NASA Instruments

[boatmike]

I hesitate to ask this question but are they really worth buying these days?
Moving from Sail to MoBo I have most things I need on the new boat except wind instruments and Navtex.

For Navtex its NASA v Furuno I think, where the latter looks better quality (anyone got one?) I had an old NASA navtex but the screen went south after about 4 years and isn't repairable so inclined towards Furono apart from the fact that NASA now have silver LCD rather than the old green and black things so might have improved?

Wind of course is not as critical on a MoBo and the calculation of true wind can be a bit meaningless if travelling at speed anyway so I only really want apparent, but I see I can buy a "Meteoman" barometer with a windy MHU that gives speed and direction display for less than £200 where a Tacktick (unarguably a good bit of kit) is about twice that.

The question isn't which is best. I think that's clear, but for non essential kit like this is NASA going to be good value for money or false economy?

Sailors please don't tell me the obvious. On my sailboat I would not have entertained cheapies but this is a MoBo where the kit will be installed in a warm dry wheelhouse, not out in the cockpit with green lumps of "oggin" washing over them! Also it won't be a terminal disaster at sea if they do go wrong as they are neither essential instruments.

 

[prv]

I think Nasa is reasonable value overall - but the one exception is the wind unit which many people seem to have problems with, so for your specific need I'd have to come out against them.

Pete

 

[pvb]

For Navtex its NASA v Furuno I think, where the latter looks better quality (anyone got one?)

Had you considered the ICS Nav6 navtex? It has a bigger, and much nicer, display than either the Nasa or the Furuno. And it's about the same price as the Furuno NX300D.

However, there's another intriguing possibility. If you buy an ICS Nav6plus navtex, it has the ability to display NMEA data - including wind data - in a variety of ways. It can also display GPS position data, "rolling road" navigation guidance, etc. So, add a simple NMEA wind transducer and you have your wind system built in to your navtex.

I wouldn't normally suggest buying anything with a Nasa badge on it, but bearing in mind the wind transducer is going to be fairly easy to get at for repairs on your boat, you might think about the Nasa NMEA wind transducer, which is only £110.

 

[Coaster]

Whatever you do I strongly recommend that you do not buy the NASA PC Navtex. Ours has never worked properly, despite some kind advice from these forums, and we've junked it.

 

[monkfish24]

We have NASA Wind, speed, GPS and depth.

The wind and GPS don't work properly, the cups and shaft long gone. The GPS display has gone on the top half of all the digits and it shows no GPS data intermittently.

Fitted by the previous owner and haven't got the money to replace at the moment.

 

[vikinglish]

We had nasa gear on our last boat and had problems with wind instruments. Also agree with previous comment on pc navtex. After much struggling mine is in the cupboard too.
Now using raymarine for all and very happy with it.

 

[planteater]

Nasa depth, depth repeater, gps repeater and BM1.

No problems so far.

 

[Amulet]

I have a full house of NASA equipment.

Wind: works OK, but in my experience you have to replace the masthead cups fairly frequently and send the masthead unit to them for a new spindle about every 5 years or so. The charge for this was trivial.

Depth: Work fine but throws the occasional flid when the bottom is squidgy and requires some fiddling with the "threshold" setting to get it working. Can be annoying if you're feeling your way up a muddy creek. (This is a pretty rare - once a season problem)

Log: I must admit I get so fed up cleaning weed off the paddle wheel that I seldom use it. I can't see that weed is a uniquely NASA problem.

Fluxgate compass: Works great for me, but I never did get the "motor in circle" deviation correction to do anything useful. My deviation is negligable so not a problem.

NAVTEX: never had a problem - worked perfectly throughout.

AIS: The unit was faulty when delivered. They sent me a new chip with instructions as to how to fit it. Worked fine since. The "North up" only display is annoying, but I've become accustomed to it now.

Battery Monitor: Worked perfectly out of the box. Not sure about it's "% remaining" and "time to go" - which is not to say I think they are wrong - just unsure.

Unlike some on the forums, I've found their support exceptional. You get to talk to someone who knows how it all works. I do wish their manuals were a bit more informative.

 

[Coaster]

...I've found their support exceptional. You get to talk to someone who knows how it all works...

Not my experience, so far as the PC Navtex is concerned. I was referred to the apparently external "software consultant" who, whilst helpful, was unable so produce a satisfactory outcome.

 

[boatmike]

Had you considered the ICS Nav6 navtex? It has a bigger, and much nicer, display than either the Nasa or the Furuno. And it's about the same price as the Furuno NX300D.

However, there's another intriguing possibility. If you buy an ICS Nav6plus navtex, it has the ability to display NMEA data - including wind data - in a variety of ways. It can also display GPS position data, "rolling road" navigation guidance, etc. So, add a simple NMEA wind transducer and you have your wind system built in to your navtex.

I wouldn't normally suggest buying anything with a Nasa badge on it, but bearing in mind the wind transducer is going to be fairly easy to get at for repairs on your boat, you might think about the Nasa NMEA wind transducer, which is only £110.

Thanks for the suggestion pvb, however, just quoting prices from MES (who seem cheapest) I can buy Furuno for £340 while ICS is £580 so unless you know better its quite a bit more. Granted, if I add a NASA wind MHU I end up with a total of say £580 but the major beef with NASA appears to be the MHU so I am importing problems that way
I guess.
If I buy Tacktick MN30 it will cost me £379 and add the NASA Clipper Navtex at £210 I get
£589 and end up with a reliable wind instrument. With the Furuno Navtex the bill would come to £719.
So thanks for all the input so far but if I buy Tacktick the only question then is, is the Furuno Navtex worth £100 more than the NASA easy or £130 more than the NASA Clipper Navtex? It's certainly a name I would be more inclined to trust but has anyone got one? I would love to hear what you think of it...

 

[pvb]

Thanks for the suggestion pvb, however, just quoting prices from MES (who seem cheapest) I can buy Furuno for £340 while ICS is £580 so unless you know better its quite a bit more.

I think you need to look more carefully at prices. The MES price inc VAT for the Furuno NX300D is £400, not £340. You can get the ICS Nav6plus for only £532 at Yachtbits.

 

[boatmike]

Thanks pvb. Dead right of course. Numeric dyslexia. Saw £399 and wrote down £339!
Have you actually got an ICS Nav6+ ? Looks OK on paper but I have no experience of them. £532 is better than £580 from MES though its still some £132 more expensive than Furuno. Do you really think it's better ignoring the fact that it can display wind?

 

[pvb]

Thanks pvb. Dead right of course. Numeric dyslexia. Saw £399 and wrote down £339!
Have you actually got an ICS Nav6+ ? Looks OK on paper but I have no experience of them. £532 is better than £580 from MES though its still some £132 more expensive than Furuno. Do you really think it's better ignoring the fact that it can display wind?

No, I don't have navtex, but the ICS Nav6plus is the one I'd buy if I wanted one.

The screen is so much better than the Furuno's. It's a 6" screen, bigger than the Furuno's 4.5". It has 480x320 pixel definition - 20 times sharper than the Furuno's 120x64 pixels. As a result, the various display modes look much easier to read. And, it has the ability to display NMEA data from various sources. You can see some views of the displays in this brochure.

 

[boatmike]

Yes, I agree with all that but it really isn't designed to do more than display NMEA as a numerical value. The ICS site I just looked at has downloads that give you details of each page shown. It won't show a "simulated analogue" display of wind direction and speed like the NASA one will. That's not a criticism. It's obviously a good bit of kit and perhaps the ordinary Nav 6 is worthy of consideration as an adjunct to the Tacktick wind rather than the Furuno. I will perhaps look for them at the boat show and have a look....

 

[pvb]

Yes, I agree with all that but it really isn't designed to do more than display NMEA as a numerical value. The ICS site I just looked at has downloads that give you details of each page shown. It won't show a "simulated analogue" display of wind direction and speed like the NASA one will.

Well, I don't know what you're looking at, but the ICS unit does much more than "display NMEA as a numerical value". It offers a "rolling road" navigation display, and a "conning" display which includes analogue windspeed and direction.

Which Nasa navtex has a simulated analogue wind display? I can't see it on their website.

 

[boatmike]

Sorry, cross purposes. Its not the Navtex it's the Meteoman. Read my first post. One option is Meteoman with MHU plus Clipper Navtex. Thats where I started but the posts on the crappy MHU put me off. If you look carefully at the page you showed for the ICS I think the compass rose on top is showing heading v true course not wind. Wind is shown as digital info on bottom line. May be wrong but that's what it looks like to me....

 

[pvb]

Sorry, cross purposes. Its not the Navtex it's the Meteoman. Read my first post. One option is Meteoman with MHU plus Clipper Navtex. Thats where I started but the posts on the crappy MHU put me off. If you look carefully at the page you showed for the ICS I think the compass rose on top is showing heading v true course not wind. Wind is shown as digital info on bottom line. May be wrong but that's what it looks like to me....

The analogue display shows wind direction, with speed shown in meteorological manner as "feathers" on the tail of the wind vector. Numerical wind speed and direction are also shown. Perhaps it would help if you looked at the user manual, which gives a good idea of the versatility of the unit.

 

[boatmike]

Hmm.. Yes I see that now and perhaps the price might justify itself if it can be interfaced with a MHU at reasonable price, but it's really I suppose about the clarity of display for price and what the priorities are. I have always found Navtex very useful and want this which I can get for £210 with the NASA Clipper. The Tacktick wind will give me a superb direct readout of wind speed and direction for £379 from MSE so that's £589
The ICS Nav6plus is £531 plus a MHU to give NMEA wind. The cheapie NASA one is suspect but even using this I am spending more.... However if you kick the NASA Navtex into touch and buy the Furuno you are spending about £400 rather than £210, an increase of £190 on the total so perhaps the argument should be to buy the ICS Nav6 at £391 and stick with Tacktick.... I have plenty of room for the instrument heads on my dash and it would give two permanent dedicated readouts with a quality MHU rather than a cheapie and your arguments regarding the ICS versus Furuno readouts and function are entirely valid. Looks like £391 + £379 = £770 gives me quality plus clarity....

 

[Gwylan]

At the risk of repeating other comments - their NAVTEX is excellent value and I'd buy another.
The Meteoman is good and useful.
The mast head wind unit is female and hormonal, really isles than satisfactory - by any measure.
3rd set of cups since 2007 and it gave up the ghost in April. Bits of wool on the shrouds have done a great job since
But you might be able to reach up to the MHU and administer WD40 or whatever other snake oil it needs to get it to function.

 

[boatmike]

Actually Gwylan I was thinking that. Obviously the MHU is suspect but my old NASA navtex pro failed mainly because the screen didn't like sunlight. Do you have a more recent one? Mine had a "green and black" screen. I think later ones are black on silver and may be OK. What model is yours?