GPS Longevity

On Mar 2, 9:56*pm, Longworth wrote:
* *Our Lowrance Airmap 1000 stopped working today after about 3 years
of frequent usage (~ 250 hrs/year). * It had been working fine.
During a flight today, the screen just went blank. *We thought
something was wrong with the power plug which drained the internal
batteries.
........
I still plan to get the Lowrance Airmap 1000 fixed. *If the repair
cost is more than the cost of a new unit, I may ask Lowrance for trade-
in credits.


Here is an update:
We examined the cigarette lighter adapter cable and found that it
had a blown fuse. Something inside the Airmap must have shorted as
well since we could not power it up with fresh batteries.
I called Lowrance and was told that there was a flat repair rate of
$199 with $7 or so for shipping. I asked about the power cable and
was told that I could buy a new fuse at a local store. I expressed my
concern that if the cable was defective, it could blow a new fuse and
short the Airmap (after repair) again. The rep told me that I could
order a new cable for $34 or so. He was going to look up some part
number for me then the phone got cutoff.
The next day, I called back and talked to a different rep. She
agreed with me that the suspect cable should be replaced as well and
told me that the flat rate repair should cover both the GPS and the
cable. She said that the rep I talked to the day before could be one
of the new trainees.
I asked her for about a trade off credit towards a Lowrance 2000
but she said the trade off credits of something like $200 only apply
to older Airmap (100 and 300?) which were no longer supported by
Lowrance. So I bit the bullet, get an RA# and gave me my credit card
number. The actual repair cost was $189 so the total came out to be
less than $200. We sent the unit in today and have no ideas how long
that it would take to receive the repaired or replaced GPS + cable.
About the cigarette lighter adapter power cable, few weeks ago,
Rick noticed some bare wires showing at the plug joint. It is a
molded plug so there was no way that we could open it to wrap
insulation sleeves over the wires. Using a combination of electrical
tape, adhesive and glue, he tried to patch up the cord. It was
possible that there were still some area of bare wires further inside
the plug creating the short later. The fuse in the cable was
supposedly to protect such event without damaging the GPS but it did
not seem to help. So the lesson is that next time, we should order a
replacement cable instead of trying to patch it up!
BTW, the repair unit will only have a 6 months warranty, just hope
that we would not need another RA# shortly after the warranty date!

Hai Longworth