Electronics replacement of Raymarine

seadaddler · Dec 19, 2014

??????

What's wrong with raymarine,I have C-80 with all the other raymarine
instruments and very happy and everything is great.
Nick

Meriachee · Dec 19, 2014

We have a couple of i70, a p70 and an a65 and they are just fine. GPS integration with the StandardHorizon for AIS. Great readability, networked displays, turn one up or down, they all change, and the ability to customize the screens is fantastic.
Same question as Nick's, what's wrong with Ray?

Sailgunner · Dec 20, 2014

If your wind, depth, auto, etc are working fine why do you want to replace them? You can purchase new radar and MFD and integrate them with your older instruments and they all work together. Whatever you decide to do I recommend you have all your instruments integrated so you can see all data on your MFD.

Bob 04 H260 · Dec 20, 2014

Whatever you want should be on sale at the Miami boatshow in mid-Feb. They often have some very good deals on a package.

We are all RM, when the MFD was upgraded to a C120W the seatalk from our 3 ST60s was fed into an ST70 display. This was an easy inexpensive way to output all the data to a new colour display without having to do any wiring, new transducers etc.

Bob

Chief RA · Dec 20, 2014

Lots of good advice here. As a sailor and EE I would also encourage you to stay within the Raymarine family. Only update as needed for AIS or other updates with radar or sonar.
Chief

Maine Sail · Dec 20, 2014

drtsr1 said:
I have a raymarine setup. 2000yr Hunter 460.
2 chart plotters, color and green screen, 2 sets of st 60 wind, depth, etc, auto pilo, radar.
I would like to step up to a newer model. Preferably not raymarine.but would consider.

Looking for suggestions
Quality, ease of use, and cost

I would like to thank you in advance for any input

I install it all and get to see the good, bad and ugly...

Garmin - Least customer complaints, least issues, okay tech support (hit or miss), price competitive.

Raymarine - Most customer complaints, most "glitches", I get very good support, end user customers don't get what I get. Pricing of complete "installed system" is most expensive due to all the gotcha cables they don't tell you about etc....

Navico - Marginal complaints, a few glitches, I get marginally good support customers seem to get worse than I do, price competitive. Zeus software is very cool! (Navico = Lowrance, Simrad, B&G)

Furuno - Have not installed on a sailboat in a long time. Reliable on smaller less complicated systems, good support but have priced themselves out of the sailboat market due to limiting dealer network in order to drive margins up.. Mostly install for offshore fishing..

Meriachee · Dec 20, 2014

Maine, no gotchas at all once you get the white adapter, protocol converter and the stng-nmea adapters (plural)
Good luck seeing that in any of the books! Then it works great, because the little niggly stuff ceases to matter. Ha

Cheers
Gary

Maine Sail · Dec 20, 2014

Meriachee said:
Maine, no gotchas at all once you get the white adapter, protocol converter and the stng-nmea adapters (plural)
Good luck seeing that in any of the books! Then it works great, because the little niggly stuff ceases to matter. Ha

Cheers
Gary

The gotchas I am referring to have more to do with the 3' cable they provide from AP head to computer, which used to be a 30' cable, or the fact that you need to buy a ST to STNG converter kit to get older legacy ST stuff to work with new stuff... Ray just does a much better job a nickel & diming you than some others and this stuff is not made clear up front to the customer..

Chief RA · Dec 20, 2014

Sorry guys, I have been retired for years and could still do way better than you indicate these Techs are doing! I think much of them are crooks and they are recommending replacement of items not needing replacement. It seems the attitude is, if you can afford that boat then its OK for me to rip you off! Honest business men are becoming rare!

Chief

Maine Sail · Dec 20, 2014

drtsr1 said:
Question if you where putting one of these product lines on your boat which would you choose?

I would mix & match. With N2k We are way beyond locking ourselves into one brand as we've been brainwashed to do in the past. Today you pick the best units for the application...

Plotter / Radar = Garmin or Navico

Heading Sensor - Airmar H2183 (EV sensor would replace this if Ray AP)

Instruments = Garmin GMI 21's

Wind/Weather Sensor = Airmar 110WX mast head wind/weather sensor (perhaps a 150WX)

Speed Sensor = Airmar DST 900 Ultrasonic Speed Transducer

Autopilot Computer/Control = Raymarine Evolution (I may go Garmin for AP but Ray has the edge right now)

Autopilot Drive = Octopus Drive

Maine Sail · Dec 20, 2014

drtsr1 said:
I was at Miami show last year and it took 4 hours of disgn / diagram work with 3 techs then the parts list, and pricing and they still missed parts. Oh yea the first list was over $6000.

I just don't get it that 3 techs with the new and old technology experience can make the mistakes they did. It left me with a bad feeling.

If this was a Raymarine quote it is understandable. They have made so many changes in the last three years even the installer level tech support can't keep up with the changes. Hundreds of cables, options, transducers, converters, a mid-model change in Raynet plugs, sensors, course computers, drives etc.. it is not as easy as some think it is... You literally need to sit down and design it on paper then make sure you have all the cables, transducers, converters, terminators, etc. etc., etc. etc....

Chief RA · Dec 20, 2014

Maine Sail: Isnt it going to just get worse trying to "mix & match" between brands and connector types? Chief

Maine Sail · Dec 20, 2014

Chief RA said:
Maine Sail: Isnt it going to just get worse trying to "mix & match" between brands and connector types? Chief

Not at all. Most companies today are complying with NEMA 2000 DeviceNet with the exception being radar.. Everything else from wind, depth, speed, weather, engine sensors, tank sensors, AIS etc. etc. etc.. is all N2K. Raymarine is also NEMA 2000 but they kind of dance around it and use their own SeaTalk ng cabling which forces you to use an STng to N2K adapter, not a big deal. They also try to skirt supporting their equipment with other products by not outright claiming STng 100% N2K, but in reality it is.

I prefer it when companies that use standard N2K protocol cables but it is easy enough to tap into the bus with a drop adapter.

artboas · Dec 20, 2014

Ok, I really think this is the best solution

drtsr1 said:
I have a raymarine setup. 2000yr Hunter 460.
2 chart plotters, color and green screen, 2 sets of st 60 wind, depth, etc, auto pilo, radar.
I would like to step up to a newer model. Preferably not raymarine.but would consider.

Looking for suggestions
Quality, ease of use, and cost

I would like to thank you in advance for any input

If you do this, you will be very happy
Keep your Raymarine wind, speed & depth sensors
Get the Raymarine itc-5 interface. It puts all your sensors onto N2k (Stng), and it works flawlessly .
Get the I70 instruments. They are amazing
Now, you gave a choice
The new i60 is a re-packaged version of your ST60 wind. It does the same thing. You can keep the old st60 wind, but :
It won't match the look of the i70s
You'll need a STNg - st1 converter (($100).
Also, the lighting controls won't work across all instruments.
You will need to install a Stng backbone, Spurs, etc. Not horrible to do, and the i70s make it all worthwhile
Get the latest E series of Raymarine chart plotter. Only problem is you need a new radome. So... This gets a little dicey,
I did mine with the stick up, but it generally means pulling the spar.
The original radomes were all analog, with multi conductor cables. The new digital domes just need 12v & Stng data.
Your original autopilot is a small problem
You likely have a st6001 controller. What you want is the new P70, but you will now for sure need the Stng converter as the old pilot is ST1 only.

This is a bunch of boat bucks, but I did the whole upgrade on my 49, and am very happy,
Good luck

uncledom · Dec 21, 2014

On my last boat I gutted the 18 year old Ray stuff and went with Garmin and Airmar. It was easy to install and worked flawlessly including the AIS interface. This boat has all Ray Marine. I like the Garmin interface better, meaning the screen layouts and controls, but would not spend the thousands of dollars needed to swap out all the gauges. The Ray works fine and is very usable just not as intuitive. This is just my opinion. Go play with them all and see what you like. Your the one who's got to live with it once it's installed. I had a dimming issue on the 12" helm unit, it was out of warranty so $500.00 to fix it.

Kestle · Dec 21, 2014

Also look at KKE. We are currently going with on the race boat.

Jeff