electronics - but what?

[Daydream believer]

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

So was mine But it was not free & I had to pay for raymarine's software upgrade which I think was a con from raymarine because it was raymarine saying " Hey! our kit that we sold you had the wrong software, but pay us more money & we MIGHT put it right"

 

[laika]

So was mine But it was not free & I had to pay for raymarine's software upgrade which I think was a con from raymarine because it was raymarine saying " Hey! our kit that we sold you had the wrong software, but pay us more money & we MIGHT put it right"

Raymarine’s autopilot software updates are “free”: you can download them from their website and install them yourself, which is what I do.

It is, I believe, possible to brick your autopilot by making a mistake so I’d understand people wanting the assurance of a dealer doing it for them. But it’s a 20 minute job with free materials so I hope you got other services for your £300

 

[Daydream believer]

Raymarine’s autopilot software updates are “free”: you can download them from their website and install them yourself, which is what I do.

It is, I believe, possible to brick your autopilot by making a mistake so I’d understand people wanting the assurance of a dealer doing it for them. But it’s a 20 minute job with free materials so I hope you got other services for your £300

You cannot download if you do not have a plotter & only autopilot plus the log, speed, wind sounder packages . The installer had to bring a plotter, install it temporarily, update software then uninstall the plotter. If the AV100 autopilot had worked in the first place it would not have been necessary & i feel it should have been free. The autopilot was still carp though & I have had to blow another £ 800 as it has all just dropped out of the 3 year warranty period - duff controller & duff ram-. So the money was wasted.

 

[laika]

You cannot download if you do not have a plotter & only autopilot plus the log, speed, wind sounder packages .

Ah very true. This is also the argument I keep forgetting when people ask "Do I need a raymarine plotter if I have a a Raymarine autopilot?". No you don't, but then you need to borrow one or pay a dealer to update it.

 

[Daydream believer]

Ah very true. This is also the argument I keep forgetting when people ask "Do I need a raymarine plotter if I have a a Raymarine autopilot?". No you don't, but then you need to borrow one or pay a dealer to update it.

I believe that I could hook the autopilot to my Garmin plotter. But the autopilot is so bad & this is my second plotter in 4 years, that I could not risk a system failure, bringing the whole lot down. So I keep all the systems separate. IE wind, log & echo on one daisy chain. Autopilot on one. Plotter & AIS ( on its dedicated aerial not the VHF one) on another. Yeoman & backup GPS on another. Then a manual Compass.

The 3 most important items are:- the compass, the echo sounder & the Aeries. As long as they are Ok, I can get home. Nice to have the engine & VHF working as well though.

 

[roblpm]

Ah very true. This is also the argument I keep forgetting when people ask "Do I need a raymarine plotter if I have a a Raymarine autopilot?". No you don't, but then you need to borrow one or pay a dealer to update it.

Wow that is crap.

What autopilot is plotter agnostic?

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Wow that is crap.

What autopilot is plotter agnostic?

Autopilots can usually follow generic messages defined in either NMEA standard, like in NMEA0183 XTE and APB and their equivalents in NMEA2000. I used generic sentence output like these from OpenCPN to get a Raymarine ST2000+ to follow a route. However, other messages will be proprietary and won't work with mixed manufacturers. Examples of this are autopilot engage and disengage.

 

[Tradewinds]

Just my 2p.
I have a B&G Vulcan9 with assorted repeaters. Plus iSailor and Navionics on phone and iPad (I prefer the iSailor charts to navionics). Both are better than the B&G to use when it comes to screen resolution. OK bright sun is a pain but it is workable.
I also have on OpenCPN running on a mac mini with a decent USB monitor down below. Ignoring the age of the CM93 charting, chart resolution is excellent and the Open CPN AIS is a really excellent plug-in - far superior (IMO ) to the B&G offering (crap) and that of iSailor on the iPad. The upshot is that I much prefer to use the iPad in the cockpit or the mac- mini (at the nav station below)and myy B&G Vulcan is just used as the back-up.

 

[laika]

What autopilot is plotter agnostic?

Autopilots can usually follow generic messages defined in either NMEA standard, like in NMEA0183 XTE and APB and their equivalents in NMEA2000.

I *think* robplm may have been commenting on the need for a plotter to update the firmware in the autopilot, although of course what you say about being plotter agnostic in the wider sense is of course true.

Can you update NKE pilots using just a laptop?

 

[roblpm]

I *think* robplm may have been commenting on the need for a plotter to update the firmware in the autopilot, although of course what you say about being plotter agnostic in the wider sense is of course true.

Can you update NKE pilots using just a laptop?

Yes that's what I meant. Seems ridiculous! ?