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I have had a Simrad EQ42 for seven years that has worked very well. During my last trip it went to a grey screen. After doing all of the checking and master reseting nothing fixed it. I called Simrad and they no longer service this unit and their suggestion to call another private repair facility proved fruitless. I got in touch with the simrad rep and he walked me through how to take it apart and what connections to clean and reattach, other than that he was not able to help me. The cleaning and reattaching did not fix the problem. Does anybody have any suggestions or ideas on who might have parts or is able to repair the unit I hate to think this is a throw away unit. By the way the rep said it is one of two problems either the board, part number 101-3423-242 or the monitor, part number 101-2001-021 Thanks for any ideas
Scott, just to ask the obvious: did you check for power to the unit, with it still connected? (get a meter on the +12v and gnd pins while connected to the Simrad). Most people will check for power at the plug AFTER disconnecting it. If they read 12V or so, they assume all is well with power. Not necessarily so. If there is a corroded terminal or fuse holder, or ground connection ANYWHERE, from the battery through all the wiring and connectors, all the way to the unit, you will still read 12v with no load. Soon as you put a load on that circuit, the voltage will drop across the resistance of the corroded connection, and there will not be enough voltage to turn said device on.
You have probably checked this, but thought I'd mention it anyways.
That being said, you might check for a similar unit on the forum classifieds or ebay, and try to get what you need. When Simrad gave me the same story on my old Robertson AP control head on my Blackfin, I found a guy in Alaska that had one.Bought it for $200, and I was back in business.
Good luck on it.
__________________ Capt Will, 2002 G/W 282 Sailfish, F225's
USCG Master, 50 Ton; Towing endorsement
Indian River, De
Thanks captwill the unit powers up but goes to a grey screen not the blue set up screen that should initially come up. But I will take your advise and check to voltage while the unit is running. The unit was purchased in 2001 I think, I could be a year off.
With the fast pace of electronics development, with features going up and costs coming down (relative to what we get) we do live in a throw away world. It simply does not make economic sense to spend X number of labor dollars, at $100 plus per hour, to fix a unit that can be replaced for probably less than the repair costs. You then have a new state of the art unit instead of a tired old dog that has been warmed over.
I thought about buying a new unit but I will also have to change out my transducer because all of simrads newer models do not run on the same frequency as my ex42. So at over 3000$ invested it seems nothing is salvagable.
Navico has shut down the factoty in Denemark producing the EQ series (originally Shipmate)
The Simrad brand is now used by two different companies, Navico for the leisure market and the Kongsberg Group (which is the previous owner of Simrad) for the professional marked. I will propose you contact some of the US dealers of Kongsbeg Simrad equipment, hopefully you will find one with a repair shop still capable of servicing the EQ series.
I thought about buying a new unit but I will also have to change out my transducer because all of simrads newer models do not run on the same frequency as my ex42. So at over 3000$ invested it seems nothing is salvagable.
When Simrad Yachting divison was purchased by Navico (Navman, Lowrance etc) it was inevitable that the Simrad service and quality would head in the same direction as Navman/Lowrance (as did Northstar).
Unfortunately Simrad pleasure boat products (as we knew them) are no longer the good quality products as when they manufatured under Kongsberg goup. Once out of warranty they the mentality (sorry we can't fix it) will be to throw away and buy new. I believe that the Navico R&D and manufacture for all brands in their group is undertaken by the Navman people. Let's face it, Navman was never known for qaulity, performance or service...........but yes it was cheap!
I am having very similar problems with Simrad. Last week I managed to crack the glass screen on my CA42 plotter, it did not shatter but there is a crack. I tried contacting Simrad about sending the unit in for repair but was told they no longer service the unit. If I change out the plotter for another I will also have to change out the radome and transducer.
The unit has one of two pieces bad (frrom what I can find out from an expert) it is either the pcb board(probably not) or the monitor (likely culprit). The monitor is a LCD Sharp LQ104V7DS01, was used in many different applications and is still available. I might have to buy one to see if that will fix the problem if I continue to strike out with the service experts. I have located and purchased a used unit that should arrive soon. It would be best to repair this unit so I have a backup and will not have to be bottom fishing without a bottom finder again (not fun).
What frequency is your unit? 38 kHz? As the last resort you may consider having one of our units special ordered with the 38 kHz T/R from one of the fine dealers here.
Gleb @ Koden
I just bought a boat that has a SIMRAD CE33. It was installed in 2004 and I got the same story- no service the unit is too old! This was an ~ $1800 unit in 2004. Not the best performance for that kind of $$ plus installation etc!
I found a local shop that will take a look at it but if it needs parts / boards I am out of luck. I'm not sure if the boat took a surge but I lost both the standard horizon depth sounder and the Simrad unit at the same time. They both have power to the back of the units. The Simrad won't start and the Std Horizon displays nonsense. They are totaly on separate circuits and ducers.
Anyone got a CE 33 or a Horizon DS30 they want to sell??
I have a Furuno 582l and the lcd screen is very dim and called Furuno about a repair and they said $895. Might as well said they don't fix them as the new 585 can be bought $300 more.
Going through Same F$#%#$%kin deal. Can anyone tell me if they know of another mfgr. whose product will match up to Transducer that was built for this EQ42? freq on my transducer are 38/200. I did see a simrad EQ44-2 for sale on another site...does anyone know if that will matchup? wires and transducer plugs? thanks for any and all info and help...Tom
No other bottom machine will work with your transducer or vice versa. Simrad used a different frequency than other mfg.. Not sure if the 44 will work but I did find a guy who was very knowledgeable about all of my questions/issues who would probably know. Shoot me a pm and I will give you his name and number if that would help.
You can use a Furuno ducer with an adapter plug, and it will work on 200khz. Also, call Airmar to ask them which one of theor ducers will be thebest match for your Simrad. One of them may work reasonable well on 38k, and work as normal on 200. It may be less efficient on 38, but still work. Lowrance HDS units, matched up to any 50/200 ducer, will also let you select 83khz on their menu. I don't know what advantage 83 is going to give anyone, on a ducer not resonant on 83, but it works.
Talk to Airmar.
__________________ Capt Will, 2002 G/W 282 Sailfish, F225's
USCG Master, 50 Ton; Towing endorsement
Indian River, De
A 38/200kHz tranducer can be used with a Furuno FCV-295 or FCV-1150 if it's reterminated. Both these machines have Furuno’s Free Synthesizer (FFS) technology and can adapt to a large variation of transducer frequencies (any two frequencies from 28-200kHz). The backbox sounder DFF-3 which can be used with Navnet 3D also have FFS.
I could be wrong but when I was having my problems I talked to airmar and they said simrad equip uses a "different frequency" and it is not interchangeable with other mfg. Even the new simrad equip would not work with the ducer I had for the eq42.
If you can't use the Simrad ducer it has to be of some other reason than the frequency, some of the high-end Furunos are fully programable when it comes to frequency.
Abbor! Hi! spoke with my electronics guy and he had said the same thing. I'm probably going to purchase the Furuno 1150 and have them "tweek" machine to this transducer. As cost for machine is $4500.00, can you tell me of any actual installtations of the furuno to this transducer? and the results. thanks Tommy
Simrad not servicing my $2800 EQ 42 help 
