g series or e series raymarine

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BSJ2

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having read the raymarine book form cover to cover. i fail to see what the advantage is of fitting the new g series over the e series other than larger screens.
what can it do that the e series won't? or am i missing something?
let alone the price difference?
 
thought the G series was touch screen as opposed to buttons ? but could be wrong, not read the full spec /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
We are currently having a boat fully equipped with the G series.

The fundimental difference between the E an G series is that the E series is a complete unit (plotter and display etc) whereas the G series has a CPU and separate dumb displays. There are various different sizes of display as well so you get a much bigger choice but even the smallest G series display (12") has more display area than the older displays. I chose the G series because I want to feed a PC into the system and maybe feed other A/V systems in later. The displays have loads of separate spare inputs available for other systems to interconnect. The G series also includes a hard disk preloaded with all the worlds charts.

If all you want is a simple display to work as a plotter and handle radar etc, the E series is probably for you. I think most other Raymarine add ons work with the E series anyway.
 
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The fundimental difference between the E an G series is that the E series is a complete unit (plotter and display etc) whereas the G series has a CPU and separate dumb displays. There are various different sizes of display as well so you get a much bigger choice but even the smallest G series display (12") has more display area than the older displays. I chose the G series because I want to feed a PC into the system and maybe feed other A/V systems in later. The displays have loads of separate spare inputs available for other systems to interconnect. The G series also includes a hard disk preloaded with all the worlds charts.



[/ QUOTE ]


I think the G Series is meant to be able to redraw at something like 10x the speed of the E Series.
 
Ooh, you've resurrected an old thread, but it happens to be relevant to me cos right now I'm about to order a stack of Ray kit and have been weighing up E versus G.

G has considerable software problems that wont be fixed for months so that is making me lean towards E. But G has a faster computer than E. I haven't used E much (I have HSB2 currently, which predates E) but there must be loads of E users on here. Is the chart redraw speed slow, anyone?

Geoff, the catalog doesn't say that G is 10x faster redraw than E. It says that G's processor is "10x the processing speed of conventional marine electronics". I suspect they found some low grade stuff to get the 10x factor. E isn't low grade so i doubt G= 10xE. And anyway I dont think processor speed converts directly into re-draw speed.

I think on G you zoom in/out infinitely, not in steps, but someone might correct me on that. AFAK Hurricane and Magnum are the only G users on this forum

I'd be interested to hear more from Hurricane now that he has used G for a while, including his long Med trip. I've gotta decide E versus G in the next week or so for a whole-boat installation
 
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there must be loads of E users on here

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Alright, let's party /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif............................................ /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
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Is the chart redraw speed slow, anyone?


[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't have thought so but I havn't experienced G series to compare.
 
I'm reasonably happy with the perfomance of my E-80, but the G-Series architecture is a lot more flexible in that in future years you will be able to upgrade to new processors without changing the screens, plus there is no processor bolted on to the back of each screen, making a multi-station system look more sensible. The separate keyboard would probably take a little getting used to at first.

I only had a brief look at Hurricane's G-Series, and what I saw looked substantially more detailed and faster than anything I have seen on an E-Series.

Time for Mike to chip in with his actual experience with the new kit?

(E120 display = 800 x 600 pixels )
(G120 display = 1024 x 768 pixels )

dv.
 
OK here I am.

Well, I think I probably have the most sophisticated G series out there.
I've fed it with almost every video signal I can think of and it works extremely well.

jfm - I dont know where you get the info that there are problems with the kit - I cant think of anything that doesnt work on our system. I believe that Magnum has the new st70 instruments where there were some problems but the actual G series has nothing that I can think that doesnt work.

Now to the question E series or G series.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that most people should opt for E series - Thats thrown you hasnt it.
Well, the reason is very simple - unless you are like me and love electronics, the G series is far to sophisticated and complex for any average installation. It took me about 6 months to get mine working the way it does and AFAIK the E series does everything thet the G series does anyway. The only difference is probably the speed.

It would be useful for djefabs to add a comment here as well - he spent 10 days with us using the G series in anger as well. I think he will agree with me that G seres isnt necessarily the best system - its a bit of horser for courses.

The fundimental difference between G and E is that the G series splits the processing from the display and in doing so adds a remote keyboard - in our case they are wireless keyboards so that they can be used at either of the helm stations.

So, what have I done with mine. Well, the system consists of 4 monitors - two at each station. Each station is fed from two common G series processors. Raymarine configure each station as a "virtual" station - that consists of a keyboard, a monitor and a processor - you can mix and match as you like but I've set each of the port displays to match with a dedicated keyboard and processor. The new Raymarine digital radar is also fed into the system. G Series allows for two separate radar sources. Jimmy_the_Builder can add a comment here - he has the E series with the new digital radar. I've also fed the system with a Comar AIS transponder - so we actuallt transmit Class B AIS as well as receive it. This option was about the same cost as the receive only Raymarine unit.

Now, on mine I fed a load of other stuff into it as well.

OK, so to its operation. Each display has a row of buttons. I have set mine up so that you press the leftmost button and you connect the display to the actual G series processor and then AFAIK everything then looks like an E series but with remote keyboards. On our system, you press the next button to the right and the ships PC is patched through - I've also connected the PC's audio to the station. Continue pressing buttons along the row to get feeds from the docking cameras and finally theres a button that patches the TV onto the helm position - again sound is fed in as well. I've done all this without using the Raymarine Audio module. IMO, this device just made things too complicated to use.

The system is too complex for a short reply to a post like this - I'd be happy to write a full report sometime if anyone's interested.

However, I have a short video clip that djefabs took during our delivery trip. On the clip you will hear the PC that feeds into the system prompting a log event using a little Windows application that I wrote to "speak" the log information. It was a bit of a coincidence that at the same time we arrived at a waypoint and the G Series was asking for a cource change - still it gives you a good idea how it all comes together.



In summary - stick to E Series unless you like electronics. For me the G series is the dogs ?ollocks and I'm extremely pleased - wouldnt have anything else.
 
Thanks for all that detail Hurric.

The problem i refered to is that the G series has a software bug where it kinda destroys its position fix and sudenly decides it is 300m from where it is, then goes back to the correct answr. This fires off alarms and stuff and is irritating. The boat's track has spikes like a temporarily dead person's heartbeat on a defibrillator. It happens consistently all summer on Magnum's with ST70 and also on the new Hattan 70 on our quay which has ST60 (I think). I was out on the Hattan 2 weeks ago and it was a damned nuisance. Raymarine are on the case, admit the problem, and have supplied a patch to fix it but it doesn't. They have said they will fix properly but not soon. Both owenrs none too happy. So, good to hear yours doesn't have this prob.

But anyway, thanks for sage advice. I think I'll stick to E. As you say it does what G does if a bit slower, but the speed is ok. I think the remote controls on G are great (I've used them) but you dont need them on the Sq58 cos the screens are right up close to the driver (unusally). I'm not a computer expert and I dont want Tv and audio fed to the dashboard, and I could get quickly out of my depth configuring it/troubleshooting it. and my local Raymarine support speaks French only! So I'll get E, and save a bit of money! I'm having ST70 not ST60, FWIW, so will have a Seatalk NG network mainly and only a very limited Seatalk 1 network for the few things that need ST1

I'll make another post about comar

Thanks!
 
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The boat's track has spikes like a temporarily dead person's heartbeat on a defibrillator.

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Thats strange - we've never had any problems like that.
I wonder if its an installation fault.
Maricom installed our system - seemed very knowlegable.
I did an initial design and they then said why it wouldnt work and how to get what I wanted.
As you say, it definately needs Seatalk NG as well as the old normal Seatalk network.

I would suspect the ST70s but I dont understand why the Hattan 70 has the problem.

Anyway here's a recorded track from our system

Track.jpg


As you can see - straight as a die
 
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