You know you have a true boat babe when you and wife agree to spend extra year end bonus money to upgrade our 1981 h33. She even agreed that we need to to something about broke depthsounder. Depthsounder only or go with chart plotter? Which kind of chart plotter would you get if you were starting from scratch? What are the most usefull features that you would look for? Internet downloadable charts? Connection to PC/Laptop for updates? Marine networking for maybe a radar unit upgrade later? Fish finder? Integration with autopilot? Your thoughts are appreciated.
new chartplotter
- Thread starter ChuckThomas
- Start date
- Status
Raymarine C or E series
If you intend to integrate with autopilot. The Garmin's come pre-loaded with charts if you intend to remain in the US. Give Trevor a call at the Offshore store, he's got all the answers! http://www.offshorestore.com/
If you intend to integrate with autopilot. The Garmin's come pre-loaded with charts if you intend to remain in the US. Give Trevor a call at the Offshore store, he's got all the answers! http://www.offshorestore.com/
Garmin for me
I have had very good success with Garmin products. The newer 498 series has all the US charts built in, as well as a very good depth sounder. The Garmin seems to be a little more user friendly than others. If I wanted to tie everything together I would have to take a long hard look at Raymarine. The Garmin will interface, but has to be with other brands, as they do not make an auto pilot. It does have a NEMA output. My personal preferance is to let everything stand alone. I am just a little bit anal about one instrument corrupting another. A friend who has all Ray marine stuff tied together likes it, and it does work well.
I have had very good success with Garmin products. The newer 498 series has all the US charts built in, as well as a very good depth sounder. The Garmin seems to be a little more user friendly than others. If I wanted to tie everything together I would have to take a long hard look at Raymarine. The Garmin will interface, but has to be with other brands, as they do not make an auto pilot. It does have a NEMA output. My personal preferance is to let everything stand alone. I am just a little bit anal about one instrument corrupting another. A friend who has all Ray marine stuff tied together likes it, and it does work well.
options
Hello, Your budget will have a big impact on your selection. You can get a basic chartplotter for $300 or you can spend $5000 for something with all the bells and whistles. Some brands for you to consider are Garmin, Raymarine, Simrad, Lowrance, Northstar, Standard Horizon, Furuno, Navman, etc. Since your depth gauge is not working, I would get a combo chart plotter / sonar unit. Some of them are cheap, others are expensive. Features for you to consider: -Screen size. IMHO, get something at least 5". Bigger is better, especially if you want to display sonar, radar, AIS, etc. -NMEA 2000 for data in / out. This networking scheme is much easier to use than older schemes like NMEA 0183 -Latest units allow you to add radar and overlay the display on the chart. Garmin, Lowrance, Simrad, Raymarine, etc. can all do this. In the spring of this year I bought a Lowrance LMS 337C DF combo SONAR / Chartplotter unit. I paid about $500 for the unit and $90 for detailed charts / marine points of interest for the entire US. I am very happy with the unit. Lastly, who will install the unit? If you are not going to do it, you can easily spend $1000 to install the unit. Some of the Edson mounts are hundreds of dollars, and that is just the mount! Good luck, Barry
Hello, Your budget will have a big impact on your selection. You can get a basic chartplotter for $300 or you can spend $5000 for something with all the bells and whistles. Some brands for you to consider are Garmin, Raymarine, Simrad, Lowrance, Northstar, Standard Horizon, Furuno, Navman, etc. Since your depth gauge is not working, I would get a combo chart plotter / sonar unit. Some of them are cheap, others are expensive. Features for you to consider: -Screen size. IMHO, get something at least 5". Bigger is better, especially if you want to display sonar, radar, AIS, etc. -NMEA 2000 for data in / out. This networking scheme is much easier to use than older schemes like NMEA 0183 -Latest units allow you to add radar and overlay the display on the chart. Garmin, Lowrance, Simrad, Raymarine, etc. can all do this. In the spring of this year I bought a Lowrance LMS 337C DF combo SONAR / Chartplotter unit. I paid about $500 for the unit and $90 for detailed charts / marine points of interest for the entire US. I am very happy with the unit. Lastly, who will install the unit? If you are not going to do it, you can easily spend $1000 to install the unit. Some of the Edson mounts are hundreds of dollars, and that is just the mount! Good luck, Barry
My thoughts are
I know, who cares, but anyway, first figure out how you're going to use the darn thing. You can get pretty much get any feature in both fixed and handheld. My computer is a laptop. For me, portability is everything. We just popped for the 478. It's our first ever chartplotter and we couldn't be happier. With RAM mounts I use the same unit mounted at the helm, companionway, and nav station. There's power and data cabling run to each mount so it usually runs on the house bank. It'll run 4 to 10 hours on it's own depending on what you're asking it to do. Sometimes we'll use it to find businesses we need when we pull into port. We've used it to navigate new cities whether we're walking about or tooling in a rented car. Everything's preloaded. It'll take cards but you probably won't use them. For us, the prototypical fixed screen mounted at the helm would be horrible. We're never actually at the helm when we're seriously under way. I think having information at or around the companionway is the only way to go (for us.) I can't tell you how nice it is to be cozy under the dodger heading into a biting wind with water coming over the bow rather than huddling by the wheel trying to read the screen. The most significant blood-pressure lowering feature on the 478 was XM Weather. I could animate real time NEXRAD, satellite composites, call up buoy reports, you name it. It was worth every penny ($30 - $50/month depending features. See other post re: spending WAY too much time thinking of ways to spend money I don't have.) It works for us.
I know, who cares, but anyway, first figure out how you're going to use the darn thing. You can get pretty much get any feature in both fixed and handheld. My computer is a laptop. For me, portability is everything. We just popped for the 478. It's our first ever chartplotter and we couldn't be happier. With RAM mounts I use the same unit mounted at the helm, companionway, and nav station. There's power and data cabling run to each mount so it usually runs on the house bank. It'll run 4 to 10 hours on it's own depending on what you're asking it to do. Sometimes we'll use it to find businesses we need when we pull into port. We've used it to navigate new cities whether we're walking about or tooling in a rented car. Everything's preloaded. It'll take cards but you probably won't use them. For us, the prototypical fixed screen mounted at the helm would be horrible. We're never actually at the helm when we're seriously under way. I think having information at or around the companionway is the only way to go (for us.) I can't tell you how nice it is to be cozy under the dodger heading into a biting wind with water coming over the bow rather than huddling by the wheel trying to read the screen. The most significant blood-pressure lowering feature on the 478 was XM Weather. I could animate real time NEXRAD, satellite composites, call up buoy reports, you name it. It was worth every penny ($30 - $50/month depending features. See other post re: spending WAY too much time thinking of ways to spend money I don't have.) It works for us.
I second Terry on the Garmin 178c....
We bought one last year and are very happy with it. Obviously, it doesn't have the features of the C and E series, but it also doesn't have the cost, either. Looks like you can get a used one on e-Bay for around $250. It hooked up to our Raymarine ST4000+ autopilot without any difficulty (after I got the polarity of the wires correct... the Commodore wasn't impressed by our first sea trial, when we turned a few 360s a little too close to the breakwater), it's a standard NMEA single-pair hookup. The a/p accepts the cross-track data and keeps us on course pretty well. I installed the unit on the steering pedestal, on an arm so it can be rotated 270 degrees, which means we can see it from under the dodger (the a/p rotates as well). You can get the fancy depth-sounder box for it, but we haven't bothered. Hookup to radar? I think you're back up into the top-end C or E series Raymarine stuff... bring 5 figures or a second mortgage. Overall, it really comes down to where you want to spend your boat bucks, I reckon. Cheers, Bob s/y X SAIL R 8
We bought one last year and are very happy with it. Obviously, it doesn't have the features of the C and E series, but it also doesn't have the cost, either. Looks like you can get a used one on e-Bay for around $250. It hooked up to our Raymarine ST4000+ autopilot without any difficulty (after I got the polarity of the wires correct... the Commodore wasn't impressed by our first sea trial, when we turned a few 360s a little too close to the breakwater), it's a standard NMEA single-pair hookup. The a/p accepts the cross-track data and keeps us on course pretty well. I installed the unit on the steering pedestal, on an arm so it can be rotated 270 degrees, which means we can see it from under the dodger (the a/p rotates as well). You can get the fancy depth-sounder box for it, but we haven't bothered. Hookup to radar? I think you're back up into the top-end C or E series Raymarine stuff... bring 5 figures or a second mortgage. Overall, it really comes down to where you want to spend your boat bucks, I reckon. Cheers, Bob s/y X SAIL R 8
I waited 3 or 4 years
To pick out what I thought would satisfy my needs, and desires. After spending that time and doing with the handheld Garmin GPS Map76S (which I love to death) I was ready to make that plunge. The boat came with the ST 60 Raymarine Speed, Depth, and Wind package. It was fairly easy to choose to make use of the Sea-Talk system and incorporate what I had with the Chartplotter, Autohelm and Radar and Fish Finder set up. I have started with the C-80 Head and Chartplotter and the ST 8002 Autohelm. Next year I'll add the Radar, 4Kw more than likely and then the Fish Finder. I am real happy with the C-80 and especially happy with the 8002. It is a sweet autopilot with lots of features, such as autotack. Good Luck
To pick out what I thought would satisfy my needs, and desires. After spending that time and doing with the handheld Garmin GPS Map76S (which I love to death) I was ready to make that plunge. The boat came with the ST 60 Raymarine Speed, Depth, and Wind package. It was fairly easy to choose to make use of the Sea-Talk system and incorporate what I had with the Chartplotter, Autohelm and Radar and Fish Finder set up. I have started with the C-80 Head and Chartplotter and the ST 8002 Autohelm. Next year I'll add the Radar, 4Kw more than likely and then the Fish Finder. I am real happy with the C-80 and especially happy with the 8002. It is a sweet autopilot with lots of features, such as autotack. Good Luck
thanks for all the input
Can y'all post pictures of mounts under dodger? I like the way Brian from solar stick has his. (more pictures brian please).
Can y'all post pictures of mounts under dodger? I like the way Brian from solar stick has his. (more pictures brian please).
how do you...
operate it under the dodger when you are at the helm? Boat Hook? Remote Control? Fuel Stick?
operate it under the dodger when you are at the helm? Boat Hook? Remote Control? Fuel Stick?
Under the dodger
Chuck, All the Garmin fixed mount units are waterproof. And unless you spend the big bucks and to with one of the really large units the screen is too small to really see from the helm if you mount it under the dodger. For sure the depth and compass readings would be too small, unless you have exceptional eyesight. They come with a mount, that is pretty easy to use. There are pods available, that are nice looking, and somewhat expensive. On the S2 I made a small wooden bracket, which holds both the radar and the GPS. On the Seidelman, I used a starboard, or similar material, cup holder which clips to the tubes. Just flipped it upside down. Looks pretty good and works fine. And enough room to add a radar display when I get to that point. I use an old Lawrence hand held as a back up and a nav station unit, but the Garmin 498 stays at the helm.
Chuck, All the Garmin fixed mount units are waterproof. And unless you spend the big bucks and to with one of the really large units the screen is too small to really see from the helm if you mount it under the dodger. For sure the depth and compass readings would be too small, unless you have exceptional eyesight. They come with a mount, that is pretty easy to use. There are pods available, that are nice looking, and somewhat expensive. On the S2 I made a small wooden bracket, which holds both the radar and the GPS. On the Seidelman, I used a starboard, or similar material, cup holder which clips to the tubes. Just flipped it upside down. Looks pretty good and works fine. And enough room to add a radar display when I get to that point. I use an old Lawrence hand held as a back up and a nav station unit, but the Garmin 498 stays at the helm.
Mount at the pedestal with a swivel pod?
Chuch: Sounds like the boat babe is with you on this. Have you told her that you could easily spend $500 - 3000 ro more on a nice unit? I think you need to determine your budget for a device too. Even the lower end Raymarine A series can drive an autopilot. The problem them those units is they don't interface with the rest of the Raymarine instruments. The C & E units will interface, but they are quite expensive. Figure out a budget and the features and your decision will be narrowed down by the units availabe in your price range.
Chuch: Sounds like the boat babe is with you on this. Have you told her that you could easily spend $500 - 3000 ro more on a nice unit? I think you need to determine your budget for a device too. Even the lower end Raymarine A series can drive an autopilot. The problem them those units is they don't interface with the rest of the Raymarine instruments. The C & E units will interface, but they are quite expensive. Figure out a budget and the features and your decision will be narrowed down by the units availabe in your price range.
- Status