Integrated Navigation System Suggestions?

[PaulMcC]

Since you're looking for info on what people have and their thoughts on it, here's mine.

Sony Xperia tablet as chartplotter (not integrated to anything but can be carried around)
Raymarine depth and log with repeater so viewable inside and out.
ST50 wind indicator mounted above the companionway
Simrad TP10 tiller-pilot which doesn't work - not sure why yet.

And my thoughts on it.....

You could do a lot better!

 

[Lucky Duck]

All modern radars do all the processing inside the radar, the MFD's only act as a remote control & display unit, the data volume transferred from the radar to the display need some bandwidth most use Ethernet for this.
You can even find open source software that can tap date and display on a PC.

Don't disagree with all this but I was responding to the point made about the radar being involved in wirelessly networking the boat (which my post highlighted in bold), which as you point out must be some sort of mix up.

 

[knuterikt]

That's excellent, thank you for the replies. This is a useful starting point because it's helping me galvanise my thoughts, so a few more specific questions:

Autopilot
1. It seems as if the auto pilot is one thing that can't be integrated across different brands, is that correct? I assume it needs its own display unit and electric compass.

No, it's possible to integrate across brands, my AP can run in three different modes.
-Compass course
-Wind direction (from the Raymarine wind sensor)
-Waypoint from the Furuno

I think all AP come with a dedicated control head, but there might be some that can be controlled also from the plotter.

2. Knuterikt, you said you had Furuno kit mainly but a different autopilot system. Why is this? My current B&G system (when it used to work) not only works out things like XTE but talks to the autopilot to make those adjustments for me. Can you do this across different brands using NMEA? Is is possible to control an autopilot (hydraulic ram) via OpenCPN or a Raymarine chart plotter, for example?

«Furuno kit mainly» is to exagerate
My integrated system have evolved over the years we have owned the boat.
The boat came with an old Ramarine wheel pilot, when the drive unit died in the middle of summer we bought a new wheel unit (even if we knew that the AP was to weak for the boat).
The control head died a year after - when we started to look for a replacement we discovered the hilarious pricing from Raymarine – kits are cheap but try to buy a AP without drive unit...
I looked around for a good AP with N2K interface – but found none at that point in time.
For me the most important with the AP is being able to steer to compass & wind, integration with plotter not so important.
Didn't like the Furuno AP so we ended up with the Australian Coursemaster, witch have served us well.

Repeaters
3. If I have B&G wind and depth instruments (12 years old at a guess), can I repeat that info on a Raymarine repeater?

If you can get NMEA 0183 from these, you can use a NMEA 0183 to NMEA 2000 converter like the Actisense I have – but you must check what you can get from the old stuff you have.

PC Info
4. Can chartplotters repeat PC info? I was looking up the Furuno NN3D MFD8, which is way more advanced than our antiquated plotter (takes 5 seconds or more to draw each layer as you zoom in and out). I'd like to be able to switch between chartplotter info and PC info.

Not sure I understand what you are after here..
But if you run Maxsea on the PC and have a Furuno plotter you can share charts and other data.
Other makers can offer similar functionality – but I have no first hand experience as I feel the plotter is my preferred/primary tool.
My brother and I are testing some software on the laptop this summer open CPN and qtVlm http://wiki.virtual-loup-de-mer.org/index.php/QtVlm/en for route planning based on grib files.

5. Also, is it not possible to run all your instruments into the PC first and use the PC to repeat the data to other repeaters around the boat? Surely the best solution is to have an on-board computer that gathers all the data, runs the charting program (OpenCPN, Maxsea, Navionics etc), which is then repeated using screens that can read the PC screen. Any comments on this solution?

Using NMEA 2000 is better http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMEA_2000 as it have no single point of failiure as a centralized PC soltion have.

Binnacle screen
6. The only instrument I have on the binnacle is my autopilot control and repeated info like depth etc. I do not have a plotter and have never needed one, even navigating through reefs in the Red Sea and the Maldives (mark i eye-ball, and all that). However, I like the look of Pete's Lowrance 4M plotter, which comes at a reasonable price, but does this not mean you need to buy separate chart cards or could you get a model that acts as a repeater too (same question as repeating PC info I guess).

I have not researched the PC as master with plotter as slave option that much.
But buying one set of charts to work on both platforms could be a challenge
If you prefer PC why not look for a ruggedized PC touch screen?

Broadband Radar
7. Aside from instant start-up, good range, low power, what are the other benefits of broadband radar? One guy here in Langkawi was telling me how he could use it to divide his boat up into regions and network wirelessly various controls. Either he didn't explain it well enough or I wasn't listening properly, but I didn't get what he was saying. Anyone any experience with broadband radar? I'm in the market for a radar anyway...

I commented on this here http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...tion-System-Suggestions&p=4289005#post4289005

As it stands I am quite happy with plotting and navigating by PC, with the chart plotter (and paper charts) as backup. Each has its own GPS too. Since I plot my course on both PC and chart-plotter I need the two next to each other, which means they have to sit down below. If I have a repeater on the binnacle, it would be preferable to have the PC info to hand, with the ability to switch between PC and chart plotter.

Regarding through-hull fittings I guess I need to find out how easy it is to repeat my old B&G instruments to PC and/or plotter, or if I have to replace them.

Finally, I need to get my head around the autopilot and if the hardware can be operated with newer instruments, either B&G or non-B&G.

You need to sort out what is possible with the stuff you have, as I wrote interfacing NMEA 0183 into NMEA 2000 is straight forward. Other more exotic stuff can be more challenging
What kind of «upgrade path» you want to follow.
What kind of features is important and what is nice to have.
Budget?

If you want to read more about the development / new stuff in maritime electronics you should start following this site www.panbo.com.