NN3D Radar Weirdness

[SailorBruce]

I know that "weirdness" isn't a very accurate technical term, but it is the best way I can summarize what I'm seeing. Frankly, I'm at a loss....

System: NN3D w/ 3x MFD12, DRS12A--GP-330B, FA-50....

I recently fired up the radar and did not get the the normal returns from the buildings around my slip. I should note that since I had last used the radar, a lot of troubleshooting had taken place for different issues. One of those troubleshooting steps involved me desparately hitting "restore to default" whenever I came across the option. So, I'm pretty sure that this issue is self-inflicted.

At any rate, the system now doesn't seem to see any of the obvious walls and buildings. It does seem to see antennas and other tall features. If I turn up the gain to 100%, and turn down the sea state filters, I can see antenna towers in the distance, and the sweep of the antenna. If I keep everything set to "auto" nothing appears on the screen at all--at any zoom level. Eventually, the system throws a "tuning error."

This may be a red herring, but I seem to hear more noise than I recall while the array is spinning. Sort of a "clunk, clunk" for each revolution. This may somply be that I don't usually have the radar running when the engines are off, but thought I'd mention it.

Any troubleshooting ideas? I'm in the middle of a winter cruise down the ICW and would like to have my radar back for low-visibility days.

Thanks in advance!

 

[kicker]

Try running your radar in auto and manual gain but leaving your rain and sea at zero. How does the image look?

Do you know how many transmit hours you have on your radar?

 

[SailorBruce]

:think I'm not sure how to find the number of hours on the trasmit. My MFD12 is running 2.13--can you point me in the right direction?

When I ran the gain at "auto" and the sea & rain at 0%, and zoom in to 1nm, I see the center blob and what could possibly be metal dock roofs alonfg the shore. When run in this mode, the MFD alarms every 5-10 seconds w/ "Tuning Error, press menu buton." :think

 

[kicker]

To check the transmit hours, hold down control and hit menu and it should take you into the "for service" menu.

So what I would try is move away from where you’re at so you don’t get too much reflection if you think that might be causing your radar image to not be so great.
Go into the installation wizard > radar tab > towards the bottom should be “radar optimization”, try to optimize the radar and report back what happens.

 

[SailorBruce]

Ah ha! I knew there was some trick to get the service man page!

Currently, transmit hours= 0458; operating time=1456. I now know how to get the data, so if the radar monitor voltages are important, I will capture them.

We have moved to a new marina, so i have new targets to look at. I still don't see things that I would expect to be clear. I seem to just get returns from tall objects--like water towers and antena towers. Plus, the Tuning error" alarm is going to drive me insane....

 

[kicker]

So after you optimize the radar and you are still getting that error message, something internally is wrong with the radar and will most likely need to come into us or getting a Furuno Dealer on the boat. It is most likely the SPU board or something on the receive side of the radar.