DC 30 won't communicate... odd blink pattern

[Sikesfoxhounds]

One of my DC 30's has a different light blink pattern I have never seen. One long beep and then one normal fast blink. The handheld can not pick it up. I get a message saying CAN'T COMMUNICATE. I have a brand new vhf antenna on the collar. I took the battery out for an hour and that did not help. Any ideas?

[Matthewr379]

If you have did a hard reset and your receiver ant. is good take the board out and get a toothbrush and put alittle rubbing alcohol on it and gently clean the bottom of the circuir board. If the board has any moisture or dirt in it it will clean all components and it will be back it operating order. Also where your antenna screws into the housing take a pocket knife and scrape the brass clean. I f this doesnt help let me know.
Mountainside Supply Telemetry and Garmin Repair
Warm Springs, Va
540-839-6411

[Spokerider]

I;ve been having "communication" problems with my dc30's also.

They lose communication, showing a ? on the astro 220, and the bars show red. This will happen at 10 yards or a km away, and any distance in between. It lasts from a few minutes to much longer before getting communication back. Grrrrrrr.

To date, I have tried;
Installing the most recent software twice........just to be sure.....
Changing the antenna to Tuff Skin antennas.
Doing a hard reset [ battery disconnect ].
Making sure the ?wpx? terminal is on tight, remove and replace it a couple of times.
Making sure the antenna terminal has good contact.
Making sure the problem is not the Astro 220 [ my dc40 works flawlessly ].
Changing the collar number a bunch of times on each collar.
......all to no avail.


And lastly, I have used a contact cleaner / enhancer called Deoxit on the wpx terminal and the antenna terminals, and so far, with testing in my yard, the collars have not lost communiation at close range.....out to 50m. I will have to test at further ranges, and then on the dogs to see if the problem is "fixed". I may take the collars apart again and spray the circut board with it as Mathew has suggested.
Another good contact cleaner / enhancer is Stabilla 22, used in the medical electronics field etc.

[Buddyw]

The problem is in the MCX connector and part, I think that is what you are calling a WPX??

It has nothing to do with the Distance from you to the dog and everything to do with the Collar to the satellites. You can also notice that the Collar will only Single blink when you have the issue and should Double or Triple blink when it's working.

Cleaning the Connector would likely help, If you have Dayglo's on them Check under the Box to see if the Wire is getting worn down. Lot's of times it will work and then when you put it on the dog, the curve of the collar will make the break and connection intermittently. '

But from everything you are describing it is something with the Box on the top of the collar to the MCX connector.

The odd blink pattern is normally a good indicator of the GPS Antenna issues.

[Spokerider]

Yes Buddy, it is the WPX terminal I was talking about........I just couldn't remember the correct name for it.

Thanks for the info about the dc30 communication problems I am having Buddy. Its good to be able to isolate the cause of my problem with collar to satallite communication. I'll take the gps boxes off the collars and inspect the wires as stated. I still have the original black collars, but I'll still check them out.

I think this communication problem has been getting worse over time / use of the collars. When it only did it a time or two on a hunt and the communication came back rather quickly, I guess I just ignored the problem........thinking it was normal for the collars to lose communication like this. But now the communication was lost so often and I couldn't really count on it comming back after a few moments, the collars have become pretty much useless.

I recall that gps box on the collars is sealed......is there a way to test continuity of the WPX wire. Would be good to be able to flex and move the wire around as the continuity is being tested to see if there is a break in the wire somewhere.

[Buddyw]

Unfortunately Not easily, I would turn on the collar and move it around to see if you can make it single blink, and Double Blink by moving it. When it's single blinking the connection is lost,

Sometimes you can flex it a certain way, (Gently Pull to see if there is a Break in the wire) ect and You can break the connection, Then Gently Push the wire together and make the connection.

That wire is a coaxial cable, just like a TV Coax cable, (Except it's smaller and has a different Impedance than the TV ones) But basically there is a small wire that can break.

You can replace the entire collar which will come with that Piece.

http://www.dusupply.com/garmin-replacem ... -dc30.html

[Spokerider]

Thanks for the link for a new collar with gps box and wpx wire / terminal Buddy.

I hunted one dog yesterday, freecast her for 3.5 hrs and the dc30 worked flawlessly. It did not lose communication once.

It appears that spraying the contacts with Deoxit contact enhancer has worked for me, at least for the time being. I will testing the second dc30 the same way soon.