good.
To replace the battery you need to unmount the GPS, again, what most people think is the antenna, but I can assure you it is the GPS. You can get manuals on Raymarine's site but I wasn't able to find the manual for the RS125. Mine is pole mounted so I just unscrewed the two Phillips screws that are accessible through the pole mount. Then I disconnected the cable.
Bring the GPS inside somewhere with decent light and a work surface where you won't lose little screws. Get a small phillips screwdriver and a multimeter if you have one. On the bottom of the unit there is a foam gasket. It has a fairly heavy plastic base on the foam. DO NOT PEEL AWAY JUST THE FOAM - peel away the foam ALONG WITH the heavy (clear) plastic. It should come off the GPS including the adhesive leaving the GPS not sticky.
There are 6 Phillips head screws holding the GPS together. Take out those screws and the GPS should come apart. The battery is in a slot on the board. You can check it with your multimeter. Mine was flat 0V. Replace with a new CR2032 positive side up as shown by the + sign on the battery slot.
Put back together carefully. Note, there is an o-ring that keeps the unit sealed. I had trouble with the o-ring slipping under the board. You don't want that. I had to put a tiny bit of teflon grease on the inside of the GPS cover where it contacts the o-ring to allow it to slip together easily. Make sure the board is all the way down and the o-ring is not trapped under the board at all, even a little will make it impossible to put back together correctly. Also note there are alignment marks on the top cover and the base - a small arrow on the base and a dot on the cover. This is so the LED lens lines up with the LED.
Hold everything together and put the 6 screws back in. The base should be flush inside the cover. If not, the o-ring is probably out of position. Take it apart and fix it.
Hope this helps someone save a few bucks."

 

[saopm]

Thanks for the info. My E80 takes longer than expected to get a position. Maybe this is the fix.

 

[Creekwood]

Thanks for the info. My E80 takes longer than expected to get a position. Maybe this is the fix.

Yup. That is the symptom of the Raystar 125 battery going dead. Its used to hold that last position in memory so there is a "warm" startup. If the battery dies it has to do a cold position calculation each time and that takes a long time.

 

[M Prod]

So just to update this, I finally got around to replacing the battery in my Raystar 125 transducer. At the dock, it seems to be holding the position better. There was an occasional drop (in an hour of sitting and watching ..found again after a few seconds), but I ended up restarting the GPS in the GPS status page, and it didn't drop after that. Before the battery switch it was dropping every 3 minutes and then not picking up the position again unless I restarted the unit. Time will tell if this was a solution or if I need to get a whole new transducer. Let's hope for the former.

 

[The Bill Collector]

Pull your head unit, disconnect the GPS attachment cable insert dielectric grease and screw cable back down... I like to try the low hanging fruit before I start tearing stuff apart.

 

[M Prod]

Pull your head unit, disconnect the GPS attachment cable insert dielectric grease and screw cable back down... I like to try the low hanging fruit before I start tearing stuff apart.

If there was a bad connection there, would the transducer lose power? The LED on the top of the transducer never shuts off ..only changes color from green to yellow when it loses signal.

 

[Creekwood]

The bad battery issue normally shows ups as a very slow initial startup time to get a fix. The battery is just used to power the memory of the last known position in the GPS unit so it can warm boot on startup. It normally would not cause losing a fix while powered up. I would try the connection clean up at the back of the C80 too. Also look for any other potential cable damage that may have happened.

 

[david leonard]

Hey all ...I'm sure this has been discussed here, so apologies in advance. I've got a Raymarine C80 unit on my '05 340, and it keeps losing it's position every now and then. Every time it does it, it sounds a very annoying alarm (which I also can't figure out how to turn off), and then the only fix for it seems to be restarting the unit ....at which point it will happen again within 10-15 minutes or so. I've seen some posts about needing to replace the GPS sensor up on the arch, or at least find a way to replace the battery? It's been raining cats and dogs here lately so I haven't had the chance to go to the boat to see which sensor I have (boat is still new to me), but I'm guessing it's the Raystar 125. (That's what it looks like anyway from afar). Surely the only way to correct this problem isn't to buy a new sensor?

So ...anyone experience this problem with their C80, and what was your experience fixing it? Also, any way to turn off that alarm?

Thanks!

SO . . . i have the raystar 120 (now obsolete) and WHEN (not if, of course) that battery dies, the only way to "fix" it is to buy a newer unit along with an external converter. BUT, being the rebel that i am--and absolutely railing against planned obsolescence--i simply took apart the antenna (a few screws--no problem), and soldered in a battery case (45 cents on amazon). now i can replace the CR2035 batteries whenever necessary, without taking the chance of damaging the batteries or having them explode under the 350 degree celsius soldering iron. bingo. works like new. if anyone would like some pointers on how to do this, i'll be happy to share. btw, i am not a mechanic, or even all that handy. this was a pretty easy fix.

 

[KevinC]

It absolutely make me want to pull my hair out when a $1 part causes a $100 item to fail and force me to throw it away. Congrats on your fix.

-Kevin

 

[david leonard]

how 'bout at .49 part on a $200 item!?

 

[Johnnydee]

Hey all ...I'm sure this has been discussed here, so apologies in advance. I've got a Raymarine C80 unit on my '05 340, and it keeps losing it's position every now and then. Every time it does it, it sounds a very annoying alarm (which I also can't figure out how to turn off), and then the only fix for it seems to be restarting the unit ....at which point it will happen again within 10-15 minutes or so. I've seen some posts about needing to replace the GPS sensor up on the arch, or at least find a way to replace the battery? It's been raining cats and dogs here lately so I haven't had the chance to go to the boat to see which sensor I have (boat is still new to me), but I'm guessing it's the Raystar 125. (That's what it looks like anyway from afar). Surely the only way to correct this problem isn't to buy a new sensor?

So ...anyone experience this problem with their C80, and what was your experience fixing it? Also, any way to turn off that alarm?

Thanks!

Hi David,
I have a c80 on my 2004 340da. I had the same issue like 2 years ago. I did change the battery on the sensor. I don’t recall what model number my sensor is but it was the one where the battery wasn’t meant to be changed. There’s a link on this forum somewhere with detailed photos of this process. It’s not hard at all. The biggest thing is with me I had to do it up top because the sensor was hard wired in and I didn’t want to try disconnecting it from the boat. I got a ladder and unscrewed the sensor to expose the battery. From what I recall you need like atimy metal snips or even a scissors. There’s these little taps that are soddered to the existing battery. You just cut the tabs to get the battery out make sure you leave enough metal so you can re sodded the new battery in. That’s it the whole job. Anyways after I did that it seemed better but still would lose fix here and there and I would have to not only shut unit but shut batteries inside on panal and then it would work again. But then last year I was under the dash for some reason and noticed the back wire on the c80 was like falling out. I pushed it back in tight and used zip ties to other wires to hold in. So far I havnt lost fix ever since. So anyway you can check that wire first but I think I would do the battery either way it’s easy enough. Best of luck.