Garmin Wireless GMX wind pack

jmce1587 · Feb 20, 2019

I have the G wind wireless 2 unit tied into my Garmin chart plotter.

Pros: no mast wiring/cable pulls, easy mast top install. Neat info for racing, wind data
Cons: at least for my boat/mast height, I’m at the upper range of the wireless capabilities at 50’ so I’m having to frequently “reconnect” the wind sensor to my chart plotter display. This may not be a problem with a dedicated display. Would suggest discussing this with Garmin Tech Support folks. They were helpful with me.

If you go with this unit, Let me know how this works for you. Jerry

HMT2 · Feb 21, 2019

I have a sister ship to Jerry. I had the GWind wireless system matched to an older Garmin chart plotter. The GWind is older technology and used a gnd10 black box as a receiver for the wireless signal from the wind sensor them into a N2K network. I worked for months with Garmin support. I literally replaced every component one at a time. It worked but intermittently. I gave up and went to the cheaper wired unit and used the cost savings to put towards my rigger running the cable. I did not look at the Raymarine wireless product because I was trying to use all Garmin stuff. Which I failed at when it came time to replace my wheel pilot. But that’s another story.

Edit: My rigger was able to get my cable run with my mast up.

jmce1587 · Feb 21, 2019

Hi Peter

No, I didn’t look at Raymarine. I have all Garmin (plotter, AIS, radar, wind) on my boat except for Raymarine EV auto pilot. these units are great when tranmitting info to my Garmin chart plotter. It’s the intermittency and frequent reconnects that you may have to put up with if going wireless. I installed my unit a few years ago. See if Raymarine tech support can tell if you if they have worked out these bugs on the wireless package. Mikes boat is not far from me and he finally threw in the towel and hard wired his unit. I’m not there yet.

Let us know what you decide on either hard wired or wireless and how it works for you.

jmce1587 · Feb 21, 2019

Sorry that should have read “Garmin tech support.....”.

HMT2 · Feb 21, 2019

peterbud said:
do you know how he got it out of the mast

Both Jerry's and my masts are deck stepped with a compression post that has a slot for the wires to go through. I replaced my VHF cable while they were doing it (we went with a thinner VHF cable to make some room, the old one was extra thick) and they used the old cable to pull the new cable, plus a messenger and then used the messenger to pull the wind instrument cable through. It didn't take them but an hour or so to do it.