russ
Well-Known Member
Sorry, yes auto routing.
New Chartplotter mfd
- Thread starter masterofnone
- Start date
Sorry, yes auto routing.
Bathdave
Well-Known Member
I added a raymarine MFD 4 years ago to the helm to augment a raymarine plotter, radar, auto pilot and instruments from 2002 as I took the view it would integrate better (needed to a add a Seatalk protocol converter)
i don’t find the new plotter especially intuitive alongside navionivs on my iPad
the touchscreen isn’t any use at all in wet conditons but I anticipated that and bought the version with the built in control panel
overall I would not choose RM now and if I was starting from scratch - I would probably go Garmin as I have used it and found it more intuitive and easy to use
a very experienced friend of mine whose judgement I value enormously did intensive research before refitting from scratch on his new-to-him boat and he went B&G
i don’t find the new plotter especially intuitive alongside navionivs on my iPad
the touchscreen isn’t any use at all in wet conditons but I anticipated that and bought the version with the built in control panel
overall I would not choose RM now and if I was starting from scratch - I would probably go Garmin as I have used it and found it more intuitive and easy to use
a very experienced friend of mine whose judgement I value enormously did intensive research before refitting from scratch on his new-to-him boat and he went B&G
Sea Devil
Well-Known Member
I think Raymarine products are very well made - sturdy construction but the company does not seem to understand the issues with smaller boats - 33ft in my case. Yes the new touch screen is affect by rain falling on it.. with very cold fingers it simply does not work and the manual knobs are insensitive. But the biggest problem I have had is the software... Very difficult to put the values I want onto the chart plotter screen.. to choose the 'screens' I want to see... I use the rolling road a lot but finding it and making it accessible was a major voyage of discovery. On the 7'' model which is the largest I have space for at the wheel when using AIS the 'boxes' are so small it's really difficult to access the detailed info. (on the stand alone Simrad AIS on my previous boat with a smaller screen it was easy...) Raymarine software people do not seem to know how to write intuitive paths to functions - but to be fair someone above had no problem with that but could not make android/Garmin work so it could be a 'mental' issue...
My feeling Raymarine design for big boats but because they also want to sell into the smaller boat market just physically downsize the product but do nothing to make software easy to use on small screens... I just think Garmin are better products and wish I had followed my heart instead of my wallet and installed all new Garmin Radar/AIS/chartplotter... Live and learn
PaulRainbow
Well-Known Member
Garmin, Raymarine, Simrad, B&G etc all do that.
PaulRainbow
Well-Known Member
Mostly complaints about it being less than intuitive to use, charts and chart updates being "fiddly", the Apps' being very clunky, wifi erratic, wheel pilots making the magnetic compass unusable, mish-mash of Seatalk and N2K, poor touch screens. They also do stupid things like put the chart card in the back of some of the Axion MFDs, not helpful if it's in a pod at the helm or flush mounted below.
Garmin are not perfect (who is), the Active Captain app' is a bit clunky, but still useful. I don't like the way they went with wind sensors. Great customer support though.
B&G and Simrad are less common, in my experience, but they are probably catching up fast. They make some good kit and are popular with a lot of commercial users (Simrad in particular).
I'm happy to fit any of the above, if that's what the customer wants, but my personal choice and what i recommend if asked, is Garmin.
Laser310
Well-Known Member
The original post asked about an entire system.., including wind...
It seems many people think the wind capabilities are more or less the same across the brands in question - but this is not the case.
There is no manufacturer (except maybe NKE) that has the wind capabilities of the higher end B&G systems - their sensors are better and the processing is better.
does anyone else even make a high end analogue wind sensor?
start with a WTP3 processor, and you are in a world that the others can not approach.
even the basic H5000 Hercules has wind calibration features unavailable by the other manufacturers on any of their products. add a motion sensor, and it's even better.
Sure.., nobody is going to put WTP3 on a cruising boat.., but many cruising boats have H5000 hercules systems - these have far better wind than anything from garmin or Raymarine.
It seems many people think the wind capabilities are more or less the same across the brands in question - but this is not the case.
There is no manufacturer (except maybe NKE) that has the wind capabilities of the higher end B&G systems - their sensors are better and the processing is better.
does anyone else even make a high end analogue wind sensor?
start with a WTP3 processor, and you are in a world that the others can not approach.
even the basic H5000 Hercules has wind calibration features unavailable by the other manufacturers on any of their products. add a motion sensor, and it's even better.
Sure.., nobody is going to put WTP3 on a cruising boat.., but many cruising boats have H5000 hercules systems - these have far better wind than anything from garmin or Raymarine.
prv
Well-Known Member
I think this is one of those personal things - I find the software on the Raymarine Axiom plotters very intuitive, with the functions I want readily to hand in the places I need to use them.
I tend to agree with Paul about the chart situation, that felt a bit confused, though some of it may also be down to Navionics. I haven’t had any issues with WiFi, though I don’t use it much except for software updates. Mixture of connectors not really a problem for one DIY install, though I can see why it’s annoying in his job. I will note that the slim STng plugs genuinely made things easier when retrofitting cables. Chart card in the back I prefer, for not having to interrupt the single sheet of elegant and watertight glass with a clunky little door, but I already had a suitable access hatch in the pod. I can see it’s a potential issue for some installations, though you can also use a USB external reader.
Pete
dolabriform
Well-Known Member
I have to agree with this, for a sailing boat a fully integrated B&G system outshines anything else. But it also comes down to cost! I have a mishmash of manufacturers with a B&G plotter at the centre of it all.
I also still have a separate Raymarine RADAR, which will get upgraded to B&G if it ever fails.
AngusMcDoon
Well-Known Member
Done a bit more investigation. It seems that now NMEA2000 does allow non DeviceNet connectors as long as the connectors meet NMEA's requirements, so STng connectors can be used on a certified device. What NMEA2000 does not allow is more than one device on a spur off the backbone. STng allows this which is why the i70 display had 2 connectors - you could connect 2 more on the same spur. The new i70s display has only a single STng connector so it can be NMEA2000 certified (it hasn't been yet but is pending). I remember that the original B&G Triton display had the same non-conformance.
PaulRainbow
Well-Known Member
Thanks for sharing this Angus, all interesting. Odd that Raymarine have started using Devicenet connectors on the MFDs, which i'd suspected might be for N2K compliance and now they've changed the i70.
The B&G Triton2 still has two connectors on the back and the installation instructions show daisy chained installations. Throughout their manuals they refer to NMEA 2000 a lot (with some references to Simnet), even though the devices are not N2K certified.
lustyd
Well-Known Member
Given the obvious compatibility it would be nice to see the Raymarine connectors added to the spec to allow for more choice in design. As others have said the smaller connectors can be a godsend, and if Raymarine have decided to become standards compliant finally then no reason not to share that connector. I suspect with the inevitable drift towards Ethernet they're realising standards are going to happen with or without them so may as well be part of the ecosystem.
imjustinbraun
New Member
Sorry to revive an old thread here. I'm currently bench testing my Raymarine Axiom system before installing. I was wondering if the touchscreens are always borderline unusable or do I just have a defective unit? I have a 7" axiom with Lighthouse 3. Did the software update, etc. It seems as though the screen is just not calibrated properly though I can't find a way to calibrate it anywhere in the settings and the manual is useless.
Sea Devil
Well-Known Member
I can't offer solutions but when I got (paid an expert) who understood the software things got a lot better - but its still a very disappointing piece of equipment... Worth getting a main dealer with a repair team in I think
Greg2
Well-Known Member
We have two Axiom plotters and I wouldn’t say that either are disappointing pieces of kit and certainly not borderline unusable so I will be interested to hear what the issue is. that said I have heard of upgrades creating problems.
Arcady
Well-Known Member
Over the years I’ve used Simrad, Raymarine and Garmin plotters. I’ve just specified a suite of B&G equipment for the new boat, based on the fact (or so I am told) that B&G is essentially Simrad - which I liked - but tailored very much towards yachties.
jwfrary
Well-Known Member
Just to contribute to the awakening of this thread,
I'm very much leaving toward the waterproof commercial touch screen for outside areas, a tough but perhaps less highly rated indoors, and they are tied to a pc with a solid state disc in it in a small form factor, digital yacht do a Marine one, but they are easily replaced upgraded both in terms of hardware and software, I like time zero but there's others to choose from and you can integrate all your instruments easily these days using one cable if they are N2k, it's just ans NGT-1 which works out of the box.
It's far less than a chart plotter, and also far more adapatableband gives a huge choice of screen sizes.
In terms of radar there's plenty of options, simrad you can use with opeb cpn fairly well as well as garmin, furuno you can use with time zero and get radar overlay and all the features you would expect.
That's where I'm leaning towards these days having been less than impressed with the software bugs with simrad and raymarine lately!
I'm very much leaving toward the waterproof commercial touch screen for outside areas, a tough but perhaps less highly rated indoors, and they are tied to a pc with a solid state disc in it in a small form factor, digital yacht do a Marine one, but they are easily replaced upgraded both in terms of hardware and software, I like time zero but there's others to choose from and you can integrate all your instruments easily these days using one cable if they are N2k, it's just ans NGT-1 which works out of the box.
It's far less than a chart plotter, and also far more adapatableband gives a huge choice of screen sizes.
In terms of radar there's plenty of options, simrad you can use with opeb cpn fairly well as well as garmin, furuno you can use with time zero and get radar overlay and all the features you would expect.
That's where I'm leaning towards these days having been less than impressed with the software bugs with simrad and raymarine lately!
CJTurner
Active Member
I have 3 B&G connected to a spur without a problem. Length may be a factor, these are adjacent to each other.
Chris
CJTurner
Active Member
The power on/off button is my main issue. The screen elsewhere is fine and responsive.
Chris