Danny Jo
Active member
What is the best strategy for replacing electronic equipment nearing the end of its life?
The 19 year old Philips AP navigator still delivers accurate GPS data to the other instruments and has working alarm functions (depth, proximity, etc). But I have given up trying to use it for waypoint routing because it has a glitch that seems to add around 8200 nm to every route. (The distance and bearing for each leg is calculated accurately, but it persists in telling me that at 5 kt I will take around 6 weeks to cover 30 miles.) The fluxgate compass, B&G instruments and autopilot continue to work almost faultlessly (many of the diplays are partly obscured by condensation). The Raytheon R10X rasterscan radar works after a fashion, but is a pig to use, is far from clear, and cannot be rearranged to be visible from the cockpit. Also I suspect that the cathode ray tube display uses more current than modern ones.
The thought of trying to integrate a replacement GPS receiver with the other instruments brings me out in a cold sweat. There seems to me to be a serious risk of a domino effect. I can just hear the man at the supplier saying "You want to integrate it with THAT old thing?"
I don't really want a chartplotter (or putting it another way, I cannot really afford to pay for electronic charts as well as the paper ones without which I won't put to sea) but it seems that I must have one if I want to replace the radar.
Is a phased approach to replacement of obsolete instruments an practicable option? And if I can't get the Huson 150 SSB transceiver to work (and no manual is available) should I just chuck it?
The 19 year old Philips AP navigator still delivers accurate GPS data to the other instruments and has working alarm functions (depth, proximity, etc). But I have given up trying to use it for waypoint routing because it has a glitch that seems to add around 8200 nm to every route. (The distance and bearing for each leg is calculated accurately, but it persists in telling me that at 5 kt I will take around 6 weeks to cover 30 miles.) The fluxgate compass, B&G instruments and autopilot continue to work almost faultlessly (many of the diplays are partly obscured by condensation). The Raytheon R10X rasterscan radar works after a fashion, but is a pig to use, is far from clear, and cannot be rearranged to be visible from the cockpit. Also I suspect that the cathode ray tube display uses more current than modern ones.
The thought of trying to integrate a replacement GPS receiver with the other instruments brings me out in a cold sweat. There seems to me to be a serious risk of a domino effect. I can just hear the man at the supplier saying "You want to integrate it with THAT old thing?"
I don't really want a chartplotter (or putting it another way, I cannot really afford to pay for electronic charts as well as the paper ones without which I won't put to sea) but it seems that I must have one if I want to replace the radar.
Is a phased approach to replacement of obsolete instruments an practicable option? And if I can't get the Huson 150 SSB transceiver to work (and no manual is available) should I just chuck it?