B&G Problem

[Jimbo485]

We have an issue with our b&g system. It is a networked system with wind, depth, log, autopilot. The problem is that it suddenly died today. The fuse in our electrical panel is fine, there is still power getting to the instruments according to the multimeter, but the instruments are all blank. There is a clicking noise coming from the main brains unit of the system.

I opened it up looking for another fuse or whatever, but I see no obvious fuse or problem.

Things that I did today that may have played a part:

1. Pulled out the log paddlewheel and dropped it in a bucket of chlorinated water to give it a clean.

2. Disconnected all the power while reorganizing the solar panels.

Any experience with something similar or any ideas in terms of trouble shooting???

Thanks!

[Jimbo485]

Note that it is not drawing any power. With everything onboard switched off except for the b&g system, there is a draw of between 0.0 and 0.1 Amps.

[fairbank56]

Which B&G system do you have?

Eric

[Jimbo485]

It is a B&G Network system with Wind, Quad, Data and Pilot. It dates from about 2002 or possibly 2004. Uses NMEA 0183 (v 1.5).

[nigel1]

I have the same system, I guess by the main brains you mean the ACP auto pilot controller.
If no instruments are displaying, I'd go back to basics. Turn off all the power, and check all connections. Open the ACP unit front cover and make sure all the internal connections are good (power and network).
Failing that, a couple of phone calls to the experts might help narrow it down.
Google brookes and gatehouse , B&G and something should show up, from memory, Myles electronics in the USA , or B&G (Navico) in the UK, they still have people around who remember the network system, and helped me track down a problem.
Its an old system, expensive to repair, over the last year after an expensive network pilot failure, I have managed to acquire a complete set of spare units at the same cost as my last repair, so keep your eyes open for any bargains

[Jimbo485]

Thanks, Nigel. I will have another poke around the system tomorrow.

Dunking the paddlewheel up to the cable may have caused a problem?

Any B&G experts in Curacao?

[Paul Elliott]

It seems unlikely that a paddlewheel problem would kill all the other B&G instruments. The cable from the paddlewheel is separate from the daisychained power / network connections, and if there were some sort of power-connection short in the paddlewheel then you should be seeing a significant current drain.

Unfortunately, I have no troubleshooting hints, other than advising you to trace the power from battery to the start of the B&G daisychain.

Is it possible that you could have connected the unregulated solar panel to your instrument power feed, with the house battery disconnected? The B&G Network units have a max voltage of 16V -- more than that could fry something. Still, it probably wouldn't fry *all* of the B&G units, and most of them will operate independently, if they have power.

[Jimbo485]

Yes, Paul, I checked the power right up to the first unit in the daisy chain and it is getting 12.8 V.

Solar panels were pumping in 19V at 35A once reconnected, but always thru a regulator.

Quite confused, I am.

And what is with the clicking sound coming out of the brain/CPU of the system? Surely that must be a major clue for someone who knows the system well? Not me!

[DeepFrz]

The clicking sound is most likely a relay activating and then maybe the hold cct. is letting it deactivate. Is this clicking sound one click, or a continuous series of clicks? Trace the voltage to all of the units in the daisy chain, not just the first one.

[nigel1]

Like Paul says, I doubt if the paddle wheel will cause a complete failure, if it was a problem, it would show up as an error on one of the displays.
Best guess for the clicking is the auto pilot power relay.
1) Do the red backlights work on the instruments?
2) Have you tried looping out each display in turn.
Disconnect the two cable from one instrument, and connect those two cables together, try for each instrument, if the others come to life when you do this, you will ID the faulty one.
If it still does not work, you may be looking at a faulty ACP.
When my Quad died, the other instruments all carried on working OK. When the Network Pilot decided to fill with water, the whole system went nuts. Couple showed errors, others were completely dead. On that occasion I was saved by having a second pilot at the nav station. I disconnected the working unit, and reconnected the in/out cables together, and put the working unit in place of the drowned one, then everything returned to normal.
Can only wish you luck. ACP units are still available if thats any consolation.

[Jimbo485]

Thanks for all the advice. We are currently on the hard so the electronics has taken a back seat to hull and paint jobs.

Quick background detail. It is a B&G Network system with QUAD, WIND and PILOT in the cockpit and DATA in the cabin. QUAD is connected to paddlewheel and transducer while WIND is connected to anemometer.

Rather than pulling each unit out of the daisy chain to pinpoint the faulty unit, I pulled apart the entire chain and then just attached one unit each time. This showed that the only working unit is WIND. All other units are out of action and cannot even provide a backlight.

The clicking noise continues in the ACP. It is continuous. According the B&G faq, this is normal, produced by the transducer, but it never occured before. Unlike you guys, they did not answer my initial email nor a followup email. I will try an email to Myles tonight.

On our "instruments" fuse on the electrical switchboard, we have connected the B&G system, a 12V computer for OpenCPN and an ancient GPS. The 12V computer fried its power supply unit the same day that the B&G units died. Very sus. The museum piece GPS still works fine. So 2 out of the 3 systems died, the computer probably due to an electrical spike (??) and the B&G for reasons unknown. The 10A fuse on the panel did not blow.

The fuse in the ACP is fine.

Any and all thoughts would be appreciated - whether they are crazy, logical, funny, helpful, scathing or not!

[noelex 77]

Its always worth trying a system wide reset.

On the B&G H3000 this is done by holding down the menu and ener buttons when the system is turned on.
The procedure may be different for your instruments , but the directions will be in the handbook, or on-line if the hanbook is lost.

[mrohr]

O.K. I'll never be as smart as all you technophiles,so I SIMPLY keep all instruments separate from each other if at all possible, and favor mechanical over electronic in many cases.If something goes wrong I immediately know what and where the problem lies and all else continues to work without resorting to electronic contortions. If it takes a hammer' I can fix it ;if that doesn't help ,then the offending appliance walks the plank and I carry on with all else working as designed and its a lot cheaper to replace a single stand alone unit than some "networked" autopilot that also flushes the head.

[colemj]

Good for you mrohr, but why are you pontificating on this thread? The OP asked for help with his already installed B&G system. Your post isn't very helpful to him.

Mark

[colemj]

Jimbo485,

We have (had) a B&G network package and our autopilot computer never made any clicking noises. The advice that it is a transducer doesn't make sense because none of the transducers go to the pilot control computer.

We were hit by lightning recently, and lost our system. I would say that it sounds like you may have took a near-by strike, but the fact that your wind instrument still works speaks against this. That instrument transducer is very sensitive to static and over voltage and always blows first. Were you on shore power and was there lightning in the area at the time? You could have taken a surge through the AC system that jumped to the DC ground side on your panel. This would harm the instruments and still leave the wind transducer OK.

Mark