Do you have old electronic stuff?

[doug748]

A nearby thread veered off into the age of yachty electronics. Do you soldier on with aged stuff? Let us know.

I still have a Raytheon RS 420, black and white plotter, with Navionics. Bought second hand about 2004:



A back up now but still working and replaced with a colour job from about 2012.

Also a Garmin Map 76 from around 2000, good piece of kit Rest of my gear is probably 10 years old + but my prize AIS is maybe 7 years old now. In the spring my sounder started playing up so I bought an old flasher off Ebay. This sort of thing:

,

did the job:

 

[RupertW]

Yes. The Raymarine ST60 stuff . It just works for the basics depth and autopilot by compass course. I don’t really need anything else although I’d quite like to have autopilot to wind angle but not enough to spend hundreds of pounds and getting somebody at hundreds more to fit it.

No AIS, but Navionics app to navigate.

Does everything I need for the places I sail.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I’ve got the original Raymarine ST40 matching speed and depth instruments, still fully working, factory fitted in 2001. We have a suite of Garmin stuff including a 12” plotter, all new, and the interface to get that seatalk 1 gear to speak NMEA. They fit the space available so neatly I’d just replace them with the new versions if I was going to splash the cash. But as it all works….

 

[rogerthebodger]

I have Simrad IS11 instruments that still work OK.

If th old electronics works OK and performs the functions correctly why change

My old EPIRB still works and send out the correct signal when tested but the OEM do not supply the replacement batteries any more so I have to go to a third party which is not accepted by out safety authority

I do have a simrad plotter but also have a PC running OpenCPN

 

[lustyd]

Current boat came with ST60 and an old Garmin plotter. All sold and replaced with current B&G stuff which integrates nicely with RADAR available at both stations, AIS, DSC calling from the screen etc.
New boat comes with ST60 and an obsolete Raymarine plotter and will all be ripped out and replaced probably with Garmin stuff nicely integrated so I get the above plus Victron and Volvo Penta integration so I can see everything from any screen.
We don't plan to sell the new boat again!

 

[robmcg]

If it works, why replace it? The 'newest' bit of kit we have is an Axiom chart plotter. It was already fitted to the boat when we bought her. Didn't get switched on all season . Older, smaller plotter does all the heavy lifting supplemented by Navionics on the phone . The old ST50's still work so ..........

 

[Roberto]

ST30 depth, it was functioning but I swapped to a very modern ST50
Garmin 72 gps, and another handheld gps the MLR FX12 (the manufacturer closed in 2001)

one epirb from 2006/7 (replaced its batteries by myself and keep it together with a second new one).
Portable VHF SH260, plus an old fixed VHF with two separate knobs for the two digits of the channel number.
I should also have a very old Loran, dimensions similar to a case of wine

 

[lustyd]

If it works, why replace it?

Because often it's impossible to get updated charts, and because the newer stuff is better, does more things, and far more flexible. How old is your car, and did the old one break?

 

[robmcg]

Because often it's impossible to get updated charts, and because the newer stuff is better, does more things, and far more flexible. How old is your car, and did the old one break?

Fortunately the older plotter still takes up to date Navionics charts, albeit not the platinum type with the photos etc. The ' more things' aren't really features that I use and with the instruments, the depth is the depth, the wind is the wind and the speed is the speed, irrespective of what it's displayed on.
For context, my main autopilot is a Monitor wind vane so probably not the main target customer for new boat technology .
Car is 15 years old. The previous three went to the knackers yard because of terminal failures ( including someone writing the whole front end of one of them).

 

[rogerthebodger]

. How old is your car, and did the old one break?

My oldest car was built-in 1962

My day to day runaround is 1998 and my wife's is 1999

I have some others built in the 1970's

 

[Laysula]

ST 50 instruments still going strong. All do what they are supposed to do. I see no point in changing them just out of vanity. On the other hand the RL70c although in perfect working order used c map nt charts which cannot now be updated, so unfortunately it had to go.

 

[fredrussell]

… plus an old fixed VHF with two separate knobs for the two digits of the channel number….

How bizarre!

 

[The Q]

Somewhere I've got an old handheld lighthouse radio beacon locator. From the 1970s.

The Landrover is coming up to 39 years old..
The wife's car went to the scrap yard today, at 15 years old and 140,000 miles from new. Living next to the sea causes terminal rust..

 

[johnalison]

My boat’s stuff is mostly Raytheon, as it was, stuff from when it was new in 2000, and some later stuff. The Skanti DSC radio still works well
but is falling apart at the seams and is being replaced, but the radar/plotter is later.

I don’t think the Walker log in the spare room counts as electronic, but I still have a Seafix DF set, complete with digital readout.

 

[Gsailor]

I am sure I have some ancient stuff somewhere if you would like it.

Seriously though, why buy such an ancient echo sounder when a fish finder is as cheap as chips (to go with the fish once caught with rod and line).

How much did you pay for it? Not worth more than £5 surely?

 

[James_Calvert]

Seriously though, why buy such an ancient echo sounder when a fish finder is as cheap as chips (to go with the fish once caught with rod and line).

I also have such an old echosounder, fitted as an upgrade. Beginning to play up, but still drives its cockpit repeater just fine. To drop in a replacement could need a new transducer, and a new repeater as well. I shall be tempted to reinstall the original (which I have kept) when it eventually fails. Or attempt some cannibalisation.

 

[DownWest]

I have a Seafarer wizzy diode depthsounder and a Yeoman 'plotter', powered by a Garmin 72 gps. But most of my sailing is local, so depth is the main consideration.

 

[capnsensible]

Because often it's impossible to get updated charts, and because the newer stuff is better, does more things, and far more flexible. How old is your car, and did the old one break?

Do you need a new car if the old one isn't broken?

 

[Lightwave395]

New in 2006 and all still working well:

ST60+ displays,
S1G pilot,
ST6002 pilot control,
C90W plotter with Navionics charts (£400 five years ago - replaced a Ray RC530)
Comar 200 AIS transponder (£100 new at Beaulieu 5 years ago)

Only replacements in that time are a new wind MHU, a replacement fluxgate compass (£60 on ebay) and the ST6002 pilot control head (£150 on ebay - damaged during hair-raising gybe) and I did fit a separate DYS AIS GPS/VHS antenna so I also have backup

Can't quite understand people 'needing' the latest and greatest but it's everyone's choice as to where they spend their cash, I just need to know where I'm going, how I get there relative to the wind speed / direction and what's around me.

 

[SaltyC]

The oldest electronics is the Yeoman plotter, the rest of the instruments and plotter are from 2007 a mere 16 years old.