Nowadays I revising my old article and I remember my experiences on board commercial or offshore vessels as hydraulic troubleshooter.

One late evening I attended a troubleshooting job on a vessel where I found an interesting issue.

But, like usual the vessel crew has a nice story to share. Of course, the person in charge with the cranes was gone. It’s a common scenario who is there as crew has just arrived. This is an old trick, they blame each other and you’ll end up alone with no useful information.

They pretended to be angry and pissed off just to bring me in the same state of mind like them.

In my case, I was confused because I didn’t know how to react in the first place. The functions of the deck crane (hoisting, luffing and slewing) were not working. The crane started normal but it couldn’t be operated. I mean no movement occurs with the hook, the jib and the slew function of the crane.

First take a look of this picture:

Just some loose wires with no marks only wires with different colors but instead are isolated.

This electronic card it shows the inputs from the joystick and limit switches and also the outputs from the electronic box.

The problem wasn’t there in the display card. After hours of troubleshooting I found out a bridge (jumper) that was removed from the main electric cabinet.

After reconnected the bridge the crane returned to normal operating condition.

About the indication display card I had to reconnected .With the help of the electronic diagram I managed to connect the card the way it was.

Also I noticed on some electronic cards some relay was re-soldered. I am not recommending this way to solve problems. Each electronic card form each maker has their tricks and if you are not sure about it it’s better to stay away.

Anyway I know from my previous experience if you have problem with the electronic card just change it. Maybe you don’t have new one then order one or ask for help.

The help came right away and troubleshoot the problem and solved it.