Raymarine or Northstar

stevenawatt

stevenawatt

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Hi,

I am after opinions on the Raymarine and Northstar Autohelms.
Which would be the better for a 43' ketch with 10,000kg displacement?
I am hoping to fit her out with a new plotter as well as depth, wind intruments.

Thanks
 
Raymarine - long established company, proven repair facility and product backup, used all over th eworld, etc.

Northstar - They used to sell second hand cars just off the A23 didnt they, or is that someone else?
 
I have Northstar replacement instruments. These are the old Navman 3100 but supposedly with the design faults fixed. As these are so new, the jury is still out.
What I can say about them is that we had a wet ride over the weekend, and the faces of the Northstar equipment showed rain spotting, and then condensation in the instrument. This is due to tthe face material. This does not happen with the ST4000 head that is on the same binnacle.
Northstar have acquired Simrad, Navico, B&G etc etc, and have rebadged a lot of their product. I think the chartplotters are from the Navico range too.
Their customer service has been excellent so far.


Northstar have NMEA0183 and Navbus, which is NMEA compatible.
Raymarine have SeaTalk, which has one input/output for NMEA, so you are stuck with other compatible Raymarine products really.

Doesn't any of these manufacturers want to get into NMEA 2000, or perhaps better still, CANBUS? A standard would be nice.
 
Thanks guys,

As far as I can see the main difference between the Autohelms is that with Raymarine it works directly to the wheel whilst the Northstar is attatched to the rudder. I don't know the advantage or disadvantage to either system.

I must admit I prefer the Northstar from what I have read to date.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Raymarine have SeaTalk, which has one input/output for NMEA, so you are stuck with other compatible Raymarine products really

[/ QUOTE ]
No, not really, my partner and I are putting in Garmin kit with a Raymarine autopilot as the only Raymarine piece of kit into her boat. Rigged up on the kitchen table everything seemed to talk to each other fine, the Raymarine NMEA in/out is fine for connecting to other kit (as long as they also have a NMEA in/out). Fingers crossed it still does when we install it into the boat.

Aeolus has an older ST4000 Autopilot and this talks fine to Garmin chart plotter and B&G instruments over 0183 (via NMEA bridge and Mux).

Regards,
Jeff.
 
Oh I agree Jeff, but they dont make it easy. I had trouble making mine all work wiith the ST4000, and still cant get a heading feed back to my Radar.
I used the services of the sorely missed TomE to work it out. Its just such a pain.

FCInstruments.jpg
 
With your displacement you've got to be looking at a 'below decks' system, not a 'wheel pilot'. The final 'drive' unit is independent of helm 'computer' and doesn't need to be Raymarine or Northstar. My boat displaces about 15t and I have a Lewmar Mamba drive motor connected directly into the 'whitlock' steering via one of the 90 degree bevel gearboxes. This is controlled via a Raymarine 3G course computer (and seperate control head, compass unit and rudder position sensor).
 
I have a diagram for Aeolus which is just about as complex as that. It is easy to understand why people choose to stick to one brand on the understanding that everything will just work together. I am quite pleased with both of our installations believing that we have managed (brace yourself for management speak) to pick "best of breed" for the various components rather than choosing a label and lumping the cost or loss of function. But the standards issue is very frustrating. One dealer said to me (and I believe him) that shortly everything on the boat will be connected via Ethernet. Roll on the day, oh, except that then while everything can be connected, nothing will talk the same protocol /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif It is no wonder '0183 is still the common glue between systems.

Regards,
Jeff.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Thanks guys,

As far as I can see the main difference between the Autohelms is that with Raymarine it works directly to the wheel whilst the Northstar is attached to the rudder.

[/ QUOTE ]

No!

It can be but you also have the choice of electric or hydraulic to the rudder.
 
[ QUOTE ]

As far as I can see the main difference between the Autohelms is that with Raymarine it works directly to the wheel whilst the Northstar is attatched to the rudder. I don't know the advantage or disadvantage to either system.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your size & displacement of boat -> below decks autopilot (directly to the rudder) without a doubt.
These wheel pilot gizmos just don't cut it.
 
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