Raymarine Smartcontroller or S100 Remote?

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Ric

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I have used a Raymarine Smartconroller for many years and have found it very useful on my boat. Unfortunately it has recently died and so I need to replace it. I am thinking of getting the smaller and lighter S100 instead as I didn't use most of the advanced features of the Smartcontroller.

Anybody got an S100 and what is it like? Is it light enough to wear comfortably on a lanyard around your neck? How long do the batteries last? Any other views and considerations most welcome.
 
I am waiting to Raymarine to launch a controller that is STng native rather than needing a converter box.

I am also waiting to Raymarine to answer some support emails, it's only been a couple of weeks so hopefully not to long to go!?!?!?!?!
 
Georgio said:
I am waiting to Raymarine to launch a controller that is STng native rather than needing a converter box.
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Likewise but I understand there are no plans to do so.
I assume the volume of sales on the Seatalk controllers are too small to justify the R&D over to SeatalkNG or they expect people to be using their smart phones connected to the Chartplotter.
 
Talulah said:
or they expect people to be using their smart phones connected to the Chartplotter.
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At present the Raymarine controller and viewer cannot control the autopilot. A safety feature whic seems designed only to sell more remotes. As you can only connect one phone or tablet device at a time I fail to understand the rationale.

However given the the recent debacle over Navionics ipad app disabling waypoint updates in Raymarine charts, which Raymarine appeared to be unaware of until it actually happened. This despite, to quote Navionics and Raymarine the update being the first part of "an exciting venture between Raymarine and Navionics" I'd not trust Raymarines development delartment to know what they are supposed to be doing.
 
I've used both. The S100 has pro's and con's compared to the smart controller.

- It's smaller and lighter
- The batteries last very long (months)
- No need to recharge, simply stick new batteries in
- Very little information on display

The most annoying bit is that when the autopilot is on standby, the device switches itself after a short while to save batteries. Next time you want to use it in needs to find the base station all over again. That can take up to 30 seconds and drives you nuts if if happens frequently.

I'm now using the smartcontroller, but the nutter that decided to use rechargeable batteries and no user accessible battery compartment is not my friend. By now I had open up the device twice to replace the worn out rechargeable (AA) batteries. As these are sort of soldered in place it's a pain to replace. The daily recharging is a pain as well. For the rest I prefer it over the S100 model.
 
aluijten said:
I've used both. The S100 has pro's and con's compared to the smart controller.

The most annoying bit is that when the autopilot is on standby, the device switches itself after a short while to save batteries. Next time you want to use it in needs to find the base station all over again. That can take up to 30 seconds and drives you nuts if if happens frequently.
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Thanks - I think that would be a deal-breaker for me as I am used to the Smartcontroller being permanently connected.
 
we havent had disconnection problems with s100 .Probably something todo with the location of the base, it does mention in the manual about siting of the base station
 
fergie_mac66 said:
we havent had disconnection problems with s100 .Probably something todo with the location of the base, it does mention in the manual about siting of the base station
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That is not what I tried to say. The unit switches off when the Autopilot is on standby (after a few minutes). That is by design. So when you want to engage the autopilot again via the S100 it first needs to re-pair to the base station. That can take a while. While the autopilot is steering the boat the S100 does not switch off. That would have been really bad.
 
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