Carver Owners Forum

I have an old r21xx Raytheon radar that didn't work when I bought the boat last fall.. Since I live on an inland lake and don't really need radar, I decided that I would try to resurrect this ancient system. The original unit would not power up at all, completely dead. I found a used head unit on Ebay that said that it was working condition when removed. (That's what they all say). Anyway, I connected the power cable and indeed, it came right on. Here's the rub, when I connected the cable from the array and turned the system on, it tripped my "bridge" CB. I reset the CB, disconnected the array cable it powered up perfectly again. So maybe it's the array.
I climbed up to the array and opened it up and it looked like new inside. There was no water or rust visible. The array turns manually but nothing else.

Anybody have a similar problem and fixed it? I really have no idea what I am looking at inside the array other than the motor.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

Some of these older raydomes can draw about 50 amps. You may have to run a heavy feed cable from the radome (array) directly to a breaker properly sized for the radome. It should have a minimum and maximum fuse size listed on the sticker inside the dome.
Please note, this is not the case for all systems. Some will feed power from the display, but still draw significant power. Try to find a factory wiring diagram with required fuse and wire size.

I know you're calling it an array, is it an open array or a radome? The open array is the one you can see turning, and the radome is the one that encloses the array in a dome.
I'm assuming the system worked at one time so it must have been fused properly for it to work unless someone has changed something along the way. It could be the array or it could also be a short in the cable. You can try opening up the pedestal and disconnect the wiring inside. I don't recall if that vintage/model has terminal connectors on each wire (I think so) or a combination of connectors and a flat plug. After it's disconnected, ensure no wires touch each other or the case and turn the system on. If it still trips the breaker, it could be a short in the cable. As mentioned, check the specs and ensure the breaker is the right rating for the system.

Remove the XX, throw it in the trash and replace it with something newer and easier to use. No one will even work on XX stuff any more

Ok...Sorry about the terminology. I'm new to this. It's an open array and it does have a terminal strip. The previous owner told me that it worked fine the whole time he owned the boat andthen simply quit. So, I would think it's fused correctly. I'll disconnect everything and try it again...great idea thanks.

yeah, I know its old, but so am I. I don't really need it, its become a challenge to get it working. It's kind of fun to buy old parts on Ebay and fix something that is broken. It's cheap to....

I believe, although I'm not positive, that the XX series was made by JRC with just a different name attached to them