Friday 25 November 2011

Furuno and Green on the Screen

This old (very) Furuno 1800 radar is a great bit of kit,when it works that is,the set seems voltage dependant and in the past has often just switched itself off,or refuses to show anything much at all.


Like much on the boat,the Furuno 1800,thats a 25 mile range by the way,has been re cycled and arrived used but as far as I could see not abused.There was no cable,thats an 11 multi core wire,I had that made up by a local guy who knew what he was doing.The missing radome cover I made from 5mm Superform bending plywood and epoxy,that cover has been in place some ten years now,its still just perfect.

I have just used a slightly longer and I think better fuse,the internal wire has a white powder around it,I think its an 8amp fuse? the set lights up now and runs straight off the batteries where often before the engine was required to be running.In a perfect world a set that draws this kind of load would have a dedicated circuit breaker,its not a perfect world though is it.

The owners hand book does say that a piece of equipment this good does deserve its own breaker,I think they are correct,as excepting the windlass,the radar draws more amps than any other piece of equipment on the boat.

Note: the Furuno hand book mentions a 10amp fuse,which is on the rear of the display cabinet.
The set is a 3 KW and is suitable for a wide range of voltages without changes,from 10.2 v to 40.0 v,it draws 43 watts,thats 3.5amps at 12 volts.
R McB


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