What brand of electronics do you have and how do you like them?
I found myself shopping for fish finders and suddenly Radars, and now I've decided to get a new MFD, radar, fish finder, AIS, and maybe thermal camera too.
I'd like to know what you guys are running in your boats and what the pros and cons are.
Thank you
You are locked into Garmin charts but their menu system is the easiest and best I have used.
I have been using navionics platinum plus and their 3D bottom view is my most favored feature.
I don't hardly use the fish finder for anything except finding the structure I'm looking for, canyon edges and rock piles, wrecks and such. I can't live without it, fortunately most of the systems are compatible with it.
I'm hoping someone using simrad will chime in.
I like the Garmen chart plotters, and Furuno sounders with 1kw though hull Airmar trasducer. Furuno radars are the best, Simrad and SiTec are a bit more economical. If you want to mark bird piles on the horizon, go with an open Aray.
Nice thing about furuno sounders, is the ability to run a black box which can feed data to a computer with software capable of updating custom 3d charts as you fish. You need GPS data feed as well. Most systems now days have the Chirp feature which allows you to cast the data to your phone or tablet.
Nice to have integration capabilities with an autopilot as well.
I don't like Hummingbird, or Lawerence for saltwater use. I also steer clear of Raytheon/Raymarine electronics, despite the fact that they provide an economical alternative, and easily integrate with one another.
I don't find them user friendly, and have heard of many problems surfacing over time (from marine electronic repair guys).
Just my opinions based on use, research, and talking to more knowledgable folks.
John
Lowrance and Simrad are the same company (Navico), the target market is different so they have a slightly different feature-set.
Simrad is more focussed on the cruising/sportfishing market, primarily launches, so the gear has more networking features.
Lowrance is aimed at smaller trailerboat type setups so tends to have a couple more features for the $$ because you're not paying for things like autopilot integration.
The Lowrance Elite Ti range that is just launching is very good for the money, supports StructureScan out of the box, also things like WiFi integration are all included.
On the boat I often fish off, it's running a Lowrance HDS7 Gen2 with LSS-2 for chartplotting and StructureScan plus a Furuno FCV-627 with Airmar TM258 1kw transducer for really pinpointing fish and deeper water work
Quote from: boon on July 28, 2016, 08:51:54 PM
On the boat I often fish off, it's running a Lowrance HDS7 Gen2 with LSS-2 for chartplotting and StructureScan plus a Furuno FCV-627 with Airmar TM258 1kw transducer for really pinpointing fish and deeper water work
Sound like a good setup there.
I guess for most real world applications autopilot integration is not really needed anyways. IlA stand alone autopilot allows you to simply.. set and maintain a course, then plot your progress separately.
My Gen I HDS 5 interfaces with Otto well, they are both NMEA 2000 compatible and I would think Gen II and III would be too.
I have a Humminbird 1198c SI. It came with the boat when I got it. It also came with thousands of spots from the saltwater tournament bass fishermen I got it from! I added a Navionics 644+ chip covering the West Coast and Hawaii.
I like the 10" display especially when having navigation and sonar on at the same time.
If I needed to replace it I'd look hard at Furuno, Simrad and Garmin. I'd want chirp for inshore.
Thanksfor all the input guys it's going to take me awhile to look at all these. Some like furuno I have experience with. odd not one person mentioned Raymarine?
I swear my head is going to explode before I finish this.
Quote from: David Hall on July 29, 2016, 06:00:52 AM
Thanksfor all the input guys it's going to take me awhile to look at all these. Some like furuno I have experience with. odd not one person mentioned Raymarine?
I swear my head is going to explode before I finish this.
A lot of guys around here swear by the Raymarine Dragonfly units but again they're targetted at more of a small-boat market.
I feel stuck with 9 year old Raymarine E80 gear. I'd love to switch to Garmin but (a) the present stystem works; and (b) switching would mean everything- Chartplotter, radar, autopilot, transducer, FF = big bucks.
It's really a matter of money. Perhaps a GoFund Me is in order!
John
Not a bad idea starting a go find me page, but I tried that when I wanted to retire to a tropical island and buy a bigger boat. I didn't get any help at all?
I would have been happier if my old Raymarine stuff had kept on working for a few more years too.
I wanted an upgrade but I didn't want to be forced to do it, it's just that everything stopped working now.
it's hard to decipher what brands are compatible with other brands, I have been running raymarine e120 Classic, with furuno Navpilot 5011 and no problems at all so I hope my new system works with Navpilot. I don't know yet and if it doesn't that adds another 3k for new AP. Or switch to furuno and I hear there are a ton of glitches with the new mfd.
the search goes on!
Honestly... my theory, and I may be in the minority here, is to refrain from overspending on electronics. I plan to get a good through-hull transducer, and pair it with a quality used Furuno or Si-tec sounder. Buy a cheap used Garmin plotter with the local bath charts, and sometime diwn the road invest in a simple/rugged non-integrated autopilot.
Seems to me like now days, there is alot of info, apps, etc.. available for free on your tablet, phone, or computer. The prices on ruggedized devices have been dropping too.
Just my current opinions.
John
Quote from: jzumi on July 29, 2016, 05:35:05 PM
Perhaps a GoFund Me is in order!
I was going to sell solar clothes dryer kits (rope and clothes pins) to fund my 2017 AT 5 day trip..... ;D
Quote from: Keta on July 29, 2016, 07:37:06 PM
Quote from: jzumi on July 29, 2016, 05:35:05 PM
Perhaps a GoFund Me is in order!
I was going to sell solar clothes dryer kits (rope and clothes pins) to fund my 2017 AT 5 day trip..... ;D
Lee I'll take one of those solar dryer kits!
John you are right about one thing for sure and that is all the major manufacturers are essentially turning the marine electronics industry in a new direction, Raymarine calls it the "Glass Bridge". It may be appropriately named! They have taken the lead from the consumer tablet industry, integrating wifi peripherals and touch screens. It may not be far off we will just have a hole in the helm and when you arrive to your boat you just stick your iPad in the hole. Everything else is run from an app and built into the OS or provided by a card.
And like all other consumer electronics they have built in obsolescence. You buy a new mfd and in five years or less new technology leads to introducing another new one, from that moment the 5 year old model you bought is officially retired, once retired the manufacturer promises to stock parts and offer service and support for an additional five years. That means your mfd is dead to the manufacturer in ten years.
So do we just plan that every 8-10 years we are going to purchase all new electronics? Do you pull them at five years, sell them while they still work? I want something that I never have to replace! I haven't found it.
Echomap 73sv look at my jig and where I reeled up to where fish are
Now that is jigging! You don't let that sit still.
Back to my project now.
Pretty much think I have settled on the electronics I'm going to order up. I'm waiting now for Raymarine to give me configuration guidelines and connection cables and fittings needed.
I decided to stay with Raymarine and here's why.
1. That's what I have been running on this boat for 8 yrs and upgrading is easier and less expensive than switching manufacturers.
2. I have existing auto pilot and R199 in hull transducer that I don't want to give up.
That's my reasons now on to the good stuff.
I'm tossing my 11yr old e120 Classic and installing a new es128, Raymarine is offering a package that includes the mfd as well as two transom mount transducers one for chirp down vision and one for side vision sonar. The package includes the required modules and cables. It's about 6-700 in extras for half price. It should make fish finding a whole new ballgame when coupled with my R199. That gives me excellent deep water, excellent shallow water and side vision in a system that builds bathymetry readings rit into my navionics chart in real time and saves them to my card.
I'm pulling my existing RD424radar and installing a new quantum "chirp" solid state radar, half the weight less than half the required running power of magnetron systems, no warm up warm down time, of course it will sacrifice range, that's okay with me, and it will give clear near target readings. It's reasonably priced so if I decide to upgrade to an open array at some point down the road it will be an easy swap.
I'm adding AIS for safety reasons, FLIR thermal camera for the same reason, I do a lot of motoring in and out of the harbor in the dark and this should be a welcome dark running feature. so as soon as Raymarine posts my wiring details for me, I'm pulling the trigger spending our anniversary European vacation funds and getting ready to chase blue fin tuna in Monterey bay for the second year in a row.
Don't tell the wife you're spending the Euro trip funds on new electronics for the boat!
We discussed it and the conversation went like this.
Her: I don't think I feel like going to Europe this summer, me: uhm what? You don't? darn, I'm disappointed but okay.
Her: so how much are you spending on new electronics? Me: uhm you really don't want to know, seriously you will be much happier not knowing!
Her: you're right don't tell me, I just hope it's worth it to you. ME: it is.
And that ended the discussion, for now. So long as I maintain enough cash flow to meet the monthly requirements I'm free to do whatever I want within reason, boats are really not within reason but she understands how much it means to me to be able to have time on the water fishing with friends and family, she knows I would be much less happy without it. She's a great wife, and a better friend.
She's priceless!
I backed up regrouped and punted, I decided after thouroughly researching installation instructions that my plan needs to be broken down into increments, there's just to much programming and potential issues when adding new systems to existing systems, Raymarine makes it a bit easier with the seatalk nmea 2000 components but they charge an arm and a leg for cables. So my first move was sending my sonar module to Raymarine, they said 7-10 days and they have had it for 7 days now so I should be hearing from them soon.
My second consideration has been new radar, I had Raymarine rd424 raydome and really wanted to upgrade to an open array, for the simple reason of better target discrimination and bird watching capabilities. Open array is a pretty good price jump and there's 4-6-10-12KW Systems? My boat is 28' and 4' antenna is about all I could carry, the 3048SHD radar runs around 5K, I found one that is 12kw advertised on the big auction site for 2k, three years old and after some communication with the seller and his agreement to give me a 60 day warranty I pulled the trigger, it arrived Thursday while I was out of town for three days work training. Now I'm trying to assemble all the hardware and gaskets I need to install it. Got my old hear off the boat, including my vhf antenna, gps antenna and anchor light. I found a nice mount for the radar that has the anchor light built in, I'm going to replace the old fixture with a new led fixture. Glassed in all the holes from the old antennas which will get relocated after the radar is fitted and I know where to put them. Hoping to get all the hardware and gaskets today, install the new led anchor light and install the radar tomorrow and get it up and running on my old e120 Classic display. Once that is done I'm pulling the old mfd and installing a new gs165 mfd, and then get everything to talk to it. I'm hoping by the end of August all new systems will be fully operational. We will see.
David, interesting, I never thought about being able to see birds with radar. Is that something new or am I uninformed? Or just plain stupid? :D Dominick
And then it happened!
After I worked for three hours and went to pick up something for the BBQ, I finally got time to open my radar and check it out, I opened the antenna box first and noticed that the end of the box was already opened?
I slid the antenna out of the box, unwrapped the foam and discovered the case is busted all the way around?
Fed ex with another wonderful delivery. The seller says he will send me another one. Dang bummer, was planning to install it tomorrow.
Oh my. My vocabulary would be spewing at that point. Sorry for you David.
The seller offered to send me another antenna free of charge but he doesn't have a super HD, he had me convinced they are all the same and the features are all in the pedestal until I did a bit of digging and learned he's not exactly correct, while any Raymarine 4' antenna will function with this pedestal, only the shd will give the enhanced performance and features. I emailed him and told him I'm sending the whole package back on my dime and I want a full refund. Unfortunately I already purchased a new mount, cables, voltage converter and all new stainless hardware installation kit for this one at an additional cost of roughly 500 more. I do believe he will do the right thing and give me a refund, I offered to split the cost with him for a new antenna and he refused that offer and I don't feel it's right for me to not get any value out of the antenna at all and I'm not willing to accept a lesser grade of antenna from him so I packaged it back up and it will be on its way back to Florida on Monday. Sometimes things just don't work out the way you plan but it takes a lot more than this to ruin my attitude.
I am learning a lot about electronics and radar in particular, by the time I'm done I will be an expert.
Expert: eg. Ex = a has been, and a spurt is a drip under pressure.
I have to add that I hope I don't run across any deals on reels that I must have while I'm working on these electronics issues. It will be a shame but all the little incidental stuff is killing me, a small bag of stainless steel nuts bolts and washers $100.00.
Here's my starter electronics package (+An Icom VHS w/DCR)...
(http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/yy77/Tightlines666/Mobile%20Uploads/20160815_173651_zpsi345ffhy.jpg) (http://s779.photobucket.com/user/Tightlines666/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20160815_173651_zpsi345ffhy.jpg.html)
-Furuno GP 1300F GPS/Plotter w/Hawaii Chip
-Furuno FCV-667 w/600W 200/50 duel Trans (serviced)
-ACR 406 EPIRB (New batt)
-Uniden Atlantis 250 Handheld VHS
-President LTD950 (w/short antenna+batt clips.. backup w/stand alone fully charged battery)
Total Investment cost=$200
Additional safety equipt..
-ACR ditch bag, 6 offshore type jackets, signal mirrors, strobes, whistles, liferaft food/water, and my West marine inflatable raft.
This should get me started. I would like to upgrade the sounder to a 1000w airman through-hull b4 I haul out, and will likely buy a cheap/used CB radio. Nearly everyone out here has one, since there is alot of commercial traffic on the VHS, though most fishing talk takes place on cellphones these days. I will not likely be betting an autopilot since with my manual steering on a straight shaft, it would be somewhat cost prohibitive. Bungee cord will work in a pinch.
John
200.00 bucks? that epirb alone is 400.00?
You did well!
Quote from: Dominick on August 13, 2016, 08:27:05 PM
David, interesting, I never thought about being able to see birds with radar. Is that something new or am I uninformed? Or just plain stupid? :D Dominick
Its not a new thing we have always watched for birds working first with spotters assigned then with a good pair of gyro stabilized binocs and in the last 10-15yrs modern radar has been helping out a lot by discerning a flock of birds from 4-6 miles which is farther than you can spot them with your naked eyes. Now you can pick them up on radar, head in that direction while glassing with binoculars. saves a ton of fuel and time. previously if we didnt see them with our eyes we couldnt chase them.
David of course I know about watching for birds over bait but I did not know radar would pick them up. I now know that radar will do so. Thanks. Dominick
Quote from: David Hall on August 18, 2016, 09:59:42 PM
200.00 bucks? that epirb alone is 400.00?
You did well!
I only purchased the 2 Furuno units.. the rest came off of my dad's boat, which he sold last spring.
I tried to save some money here, because I know there are plenty of other places to spend it on this boat.
I got my new used 12kw open array pedestal, had to install a couple inserts in it for mounting that were lost when it was removed from the sellers boat, my brand new antenna is in the mail. My new Raymarine gs165 mfd arrived today as did my new CP370 sonar module, now I'm looking at around 1k dollars worth of cables, connectors, adapters, switches. My new AIS, gps, and antenna splitter are all in the mail also. I'll have a pretty penny tied up in this upgrade before I'm done. Flir has to wait for a few more momths.
Congrats on the forward movement David.
I'm on a two 'Silver Bullet' frustration level treatment with my boat issues.
My electronics are not currently a problem. But their not current either. ::)
Furuno or Lowrance would be my choice.
I currently have the new version Raymarine(4th season) and it's a total piece of crap IMHO. I previously had the old C-80 and it had radar overlay built in and was much more user friendly. Both units have limited memory and will get very slow if too much info is stored (slug trails etc.)
I would also recommend to stay away from "touch screen". That's the worst idea anyone ever came up with. I say no thanks to greasy, fishy, slimy fingers all over my screen every day.
Best of luck on your decision David
Ted
David, I had the very earliest version of the C-80 with Italian made DSM-250, then shortly thereafter Raymarine had the DSM-300 made in mexico and those ended up being trash. Raymarine was bought out by FLIR and so far they have stood behind replacing the DSM's for those that contact them directly.
The DSM is a Digital Sending Module that accepts the transducer frequency and changes it to a digital signal which allows for the radar to be integrated into the system without interference from the signal.
Several years ago Raymarine got sued for the lack of accuracy on the radar overlay, because no NMEA was required, which would make the GPS more pinpoint accurate, so without recalling all the old units, they simply erase the radar overlay when the unit gets "updated", then you will need to add NMEA to regain the radar overlay. It's really a dirty trick and can't tell you how mad I was.
Adding FLIR can get beyond expensive. My solution would be to buy a really good handheld model.
Sorry for rambling David, but you said nobody mention Raymarine yet, so I figured I'd throw my 2 cents in the ring.
Ted
It was that Mexico made dsm300 tat was causing me grief for the past several years, it was installed in 2006 and worked well until around three years ago, Raymarine just mailed me a brand new CP370 free of charge. I think since Flir bought them out they are concentrating more on customer satisfaction? Who can say for certain but I have enjoyed good luck with my Raymarine products as well as furuno products and both of their service departments have been great. As far as touch screens go, all the manufacturers have turned to them. It is the wave of the future in marine electronics, the development of a new NMEA system called "one touch"
Which intends to make all peripherals communicate and integrate across all manufacturers is leading the way and all the big name electronics manufacturers are pushing in the same direction. You will be hard pressed to find the latest features, chirp down vision, side scan sonar, wifi integration, dock to dock auto pilot, Raymarine is at the forefront and everyone is going down the same road. They also offer an optional keyboard controller with push buttons and joystick wheel called the RMK9, I opted for that option with the gs165 for the same reasons you cited, bloody slimy fish yuk on my hands and touching the screen. I try to keep them clean but I just catch so many dang fish it's impossible, there's no way I can keep that stuff off the screen, but the control pad is pretty robust and can be wiped down with cleaners.
Quote from: Maxed Out on August 19, 2016, 05:13:36 AM
Several years ago Raymarine got sued for the lack of accuracy on the radar overlay, because no NMEA was required, which would make the GPS more pinpoint accurate, so without recalling all the old units, they simply erase the radar overlay when the unit gets "updated", then you will need to add NMEA to regain the radar overlay. It's really a dirty trick and can't tell you how mad I was.
Ted
So that explains why my radar overlay does not work after I went from dsm 300 to dsc 370! Okay, nice to know. Just exactly how do I add NMEA anyway? And what other nefarious surprises are in store for living with this aging e80 gear??
Thanks, Ted!
John
I don't even know what NMEA is, I just want this equipment to work reliably...
Nmea is the national marine electronics association, they are attempting to gain voluntary compliance from electronics manufacturers to manufacture using standardized connectors. basically it is a network of components that your marine electronics all tie into and talk to each other, Raymarine calls their first generation NMEA 0183 seatalk. Then they developed seatalk2, and now they are in seatalk ng which stands for next generation. If your boat is like mine you may have a mix of devices that are NMEA 0183 compliant and some which are newer and older, it's essentially a major pain in the #### because you have to have a bucket full of adapter cables, connectors, cables. Essentially if you start new, you simple run a seatalkng backbone cable, add some 5way connectors, proper terminators, all your peripherals plug into the backbone connectors.
Run power to the backbone through the same cable type that your electronics use and you have a properly powered and terminated network. All devices connected to this network will share data (to the extent they are capable) between each other. At least that is the theory! I happen to be in the middle of setting all this up on my boat so I have no idea how it's going to shake out in the end. I hope to know the answer to that by the end of this weekend.
deja vu ;D ;D
Old display removed and cutout enlarged to fit the new gs165, new RMK9 remote keypad, new dual slot card reader.
Picture two: new 12kw open array radar, finished, vhf antenna relocated, new GPS receiver relocated and updated. Progress progress, this is two men 13hrs so far. Back at it again tomorrow.
today after 6 more hours of making up connections the magical hour arrived. So after a nice lunch at the moss landing cafe I made the final connections to the new mfd.
The first thing that happened on initial power up was the new AIS went into alarm for dangerously close to another AIS equipped vessel, every ten seconds bleep, bleep, bleep! After figuring out how to shut the alarm off I turned on the fish finder and found the new sonar module had auto configured and was fully functional, I did have to configure my transducer but that was easy. Installed navionics PP west coast chart card and bam! It was off and running too. So far I'm batting a thousand. Played around with charts for a few minutes then installed second MSD card with updates for charts, and radar. Mfd found the card by itself and proceeded to update on its own? Removed the update chip and I see the little icon on the bottom of the screen for auto pilot has a big red X over it? This means the AP is not being seen. Don't know why yet have to do some research.
Now it's time to flip the breaker and fire up the radar, mfd recognized 12kw SHD radar, hit the start button, mfd says connection get to radar! Wait for it, wait for it? "Radar not connected" WTH? Try again same result, I can hear the pedestal humming like it's ready to do something, green lights on the voltage converter? To late to call Raymarine they all went home for the day, so tomorrow morning I'll be back at the boat, on the phone with a Raymarine tech, trying to sort out the bugs. At least I got sonar!
Yeah, it's like that!
Ain't it the truth! There were two of us working our tails off for 25hrs to get this far. It's probably going to take me 50hrs to de bug everything. I did a bit more internet research on my auto pilot, found one guy who had the exact same problem, furuno recommended a software update, users can't do software updates and they want you to send them the controller and they will update it? He finally gave up, tossed the FAP511 and upgraded to a NMEA 2000 compliant AP. Wasn't the news I was looking for. We will see what Raymarine has to say in the morning.
Raymarrine had me run a couple tests, nothing worked, It was recommended to send the radar core in for service and bench testing, I removed it boxed it up and decided to email Fred Fritz, I've never met him, never spoken with him. This was Sunday evening, a couple hours later he called me and we talked about the issue, he said he would make himself available to talk me through a sequence on Monday, which he did, it still didn't work so he is taking the issue directly to Raymarine service himself and will get back to me later today. It looks like the radar is fine, it just doesn't speak the same language the new mfd speaks and since they don't speak the same language apparently they won't have anything to do with each other, the mfd knows the radar is there and what it is, it just won't recognize it among my other external devices and there may not be a way to make them talk to each other? Say what?
Are they telling me my new MFD and my 8 year old radar need counselling? I don't know but Fred's going to call me back later today with new from Raymarine that either there is a workaround and we can get these two to talk to each other, or I'm getting a new radar! Either way I think I'm going to upgrade my auto pilot to evo200 while I'm at it. I'd be frustrated but it has been fun working on the boat and I know that I will get this sorted out eventually.
Update...
I didn't like the antiquated Furuno plotter I had, so I pulled it and replaced with a Garmin 546S, paired with a 500watt duel frequency transducer. I downloaded the 3D bath. Charts. I also bought a West Marine VHF, registered the DSC, and linked it to the plotter. Running duel transducers now.
As a side note... I rewired the entire boat this weekend. I have a 3 bank battery system with a 20Amp monitor/charger connected to shore power.
Spent an additional $250.
John
Good features, you seem to accomplish about five times as much as me in the same time span! You going to be in the Bay Area anytime soon? I could put you to work helping me. my new display updates my charts with real time bath readings and stores them on a chip fo I can upload them at my leisure to Navionics website for them to update their master charts with. This is all theory at this time because I haven't made it out of my slip in three months so it hasn't been road tested. This of course does little to improve my fishing! But once I get my radar up and operating and get some blood on the decks My next spring upgrade will be a second transducer and possibly a third, I'm going to get the chirp down vision and possibly side scan as well. Having all these great toys will keep my ADD in check while I'm waiting for a bite. The kids will love it too.
$250 is getting away cheap! BOAT = Break Out Another Thousand!
Quote from: David Hall on September 06, 2016, 07:11:53 PM
I'd be frustrated but it has been fun working on the boat and I know that I will get this sorted out eventually.
David that is one great attitude. Dominick
Quote from: David Hall on September 06, 2016, 09:00:57 PM
Good features, you seem to accomplish about five times as much as me in the same time span! You going to be in the Bay Area anytime soon? I could put you to work helping me. my new display updates my charts with real time bath readings and stores them on a chip fo I can upload them at my leisure to Navionics website for them to update their master charts with. This is all theory at this time because I haven't made it out of my slip in three months so it hasn't been road tested. This of course does little to improve my fishing! But once I get my radar up and operating and get some blood on the decks My next spring upgrade will be a second transducer and possibly a third, I'm going to get the chirp down vision and possibly side scan as well. Having all these great toys will keep my ADD in check while I'm waiting for a bite. The kids will love it too.
I will not be in the bay area anytime in the foreseeable future, and don't anticipate much free time in my future with all the boat projects. In either case, it sounds like you have got things well in hand. I decided to go the cheap electronics route at this time namely because of a limited budget, and other areas that are in need of attention.
Sounds like you have got a sweet setup going on there. z 3D bath.charts that you make yourself are great. I did a research project where I used a furuno 1kw transducer and software to map severel largely uncharted remote banks. The results astounded me, and the long time commercial fisherman of these banks. Cool stuff. Maybe someday I CNN get some really cool gadgets to play with. For now, I am still king with bare-basic tools to get me going.
John P
Pretty simple for me. Just bought a Humminbird Helix 9 with down scan and side imaging. Screan is Hd and clear as a bell. Can even see it with sun glasses on. Sure don't envy you guys with the install problems. Always a nightmare.
My on board battery charger just died and took 3 batteries with it. I'm not impressed.
Installing them is straightforward integrating the various aged components is the biggest issue. Some times they play nice together sometimes they don't. But persistence and good support has always worked for me and I'm hopeful it will again. I just hate waiting it will be 10-15 days before I get my radar core back. Guess I have no choice except to install the new patio doors the wife has been after, unless anyone can give me a good reason to postpone that project another year?
If I can't hook up two wires on each end and it works, I'm done.
I really dislike working on boats. I have hardly any access so that's probably a factor in my reluctance.
Keep at it David. You'll be ready next time the bft make a surprise visit to Monterey. And since you have all the gadgets on board I'll just follow you!
;)
I'll be broadcasting AIS so I will be easy to find!
Went down today and finalized and cleaned up all the wiring to make it nice and pretty and keep it from flopping around under the helm. I also wired my VHF NMEA 0183 to my mfd for DSC and AIS. I got lucky in that the previous owner neve registered or entered an MMSI # into the VHF so I was able to program my number right in on the first try. Powered everything back up. Replaced the gas springs on my overhead electronics door, and port and starboard fish boxes, cleaned the pipes on my macerator and got it to run the fish boxes empty, pressure washed the topside and 4" below the waterline. Pulled the lamps on all my lighting so I can upgrade the bulbs to LED. Came home and ordered the new bulbs, new courtesy lights and a new pair of high intensity LED overhead deck lights, and the last three gas springs for my transom storage and bait box.
This winter I need to re upholster all my knee boards and helm seating. Then there's below decks, ugh!
The head needs work, the faucets are oxidized so bad they need to be replaced, flush my freshwater system and test my water heater, then she will be ready for the wife to come aboard! I want to cruise the Sacramento River this fall with her.
Well my radar was delivered yesterday from Mr. Fred Fritz shop in Petaluma to my door.
It has spent the past three weeks in New Hampshire in some back room at Raymarine USA. I installed it, hit the radar button, up it came, warmed up, hit the tx button and away it went working like a jeweled clock. I have harbor mode, bouy mode, offshore mode, bird mode, all with the touch of a finger. No more adjusting gain up and down, no noise adjustment, it's all automatic and in super HD. Just have to get used to all the functions which can be displayed.
After we replaced all the stock white courtesy lights with new LED blue courtesy lights. I replaced my 150w halogen deck lights with 1600 lumen LED deck lights. Replaced all the incandescent cabin lighting bulbs with LED lamps. Cleaned the sea strainers on my live well pump and saltwater wash down pump. Just need to clean up the tangled up mass of new cables in the electronics box. Replace a couple stainless hose clamps and install a new salt water wash down hose and spray nozzle.
She's shaping up, When I get my old worn out upholstery re done, shes gonna look brand new.