Solar heat and GPS

[Ross]

On Saturday we sailed north for about six hours with the handheld GPS in a bracket on the companion door in the sun. About two miles from home I noticed that it had suffered heat exhaustion and stopped plotting my trip. So I put it down below and turned it off. After we were secure in our slip I turned it back on and it functioned perfectly.I have determined that I need to make a shade cloth to drape over it when it is very hot and bright outside.

 

[31seahorse]

First Aid for Handheld

Hello Ross,
We had a similar experience with our Lowrance H 2 O. Heat exhaustion is the exact description of its symptoms. We gave it first aid by wrapping it in a cool, wet cloth and keeping it out of the sun. It seemed that the unit always "gave out" (or read "crapped out") when we thought we were most in need of its services. :cussing:
Of course that's not true because it was always good to have it working. It now does nothing more than tell us that it is searching for satellites. I would like to use it for our daysailer or for kayaking, but I have not tried to get it repaired. Any thoughts from members on repairing it? May cost more for the repair than for a new handheld unit by Garmin. Prior to its problem we liked the machine.

 

[kenn]

I would like to use [older GPS] for our daysailer or for kayaking, but I have not tried to get it repaired. Any thoughts from members on repairing it? May cost more for the repair than for a new handheld unit by Garmin.

It might be worth a quick looksee, but unless you have the time and chops to fix it yourself, it would probably be more cost-effective to just buy another unit - new or used. A new one would get you some newer features, colour, and probably lower power consumption.

We have a monochrome GARMIN eTrex Vista I bought used on ebay - it's been great on our little boat, and this spring I bought an old LOWRANCE handheld at a boating flea market for $5... and it works too, so the bargains are out there.