Fixing the gWind Transducer

Our gWind, Wireless Transducer failed during our trip to Biscayne Bay over Memorial day weekend, I guessed that it was the Battery and ordered a replacement online. Yesterday ( June 27th 2022) it was time to replace the battery.

I took my phone with me when I climbed the mast, but sadly, it was in a pocket that I could not get to when wearing my harness and in the Bosun's chair. So the pics are some that Peggy took down on the dock.

I'm pretty sure that the Main Halyard sheave at the top of the mast needs to be replaced as neither Peggy nor Mike,  club buddy that came down to help out and provide additional safety, could pull me up using the winch! So I did my usual practice of climbing the mast: Using a pair of prusik knots on two separate halyards, one tied to the Bosun's chair and safety harness  the other tied to the foot straps. Using them I can sit in the chair, raise my feet and then raise the foot strap prusik knot as high as it will go (about a one foot stretch). Then I stand up in the foot straps, taking the weight off of the chair, raise it's prusik knot, sit down and repeat. If I move the seat knot up by close to 1' each pass, then it takes about 40 moves to climb the mast. In reality, it takes a lot more, probably eighty moves as some of them are only a few inches while trying to maneuver around the shrouds and especially the last couple of feet.

Once I had gotten to where the foot strap prusik knot it as high up the halyard as it can go, that's about 8" from the top of the mast, then I can stand up and my shoulders are above the top of the mast and I can reach pretty well everything up there.

This time the plan was to climb the mast and replace the gWind Transducer's battery. The transducer is held in place by a clever bracket and nut system. Simply pull off the clip that stops the nut from unscrewing, unscrew the nut, pull the whole transducer arm forwards and slightly upwards. It takes less than an minute to release the Transducer.

With the Transducer on my lap in the chair, I used a #1 Philips head screwdriver to undo the small screw that holds the battery cover in place. It was easy to lift off the cover, unplug the old battery, plug in the new one and replace the cover. The insides of the Transducer looked pristine so no apparent water ingress which is a problem with the heavy rains that we get here in South Florida. 

I did note that the Solar Panel on the top side of the Transducer was 100% opaque, completely white! I'm guessing that means that the Transducer is not going to charge the battery. We have had wind data on our Nav system on every night trip, so the battery is just there to cover the times when there's no solar power and normally, rechargeable batteries are at least partially charged when new.

Less than a minute to reinstall the Transducer and call down to the team ( Mike & Peggy ) down below and ask them to test the system.

Sadly, that didn't go well :( 

With the Nav instruments powered up, the display lit up showing that it was powered but the data came on but only for a few moments. It showed wind angle info ( True Wind and Apparent wind Directions) but no wind speed, after a few moments the data disappeared. If we reset the Nav instruments, then it would pretty much repeat that scenario. 

I've been in the Bosun's chair I was ready to get back to deck level. Going down was a lot easier, I Mike & Peggy used the winch to haul the main halyard and take all of the weight and I eased the two prusik knots, then they eased the winch and as I moved down, I just moved the prusik knots with me.

They stopped lowering me when my feet were able to get on the spreaders. From there I freed the line for the lazy jacks that was stuck between the sheave and cheeks of the block attached the mast above the spreads. I need to replace that block ('blocks' as there is one on each side of the mast )but it's free right now so we can adjust the lazy jacks.

So, my thoughts.   If the solar power is zero, then the battery will run down within a day or so, but if there's any solar power getting into the battery, then it should charge up within a day or too also.

If it's not a Solar/Battery issue, then it's the gWind and looking at the reviews on the web, that's a strong likely hood. Under normal conditions, it's not unusual for the wind data to just disappear for a few minutes and it normally comes back if we reboot the system which we only try if the data does not return within about 5 minutes.

Options:

• Check it today and all may be well.
• Replace the Transducer with another gWind Wireless = $750+tax
• Replace the Transducer with a wired gWind = $650 

It's nuts that the wireless Transducer is so much more than the wired unit, as the wired unit has so much more in the Kit 

Using the wired unit brings me back to why we used the Wireless model originally: Running a new wire up the mast is a significant job.

Other things to consider.

If I do end up replacing the Transducer, and if I go the Wired route, then I might as well replace the VHF antenna coaxial at the same time, the existing coax has a much higher power loss than a decent cable and that would improve our VHF communication range both for Transmission and Reception.

Ok, first things first. Go down to the boat and check out the status.

A day later: 

The system is still not delivering data from the Transducer.

I spent a good while on a text chat session with Garmin this morning. From that chat I conclude the following:

#1 If the transducer is the older generation then I'm out of luck and will have to purchase a new item that's $750 plus tax.

#2 If the transducer is a new generation, then I should be able to get an out of warranty exchange, that's $350

#3 If I replace the Wireless Transducer with a Wired unit, I should be able to connect it to the GND 10 and disconnect the no longer needed WSI Box (the Wireless Receiver).

The Wired Transducer will cost about $650.

I'm leaning towards the Wired Transducer and replacing the VHF Coax at the same time.

Time to get busy and earn some boat bucks.

See you on the water, even if I don't know the wind speed & direction.