electronics - help me decide

[anaisdog]

on my hull 99, 1986, the PO swapped out the original Signet equipment with some Raymarine but left off a speed instrument.  the garmen chartplotter is way out of support by garmin and i'd like to get something i can update for depth, especially.  so i was thinking of the garmin 741.  thoughts on good/bad?  or what would you change your chartplotter to?

[Jon W]

As long as you're looking at the major companies, I think the decision is a personal preference. I went back and forth between Raymarine, B&G, Furuno, Garmin. In the end I went with Raymarine - eS98 chartplotter with C-Map 4D charts mounted at the Nav Station, 24NM Quantum radar (wired not wireless), CHIRP Downvision, and i70 system pack (includes itc-5 network converter, wind transducer, depth/speed/temp transducer, and i70 multi function display), plus each box came with most network cables and fittings needed.

[Roc]

Here's something worth considering...  see Mainesail's reply..


http://c34.org/bbs/index.php?topic=8183.0

[Noah]

I agree with Jon. Very much a personal choice. I went with B&G  Zeus and Triton for all (with Simrad autopilot and 4G Radar) and am happy. When I did my homework 2+ years ago, Raymarine had some customer service issues. It may be different now that Flir bought them.

[Jon W]

Early yet but my experience to date -

The installation of the Raymarine components was straightforward. Connecting them together with the SeaTalkng network was surprisingly simple. I downloaded the most current version of all software from the Raymarine website for free. Loaded it into the chartplotter. This brought all devices up to the same version. Turned everything on and voila, charts, wind speed and direction, radar. The new Quantum is Raymarine's version of 4G.

So far no problems,and questions have been answered by the Tech Service correctly the 1st time. I will be using a wireless I-pad or Samsung galaxy tab A under the dodger in the cockpit via a Raymarine control app.

[anaisdog]

thanks to all!  going out to west marine, for black friday.

[anaisdog]

also, if you bought the garmin 741, did you do the thru hull?

[Steve_in_lex]

Won't opine on makes or models, but last year I replaced the factory standard electronics, and one really nice benefit is replacing five screens, four of which were at eye-level, with one multi-functional display at chest level.  Way better visibility.

[KWKloeber]

thanks to all!  going out to west marine, for black friday.

becki did you get a BF deal?

ken

[anaisdog]

no Ken, I did not buy anything.  i'm so confused as to what is out there.  garmin, on their web site, offers the 741xs for 899, as of this morning.  my cousin, who owns a power boat store said he can get me that for 1100. huh?  he says things change really fast.  and i'm thinking of doing tablet and laptop instead of gps at all.  what do you suggest?

[KWKloeber]

Wow, that's like asking should you have white meat or dark meat?  Personal appeal.  Garmin is good stuff from all my past (handheld) experience.   That said, I'm a high believer in simpler is better.  I've seen many who MUST have the newest and best electronics and hardly use them (or need them) for what/how they sail.  The owners of the Bene 36.7 I crewed on had to upgrade to a Ray gps/chartplotter/WiFi/mic-key mouse/top of the line system.

You couldn't even set a weather mark unless you knew its lat/lon.  Like, project a waypoint 2nm out from my current position on the line, at 270 deg bearing.  NOT.  It was a major hurange to try to use it in any practical manner -- but the other crew person who sold them on getting it would wet his pants every time he hooked to the the Wifi with his iPhone and could view the useless chartplotter screen.  Sure, he could also "see" all the instruments on his phone (or might just pick his head up and look at the displays.  d'oh.)

Obviously if you want all instruments integrated, you can't do that with just a gps on a pad.
My question was more toward if you found a good price (or could get you a better one) on whatever manufacturer you were shopping for -- but sounds like you're undecided.

Also just a note that you probably already know -- if trying to use navigation on an iPad, only the cell versions have a true gps receiver (which is integrated w/ the cell phone chip.)  The WiFi versions only do not.

ken

[Noah]

But... If you had a iPhone And an iPad you could connect the two by using its built-in Bluetooth "hotspot" feature and get GPS to the non-cell equipped iPad through your phone.

[KWKloeber]

Noah, 

Not according to what I've read.  Have you confirmed this with an iphone/ipad? (I don't have either to try it.)
I ass/u/med that a gps location wasn't passed via wifi, only with a physical cable (an external gps "reporting" to a laptop usb port.)

Reports I see are that actual gps isn't passed from the phone to the pad -- only by running the AirLocation app on both, but the phone isn't available to "other" ipad apps (like marine nav.) 
https://www.wired.com/2011/04/airlocation-sends-gps-data-from-iphone-to-ipadi/

What I surmise from that, is that the raw gps data isn't actually passed to the pad and available to use -- only the "map location"  Kinda like taking a screen clip of a map on a GPS and emailing a PDF it to your laptop and opening it in Adobe.  You don't get the gps data to use in other PC software.  At least that's what I read between the lines in the above as to how the app works, not having personally tried it.

side note --  if you have a cell ipad, it isn't necessary to have a cell plan to take advantage of some features.  We know it takes a minute for gps to lock onto satellites -- so how does an ipad produce an 'instant' location?  by using the cell chip (even w/o a cell plan) to triangulate towers for an initial (approximate) location or by the wifi "recognizing" a WiFi network location (doesn't work so well with MiFis traveling down the highway in a vehicle  LOL!)

ken

But... If you had a iPhone And an iPad you could connect the two by using its built-in Bluetooth "hotspot" feature and get GPS to the non-cell equipped iPad through your phone.

[KWKloeber]

PS, what I should add (you mentioned both) is that I haven't read anything about whether passing GPS data via Bluetooth works -- only read about using the iPhone personal hotspot (which is WiFi.)

kk

[Noah]

You may be right about GPS functionality not passing through while tethered either with wi-fi or bluetooth. I haven't needed that function as I have dedicated/integrated nav gear, so haven't tried it. Another option may be using a GPS device like Garmin's Glo Bluetooth to push GPS to the iPad. I only use my iPad for surfing while tethered to my phone and as another portable nav screen/controller connected via wi-fi to my NEEMA 2000 network and my B&G nav gear.