electronics - but what?

[Elessar]

I have a B&G Zeus T8 plotter and a GoFree WiFi module.
My plotter can not receive data over WiFi.
Which is why the suggestion in #31 of plotting waypoints/routes on a tablet and uploading them to the plotter did not make sense to me.

I am far from up to date on the latest developments in the field of yottie electronics, AFAIK there's no model around that would allow you to do that.
More than happy to be proved wrong.

The raymarine I’m familiar has a mirror of the plotter on the tablet. You don’t upload anything, you operate the plotter from the tablet as if it is the plotter itself. They show identical things.

it also has the ability to put a remote control on your phone. So if the plotter is out of reach ( like on the bulkhead) you can put the plotter buttons on your phone and operate the screen remotely.

It’s the type of raymarine that can befound on eBay for a reasonable price. Like this.
Raymarine c125 MFD Display TESTED & UPDATED E70013 -- 90 Day Warranty | eBay

they come up in the uK.

This is a large 12” screen you can get a 9”.

note the C has no touch screen and is cheaper. The E version has a touch screen. I think a touch screen is hopeless in the cockpit and buttons are better. You still have the benefits of the touch screen such as typing in waypoint names on the tablet used inside the boat.

 

[Stemar]

if you are thinking about a tablet the Samsung Galaxy Active pro (~$600) is waterproof and good in sunlight (not fully sunlight readable but quite bright). I just bought a fully waterproof and Sunlight readable 15.6" monitor (~$630) that will go at my helm and connect to my Raspberry Pi at the Nav station. If you go down the DIY route there is a lot of savings to be had, but you need to be quite electronics savvy.

If that tempts anyone, have a look at what London Chartplotters have to offer. I just bought an 8"£ sm-t365 rugged tablet and Quark AIS receiver for £250, which includes a tough case. I'll tell you if it's any good when I get it

 

[Koeketiene]

The raymarine I’m familiar has a mirror of the plotter on the tablet. You don’t upload anything, you operate the plotter from the tablet as if it is the plotter itself. They show identical things.

Gotcha.
The B&G Android app also acts like a mirror of the plotter down below.
However, it's somewhat cluncky to operate, so I just put up the 'chart' screen and leave it at that.

A feature I would like to see is this:
My plotter runs on Navionics.
I also run the Navionics app on the tablet (Android).
It's a doddle plotting waypoints/routes on the tablet in the Navionics app.
Ideally, I would like to be able to upload my waypoints/routes from the tablet to the plotter.
As they both run Navionics charts, surely I am not asking for the impossible.

 

[Elessar]

Gotcha.
The B&G Android app also acts like a mirror of the plotter down below.
However, it's somewhat cluncky to operate, so I just put up the 'chart' screen and leave it at that.

A feature I would like to see is this:
My plotter runs on Navionics.
I also run the Navionics app on the tablet (Android).
It's a doddle plotting waypoints/routes on the tablet in the Navionics up.
Ideally, I would like to be able to upload my waypoints/routes from the tablet to the plotter.
As they both run Navionics charts, surely I am not asking for the impossible.

It would indeed seem logical to be able to do as you ask and that would introduce the benefit of plotting your route at home (or in work!!)

Curious that you find it clunky in your set up to use the mirror function. Raymarine and an iPad is seamless.

 

[dankilb]

Most people seem to rate Garmin’s ‘ActiveCaptain’, although we’ve yet to use it.

It is understandable that manufacturers only offer wireless connectivity to their own apps/interfaces.

Perhaps part of the shopping process these days is too see how well you get on with your chosen brand’s version - unless you want to go down route of niche aftermarket/coding ways of tapping into the data.

 

[mrming]

I have a B&G Zeus T8 plotter and a GoFree WiFi module.
My plotter can not receive data over WiFi.
Which is why the suggestion in #31 of plotting waypoints/routes on a tablet and uploading them to the plotter did not make sense to me.

I am far from up to date on the latest developments in the field of yottie electronics, AFAIK there's no model around that would allow you to do that.
More than happy to be proved wrong.

I have a 5 year old Raymarine E7 plotter (MFD). I can upload routes to it over WiFi using the Navionics app on my Android tablet or iPhone. It will not however receive NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2000 data from other devices over WiFi. The devices (like my EmTrak AIS) that need to do that are wired in.

 

[sailingmartin]

It is understandable that manufacturers only offer wireless connectivity to their own apps/interfaces.

Maybe this is another advantage of not having a chartplotter. My Raymarine instruments (wind, log, depth) and GPS, plus my Emtrak AIS are quite happy to share data on a wifi network to my iPad and phone and non Raymarine apps and presumably to a laptop if I had one with suitable navigation software. All pretty standard NMEA 2000 with a wifi gateway, of which there are several available options.

 

[Beelzebub]

I used to make a living out of selling, installing and servicing marine electronics. These days I'm not that fussed about them. Depth sounder and log and a basic GPS do me fine. I'm very much a paper chart person and while it's nice to have a GPS telling me that my chart nav calculations are more-or-less correct, I'm happy for it to be down below at the chart table.

Pre-trip planning with light characteristics, transit headings for the Chenal du Four (for example), distances for each leg etc, all written in a wet-notes notebook are my go-to method.

 

[Birdseye]

I used to make a living out of selling, installing and servicing marine electronics. These days I'm not that fussed about them. Depth sounder and log and a basic GPS do me fine. I'm very much a paper chart person and while it's nice to have a GPS telling me that my chart nav calculations are more-or-less correct, I'm happy for it to be down below at the chart table.

Pre-trip planning with light characteristics, transit headings for the Chenal du Four (for example), distances for each leg etc, all written in a wet-notes notebook are my go-to method.

We're almost back into navigation philosophy here. Sailing my last boat with lappy, plotter, tablet on board plus the peper charts - when the plotter failed I found myself reaching for the paper charts . I got the habit when I did the YM practical of keeping a proper log so it was easy to do without GPS. Old style using a hand bearing instead of AIS and radar.

Never had a plotter in the cockpit. Instead I used an on deck NASA repeater comparing CMG with Way point bearing squirted up from the plotter below.

 

[Birdseye]

Maybe I’ve got it wrong and have only got hands on knowledge of the Garmin bits - the boat previously having had minimal NMEA 0184 and early 2000s Furuno plotter/radome (still decent kit, too). Or perhaps there are complex possibilities at vanguard of technology that I’m unfamiliar with? But I don’t think what you seek (re: wireless between different makes of marine electronics) is realistic.

I dont see this. Lots of gadgets are wirelessly connected - all out phones, the TV, the computers our cars etc. In this context, radio simply substitutes for copper. Presumably NMEA 2000 dictated the format of the data so all current kit should be using the same format

 

[Daverw]

Many Bluetooth devices cannot connect without you dropping others first,

 

[requiem]

A feature I would like to see is this:
My plotter runs on Navionics.
I also run the Navionics app on the tablet (Android).
It's a doddle plotting waypoints/routes on the tablet in the Navionics app.
Ideally, I would like to be able to upload my waypoints/routes from the tablet to the plotter.
As they both run Navionics charts, surely I am not asking for the impossible.

My understanding is that the "plotter sync" feature should allow you to do this in a roundabout way: you sync via the app, it then wirelessly updates a Navionics card in the plotter, then you go to the plotter and load the route from the card. (example instructions)

I dont see this. Lots of gadgets are wirelessly connected - all out phones, the TV, the computers our cars etc. In this context, radio simply substitutes for copper. Presumably NMEA 2000 dictated the format of the data so all current kit should be using the same format

Agree; the lack of connectivity here is more reflective on the backwardness of the industry than on technical possibility. Whether it's NMEA, Signal K, or something else, the options are available. I wouldn't buy Raymarine kit for precisely this reason; I want to enable my devices to access the boat's data and even though their setup may include wifi, it's limited to their own mirroring app. With B&G once I'm on the wifi, I simply point my phone, tablet, whatever at the proper IP and the data then flows. (Well, except for the route transfer, unfortunately.)

 

[mjcoon]

note the C has no touch screen and is cheaper. The E version has a touch screen. I think a touch screen is hopeless in the cockpit and buttons are better. You still have the benefits of the touch screen such as typing in waypoint names on the tablet used inside the boat.

Or, if one is accustomed to QWERTYing, plug a keyboard into the tablet?

 

[Koeketiene]

My understanding is that the "plotter sync" feature should allow you to do this in a roundabout way: you sync via the app, it then wirelessly updates a Navionics card in the plotter, then you go to the plotter and load the route from the card. (example instructions)

Many thanks for this.
Will spend some time with the plotter/tablet next week and give it a try.
Hope my plotter is compatible.
Fingers crossed.

 

[roblpm]

I sorta don't get all this conversation.

What's the matter with an n2k backbone and a multiplexor? I had a shipmodul on my old boat. Plug everything into that and away you go.

OK radar is no good on that. But what other functions would I lose from not having an integrated setup from one manufacturer?

OK tell me where I am going wrong.....

Wired wind
Wired depth/log
Wired 9 axis sensor
Ais from radio or transponder
GPS wired

All wired to shipmodul multiplexor

All available on wifi.

Waterproof plotter in cockpit wifi
Laptop inside wifi
Phone or whatever wherever.

OK need AP control.
And maybe radar.

But to me this doesn't cost 8k?

 

[doug748]

I am more than a bit "out of touch" with what is available and which was to go. If you were equipping a sailing yacht with a suit of new electronics, which way would you go? At a sensible costs that is, neither poverty spec nor couldnt care spec.

Talking plotter, radar, aid, instruments, pilot.

Do they talk via blue tooth now? Do they talk to your tablet or phone?

I think you are looking at buying a small, used boat for local sailing?

My take would be a plotter, paper charts and a Nasa sounder. Under £1000. When I am feeling silly, I buy new sails, get yourself a codesummat on a furler.


.

 

[DJE]

If Raymarine dealers do the installation I understand that the warranty worldwide includes for on board repair . That would be a big plus if cruising any distance. I have had several makes of echo sounder, log , wind & compas & plotter breakdowns. Not to mention 7 lots of autopilot in 18 years. I am not aware of other manufacturers offering that level of service.

You can install Raymarine kit yourself then have it "commissioned" (inspected?) by one of their installers. If they are happy with the installation you get the full on board warranty.

 

[Daydream believer]

You can install Raymarine kit yourself then have it "commissioned" (inspected?) by one of their installers. If they are happy with the installation you get the full on board warranty.

That is what I did, but I had to pay for the inspection, which , along with updating the software on my autopilot, cost me just under £ 300

 

[DJE]

That is what I did, but I had to pay for the inspection, which , along with updating the software on my autopilot, cost me just under £ 300

Mine was free but it was done by the firm I had who sold me the kit.

 

[lustyd]

The most important thing to consider here is that in 2022 your marine electronics are software products, not hardware products. If the manufacturer you're buying from still thinks they are a hardware business then steer clear. The marketing department of a hardware business wants you to think that wireless is a good thing because it's all they have to offer in a world where the hardware is a solved problem. Wireless is ALWAYS a worse solution if the two things communicating are connected and immobile such as on a boat. The mild inconvenience of cabling once is more than made up for in stability and reliability. If you don't believe me, call a landline from another landline and then try the same call mobile to mobile. Or try a Teams call over Wifi while your partner microwaves some popcorn.

Once you get over all that then look at the software. Yes, they can all mirror their screen to a mobile, but how was that experience for you? I can tell you on B&G that experience feels like jumping back to the early 1990s and while it usually works on the current version of the app it sometimes breaks on a new version of the app, and even when it's working it very much depends on how you configure the network.
I can also tell you that on B&G the simple act of recording your track feels like an exam for which you didn't prepare. Syncing it to their cloud service over Wifi also usually results in corruption of that track. Leaving the plotter connected to Internet while sailing and having auto-sync enabled actually causes corruption during the trip!
Then there's the 20,000 point limit on tracks on the plotter. This is not per track either. In 2022 a computer that can't handle numbers over 20,000 is not a good thing.
Suffice it to say, B&G (aka Navico) are not a software company.

Garmin have some issues too, but the way they deal with them shows they have evolved beyond being a hardware company. They have terrible user interfaces, but their software engineering is in a very different place to 10 years ago. If they had a less confusing range I would have gone Garmin for my upgrades, and in hindsight I wish I had.

I have no recent experience of Raymarine, but their Android based system and their marketing of Netflix as a good thing on the plotter makes my spidey sense tingle. I don't have an issue with Android, but I also want to know my plotter has been engineered enough to definitely be a plotter!