Es touchcontrol

Yes. I have had some experiance with their systems. Not all good as it all seems a bit complicated. What was wrong with a normal switch to turn things on and off? You never had to perform a software up date before you could switch on your lights.

I feel better for that!
 
I quite agree! However from a techie background I have seen many applications of technology where it wasn't really necessary and also that it was far to complicated and easy to get it wrong! What we have been doing for the last few years is looking at, designing, putting novices in front of such systems and making sure that they are easy to use with virtually no training, and of course an override system in case of a severe problem. We would in no way advocate a system that could potentially put lives at risk simply because there is 'normal' way of controlling such systems.
 
You mean Raymarine? I had these (3xe140w) on the last boat and they were ok. I didn't like a few things, but they were mostly ok

I didn't find them too complex. The user interface is good. I never read the manuals on mine

In fact the thing that annoyed me most with Raymarine's latest gear was the dim screens on the ST70 small instruments. See pic below. I complained at their stand at LIBS this year and they said there was nothing they planned to do about this

IMG_0841.jpg
 
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You say you have not read the manuals, so you may not have found the hidden brightness/dimmer switch, - you have to press the off button momentarily and a brightness slider appears.
 
nickd said:
You say you have not read the manuals, so you may not have found the hidden brightness/dimmer switch, - you have to press the off button momentarily and a brightness slider appears.
Click to expand...

Gimme a break. I know that. It's a longstnading Raymarine functionality. I have them turned to max brightness and they still aren't bright enough. See pic above. They are fine for an inside cockpit, but not fine on a flybridge in a sunny location

While I'm complaining about brightness, another glitch is that the brightness slider is unique to each instrument, and not networked like on the old ST60s. So as I sail into the night, I have to dim them one by one, ie 4 sodding units, times however many brightness increments you need as you go from daylight to nighttime. When I mentioned that on the raym stand they said they recognised the problem and will issue new software to deal with it, but I haven't heard any more. Annoying thing is, the old ST60s have been doing this perfectly well for 10 years

Anyway, I have this morning sent my nav shopping list to Fairline for new boat. 6 plotter touch screens, 7 of the smaller square screens, 12kw radar and loads of gubbins. All Garmin. I still like Raymrine stuff apart from the annoying bits, but they haven't made me like them enough to feel it isn't worth giving Garmin a try
 
jfm said:
<snip> I still like Raymrine stuff apart from the annoying bits, but they haven't made me like them enough to feel it isn't worth giving Garmin a try
Click to expand...

I don't have anything like the experience with Raymarine that you do John, or any other nav kit come to that. But, i just ditched my 5 month old Raymarine widescreen and digital radar for Garmin. There are of course some minor cosmetic things that i think could be better, be nice to be able to customise a few more aspects of the plotter, but on the whole, it's much better than the Raymarine. AIS implemtation is much better. Tell it you want to go to a waypoint, or the cursor or whatever, it gives you an option for "Guide to" that will route you around any bits that are charted as shallower than you've told it your boat needs. It'll also tell you (and keep it updated) how far you have to go and how long it'll take. Lots of other nice little things, that escape me right now.

Oh, i ain't rtfm yet :)
 
Many folks have been brought up on Raymarine because they have had a big chunk of the market for the last 10years and generally made good stuff. Garmin didn't exist in this market till a few years ago. But I can't help noticing that everyone who has tried Garmin loves it. So I'm quite looking forward to giving it a go!

Guide To seems good. I have never bothered with routes so my TTG has only been to the next waypoint (which in my case means the cursor cos I don't use stored waypoints) but Guide To seems to kinda make a route automatically which seems handy

One attractive thing about Garmin is that everything is nmea2000. With any biggish Raymarine install you still have to connect up nmea0183 and Seatalk 1, as well as the nmea2000 (or STNG as they call it). And you have to install pods to make various transducers talk nmea2000 language. With Garmin it's all nmea200 so it all just plugs together directly
 
You will love the garmin

jfm said:
Gimme a break. I know that. It's a longstnading Raymarine functionality. I have them turned to max brightness and they still aren't bright enough. See pic above. They are fine for an inside cockpit, but not fine on a flybridge in a sunny location

While I'm complaining about brightness, another glitch is that the brightness slider is unique to each instrument, and not networked like on the old ST60s. So as I sail into the night, I have to dim them one by one, ie 4 sodding units, times however many brightness increments you need as you go from daylight to nighttime. When I mentioned that on the raym stand they said they recognised the problem and will issue new software to deal with it, but I haven't heard any more. Annoying thing is, the old ST60s have been doing this perfectly well for 10 years

Anyway, I have this morning sent my nav shopping list to Fairline for new boat. 6 plotter touch screens, 7 of the smaller square screens, 12kw radar and loads of gubbins. All Garmin. I still like Raymrine stuff apart from the annoying bits, but they haven't made me like them enough to feel it isn't worth giving Garmin a try
Click to expand...


FEAR NOT it really is better kit and MUCH better support, got me trim tabs sorted rudder angle is next, then the rest of the analogue engine gauges interfaced.

You can plug stuff into the network at will and it "sees" it, pops up and says "calibrate instrument"


Ian
 
Apologies for my part in the Fred drift, erm..... seems a shame to stop now :D

NMEA2000, good point. A bought a single GPSMAP 4010 and it came with enough stuff to build a basic network. Each additional item needs a cable and a tee, mostly, (no doubt you know that) most of the addon bits come with a cable, some with extra tee's, worse way for someone building a smaller system is the purchase of the odd tee. RM comes with nothing in the way of seatalk or NMEA2000 cables. You even have to buy an extra cable and crossover couple (circa £65) or a cable and hub (circa £300) to connect the radome. With the kit JFM has ordered, there should be a box full of cables and stuff left over. Oh, the display came with a video in/out cable too.
 
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