Second station or Lap top

[Phil Rains]

We just added the RL70RC this year, with the display at the helm. My thoughts are, that next year I would add either a second display at the Nav station or just connect up to my laptop. What's the advantage/disadvantage to either. Also, my current display is LCD mono. Could the second display be color?

 

[Bill Boudreau]

HSB Compatibility

It would probably be best to use an HSB compatible display at the nav station. There are advantages to both, but the big advantage of the HSB display is the video transfer. With a PC and software at the nav station, you would need a second set of charts at the lower station. You could use your C-Map charts with our Raytech Navigator software, but you would need an accessory C-Map Chart Reader and a second set of charts. The HSB Navigator displays are simple to operate and install. You can transfer data to anything at the nav station, but the video transfer is the sticking point on this one.Take a look at the HSB products at:http://www.raymarine.com/recreational/products/index/navaids/chartplotters/index_body.htmlcut and past this link into your browser

 

[Bill Walton]

Agree with BB but ...

It's so much easier to build routes on a PC than on one of the CPs. I have a HSB CP at the helm and at the navstation but always find myself building a route on my PC. Currently, one can only upload this route to Raytheon gear if one has their software. I purchased Navigator,ver 3, and find it inferior to Chartview Pro and Visual Navigator in it's features and ease of operation. It is still a young product so perhaps it will improve. What is needed now however is for Raytheon to work with other vendors to enable one to upload routes and WPs to the Raytheon HSB CPs from other software. Bill can you address this issue?

 

[mark stevens]

laptop quality?

I dont pretend to know which method is better but I would offer a word of caution regarding using your existing? laptop. Will it stand up to the rigors of a marine environment?

 

[R DEUTSCH]

Laptop

Although we have the 450 for sale,having the laptop for nav purposes was great and I plan on doing the same with my new boat. Lets face it half the stuff we have on our boats are not marine and they work fine. I have the captain and it is great for planning a route and it goes into my sea talk and second monitor I have topside.Marine products are twice the price so if they do go we have the chance to buy it twice and with the new stuff they come out with available.Go baby  mcbubba720@aol.com==============ny

 

[Phil Rains]

Thanks for the input

Thanks for everyone's input. I'll probably end up using both as I have a fairly fast "old laptop" that I will retire to boat use (better then the other desktops and laptops that I have sitting in boxes in the basement). Besides, the boat us just a vehicle for ancillary toys.