Raymarine E80 compatibility and capability

[James W]

Evening all,

The new boat has a Raymarine E80 plotter/radar/ais at the chart table and it all looks pretty good, if a little dated. It's a pretty robust unit and I'd be loathe to change it right now as it all appears to be working ok.

But, I've got nothing at the helm at it would be great to have a plotter there too.

Would anything today be compatible and talk to the E80? Should I look for a cheapish used E80 and have one at the helm too? Or would it be wiser to just start the process of upgrading by buying a modern plotter and using it as a stand alone unit at the helm for now?

Thanks, James

 

[Elessar]

Evening all,

The new boat has a Raymarine E80 plotter/radar/ais at the chart table and it all looks pretty good, if a little dated. It's a pretty robust unit and I'd be loathe to change it right now as it all appears to be working ok.

But, I've got nothing at the helm at it would be great to have a plotter there too.

Would anything today be compatible and talk to the E80? Should I look for a cheapish used E80 and have one at the helm too? Or would it be wiser to just start the process of upgrading by buying a modern plotter and using it as a stand alone unit at the helm for now?

Thanks, James

Which E80? (Does it have 4 buttons at the bottom and is grey, or are all the bottoms on the right and it’s black)

Either way an E80 is worth keeping the answer to the above makes a difference to the how.

 

[Tim Good]

Can’t you just move the E80 out into the cockpit? We have an E80 and done over 8000nm in the last couple of years and it’s been fine. No problem getting charts and the AIS is wired into it. We have several ST60 instruments in the cabin and an iPad with Navionics charts on if we want to passage plan from below.

We do have another screen and Raymarine keyboard in the cabin which acts as a second plotter but rarely use it. The plotter is more use in the cockpit as you suggest.

 

[James W]

Which E80? (Does it have 4 buttons at the bottom and is grey, or are all the bottoms on the right and it’s black)

Either way an E80 is worth keeping the answer to the above makes a difference to the how.

It’s the grey one, it seems pretty capable but I’d imagine it needs a software update.

 

[James W]

Can’t you just move the E80 out into the cockpit? We have an E80 and done over 8000nm in the last couple of years and it’s been fine. No problem getting charts and the AIS is wired into it. We have several ST60 instruments in the cabin and an iPad with Navionics charts on if we want to passage plan from below.

We do have another screen and Raymarine keyboard in the cabin which acts as a second plotter but rarely use it. The plotter is more use in the cockpit as you suggest.

That’s another possibility, it sounds like we have very similar setups.

 

[Tim Good]

It’s the grey one, it seems pretty capable but I’d imagine it needs a software update.

which is easy

 

[Elessar]

It’s the grey one, it seems pretty capable but I’d imagine it needs a software update.

Ok the software update is easy. Download from raymarine onto a card. The only hard bit is finding a small enough card (too big and it doesn’t recognise it)
E80s of that generation are available cheaply on eBay. Buy another.
You only need to get power to the helm and a network cable between the 2 units, call the one inside the “master “ and everything will work including the radar which is plugged into the chart table one. You only need a chart card in the chart table one too it just all works.

Moving it to the helm is also logical, but moving the radar cable without joins a real PITA and you’ll get dual station for a few £00 with an additional one.

Inside one great for plotting routes, passage planning with a chart. Outside one used far more because it’s used under way and for pilotage.

 

[Tim Good]

Moving it to the helm is also logical, but moving the radar cable without joins a real PITA and you’ll get dual station for a few £00 with an additional one.

Personally my Radar has become a little like our fax machine or cheque book. They since somewhere gathering dust. Since we've got multiple GPS redundancies in phones / ipads and full AIS we just never use it. Once in Norway when it was foggy but that was more out of fun to see if it was still working.

 

[Elessar]

Personally my Radar has become a little like our fax machine or cheque book. They since somewhere gathering dust. Since we've got multiple GPS redundancies in phones / ipads and full AIS we just never use it. Once in Norway when it was foggy but that was more out of fun to see if it was still working.

I use my car airbags less often than my radar but still wouldn’t disconnect them if I had them.

 

[James W]

Ok the software update is easy. Download from raymarine onto a card. The only hard bit is finding a small enough card (too big and it doesn’t recognise it)
E80s of that generation are available cheaply on eBay. Buy another.
You only need to get power to the helm and a network cable between the 2 units, call the one inside the “master “ and everything will work including the radar which is plugged into the chart table one. You only need a chart card in the chart table one too it just all works.

Moving it to the helm is also logical, but moving the radar cable without joins a real PITA and you’ll get dual station for a few £00 with an additional one.

Inside one great for plotting routes, passage planning with a chart. Outside one used far more because it’s used under way and for pilotage.

Excellent, thanks so much for that!