[rbyham]

I have 3 sr mariner guages... Wind speed... Wind direction... And knot log. Until today nine of them worked for me. Today I got the knot log working. Was a simple remove the transmitter and clean all the junk out of the paddles. Works like a charm. But the ws and we are a different story. Spent an hour with SR tech on the phone today but even he was puzzled. Basically both needles respond to input but way off in terms of accuracy. One possible clue is the the ws dies when power is turned off. Evidently it should continue to run as it is self powered. Basically I do not understand how these guages work in tandem with masthead unit. Can anyone point me to diagnostic steps. I have seen and used the pdf files from SR. I am looking more for personal experience.

Lastly am u wasting my time with 30 year old guages? Is there something new out there that combines the two into one and would work with my masthead unit? Mine is a 4 wire.

 

[MarkSF]

Chances are that the masthead unit is the problem...30 years continuous operation in a harsh environment...time to replace the lot

 

[rbyham]

I wish I had tested the masthead unit before stepping the mast with it on. The gauges both work in the sense that the needles move. But accuracy on wind direction is irregular. Sometimes it is perfect other times off by about 15 degrees. The wind speed reads steady 15 knots no matter what the wind is actually doing. Yeah maybe it is the masthead unit. I wish I had a better understanding of how these units work. It seems the wires to the wind direction gauge feed DC up to the masthead where the anemometer "converts" it to AC and sends AC signal down the mast to the wind speed gauge where it creates a reading with different speeds corresponding to different voltage. My AC readings across white green on the speed gauge are consistently 1.1 volts which would correspond to about 15 knots but what would cause the 1.1 volts to come down from the masthead when the wind is just about 5 knots and AC voltage should read about .4v? Strange...

 

[Dave_E]

I had 35 year old sailing instruments and decided that I was tired of seeing which ones weren't going to work on any given day. Found the masthead sensor to be the culprit... Nothing around that would work with the instruments. So I replaced everything with "retro" looking round gauges and sensors from Signet Marine. Yes it was an expense, but I have new instruments that will hopefully last awhile and keep that "old school" look.

 

[rbyham]

Thanks folks but the search goes on for a solution. I have had some contact with SR mariner tech support. I am impressed that they will interact over gauges that are clearly discontinued and very old. They have been great.

To date I have verified all gauges are working as they should The problem seems to be electrical. The system is picking up a stray volt from somewhere. In other words all VAC readings at the back of the gauges is exactly one volt AC off. Across the green and white of the Wind Speed I read 1.2 VAC in confirmed 3 knots of wind for example. The reading should be .2 VAC. So the gauges are both showing exactly one volt high on back connections and reading what equates to one volt on the gauge needle itself. This is the case for both the Wind Speed and Wind Direction gauges.

If this makes sense can anyone suggest how to troubleshoot a stray volt? I would love to have what may be vintage gauges work with my vintage boat. I have the knot meter (also SR mariner) now working perfect. Would be nice to have a matched set...