FI501 Wind Instrument Powers Down

[Namoan]

I am trying to debug the recent failure of the FI501 aboard. It shows zero wind speed and zero true wind angle. I checked the connections at the FI501 unit, and they look good. I also tested the N2K cable by plugging it into an adjacent instrument (FI-504), and it worked fine. I can see the FI5001 spinning at the masthead (two-year-old unit).

I notice that FI501 powers down on its own after a couple of minutes. It powers up again when the Mode button is pressed but will then power down again. Does anyone know if this is normal behaviour? If not, perhaps the FI501 needs to be replaced.

Thanks.

 

[JJ Neutron]

The FI501 does not have a sleep or power saver feature. If it is powering down and then coming back up after pressing a button there may be an internal issue with the device. Something you can try to troubleshoot the anemometer, if you have a FI502 on board you can wire the anemometer to it to see if it works. A good replacement for that unit would be the FI70 if you have the FI502 you can use it to put the analog wind data on the NMEA2000 network, if not you would need the IF-NMEAFI analog converter unit to take the analog to NMEA2000 to be available to the FI70 and any other units on the NMEA2000 network