Topic: Unit 997 CSI Not detecting GPS

[Mark Saikaley]

My Unit was new in 2010 and has been used for about 10 outings lasting half day or less approx
Its a 997 CSI which was updated last summer with the Down Imaging software upgrade

Last Weekend I went fishing on Lake Ontario for about 3 hrs and the unit worked great as usual. On the way back to the marina the unit was powering off on some bumpy waves. We only traveled about a mile. Unit is very solidly installed on the dash board with the standard mount and has sufficient clearance behind the unit such that the cables to not touch the console at all.

This was the first time that the unit had ever shut down without being intentionally powered down.  I used the boat again a week later out of the same marina (July 1st) (the unit had not been removed or touched since the prior week other than I had checked the read plug to ensure it was locked securely in place (it was)

anyway I immediately noticed that the unit did not start up with the regular screen which has the charts, but just showed the full screen sonar view. There was no GPS speed . None of the Mapping screens were available

The unit is operating as though it does not have any GPS views or functionality and no errors are appearing. Its as though this is not a GPS combo. The system status indicated passed and the unit indicates that the GPS external antenna is not connected. I have checked and triple checked connections and wiggled the wired a bit but there is not life whatsoever . I do not know anyone who has a compatible unit to test my connections. The external unit is installed on the cockpit dashboard and all wiring is accessible under the dashboard and has been neatly zip locked and there is no stress or extreme bends in the cable and the unit and wiring has received very little to know stress.

This is the first time or sign of any problem and the state has not changed at all no matter what I try. The power does shut off if I touch or move the power cable while the unit is powered on as well.

Unit has only been used on fresh water and has 71 hrs total use. The contacts look brand new in perfect unused like appearance

[Roddy]

Marknfish; try some contact cleaner on the plugs and check the pins.

Roddy

[Mark Saikaley]

Marknfish; try some contact cleaner on the plugs and check the pins.

Roddy

Thanks , I just packaged the unit to ship to an authorized repair center. Will see what happens...
BTW the place told me for one thing that some units have an issue where the female connectors for the power on this unit are too large so he was going to correct that problem

They will test the unit to see if the GPS or the unit is the issue for the lack of GPS detection.

I am skeptical it is a matter of dirty leads. as this unit is less than 70 hrs of use and the connectors look pristine and this boat has only been used 4 months in fresh water and is covered and stored in my laneway other than the 70 hours. But I do appreciate some suggestions for sure. I was hoping to do some trouble shooting to avoid having to ship the unit and do without but seems unlikely to me I can avoid getting it serviced, so better now than delay and lose valuable summer fishing time as summers are short here in Ontario

I anticipate this will be covered under warranty as the unit was purchased the middle of June 2010 and installed just about a year and a day ago before it stopped working properly, given we only get 4 months use up here/yr  so the unit is new as far as I'm concerned  ; Certainly the life expectancy is more than 70 hrs and some  of those hours were when I had the boat docked and had left the unit powered up

[stillbear]

Markinfish when your HB shutoff from interupted power it lost its ability to save the
screens settings etc. HB  has an issue with the power connection I hope they do
something in the near future. I would take an spread  the pins gently on the power
plug reset the defaults. Gary

[Mark Saikaley]

Interesting. That sounds close to what happened as far as timing. Ie the power was shutting off and then the next time I used the unit (following week) the gps screens and gps info were miSsing.

However I believe the gps speed would still show up on the other menus. Additionally, I did reset defaults from the menu yesterday while boat was on my trailer and also went through the views menu to try to enabe all of them. All which were listed were enabled but I don't know if the gps views were even listed to be honest as I didn't compare with the manual as I didn't think the list would be impacted

Power was not lost during the reset. So it didn't seem to resolve the problem. Also the technician out of north bay ontario had said he didn't feel resetting would resolve anything but I decided to try anyway.

I'm tempted to attempt again at lunch bvreak vefore I ship the unit to north bay for service (means reopenning packing) but , George did say he would change the female receptacles for ones which fit the male power cable so maybe I should just send it anyway .
Thanks again, and sorry for type os, using smart phone to reply and hard to scroll and can't see the spellcheck typing 'blind'

[Mark Saikaley]

I thought I would send an interim update after having spoken with the authorised repair center about the various suggestions I received.  (The unit was shipped to the Dealer and should arrive there today for inspections and repair)

I asked about the power cable and loss of power and how that would affect the views as well as the suggestion to spread the connectors to improve contacts:
his responces are:

1/ He sometimes suggests spreading the contacts as a short term solution just to get by. my additional thoughts: Don't forget the contacts will just move back as there is no support so will eventually be worse as the leads are weakened by re-spreading so its not a permanent solution. He is changing the contacts as a permanent solution and apparently its not on all units

2/ The power off via disconnect only results in losing settings since your previous normal shutdown so this would not explain the loss off all GPS charts screens and GPS related information.

He has a good description of my setup and scenario and problems and when I asked him what he tight (hunch was as to the probably problem, He genuinely said he is not really sure.  We had discussed that either the GPS wire/antennae was not working or there is a unit problem, but he also added he had not encountered problems with the GPS wire if I recall correctly. So seems like it will be a new issue for them to experience with this unit

I will add a solution hopefully having received one in the near future

[Mark Saikaley]

Unit was serviced today under warranty and here are the results:

The problem was the GPS antenna and was replaced.  They also replaced the power cable with one which has the proper sized male connectors

might have the unit in time to fish this weekend. thanks for everyones tips