chartplotter dead -raymarine dragon fly as a replacement?

[ozzie]

I have been having problems with my raymarine RC435 struggling to get a fix/dropping out. I had a guy look at it and he thought he had sorted it, but no such luck. He came back and rigged a new antenna, but it showed the same faults. The conclusion being the plotter is knackered. Having only recently bought the boat I hadnt factored in replacing the plotter, hence only a limited budget.
The second problem is the existing plotter is surface mounted so the replacement really needs to cover the hole without being too big for the location.I do like the downscan imaging and the raymarine dragonfly 7 will fit perfectly. I have been trying to do some research, and whilst there is plenty of information and pictures of the sonar and imaging, there is not a lot about the plotter functions. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has used one before deciding if it will be upto the job. Alternatively I would be open to suggestions for other plotters. I do need to get it sorted ASAP as we are hoping to get away week after next!

 

[stuartwineberg]

I was interested that in last year's Raymarine catalogue the warranty on the dragonfly transducer was significantly less than for the rest of their gear suggesting doubts about reliability (sorry I can't remember the exact details - lost the brochure). I have the same plotter as you and it is very dated with a very small screen and slow refresh rate. I use ipad with Navionics HD but I am only going local, don't have autopilot and the plotter still displays a good radar pic as a backup if needed so slightly different scenario to you

I have been having problems with my raymarine RC435 struggling to get a fix/dropping out. I had a guy look at it and he thought he had sorted it, but no such luck. He came back and rigged a new antenna, but it showed the same faults. The conclusion being the plotter is knackered. Having only recently bought the boat I hadnt factored in replacing the plotter, hence only a limited budget.
The second problem is the existing plotter is surface mounted so the replacement really needs to cover the hole without being too big for the location.I do like the downscan imaging and the raymarine dragonfly 7 will fit perfectly. I have been trying to do some research, and whilst there is plenty of information and pictures of the sonar and imaging, there is not a lot about the plotter functions. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has used one before deciding if it will be upto the job. Alternatively I would be open to suggestions for other plotters. I do need to get it sorted ASAP as we are hoping to get away week after next!

 

[ozzie]

I have been looking again, and I am not sure the dragon fly will be suitable. I am now looking at the lowrance hds 7m gen2. It will cover the hole and looks to be a good quality unit with the functions I need