Course computer saga goes on .

sailaboutvic

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After the saga of our course computer packing up ,
We looked at way of reducing the cost of buying a new complete system costing 2.7k when you add on extra bits .

After Many calls and emails to dealers we found a refurbished ACU 400 from Raymarine priced at £650 , great buy, add to that a sensor core and sea talk to sea talkNG , cutting our cost to around £1200k or so we thought .
Reading Raymarine Manuel it say our ST 6000 control can be used with the ACU 400 but there some option we couldn't use ,
This turn out to be the setting options so in reality you can't use the ST6000 unless you had the new P70s control to set up the computer first , now we have to add on another £520 . The cost now gone up to over £1700 .
As we was about to order the new unit on line we found the ACU didn't include VAT , bit naughty of Raymarine not to say if there price was ex Vat of not .
The cost goes up again touching £1850 .
Our next surprise was that both the refurbished ACU and the new P70s only come with very short cables a few CM long , which mean buying new back bone cables and connections add another £150
Up goes the cost to well over 2k
Then there carriage involve from two company's has Raymarine would only sell us the the ACU . And up goes the cost again .

Here where a stoke of luck comes into play , some times you have to stand back and not be too hasty in parting with your money .
in the mean time we put out feelers with other cruiser for a second hand unit at the same time a RM engineer I know very well in Malta said he has one .
But he won't send it we need to pick it up as he want to fit it for us so there no problems .

So we had a decision to make last night . Pay well over £2100 to get our old pilot working or hand steer 500 NM to Malta and get a second hand good working unit for £300 a saving of £1800
I leave it to you guys to guess what route we taking .

people who thinking of buying a project boat think very carefully ,
Nothing come cheap when it comes to boats .

Just one last thing , it's a bit tight of any company when sell unit s cost hundreds of pound to only add a few CM of cable , or am I expecting too much ?
 
ASo we had a decision to make last night . Pay well over £2100 to get our old pilot working or hand steer 500 NM to Malta and get a second hand good working unit for £300 a saving of £1800
I leave it to you guys to guess what route we taking .

Anyone offering me £3.60 a mile to hand steer my boat will have their hand bitten off up to the oxters.
 
Happy to report back , we now have a S3G course comptuer replacing our old 300 and what a difference,
May try and get the old one fixed sending it back to Raymarine over the winter, keeping it has a spare or sell it as they seen to fetch sill money .
 
Happy to report back , we now have a S3G course comptuer replacing our old 300 and what a difference,
May try and get the old one fixed sending it back to Raymarine over the winter, keeping it has a spare or sell it as they seen to fetch sill money .
We have the same course computer driving a Raymarine rotary drive. Its an excellent bit of kit and can steer reliably in any weather. We have a complete spare as well. Everything is accessible so can be changed at sea without difficulty
 
You have my sympathy, but I don’t think anyone believes marine electronics are cheap.
I ended up paying for two chart plotters, a radar, an new auto pilot and core plus re wiring the network to STNG. It wasn’t cheap. All I wanted was a new chart plotter but as ever, new issues appear that you hadn’t considered.

My personal gripe is the lack of backwards compatibility between units from the same company. It seems just a cynical ploy to force a replacement of otherwise serviceable kit.

I replaced a Harken 40 winch last year with the new model from the same company. It had a different bolt pattern...why?
IMO, it’s not just electronics companies that need to get their act together.
 
My personal gripe is the lack of backwards compatibility between units from the same company. It seems just a cynical ploy to force a replacement of otherwise serviceable kit.

Personally I think Raymarine at least do pretty well at this. I have kit with "Autohelm" written on it (ST50 instruments, autopilot drive, rudder sensor) working well with current-model Raymarine plotter and pilot computer. The copyright date on the ST50 manual is 1993. How many other bits of proprietary digital electronics have 26 years of backward compatibility?

Pete
 
The CC is from 2001 so it not done too bad , but have to agree with Achosenman ,
I was ready to buy a recon unit from Raymarine the latest ACU 400 but it didn't stop there , I needed a new core sensor ,
Also I would then need to buy a sea talk , seatake ng ,plus extra back bone leads and J box .
I read I could use my old contro ST6000+ at less I thought I would say £500 not having to buy a new one , only to find out just in time that although my control would work , I wouldn't be able to set up the new ACU without using a P70s ,
Even with a refurbished ACU it was all going to set me back at less 2.5k ,
Quite a sum to get the pilot working again .
So I was more then happy to pay for a second hand S3G .
I can see now why this stuff hold its price well as second hand parts .
 
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Personally I think Raymarine at least do pretty well at this. I have kit with "Autohelm" written on it (ST50 instruments, autopilot drive, rudder sensor) working well with current-model Raymarine plotter and pilot computer. The copyright date on the ST50 manual is 1993. How many other bits of proprietary digital electronics have 26 years of backward compatibility?

Pete

I come from civil aviation, they manage far better in this regard.
I do still have ST60+ instruments working, but nothing else would. (Or with a much degraded functionality)
I am however a Raymarine fan. IMO the STNG network connections are far better than NMEA 2000. I ripped out that part of the system due to continuous intermittent connection issues when I upgraded. Raymarine seems to simply work, all day, every day.

It seems to me that boat owners are seen as wealthy clients and are treated as such by those servicing the industry.
 
At a price ;)

Pete

In the light aircraft world the price is surprisingly similar to boat electronics. Although with a much tougher approval regime and far more complex interfaces for auto pilots etc.

I'll pretend the eye wateringly high price tag of kit used in the heavy jet world doesn't exist though ;)
 
I come from civil aviation, they manage far better in this regard.
I do still have ST60+ instruments working, but nothing else would. (Or with a much degraded functionality)
I am however a Raymarine fan. IMO the STNG network connections are far better than NMEA 2000. I ripped out that part of the system due to continuous intermittent connection issues when I upgraded. Raymarine seems to simply work, all day, every day.

It seems to me that boat owners are seen as wealthy clients and are treated as such by those servicing the industry.

Probably worth pointing out here that STng is NMEA-2000, it’s just the cables that are different.
 
Probably worth pointing out here that STng is NMEA-2000, it’s just the cables that are different.

I do understand that. IMO the Raymarine plugs are far better designed. They include a rubber o ring that helps keep the damp out and they fit and lock into place very snuggly. NMEA 2000 plugs seem to be just a direct lift from the automotive industry. They work of course, but the only connectivity issues I've ever had, were with those type after a few seasons. RM has never given me a problem apart from the issues being discussed.
 
After the saga of our course computer packing up ,
We looked at way of reducing the cost of buying a new complete system costing 2.7k when you add on extra bits .

After Many calls and emails to dealers we found a refurbished ACU 400 from Raymarine priced at £650 , great buy, add to that a sensor core and sea talk to sea talkNG , cutting our cost to around £1200k or so we thought .
Reading Raymarine Manuel it say our ST 6000 control can be used with the ACU 400 but there some option we couldn't use ,
This turn out to be the setting options so in reality you can't use the ST6000 unless you had the new P70s control to set up the computer first , now we have to add on another £520 . The cost now gone up to over £1700 .
As we was about to order the new unit on line we found the ACU didn't include VAT , bit naughty of Raymarine not to say if there price was ex Vat of not .
The cost goes up again touching £1850 .
Our next surprise was that both the refurbished ACU and the new P70s only come with very short cables a few CM long , which mean buying new back bone cables and connections add another £150
Up goes the cost to well over 2k
Then there carriage involve from two company's has Raymarine would only sell us the the ACU . And up goes the cost again .

Here where a stoke of luck comes into play , some times you have to stand back and not be too hasty in parting with your money .
in the mean time we put out feelers with other cruiser for a second hand unit at the same time a RM engineer I know very well in Malta said he has one .
But he won't send it we need to pick it up as he want to fit it for us so there no problems .

So we had a decision to make last night . Pay well over £2100 to get our old pilot working or hand steer 500 NM to Malta and get a second hand good working unit for £300 a saving of £1800
I leave it to you guys to guess what route we taking .

people who thinking of buying a project boat think very carefully ,
Nothing come cheap when it comes to boats .

Just one last thing , it's a bit tight of any company when sell unit s cost hundreds of pound to only add a few CM of cable , or am I expecting too much ?

It's a lot of money when what most people actually want from their autopilot should not be terribly demanding.
Mostly I just want to push a button and have the boat carry on, on the same heading.
How many of us get real value out of the complication?
 
It's a lot of money when what most people actually want from their autopilot should not be terribly demanding.
Mostly I just want to push a button and have the boat carry on, on the same heading.
How many of us get real value out of the complication?

+1 we very rearly use the wind steer , and I can't think of a time when I used track .
but I have to say , it's great having it working again , when you doing 30/40 hours trip .
 
It's a lot of money when what most people actually want from their autopilot should not be terribly demanding.
Mostly I just want to push a button and have the boat carry on, on the same heading.
How many of us get real value out of the complication?

Indeed. I went through one season where I used to set up a waypoint 30 or 40 miles away and have it steer to the waypoint but then the novelty wore off and I went back to just pressing the button once I was on course. It's not as if you can set it and go off for a snooze or something. :ambivalence:

Richard
 
Indeed. I went through one season where I used to set up a waypoint 30 or 40 miles away and have it steer to the waypoint but then the novelty wore off and I went back to just pressing the button once I was on course. It's not as if you can set it and go off for a snooze or something. :ambivalence:

Richard

Same here - but Auto when on course then plus or minus
 
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