How to fix the "Find Ship" Raytheon C80 GPS Sensor issue

[drbob]

My 2005 Raytheon C80 stopped being able to "Find Ship." Which of course made the chart plotter pretty much useless. The problem was not an easy thing to figure out for those of us less technically inclined. The manual makes no mention of this, but plenty of people have had this problem and solved it by buying another GPS Sensor. There is a better and much less expensive way. Simply, change the battery in the GPS Sensor. The GPS Sensor is that small water tower shaped thing sitting on top of the short pole on the port side. That's as techy as I can get.

The GPS Sensor has a flat battery that lasts about 10 to 12 years based on usage. The flat quarter-sized battery is the ever popular CR 2032 available in most grocery stores.

How to change the battery and restore the "Find Ship" function:
1. The GPS sensor is a two-part affair. Mark the two parts so you can reassemble them with ease. They only go back together one way.
2. Remove the two screws holding the head on. If your sensor sits on top of a short pole, loosen it and lay it down so the screws don't fall out and become unrecoverable in the deep blue sea.
3. The top half will now be free and you can disconnect the cable.
4. Take the top part of the sensor below to disassemble. You'll need a small Philips head screwdriver to remove the half dozen or so tiny screws holding it together. Again mark the two pieces as it only goes back together one way.
5. Once apart you'll see the battery in the holder. Note the positive side is facing out. Just pop it out and replace.
6. Reassemble everything. Find Ship is good again and I saved a box of money.

Bob

[WillieC]

Does anyone know if other brand's small water tower shaped things have internal batteries? Say Garmin? What a great informative post drbob, thank you.

[Tree]

Does anyone know if other brand's small water tower shaped things have internal batteries? Say Garmin? What a great informative post drbob, thank you.

Normally they are - its to do with storing the parameters/last fix etc. They are normally soldered in place using a paste low temp solder, obviously with vibration they can come out - pretty sure the last raytheon one i had was soldered too

[Nancy]

We had that problem, too, and replaced the battery in our GPS120. Ours was trickier than your description as it needed soldering. The replacement battery worked for one season, and then the GPS stopped working again. We bit the bullet and replaced it with the T70133, which is the GPS130 and converter kit. Pricey, but way less than new electronics.