Datamarine masthead wind unit question

[josrulz]

OK, this is really a long shot, but I'll give it a try. Maybe someone will know what I'm talking about. This past weekend, we noticed our Datamarine wind instrument was not reading properly. We looked up to the top of the mast, and saw that part of the wind unit on the masthead was flopping around.

At anchor, with the help of some fellow Sailnet members (THANK YOU), I went to the top of the mast. What I found was that the upper "half" of the unit with the wind vane was hanging by the wires. The mount, main cable, and lower half of the unit with the wind "cups" on it were all fine.

The "unit" is a cylinder, and as described above has two "halves". The upper with the wind vane, the lower with the wind cups. The upper half has a hexagonal bottom to it. This hexagonal male plug fits into a hexagonal female in the top of lower half. I don't know how else to describe this, so maybe you've seen it and know what I mean.

The weird part is that even though the two halves fit together, I could find nothing to keep them mechanically fastened to each other. It almost looked like the upper half just sat in the lower half. If this was the case, they would've come apart much sooner, I'm sure! So I put the two pieces together, duct taped them. It's all working fine now.

That said, the duct tape won't last, and we know there must be some way these two pieces are fastened together. Anyone know?

Sorry I don't have pics of the unit--I wasn't really thinking of that when I was up there!
-J

[T37Chef]

I have my old unit down and will inspect it sometime this weekend, send me a PM as a reminder. Incidentally, I think I have, maybe had, a spare mount & arm. I'll look around

[josrulz]

Originally Posted by T37Chef

I have my old unit down and will inspect it sometime this weekend, send me a PM as a reminder. Incidentally, I think I have, maybe had, a spare mount & arm. I'll look around

Thanks T37Chef. I'll send you a PM reminder too. I'm trying to get some idea of how this thing goes together before going back up the mast. I'd rather go up and fix it, as opposed to going back up multiple times to remove the unit, bring it down, repair, then go back up again. If at all possible, of course.

Thanks again!
-J

[BarryL]

Hello,

When my Datamarine wind instrument stopped working I used DMI to repair it. I also ordered covers and other parts.

These are the guys:
DMI Marine, Inc.
DMI Marine, Inc.
18 Commerce Park Road
Pocasset, Ma 02559


main phone number: 508-564-7491
fax number: 508-564-7497
email: dmi@dmimarine.com

I have been very happy with them.

Good luck,
Barry

[josrulz]

Thanks BarryL. I've gotten covers from DMI, and will likely use them if I need to pull the unit down and send it in. Everything is functioning right now though--it's just duct-taped together! I'm hoping there's just some missing set screw or something that I didn't notice when I was up there on the mast looking it.

[btrayfors]

J-

I've got three of these suckers...two on the boat and one in my basement. Just looked at the third one. I can see no hexagonal pieces at all.

Mine has a round black barrel ("the unit") with a metal band around it which attaches to the wand/mount.

The upper part (vane) is attached by two .050 hex screws...one on the side and one under the after part of the vane. Releasing these screws allows you to take the vane off. It has a round base to match the round "unit" barrel.

The lower part (cups) has two attachments. First is the cup part itself, secured with one .050" hex screw (reached through a square hole in the base of the cups). When you remove the cups, you have the shaft exposed.

Then, on each side of the "unit" barrel, there is a .050" hex screw. Loosening these allows the sender unit to drop out of the bottom, with short wires and a small circuit board attached.

There is no other apparent disassembly points on the "unit" itself that I can make out.

It's possible that indeed the black "unit" barrel actually consists of two halves, and that there's a hex shaped connection between them. If so, it would have to be very close to the metal band, because I can't see it anywhere else. And, it's possible that this connection is made with glue, not screws.

Next time up the mast, I'd try some Super Glue :-) Should hold awhile until you really need to send it to DMI for proper service.

Bill

[josrulz]

You might be right that it was glues, and it's also possible there were a few variations on these things. I found a diagram online of the wind unit, and I used Photoshop to "take it apart" the way mine was apart. So please pardon the hand-drawn aspect of this image (wires and hexagonal bottom to the upper half)--the lines are a little crooked in the part I added on. But this represents what I saw.



Make sense?
-J

[btrayfors]

Yep, perfect sense. Glue it & forget it (for awhile)!

B.

Nice work w/PhotoShop, BTW.

[hellosailor]

Crazy glue might make future repairs impossible. You can get stainless steel tape, or aluminum tape, sold in auto supply stores and hardware stores, for fixing and sealing leaking gutters and covering holes in sheet metal. It is thick metal foil with a permanent adhesive on it, so it does a very durable job of sticking things back together again. But can be peeled off, when need be.

[josrulz]

Thanks for the suggestions!