After we returned from our canal boat trip we noticed some lights in the boat were not working.

In this brave new CAN bus world we need first to find the Scheiber lighting bloc:

  1. Look at the Scheiber schematics and work out which lighting bloc is responsible for the failed lights
  2. Look up the location of the the lighting bloc in Scheiber schematics boat layout page

The lighting bloc for the failed lights was behind the chart table and a quick inspection showed it was flashing red, but not green which indicate the bloc number in the network. When we looked at the Navicolor display the bloc was missing from the display.

Blocs 2 & 3 are disappointingly absent.

We noticed that a second bloc was missing from the Navicolor display. Reviewing the schematics we discovered the second failed bloc managed our navigation lights. The icons to turn on the navigation lights had also disappeared from the Navicolor display. This bloc was also flashing red with no green lights.

Two failed Blocs together in the chart table. Co-incidence? Both have power an no visible damage to the boards.

Garcia asked us to check the power and to bypass each failed Bloc in turn on the CAN bus. As the voltage was good and neither Bloc came alive when the other was bypassed, Garcia determined that the blocs had failed and needed to be replaced. Garcia noted that they had been using the blocs for 7 years and 98% never failed.

We got 2 new replacement blocs and transferred the wires from the old blocs to the new bloc. One of the wires tells the bloc what number it is in the network, but the configuration, and light switches need to be configured. We understand the configuration can be recovered from the last backup, but we chose to do it manually. The Scheiber schematics show the function of each slot and the relevant icon can be configured on the Navicolor screen.

Light switches can be assigned to functions on the lighing bloc by (surprisingly you can find English documentation on this on the Schieber web site):

  1. Long press (1.5sec) the left switch on the lighting bloc – this will make slot 1 turn on and off (ie if its a light it will flash)
  2. If you want to assign a new switch:
    • Press the light switch that will turn on that light/fan/other
    • Then press the light switch that will turn off that light/fan/other
  3. Press the left switch on the lighting bloc again to move to the next light/fan/other on the bloc and repeat

Our observations from this experience are:

  1. As the Scheiber lighting blocs are used for our navigation lights, a failure is a safety issue.
  2. It would be possible to substitute another bloc to get the navigation lights going again – this is likely the quickest option
  3. With some fiddling and some spare wire we could bypass the bloc and turn on the navigation lights (even if the Navicolor was dead)
  4. It took Garcia about 6 weeks to get us a replacement bloc
  5. Knowing how to reprogram the blocs and light switches is a necessary skill

We now carry a spare lighting bloc and could install it. In hindsight we think it would have been very useful to have reprogrammed a few light switches when we got the boat as this process uses most of the steps we need to replace a bloc.