To drill down a wee bit deeper vis a vis autopilots and interfaces. Call me a Luddite, but I have never been a fan of plotters directly (or blindly) feeding autopilots when there are strong variables (wind, current, etc) involved. I like to be the interface so I know what is going on in case all the electronics goes down.
And they will. At the worst possible time. David F. Risch 1980-40-2 (401) 419-4650 (cell) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 11:30:34 -0400 To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Subject: Re: Stus-List Electronics upgrade From: cnc-list@cnc-list.com CC: joel.aron...@gmail.com Fred, You gave the definitive answer! I agree you want data to be shared but the displays to work independently of each other so if, for example, the radar display fails you can still get data on the plotter etc. Also, the autopilot should be connected to the plotter, especially if you sail in an area with strong currents. Joel On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 11:18 AM, Frederick G Street via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: Not too many listers chiming in on this topic. Anyone? Is everyone else out sailing? Fred Street -- Minneapolis S/V Oceanis (1979 C&C Landfall 38) -- Bayfield, WI On Aug 10, 2015, at 12:17 PM, Frederick G Street via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: John — like most Furuno gear, I imagine the black-box radar is pretty reliable. My concern is with the other gear needed to use it. If you’re going to spend that much on buying and installing a system, you want it to work when you need it. And that’s generally when conditions are bad; which is also when the consumer stuff (laptop, iPad, etc) is going to fail. Then your investment is worthless. Fred Street -- Minneapolis S/V Oceanis (1979 C&C Landfall 38) -- Bayfield, WI On Aug 9, 2015, at 9:07 PM, John Pennie via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: Any thoughts on the reliability of the Furuno unit itself? It's a bit of an oddity but has been on the market for a while. Radar is not a critical function to me (except when it is) but I view this more of an offshore tool than anything else. Just my opinion which I'm sure most would disagree with. On August 9, 2015 at 4:47 PM, Frederick G Street via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: Hi, John. No, you’re not crazy; just be careful with mixing and matching equipment from different vendors. And as long as you’re putting in modern electronics, there’s no reason I can think of to NOT integrate all of them together; you get benefits like autopilot steering to wind angle or to waypoints; and the ability to repeat GPS, wind, depth and other data out to WiFi if you’re so equipped. And as far as not having a knot meter, that means you lose the ability to correlate the GPS and boat data to determine if you’re dealing with current set and drift, which can be very helpful. Only you know what you’d really like to have; but I would at minimum do a full instrument install, and my preference would be for the i70 Sail Pack system if you’re looking at Raymarine. If you go with the Furuno black box radar, you’re completely blind if your iPad dies. I’m a fan of having dedicated marine electronics for functions you consider critical; if radar falls into that category, I’d think twice about that setup. If the current B&G autopilot system works well, there’s no reason to replace it; if it takes NMEA0183 data in, I’d definitely convert that from NMEA2000 so it can talk with other gear as mentioned above. If you’d like AIS receive only, consider putting in a VHF radio like the Standard Horizon GX2200, which has separate AIS receivers built in, and can pass that info on to other equipment. If you’d like to be seen as well, there are a bunch of choices in AIS Class B transponders; I’d recommend one after you nail down the rest of the equipment, so it plays well with everything else. And finally, chartplotters. I can see no reason to put in a Raymarine GPS receiver just to give GPS to other gear. If you’re NOT going to do a plotter (see notes about reliability of iPad and radar…), putting in an AIS-enabled VHF can get you position data just as well. I’d suggest, though, that you look at the new small MFDs that Simrad, B&G, Raymarine and Garmin have out. Under $1000, and you can attach radar, AIS, instruments, etc to get a fully marine-capable system that runs off your boat’s batteries (no limited iPad battery life, which ALWAYS seems to fail when you need it most…). I’ll be interested to see what others recommend. Fred Street -- MinneapolisS/V Oceanis (1979 C&C Landfall 38) -- Bayfield, WI On Aug 9, 2015, at 4:30 PM, John Pennie via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: The basic electronics (b&g h1000 system) on Paws have been a challenge since I first got her. Intermittent failures at the start of each season. Now depth has failed and of all things it appears to be the transducer. I'm debating modernizing. Please tell me if I'm crazy. A little background: Close hauled wind indicator is important to me (which I currently don't have)The autopilot (B&G) is a thing of beauty and will be keptThere are two Furuno chart plotters running older Navionics charts. Frankly I use the iPad almost exclusively now (nobeltec ap and visual tides being my preference)AIS is important to me sailing in NY harbor - also off an iPad ap but would consider upgradingI couldn't care less about any interface between chart plotter and auto pilot and/or windThe boat does have radar which is never used for our current sailing. Offshore would be a different story and we do do plan another offshore run (Bermuda/Caribbean, etc) So here's what I'm thinking. Ray i50/60/70 instruments as a stand alone installationExisting auto pilot remains as a stand alone unitReplace existing Furuno radar dome with the PC version with built in wi-if (works with Nobeltec iPad ap)Perhaps add a wireless router Add new Ray GPS head for a multifunction display; use iPad GPS for chart plotter through apI wouldn't install a knot meter - Gps is fine Any thoughts on the reliability of wifi offshore? I would think it's fine but would love to hear opinions. All of this could be done for about 4k less whatever I can sell the old equipment for on eBay. Feel free to tell me I'm nuts. Keep in mind we do have limited offshore runs in the future. Opinions welcome John _______________________________________________ Email address: CnC-List@cnc-list.com To change your list preferences, including unsubscribing -- go to the bottom of page at: http://cnc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/cnc-list_cnc-list.com -- Joel 301 541 8551 _______________________________________________ Email address: CnC-List@cnc-list.com To change your list preferences, including unsubscribing -- go to the bottom of page at: http://cnc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/cnc-list_cnc-list.com
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