Chartplotter Location

[Pords]

Morning All

I have a dilemma in as much it's time to upgrade existing Lowrance 3500c to a Garmin 750 with AIS. Now where do you guys mount, in the cabin or cockpit? Can see the benefit when hunkered down on long passages for the plotter to be located in the cabin, but also like to see whats going on when up top (And also hear AIS Alarm)

I am keeping the lowrance as a secondary plotter but this doesn't have AIS capability hence why I'm changing.

Any ideas?

Jon

 

[Pye_End]

I ran a NASA AIS down below with a guard zone and load buzzer, and found this perfectly satisfactory, and far more preferable than outside. The time you need the AIS functionality most is asleep, and if the alarm goes off then you can hopefully see the screen from your bunk. From a coastal perspective it is possibly of more use outside, although I only ever miss not being able to see it when there is thick fog and alone.

I looked at upgrading my setup to a Garmin 551 or similar with an AIS feed as the detail on the screen is more intuitive, and as more yachts have transponders then it is probably easier to work out which targets are likely to of particular interest, but for use in the Jester challenge there is a cost to be paid in terms of power consumption. Instead I have gone with a YAPP GPS and will stick with the NASA, and this will use virtually no power. However, for coastal use I shall eventually do what you have done, but perhaps by then there will be a handheld chartplotter (like a 276) with AIS built in, and then it can be used for both 'up and down'. I tend to navigate from a chart table, with charts, but many seem to navigate outside using purely electronics, so it depends a bit on your preferance.

There is one other option - an i70 display outside and a Garmin chartplotter inside, both fed from an AIS receiver. Not a cheap option though!

 

[Pords]

Thanks Jonathan. Was looking at the NASA AIS as an independent set up and it does look like a good bit of kit and cheaper than the Garmin 300 AIS receiver to add to the plotter.

Will do some more research and try and come up with a compromise to suit my needs.

 

[Athene V30]

I put a Standard Horizon CP 300 in cockpit on last 2 boats and am thinking of same again for this one so I can see from helm / for pilotage etc.

Am thinking of adding a SH GX21000E Vhf with AIS in cabin but connecting to chart plotter. Then if I have read the blurb correctly I will have an AIS display at chart table on the VHF set and in cockpit on the Chart Plotter.

 

[hrchivers]

I have a GX21000 vhf at the chart table and a Garmin 551 in the cockpit. I had thought about providing a separate GPS feed to the radio to save power, but it turns out that if you turn the screen of the 551 off it uses very little power, so I leave it on as a gps source and set the AIS alarm depending where I am. This all works well. I might in the future wire a second mount for the 551 at the chart table so that I can move the plotter.

 

[Pye_End]

but it turns out that if you turn the screen of the 551 off it uses very little power,

Do you happen to know how little? The manuals on 451/551/557 give max power usages, and the 557 gives a typical usage, but none of them indicate a minimum. I have an old Garmin 75 which is not entirely reliable, but have put off changing it so far. If you have some means of measuring it I would be most interested.

 

[hrchivers]

I'm away from home at present, will try to remember to see if I still have the numbers when I get back next week. From memory I was comparing it with a handheld non-map GPS (predecessor of GPS60 I think) and with the screen on the 551 turned off it used a similar amount of power.

 

[Independence]

Just out of interest, for the 2008 Azores Challenge I had a Garmin 126 mounted externally on the washboards with the toggle connector inboard. On the way back I began to get some power issues and realised that salt water had infiltrated the connection.

I now use a 126 situated in the cockpit for coastal work and a 128 down below for longer off-shore passages.

It might be worth checking whether 'waterproof' units include elctrical connections. A few big dumps of sea into the cockpit will eventually let you know

 

[PacketRat]

My electrics are wired with domestic cable and therefore suitably "indoors".

 

[AlbertSeely]

hi all
coming on the board fresh and set to begin with the sharing and getting into the discussion keep on run here .. hope i am invited

 

[Pords]

Ok this is what I have decided to do. Order Garmin 750 with AIS 300 and put a power source in the cockpit and additionally in the cabin with an external antenna, that way can move plotter when down below-and maintain visibility of AIS. Keep the lowrance 3500c fixed in the cabin as a back up plotter for when the 750 is in use in the cockpit. Also have a handheld Garmin gps V which is a good little unit which runs on 12v or batteries as a spare, just I case all else fails.

 

[Pords]

hi all
coming on the board fresh and set to begin with the sharing and getting into the discussion keep on run here .. hope i am invited

Welcome. My brother lives in NYC and keeps his boat on the Long Island sound. Trying to persuade him to buy a sailboat and get rid off his juice guzzler. He slowly starting to realise the benefits if he was to do so. Plus I could get to go out on holiday and help him to sail.

Sure you will find this forum a wealth of knowledge and advice.

Jon

 

[PacketRat]

hi all .. hope i am invited

Welcome! :encouragement:

 

[Pords]

Well, went to order the garmin 750 and it's discontinued and I can't get hold of one anywhere. So have to go to plan b and get the 751 which replaced the 750, more money obviously but does look like a good bit of kit. Still waiting for a break in the weather to start getting jobs done and ready for lift in.

 

[Zubenali]

I have a Garmin 551 and bought a second mount and cable so I have it in the cockpit for costal use but can also have it below, useful for passage planning or when not in the cockpit. I can check heading, speed (so a good idea of sail trim) AIS etc all from my quarter berth. Use quarter berth as I can't get thrown out!

 

[hrchivers]

Do you happen to know how little? The manuals on 451/551/557 give max power usages, and the 557 gives a typical usage, but none of them indicate a minimum. I have an old Garmin 75 which is not entirely reliable, but have put off changing it so far. If you have some means of measuring it I would be most interested.

I found the numbers! Measurements were taken at the devices' power leads, so these are the actual average test consumptions on a (regulated) 12V supply:

GPS60 (basic non-plotter handheld GPS): 0.05A
551 with normal daytime display: 0.42A
551 with display turned off (brilliance as far down as possible): 0.1A

I took the measurements because I was considering wiring my GPS60 as a source for my radio, but given these results there would have been little extra power saving.

Regards
Howard

 

[Pye_End]

Thanks for that. Most interesting. My 75 needs its internal battery changing, so perhaps an opportunity to change it for something more modern.

I reckon that NASA AIS + YAPP GPS is about 0.2A. YAPP is about 0.07A against 0.1 for the Garmin 75. However the power usage you describe are encouraging. If you feed the 551 into it with say a Digital Yacht ARX100 then you should be looking at 0.4A.

So 24 hours:
75 + NASA = 6.24Ah
YAPP + NASA = 4.8Ah
551 + ARX100 = 9.6Ah

Seems ok, particularly when you compare with the other power demands for the trip.

I also checked out my 278, which gave a current usage of 0.17A. Interestingly this stayed at this level even when it was switched off and fully charged (it is a handheld with a cradle)!

 

[hrchivers]

I used a GX2100 as my AIS receiver/engine, this was almost certainly more power-hungry than a stand-alone AIS system, but it gave me radio watch as part of the same power budget. My budget allowed 0.55A for the radio, I can't remember now if I measured that (I suspect so, since it isn't a round figure). My total budget is around 20AH per day, which includes charging toys like laptop for receiving weatherfax.

 

[Pords]

Doing some more research and have seen the 557 for £560 which is considerably cheaper than the 751 at £1000. Anyone got one of these and would you recommend?

 

[Blue Drifter]

Morning All

I have a dilemma in as much it's time to upgrade existing Lowrance 3500c to a Garmin 750 with AIS. Now where do you guys mount, in the cabin or cockpit? Can see the benefit when hunkered down on long passages for the plotter to be located in the cabin, but also like to see whats going on when up top (And also hear AIS Alarm)

I am keeping the lowrance as a secondary plotter but this doesn't have AIS capability hence why I'm changing.

Any ideas?

Jon

If possible, be able to view from both below and cockpit, this is my arrangement, the idea for which was copied from the YBW forum, it's not finished yet but you get the idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsmSLGNNMEg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Like Pye-End I also have a stand-alone NASA AIS with alarm. All are independently switched to enable amp saving where necessary. I ack that I have compromised the starboard compass but feel that full utilisation of the plotter is higher priority. Whatever you choose - good luck.