Great Service from JG Technologies

[Norman_E]

I have taken the plunge and bought all of the remaining kit to enable me to remove most of my old yacht instruments and install a new NMEA2000 system. That amounted to a complete B&G Triton starter kit, a second display an Actisense NMEA0183/2000 gateway and an Advansea T56 chartplotter. Because I was away much of last week I arranged to have the order delivered after my return on Thursday night and JG fixed it so that it all arrived by courier on Friday morning. He even realised that I needed a special cable to connect the plotter (which uses a mini connector) to the network which uses Micro C connectors and included a free one.

I have connected everything together at home to test my system which includes a previously purchased Garmin GMI 10 display and a Garmin GPS antenna, to prove that it all works as intended, and now await the chart card from C-map. Next job is to get it to the boat and do the installation.

I think I had the last of the introductory priced B&G Triton starter kits, but even so I recommend anyone after new electronics to check out JG's prices, as they were the best I found. He answered all my e-mail queries very promptly and accurately and took my order over the phone. It is clear to me that JG understands what he is selling and is no mere box shifter.

 

[Boo2]

That amounted to a complete B&G Triton starter kit,

What did you like about the B&G setup, can I ask ?

Boo2

 

[Norman_E]

The large and very clear screen is the big attraction of the Triton, but all NMEA2000 equipment has the big advantage of being wired up through a simple cabling system with plug together and screw tight connectors that are a world away from the cats cradle of wiring and chocolate blocks needed for NMEA0183 systems.

The B&G wind masthead unit has a detachable base, enabling you to take it down for the winter, which is another plus, though in fact the Garmin unit is better in other ways because it also provides barometric pressure and air temperature data, in addition to wind direction and speed. I will actually just put the mast head unit on one side for future use, as I intend to keep my reliable VDO masthead units and a single VDO Logic wind instrument and take the wind data from that via an NMEA0183/2000 gateway to supply it to the Triton displays at the two helms and the Garmin one at the chart table.

The reason I am keeping the VDO mast head units in use is that changing the cable up the mast is a bit of a pain, also I have two of the VDO units which fit to a quick release base, and once up the mast it is a few moments work to swap them. They are also very reliable and use cheap standard stainless ball bearing races which are easily replaced. I think the bearings I replaced last year had been in use for 12 years. As long as the VDO wind instrument keeps going and outputs the NMEA0183 data I will keep it, even if I hide it out of sight when its LCD screen dies, or its needle stops going round. If I do have to fit the B&G masthead unit I will just fit it to the existing all stainless steel quick release base, which would probably be hard to remove anyway.