| When all else has failed, read the manual. Your father did get a manual,
didn't he?
Seriously, when I last looked at lorans (several years ago), the
Micrologics were not user friendly. My impression is that few (if any)
lorans are really usable without some initial help from the manual or
someone experienced in using the particular loran in question. My
further impression is that there is a direct relationship between the
number of buttons to push and the ease of use. With few buttons each
button is either used for multiple functions or else several buttons
must be pushed in the right sequence to perform a function. Either way a
fair bit of user knowledge is needed. There seems to be an inverse
relationship between functionality and ease of use. My obsolete TI 9900
loran has many buttons (none with more than two functions, both labelled
in English on the panel) and not too many features. I refer to the
manual once or twice a year.
I know, I know, I'm not answering your question.
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| I have a Micrologic 8000, which I think is fairly similar to the
7500. Each button defines a group of related functions; on the
8000, and I believe on the 7500, these are:
NAV - gives you various readouts about how far off course
you are, how much to correct your present course, etc.
ROUTE - sets up a courseline of one or several waypoints, and
allows you to follow them in reverse order if desired,
and/or have the loran automatically step for you when
within a user-specified distance from the waypoint
...it also shows the names of the waypoints and several
fancy things like 'specified course offset', etc.
WPT - gives you your current lat/lon or td coordinates.
the lat/lon conversion seems to be quite accurate around
Block Island sound, at least. It also gives you snr
readings, and allows you to specify a range and bearing
that you want to go to rather than a waypoint, as well
as moving waypoint id's from one to another. You can
also change various characteristics of wpt's, such
as their position, alphanumeric name, or number.
SPEED - Gives you your current speed over ground, velocity
made good, E.T.A., and magnetic course.
SAVE - Save your current location into an available waypoint
along with the current time of day.
RECALL - Moves a saved waypoint into waypoint # range 1-199
on the 8000, and probably 1-100 on the 7500. SAVE
stores the waypoint into the 'scratch' area of 200-250
OTHER - Various stuff, like whether you want to see the lat/lon
in d.m.s. or d.m. and hundredths of minutes, anchor
watch limits, manual override station selection, and
lots of unimportant stuff that you'll use once, say
'neat', and then never use again.
as for user-frendliness, i think they're pretty easy to use; the
best thing since sliced bread.
You didn't say whether or not you had the manual... it IS essential
to read it because, like many things, it's only obvious once you
already understand it!
- jim
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| Thanks for the Description, now when I go down to the boat at least
I'll have some clue what's going on with this Loran.
Yes we do have a manual. I got to Glance at it quickly when we
first got the boat and the Loran wasn't on it.
Do you remember any specific things you have to do when starting
this unit up. I'm sure there are instructions in the manual, but
every manual has its quirks. Was this one straight forward or do
I need to go out and get a Masters in Electrical Engineering before
I look at this one?
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| No doctorate is required. I remembered as I was driving home last
night that Micrologic supplied an instructional cassette tape with
the loran when I bought it... I'd be happy to send it to you if
you gave me you mail address.
There is a startup procedure which clears all the waypoints, but
I don't remember how to do it off the top of my head. The manual
is easy to follow, and the cassette is a good confidence builder
to get you started and understand what's going on... my tape is
for the 8000, though, so I'm sure there will be some differences.
Maybe we ought to supply cassette tapes with our software...
- jim
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| If the start-up procedure is the same as the ML-5500 then;
Press C (clear) for about 12 seconds (the unit will *beep* for a
while during this).
Enter your approx. Lat/Lon: Press C [~lat] EU LAT/LON C [~lon] EL
LAT/LON
When the display stops flashing... it's initialized.
One more guess! I assume the ML-7500 can do automatic transmitter
selection. If not (like some of the SI-TECHs), you have to tell
it what CHAIN GRI to use. But I doubt that if it's Micrologic.
However, it may be OFF. Once again (IF it's the same
as the ML-5500);
Press D LIST + + + ...(until you get to the ATS/MEM display)
If ATS is "on" it will say so. If is not, turn it "on".
I'm also on the "greatest thing since sliced bread" list as far
as Micrologic is concerned.
Gary H....
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| I've owned my Loran for 5 years now and it's time to change the
lithium battery. I've taken it to two different places - one wanted
$85 to change the battery, one wanted $90. This seems very high
to me, especially considering the price of Lorans these days. Does
this cost equate with what others have paid? If not, and it's a
BIG difference, where did you take/send yours?
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| Try Voyager Marine in Essex. They have always been very resonable, they
even checked mine once, found it didn't need a bettery, charged me
$0.00.
Voyager is open Saturday mornings, till noon. The number is
508-768-7260.
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