Crews Letter #2011 03 A Ditsy Gipsy and a Flummoxed
Fluxgate
“The capacity of computers
doubles every two years.”
Moore’s Law
“Companies benefit
from the rapid obsolesce of equipment they build.”
Fred’s Corollary
Good morning Crew,
For
a sea trial, we took a three-day cruise.
It turned up two problems. Both
are computer related. Both reflect on
Perception’s age. From an “electronics” perspective, 10 years
is three or four generations at least.
Our
German pilot, Otto Helm, had lost part of his mind. If you woke him up with the boat pointed
south, he was limited to a sector of 165° to 195°. No matter which direction you steered the
boat, he believed it was in that 30° window.
Turn him off and start him up again, for example heading east, every
possible heading was between 75° and 105°.
When Otto is steering the boat, he needs a compass he can see. Being electronic, his eyesight is very poor. Actually, it is non-existent. A Fluxgate compass is the electronic
equivalent and quite suitable for him to read.
Our first guess was some errant iron stuff in the locker with the
Fluxgate.
The
Raymarine technician expected the same thing. Not the case. Next step, attach a new fluxgate to Otto’s
brain. Same symptoms. They took the computer to the shop and found
the problem. They replaced an E-prom in
the steering computer to restore him to full mental health.
Perception’s
Auto Pilot is Raytheon ST-7000 with ST-6000 cockpit screen.
Starting
in 2005, our trusted navigator, Gipsy (GPS), has gone ditsy on occasion. With a high-pitched beep, she grabs our
attention and cheerfully tells us, “No Fix” or “Lost Fix”. Either way, it can
only mean she doesn’t know and now that she has told us, “Not my problem!”
Sometimes
this only lasts for a few minutes and only happens a few times in any day. Other times, it doesn’t
happen at all. The Raymarine techs have
looked at her on the boat and they have taken her to the shop for bench
tests. At their recommendations, we have
moved the dingy outboard engine and the NAVTEX antenna. The GPS antenna cable has
been replaced.
On this
year’s sea trial, she did not find a fix at anytime during the first two
days. On the third day, on the way back
to the Raymarine shop, she found one at the start of the day and never lost it.
Fortunately,
she was not so skillful when the techies came onboard. First, they prescribed a new antennae and
cable. We said, “How much?” and then, “Do
it.” They did and she worked for a few
hours and then she didn’t. The techies prodded her with some success
when called. After a couple of on-again,
off-again days, they took her away to the bench for a complete reconfiguration. That is computereeze
for “frontal lobotomy.” Returned to the
boat, she worked the rest of the day.
The next morning she was lost.
Raymarine declared her dead and said they would give us a complete
refund. Old technology, no longer
supported.
Perception’s GPS was a Raytheon
rm300. She is now
replaced by her granddaughter, a Raymarine A70
Lessons
Learned:
With
the Auto Helm problem, our first thought was magnetic material stored near the
Fluxgate compass. At Phyl’s
suggestion, the sighting compass was taken to the
Fluxgate’s location. The sighting
compass indicated no magnetic material in the area.
With
the GPS working properly, we established a waypoint for our place at the
dock. Lat and Lon were
checked against the chart. This
waypoint was made the active GoTo. From then on, anytime a fix was found, range should near 0.0 nm. Sometimes, the range was in excess of 80 nm
and with no indication of doubt.
Nothing
is “fixed” until it is tested under sea conditions.
To
better understand the naming lunacy, see Crews Letter #2008 13
Two People on One Boat ** A Name for Everything
In the
next Crews Letter
A New
Gipsy and a Flabbergasted Phyl and Fred
A tight luff for windward,
Phyl and Fred
<<Previous ^Crews
Page^ Next>>