Depth Raider Power Cable Failure?

[Pierless]

I went to power up my Depth Raider last weekend and it didn't.

I found a broken (cracked/fell apart) in-line fuse holder. I replaced it.

Still no power up.

I checked for voltage where I connected the supplied power cable to boat 12VDC and measured 12.5 VDC.

I checked all my in-line fuse connections and they were OK.

I ohmed-out out the power cable itself and had no continuity in the positive (red wire/center contact of the connector that attaches to the display) conductor.

I flexed the cable while measuring the resistance, but never found the break.

The break must be in the molded connector itself.

Local Radio Shack had a very lame selection of DC power plugs, but managed to find a "Size M - coaxial" DC Power plug (P/N 274-1569). I'll try cutting/soldering that onto the supplied cable ~6" from the molded connector and see if I can get continuity.

Anyone else had issues with this?

I was surprised to find two issues with the simplest part of the instrument,....

Do you reckon Depth Raider/Kell Labs will send me a new one (unit is less than a year old)?

Thanks all,

Pierless

(Neil)

[rustyrat]

I had to relpace my fuse holder right out of the box! Installed it and no power. Cut 2 new power lines, ran em and again still no power. Futzed around with the fuse holder, got it to power, replaced it and now its been fine. Love the unit, just a bit dissapointed they would put in a 10 cent fuse holder on a 450 dollar unit.

RR

[Pierless]

Rusty Rat,

Yeah, it was a very chintzy fuse holder.

What blows my mind is that I had the exact same problem on my car radio recently. The tuner wouldn't "remember" the radio pre-sets, but it powered up and played just fine. I crawled around under the dashboard (never a pleasant proposition, but worse for someone who is 6'4",...) and found, you guessed it - a broken fuse holder.

So, in the past 4 months I've had two in-line fuse holders spontaneously fall apart. Weird.

Further blowing my mind was the fact that on the DR's power cable I had two critical failures - the fuse holder and the cable/connector itself!

I second, third and fourth guessed my splicing in of the in-line fuse holder - it just couldn't be, y'know? I checked continuity between each splice and found it to be OK, but checking the last splice to the inner contact on the plug end of the power cable - zilch.

Here is the good news:

I called Depth Raider just now. They were initially saying that if it's a year old, it's out of warranty. However, they found my warranty information and said that they would send me a new power cable. So, it's good that they are helping out.

In the mean time, I'll be splicing this "S_it Shack" power plug onto the cable so that I can maybe use the DR unit this weekend.

I also like the unit very much, so I'm hoping that I can get it to work with the repair I'll make. If the repair does work (meaning the fault is in the molded connector, as I suspect) I'll probably keep the replacement cable on board, but already fitted with a new in-line fuse holder.

Fishin' Time!

Pierless

(Neil)