FNQ Marine Electronics

02/06/2026

Great to have some top weather for slaying a few. The cattle dog cod was yum as.

30/05/2026

Hi legends! What do you all think of bonding negative wires to the hull, such as bilges etc and then tied back to a battery on a aluminium tinny?
Several well-known manufacturers of tinnies do this.
As you may know usually, the motor is bonded to the negative anyway, and the motor is bonded to the tinny, which is usally classified as "1 negative point of contact". This already insures a fuse will blow if positive juice touches the hull.
I'm personally not a fan of a bolt on the tinny, especially up here in the tropics as I often see these "bolts" overloaded and are often difficult to access but most important I do not like this due to oxidization.
Replacing the entire wire length when 1 wire is oxidized is often a pain in the bum.
I prefer all negatives go back to a busbar behind the helm and then distributed around the vessel.
I also find the paint often bubbles often around these joins.
What do you think?

29/05/2026

Different fault with a B and G today.
Unit was faulting when you have unit on an angle or bang it.
Used reflow station on connector, no change. Fault ended up being a faulty LCD cable. Replaced and winner winner chicken dinner!

26/05/2026

Discovered these beauties on a brand-new 80k aluminium tinny built and wired up down south for a Cairns local.
Love the fuse holders, breaker floating around in console, quality power post and my favourite - lets double up different coloured wires for more juice!

03/05/2026

S**t news. Aussie manufacturers COURSEMASTER AUTOPILOTS is closing down after 50 years.

Read the full story: https://www.marinebusinessnews.com.au/2026/04/coursemaster-autopilots-closes-after-more-than-50-years-of-australian-marine-innovation/

– or subscribe to our free weekly eNewsletter! www.marinebusinessnews.com.au/subscribe/

14/04/2026

This Lowrance HDS Live had no transducer information being displayed.
Fault was the MOSFET in the transducer circuit along with 2 SMD components.
2 hours labour for this repair.

10/02/2026

Garmin LCD delaminating or cracked?
Installed 2 new LCDs on an 8412xsv and 8612xsv today (same LCD).
Not a cheap fix, $1300.00 includes freight back to you, LCD and labour included.
I can update and email your waypoints at no additional cost.

27/01/2026

Upgrading Cplot Navigational software onto 2 different PC's today using the latest Navionics charts!

Mapping software is created by an Aussie company called TMQ International Pty Ltd and the product is Cplot.
As with all PC installs it is necessary to ensure that Actisense (Active Research Ltd) devices are used.
These devices ensure no noise is injected into the navigational systems.
One of these installs had corrupted data due to electrical noise and could not be interfaced to sounder due to noise actually showing on the sounder screen.
I purchase from Southern Seas Marine the Actisense (Active Research Ltd) products. I used the Pro-NDC to put all the older NMEA0183 devices such as AIS, GPS, Sounder, Wind etc that also outputs to NMEA2000 network, plus you can use this data over WiFi, so many android or apple devices can use this data in many apps.
I used the NGX1 USB to go from NMEA2000 to USB into the PC, rather than having many serial to USB devices.
On top of this I used another Aussie company product called intervolt (sold by aquavolt) thas in my opinion the best DC to DC - 24 to 12 volt power supply that supresses (noise conditioner) better than most devices on the market (tested with my oscilloscope!).
Probably over 15 thousand waypoints on one of the computers as it is a prawn trawler. 100's of important track data as well. This data can be turned on off or moved quickly with 3 mouse clicks and stored easier and or archived, much easier than any chart plotter could do (or even achieve).

16/01/2026

Minn Kota remote repairs.
Most of the times fault is water damage or damage due to old batteries.
Not all can be repaired but the ones I can it's probably worth repairing for under $200.00.
I also cover circuit board with lacquer to help protect from water.

27/12/2025

Lowrance HDS12Live Backlight repair.
Common fault I see with the lives. Usually, it's just the edge connector that breaks off, but this I time had to replace the SMD resistors, Schottky diode and N channel MOSFET.
Bit of a mission job and not my neatest job as my reflow station stopped working so had to use a couple of soldering irons to get enough heat to remove.