My customer had purchased this item new from Defender and called me to install it for his Lewmar Concept 1 anchor windlass Monday morning.   The wiring from the windlass to the display was straight forward and typical.  Getting the counter to actually count was more of a challenge.  The manual, which I believe was presented in a 2007 edition, was very thorough in diagramming the wiring connection…up to the point where the sensor was mounted.

Defender acknowledged that they have received calls about this item before and recommended calling Lewmar.  Now, certainly Lewmar has fielded some tech support calls on this lack of a very important detail.  I called on January 18th myself and have yet to receive a response.  No bother.  The owner and I jumped to some conclusions and got it working with little fuss.  The image below shows decent detail, having been captured by my wife’s iPhone in a pinch, of a plywood bracket used to suspend the sensor about 1/4″ below the windlass gearbox, while a small magnet was placed in the revolving keyway.

Installed a Raymarine X30 with a connection to integrate with Coastal Explorer navigation suite. All is well.