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Strange behavior from DataMarine Wind Instrument

7K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  BarryL 
#1 ·
Hello,

When I bought my boat in 2006, it came with a set of DataMarine Instruments, including an LX360 Wind Machine. The wind direction worked but not the wind speed. In 2007 I had DMI rebuild the masthead part and it has worked fine ever since.

This year, like years past, my boat was launched and the mast stepped. I connected the wires inside the mast and tested the instruments. The wind speed seemed right, but the wind direction was off 180 degrees. If I was heading upwind, the instrument displayed me going downwind. If I was sailing at 40 degrees apparent, the instrument showed me sailing 140 degrees (or 40 degrees from dead downwind).

Very strange.

Today I was on the boat to do a few things. I checked the wires and all seemed correct. Still, the wind direction was backwards. I looked up the mast and I could see that the wind vane was indeed pointing in the right direction - same as the windex.

i was going to head over to speak to the guy who stepped the mast to see if maybe they connected the wind vane wrong. It's keyed, so I don't know how that would be possible. Anyway, I took one more look at the instrument and now, magically, it showed the correct wind direction.

Is my boat haunted? Has anyone seen something like this before? I know the instruments are old, but they work, so why change them?

Barry
 
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#2 ·
My Raymarine st60 did the same thing out of the blue after working fine. After a bit of head scratching I resorted to the 'book' and turns out user calibration was the answer. For some reason it 'dumped' its calibration and was reading 180 degrees off. Seems that the elctronis have to be told which is the pointy end of the wind vane. Two slow circles with the boat and all has been well for several months now. hopefully yours calibrated itself and will be all good as well.
 
#3 ·
wasn't sure where to post this, but if somebody has a broken or missing wind vane on the datamarine wind machine instrument here is a cheap way to fix it.

Find Davis Vantage Pro2 replacement vane (Ebay etc). There is a small amount of hand crafting required to mount it. I had to cut the internal rim to make it sit lower. Also the hole for the shaft is too far and too wide so it requires some kind of extension piece. I made one from two halves of a spring loaded wire connector (had them laying around) epoxied to the shaft.

Davis vane is a bit bigger than the original but for ten bucks I can live with that ;) Will see how it holds up.

 
#4 ·
Barry,

My Datamarine wind instrument has been doing the same thing for many years (reading 180 degrees backwards...sometimes....other times reading correctly).

After trying a bunch of things to try to fix it, I gave up and have lived with it nicely for over a decade. After all, the wind is always along the axis of the pointer, one way or another, and if you don't know which way is correct you shouldn't be on a sailboat :)

Kinda like a radio direction finder....if you're old enough to remember them!

Bill
 
#5 ·
I know this is an old thread, but I just stumbled upon it while looking for something else.

I have the same unit, and it does the same thing. What happens is when you turn on the unit, it points either in the right direction, or the 180 opposite, depending on which one the needle is closer to when the power comes on. So when you turn it on, the needle has to first be within 90 degrees or less of where the wind vane is pointing.

I handle this in two ways. First, when I get to the boat, I look at the needle, then I look up the mast at the wind vane. If they are pointing pretty much in the same direction, I turn on the Wind Machine. If not, I wait until I'm under way, and turn the boat until the wind vane is pointing in the same general direction as the needle, then I flip on the Wind Machine.

The other way is to turn on the Wind Machine, take it out of it's housing, and flip the needle to the right side with my finger.

I brought this unit down to the repair facility in Pocasset about four or five years ago, and they said there was nothing they could do about it. Don't know if things have changed since then.
 
#6 ·
Hey,

I started this thread about a year ago. Last fall, when the boat was hauled and the mast pulled, I was able to check the wires from the mast head wind sensor. I found that one of the wires was broken. I fixed the wires in the spring, and now the sensor works again.

I suspect that as the wire was making a weak / intermittent connection that the direction reading was not correct.

Barry
 
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