Complete electronics refit... or perhaps not

[PaulRainbow]

Very well spotted! Two would have sufficed - one for wind, one for depth/speed etc. Alas, we have three holes in the boat from the old ST50s! I quite like the idea of having the third instrument for whatever might take my fancy; probably AIS when I'm wedged under the spray hood mid channel in the middle of the night and can't see the plotter. But yes, a bit over extravagant.

As you can control the autopilot from the plotter, why not fit the AP control head in one of those holes, would you be able to reach it when you're hiding under the sprayhood ?

I also agree with your choice to fit one display down below. I accept the point that you can mirror the plotter to a cheap Android tablet, but that requires having the plotter powered up. I like to be able to turn everything off, except for the N2K network, which allows e to keep an eye on wind, depth etc, using minimal power.

 

[ithet]

As you can control the autopilot from the plotter, why not fit the AP control head in one of those holes, would you be able to reach it when you're hiding under the sprayhood ?

I also agree with your choice to fit one display down below. I accept the point that you can mirror the plotter to a cheap Android tablet, but that requires having the plotter powered up. I like to be able to turn everything off, except for the N2K network, which allows e to keep an eye on wind, depth etc, using minimal power.

To add to what Paul said. I do not have B&G but expect functionality is similar to Raymarine, their autopilot control can display a lot of user selectable data so can be considered as more than just an autopilot control, and I would expect the B&G to do similar. For instance I have wind direction, COG, SOG and depth displayed on my P70s. Remember that all this data can also displayed on the MFD (and overlaid on chart screen).
Are not the other displays you are looking at multifunctional, so they could handle the separate AIS you might want? You need to get to a different mindset from the ST50 days of specific instruments.

Lots of comment about mirroring on an android tablet (which I do) but be aware that no matter the size and resolution of the tablet display, it will only mirror at the resolution of the MFD device.

 

[ithet]

To add to what Paul said. I do not have B&G but expect functionality is similar to Raymarine, their autopilot control can display a lot of user selectable data so can be considered as more than just an autopilot control, and I would expect the B&G to do similar. For instance I have wind direction, COG, SOG and depth displayed on my P70s. Remember that all this data can also displayed on the MFD (and overlaid on chart screen).
Are not the other displays you are looking at multifunctional, so they could handle the separate AIS you might want? You need to get to a different mindset from the ST50 days of specific instruments.

Lots of comment about mirroring on an android tablet (which I do) but be aware that no matter the size and resolution of the tablet display, it will only mirror at the resolution of the MFD device.

... I have just acquainted myself with Triton2 instruments. So I see their autopilot control is just the keypad unit. But the displays can show AIS.