Radar through-cabin wiring question

C

cbbernard

New member
When I bought my CD22 it came with an old Raymarine radome and C80 display. The old owner had removed it—the power cord for the C80 remained, and the trunnion for the display, but he'd taken the radome off and left the mounting bolts in the cabin roof. (It's not on an arch, just on wedges to angle it to compensate for bow-up planing.)

My plan was to purchase a newer radar model, but money is tight this year and now that I'm venturing offshore more and have been caught out in fog a few times, I'm opting to reinstall the old Raymarine and C80.

Obviously I put the C80 on the trunnion and connected the power, and I will put the scanner on the mounting bolts in the cabin roof. But I cannot for the life of me figure out where he ran the interunit cable from the scanner through the cabin to connect it to the display.

Since there are no existing through-hull holes for it, I can run it anyway I like, I suppose. Those of you who have radar on your C-Dories, where do you run the cable and do you recommend it?

Thanks!
 
Is there a power cable left in the run to the old Radar? Many of the new radars, including the Axiom from Raymarine are wireless for the data.
 
I just removed the same radar and chart plotter combo from my 2005 cruiser and replaced it with a new Raymarine Axiom+ system and Quantum 2 Radar. My old cables ran through the radar arch and down the port side of the boat, through the v-berth to the plotter. I ran the new radar cables through the same route. I opted for the cable instead of the wifi connection.

Having a radar on board can be a lifesaver and in fog I would not boat without one.

In your case, I think you could run your cable over the roof and under the lip of the roof, through a well sealed hole to the plotter. The hardest past of my whole instal was running all the cables and keeping the cable runs and the rats nest in order.

BTW I will have a full Raymarine C-80 system including Radar and autopilot for sale once I get it all organized
 
Thanks—that's my preference, I think, to run it over the lip and through the side rather than putting another big hole in the roof, since it's a THICK cable and I need a hole big enough to squeeze the eight pin connector through.

I'll have to run some kind of cable guides, and it's still not clear to me how to bend the cable around the lip but that will be trial and error, I think.

Thanks for the help!
 
since it's a THICK cable and I need a hole big enough to squeeze the eight pin connector through.
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When I removed my old radar this spring I could not pull the cable and the thick 8 pin connector through the radar arch. I opened up the ray dome and discovered that the cable is not connected to the ray dome with a connector, but is direct wired in. So you could drill a smaller hole, just larger than the cable, and pull from inside the cabin and then reconnect the wires.

My new Raymarine Quatum 2 Radar is connected with two thinner cables, one for power and the second for the signal. I could have used only the power cable and connected via Wifi, but there is always the risk of radio interference when doing this and a cable lessens this. I installed two Axiom+ chart plotters, the 9" for the chart and radar and the 7" for the sonar. Yesterday I was working on the system and I connected the radar via Wifi to the 7" display to see if it would work and it did, so now I can run radar on either display should I need to do so.

Another note on the Raymarine Quatum 2 Radar is that it has Doppler Radar and a weather mode. As I sat in my driveway here on my Alberta Ranch, playing with the radar, a big thunderstorm was approaching. I was able to zoom out to 24NM range and watch as a storm cell passed behind me and two others passed ahead of me. I compared that to the doppler radar from Environment Canada on my laptop and the systems were very similar on both the government weather radar and my radar screen on my boat. I was very impressed as I attract bad weather while boating and have sat out some big storms. This might help me to seek a safe anchorage ahead of one of these storms in the future. So with modern radar there is more to see than just other boats or objects in a fog bank.
 
Well you've convinced me I should ditch my old 2005-era Raymarine radar for something newer. But money's tight and I'd rather spend it on fuel, so I installed the ancient tech today.

Ended up mounting the radome on wedges so it slants forward to allow for planing lean. I tucked the cable under the unit and over the brow, with cable guides under the brow to run it down in front of the starboard foremost window where I ran it into the cabin through a gland I mounted on the side bulkhead.

The cable comes in just over the dash, where it connects easily to the MFD.
Got sunburned working on it and swore a few times but it's in. Thanks for your help thinking it through.
 
cbbernard you are going to be glad you have that radar next time you get into the fog. I have been dealing with a "Weird sound" -- (moaning groan) coming from my new Raymarine Doppler2 radar installed in Feb this year. After talking to Rodger's Marine Electronics, the original installer and the ones who have done all my electronics, they said just bring it back and we will replace it and deal with Raymarine on the warrantee. I did, and they did, and Now I'm a happy camper again. Really love to have that radar back on board and reliable again.

Peter, Thanks for that tip on the weather. I will have to get out and try that. I do like the Doppler. That is nice. Another trick I did was to put a separate radar screen and add the AIS layer to that. The Axium is a very interesting and capable format.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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The Axium is a very interesting and capable format.
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I have had about a week on the water with the new Axiom system and a lot of time just playing around at home with it. I really can do a lot compared to my old C-80 bases system. I had originally planned to have it ready to take on our planned cruises around Kitimat and Prince Rupert, but after my first sea trial on a small lake here and some other issues at home we cancelled that trip and decided to go to Shuswap lake instead. There is a big learning curve when going to a new system and commissioning the system, especially the Auto Pilot took some time. Shuswap Lake was good for that and after a couple of tries, I realized that I had played with it too much in the driveway. So I went back to the factory reset and one calm morning on the lake I got it commissioned and it works great now, I did integrate the AIS from the Standard Horizon VHF to talk with the Axiom, but I was not able to test this with the system because I did not encounter any boats with AIS on the lake. Everyday I have been trying to learn one more thing on the system and I am looking forward to getting on the water later in the summer to test them out. A person needs to learn what features they really need and learn to do these well and ignore many of the other bells and whistles. The same goes for most electronic devices and cameras today. I am glad that we decided not to try to learn these on a remote cruise in the Pacific. I have the manuals downloaded on my laptop and I find it good to just stop and read specific functions on the water and then play with these. The new 3D sonar will be interesting as it will show me more fish that I don't have the talent to catch.
 
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