plotter connectivity...

[haslemere_harry]

Hi all

I'm slowly succumbing to the idea of installing a plotter in the cockpit of Viking. However having spoken to a couple of 'experts', and being a complete laggard in these matters, all the technical talk of various NMEA & Seatalk permutations has resulted in my rapidly losing the will to live!

At the moment I have a Raymarine SeaTalk system (ST50's and ST4000+) but I'm torn between a Garmin and Raymarine plotter. Can somebody explain, preferably in words of one syllable(!) how big a job it would be to get a Garmin unit talking, particularly to the Autohelm and more generally, to the current network. Also, does anyone have experience of the latest Raymarine Seatalk and its compatibility with my current set-up? For info I'm considering the Garmin 750, Garmin 4010 and the Raymarine C90.

The other less technical consideration is the practicality of touchscreen (cf Garmin 750). The appeal of course is the bigger screen to unit size ratio but does anyone have any experience of actually using one in a rolling sea with freezing fingers (ie the British summer!)?

Thanks in advance for any clarity!

Cheers

Mark

 

[earlybird]

What do you want to achieve by interconnecting them?
It will give the ability to steer to a waypoint on the plotter I suppose, which isn't a big deal IMHO.

 

[mattnj]

if you have a raymarine pilot and instruments then i would stick with a raymarine display, you just plug it in to your existing seatalk network and away you go.

What do you want to achieve by interconnecting them?
It will give the ability to steer to a waypoint on the plotter I suppose, which isn't a big deal IMHO.

You can control the pilot from the plotter, you also get all the instrument info available on the plotter.

 

[haslemere_harry]

Yes, that's my rational inclination but to get a touchscreen Raymarine unit means going to the E90 which, assuming I'm found out(!), might be stretching the budget somewhat!

Mark

 

[nickfabbri]

Phone Garmin. They were very helpful when I was trying to connect Simrad to Garmin. As long as they are NMEA2000 compatible it should be a case of plugging them all in and it works. If its NMEA0183 its a little different but still achievable.
PS the Garmin touch screens are fantastic pieces of kit.

 

[DavyMac]

Your ST50s and ST4000 are not NMEA2000 compatible as they are so you'd need to use NMEA0183 to talk to non-Raymarine kit. The ST4000 may output NMEA0183 (I know that the newer SPX5 autopilot does), otherwise unless you have one in the system you'll probably need a Raymarine NMEA box. After that it shouldn't be too hard - not as easy as plugging in another SeaTalk box but I would say not so hard as to put you off buying your preferred plotter. I have no view as to which plotter is to be preferred though.

 

[johnphilip]

GARMIN or raymarine

We have a Garmin 750 with an ST4000 wheel pilot, NASA AIS engine,Navman VHF. All work well and live happily together. The Garmin I had a job to justify buying but is the best thing since sliced bread. The touch screen works really well mostly because of the really fast redrawing rate, this might sound immaterial but it really does make it much easier to look ahead for the next mark. Before the 750 was introduced I hankered after the larger 5008 plotter, however using one on a friends boat recently the 5008 seemed awkward and ponderous. Go for Garmin

 

[haslemere_harry]

Thanks everyone - the NMEA/SeaTalk fog is beginning to lift!

I think I might well go for the Garmin 750s. Its just about the right size for the location I'm planning (under the screen on a baby Rassy) plus I haven't heard a bad word about it yet and now that it seems the networking issue isn't insurmountable, I'm pretty much convinced.

I might even go for the AIS as well whilst I'm at it!

Thanks again,

Mark