Marine Electronics Forum - Lowrance RIM 300 help

I have a Lowrance LCX111c-HD. Added a LRA2000 radar to it after 2 years. The RIM100 failed and I was sent a RIM200. After 3 years the unit would toggle to transmit after warmup intermittenly. This year it won't even warm up. I upgraded to the 2.0.0 software but it still won't work. The radar has been used to navigate in fog maybe 3 or 4 times. Lowrance says there are no replacement RIM200 modules and they have no plans to make any more. I read a thread where someone said a Lowrance installer said the RIM300 would work if the plug is removed and it was wired as the 200 was. I took the gamble and bought the 300. The number of wires is the same as the 200, but the color coding is different. Does anyone know someone who has successfully used a RIM300, or where a RIM200 can be found. I'm stunned Lowrance won't support equipement that is only 5 years old and have such a cavalier attitude toward customers investment in their equipment. This stuff isn't cheap! Does anyone know how to get this thing to work. Thanks in advance
Dean Brown

Dean could you have maybe deactivated the commutations port by doing a reset? check and see if the box for radar is checked off

Dean could you have maybe deactivated the commutations port by doing a reset? check and see if the box for radar is checked off

Terry the com port is on (x in box)

Dean

Dean could you have maybe deactivated the commutations port by doing a reset? check and see if the box for radar is checked off

Terry the com port is on (x in box)

Dean

Got a be the rim than

I'm facing the same issue, but installing a radar (LRA2000) for the 1st time w/ my dad's LCX-110 & have a Rim300 where I need a Rim-200.

I actually have a Rim 200 for the radar going on my boat, and I hope to be doing some testing this weekend to determine which wires from each are compatible.

I will post up a full conversion report if it proves successful. I asked the guy who had posted about a tech doing the conversion, but never heard anything from him.

I'm facing the same issue, but installing a radar (LRA2000) for the 1st time w/ my dad's LCX-110 & have a Rim300 where I need a Rim-200.

I actually have a Rim 200 for the radar going on my boat, and I hope to be doing some testing this weekend to determine which wires from each are compatible.

I will post up a full conversion report if it proves successful. I asked the guy who had posted about a tech doing the conversion, but never heard anything from him.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Thanks

Kitebuz,
I've been searching Navico and Lowrance sites and it's starting to look like the earlier units used the RIM 100 and 200. Then the successive units used the RIM300 and a radar processor box. The RIM100 and 200 both required a power feed. The RIM300 doesn't. When you look at the pin assignments you can determine what's used for transmission of data, but nothing indicating which turns on the magnatron, or tells the unit to start transmitting. I'm wondering if the " Lowrance installer" was shooting from the hip with his claim that the 300 would work, and it's just not the case. The RIM 300 wires colors match CAT5 computer network cable. I'm hoping my suspicions are wrong, but... Let me know if you have any luck. If I discover anything I'll post it.
Dean

You use the processor box when plugging the LRA1800/2400 into an HDS unit w/ a Rim300, but the Rim300 plugs directly into the LCX units w/ those radars. I haven't seen an issue w/ the power yet, but there is a good chance the experiment will not work...

That won't stop me from trying though, & will keep you posted.

kitebuz,
I've been researching the problem, and in doing so I found the blue wire which comes out of the RIM and connects to the chartplotter was broken where it goes into the plotter connector. The blue wire according to Lowrance PDF is the sw1 on connection. So I'm suspecting it to be the source of my problem. I had saved the RIM 100 connector which goes to the plotter, and it has the same color codes and pin assignments as the RIM 200. So my plan is to cut the wires coming from the rim and splice them to the old connector. Should have been problem solved until I was stripping the blue wire for the splice and it came right out of the RIM. I don't know what the problem is, but I'm suspicious the blue wire is brittle and breaking as a result. The blue wire is connected to the radar leads, so I,m hoping it only passes thru the rim and will still work if I bypass the RIM and connect to the plotter connector and the radar lead. I did some extensive checking on the pin assignments of the 300 and some of the pin assignments are the same, but none of the colors going into the plotter connector match the colors where the radar connects. So it's a real hit or miss proposition. If my blue bypass wire works then there might be some hope for the 300, but I'm not encouraged. The wires going into the plotter connector are solid and the wires connecting to the radar leads are CAT5 computer color codes. So there's no way to know what wire does what. If we could get pin assignments and know what the CAT5 leads are doing we might have a solution. We need to pry this information out of Lowrance. I'll post the success or failure of the bypass tomorrow.

Keep us posted how you make out. I was going to do some resistance testing w/ both my Rim 200 & 300 to see how the plug assignments match up w/ the wire colors.

I have a 4 branch Rim 200 vs the newer 3 branch version though. The difference is the 4 branch has two cables coming out of the Rim200 module (1 to power the Rim200) vs 1 cable on the later version. The Rim300 also has just one cable, so I am hoping it functions similar to the later Rim200 version.

My hope is I can figure out which wire color from the Rim300 to match up with the radar cable as per this diagram of the Rim200:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/kitebuz/Rim_Page_1.jpg


Here's a link showing the wiring difference between the Rim100 & the 1st version of the Rim200:

http://primus.lowrance.com/icr/units/Radar/LRA1500pub.htm

kitebuz,
The by pass blue wire didn't work. There must be some data exchange taking place in the module. The pin power assignments for the plotter power and the NMEA power are the same on all 3 RIM units. The pin assignments for data and the switching are the same on the 100 &200, and the lines coming out of the 100&200 have the same colors where they go into the plug that goes into of the back of the plotter. The 100 & 200 share the same bare ground pin. The 300 bare ground and NMEA pin locations are different. Only one data line has the same pin on the 300. The 300 wires where they go into the plotter plug are different in color and the number.
Lowrance hasn't published any pin assignments for the 300 because it comes with a plug attached. Because the lines are cat5 it's impossible to know what to connect to what. If there are integrated circuits in the RIM and you put an ohm meter to it, the current from the meter might blow the IC. We need to consult a Lowrance electrical engineer. I spoke with the regional Lowrance rep a month ago and he said he'd try and find a 200 and try to see if the 300 could be made to work. He never called back, and I've left messages which he hasn't returned. I'm at my wits end. I gave up and put a Furuno unit I had on the boat. It doesn't take the sting out of the $1700. I wasted on the Lowrance unit. If you find out anything let me know. Thanks.

That doesn't sound good. Sorry to hear. I'm surprised the 300 is so different b/c it plugs directly into the LCX units w/ the LRA 1800/2400 vs thru the box & connecting w/ the cat5 network cable to HDS units.

It is ridiculous Lowrance can't support a cable for existing customers.

Kitebuz,
I think Lowrane probably was changing over to the NMEA standard cable. So the cable was changed color meet those standards.

That doesn't sound good. Sorry to hear. I'm surprised the 300 is so different b/c it plugs directly into the LCX units w/ the LRA 1800/2400 vs thru the box & connecting w/ the cat5 network cable to HDS units.

It is ridiculous Lowrance can't support a cable for existing customers.

kitebuz
Have you had any luck trying to make the rim 300 work? I managed to take apart the rim 200. It has a small printed circuit board with some miniature ICS in it. I have to get a magnifyer to check if they're anything that can be purchased. I am at my summer house for only 2 more weeks then I can dig into it again.
Dean

RIM 100 & 200 are for Koden scanners , RIM 300 is for JRC.