Garmin plotter with Furuno radar, Raymarine sensors

Feb 16, 2021
265
Hunter Legend 35.5 Bellingham
I have multiple sensors I'd like to connect with my chartplotter, but I'm not sure if all are compatible. I do have NMEA on the Garmin, but understand there are potential compatibility issues between Furuno, Raymarine and Garmin.

My electronics are:
Chart Plotter: Garmin GPS MAP 741XS
Radar: Furuno 1623
Sounder/Knotmeter/Wind anemometer: Raymarine ST60
AIS: Comar AIS-Multi

I'd really like to get depth, wind, AIS and especially radar on my Garmin 741XS. I will be boating mainly with my wife and 20 month old, and would really like all my info integrated on the plotter.

Any one have any experience integrating these systems or have any suggestions?

Much thanks
 
Jan 11, 2014
11,424
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
Generally, with enough money and patience bridging devices can be assembled to let everyone talk to everyone else, except the radar. Radar is almost always proprietary.

If all of your devices are NMEA 2000, it is pretty easy mostly connectors. If you are mixing NMEA 2000 and NMEA 0183, it can usually be done but there may be limitations.

So, step one is to determine which devices are using which networking system. Just to make this more challenging for early NMEA 2000 and NMEA 0183 the various companies used proprietary names for the same networking protocols. Once you ascertain what you have, then you can begin looking for solutions.
 
Feb 16, 2021
265
Hunter Legend 35.5 Bellingham
Great, much thanks @dlochner. So Just to be clear, if I want stick with my Furuno radar, I’ll need to get a Furuno chart plotter. If I prefer to stick with the Garmin chart plotter, I will need to get a Garmin radar. There is no way to bridge the two. Correct?
 
Jan 11, 2014
11,424
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
Great, much thanks @dlochner. So Just to be clear, if I want stick with my Furuno radar, I’ll need to get a Furuno chart plotter. If I prefer to stick with the Garmin chart plotter, I will need to get a Garmin radar. There is no way to bridge the two. Correct?
Pretty much and your Garmin chartplotter may not be compatible with any current generation radar

Boating electronics have been evolving quickly. A good first step will be to look at the websites and get a sense of how old the instruments are and what they are capable of. Be forewarned this may be very disappointing information. Next decide what you really need and want.

There is a market for older used equipment on eBay, I've sold off some outdated equipment there, remember that is a buyer-beware environment.
 
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Feb 2, 2010
373
Island Packet 37 Hull #2 Harpswell Me
Because you are using 4 different manufacturers you are going to get 4 different reasons / excuses for why one item is not talking to another, for that reason i have only got Raymarine onboard, never had a problem , their tech support is pretty good.
 
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Oct 22, 2014
21,104
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
When trying to combine various electronic systems it is best to understand each system and it’s capabilities. Evaluate how you plan to cruise. Then consider the data being provided and determine the relevance of this data to your planned cruising experiences.

Only then can you with some sense of priority evaluate the reward for the efforts you are considering.

I’m guessing you have read enough online about sailing, to conjecture you need to have everything at your fingertips, integrated, all displayed before you in order to survive on the water in your sailboat.

Wrap yourself in an electronic cocoon then you and your family will be safe.

It does not work that way.

Your list of systems, some of which I do not know personally, are not of an age or design to be used together let alone merged into a single, all knowing, display of data bits streaming to your cortex.

Yet each system appears to provide good sensory data that when combined by your boating skill will allow you to perceive beyond the limits of your eyes and ears.

This company builds AIS systems but from your description I cannot tell exactly what you have.

Milltech Marine sells boat tech. Here they describe the merging of your Comar Multi with the Vesper Marine AISWatchmate. Leads me to question what system you have creating the AIS data.

Your Furuno Radar is a solid analog radar with a 16mile range in a size that is geared to sailboats. Have you ever used radar?
Becoming familiar with radar and its capabilities might be a place to start. It takes a bit of skill to interpret the screen blips and relate them to real on water objects so that in your mind you can construct a situational awareness of what surrounds you. Having to do this at the same time you are trying to motor or sail can become a mental overload situation very quickly.

Your Garmin chart plotter, while a superseded product in their long line of plotters, appears to be capable of building a route and monitoring your progress along that route. It will use and display your Raymarine wind transducer data if you can connect it and have the data talk the same language as the chart plotter. This appears to be NMEA2000. I suspect your ST60is using Seatalk connections which likely are a version of NMEA0183 data streams.

No one said this would be easy.

If it were me with a new boat, I would spend my time focusing on the boat and building my sailing skills each day so that I could sail the boat blindfolded in the dark with nothing more that someone telling me “Don’t hit that channel marker on your right as you leave the marina.“
 

BarryL

.
May 21, 2004
1,010
Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 409 Mt. Sinai, NY
Hello,

As mentioned, forget about getting the radar interfaced with anything else.

The Raymarine depth / speed / wind instruments will very easily interface to the garmin. You need to convert the raymarine sea talk to NMEA 2000. Go here for more information

You probably need a seatalk to seatalk NG converter (Part Number: E22158 ) and a seatalk NG to NMEA 2000 converter connector (Raymarine and other companies sell a wide variety of them).

Once the devices are connected you will have wind information on the garmin, which can display true and apparent wind, and speed through water and speed over ground.

I don't know anything about your AIS system, but if it can be connected to the NMEA2000 network, the garmin will display the AIS information as well.

I did all this back in 2015 or so and it was very easy.

Barry
 
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