Raymarine Taking the P****

[AngusMcDoon]

But there is little advantage to a manufacturer using custom connectors on small volume kit or in fact on any piece of kit unless there is a specific specification required.

There's a major business advantage for Raymarine to do just that - they can charge £100 for a £10 cable, and people pay it because they have no choice if they want to use Raymarine kit.

 

[Praxinoscope]

There's a major business advantage for Raymarine to do just that - they can charge £100 for a £10 cable, and people pay it because they have no choice if they want to use Raymarine kit.

Not disagreeing with you, but which cables, all the Raymarine kit I have had over the years seemed to have readily available connectors?
Often I have found problems getting short lengths of the cable, many of the specialist cables seem to only come on 100 drums.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Not disagreeing with you, but which cables, all the Raymarine kit I have had over the years seemed to have readily available connectors?
Often I have found problems getting short lengths of the cable, many of the specialist cables seem to only come on 100 drums.

The old style Seatalk 3 pin banana shaped plug was well known as being unavailable from anyone other than Raymarine. I've not seen an alternative supplier for the Seatalk NG plug, but am happy to be proven wrong.

 

[Praxinoscope]

The old style Seatalk 3 pin banana shaped plug was well known as being unavailable from anyone other than Raymarine. I've not seen an alternative supplier for the Seatalk NG plug, but am happy to be proven wrong.

I have to admit not familiar with the old sea talk plug.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I have to admit not familiar with the old sea talk plug.

Weird 3 pin curved thing...

More accurately, it's the ST60 Seatalk connector. ST50 had a different one.

 

[Praxinoscope]

AngusMcDoon, Ah yes I vaguely remember those, the connector was one of those sealed types that can only be factory fitted.
I admit defeat, I do not know of an equivalent that can be user attached.

 

[PaulRainbow]

AngusMcDoon, Ah yes I vaguely remember those, the connector was one of those sealed types that can only be factory fitted.
I admit defeat, I do not know of an equivalent that can be user attached.

No need for one that can be user attached, 2.8mm spades are a perfect fit for the three terminals.

Do you have a link for those STNG connectors on RS etc ?

 

[Praxinoscope]

I don’t have a direct RS ref at the moment but I think the connectors are Weipu

 

[Praxinoscope]

All is clear, thereason I don’t remember the ‘banana’ shape plugs is as PaulRainbow #27 has suggested, 2.8mm spade connectors, the old Raymarine units we had didn’t have plugs, they were connected using spade connectors. So it’s possible thé banana plugs were short lived in production?

 

[coveman]

In my experience 3M Command tape is good stuff - https://command.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/command-gb/

 

[AngusMcDoon]

So it’s possible thé banana plugs were short lived in production?

Not at all. They were on all ST60 and ST60+ devices which were in production for many years, and are still used on the i40 instruments sold today. When the ST60 range was introduced (some time in the 1990's) the company was part of Raytheon, so these connectors have been around for at least 25 years.

You can use 3 crimped on spade connectors as an alternative, but it doesn't get away from the fact that it's a proprietary connector available only from Raymarine. I've yet to be convinced that the ST NG, Raynet and the Raymic aren't as well.

 

[Sandy]

It's the printer/ink business model. Knock out the main product at or below cost, then charge a fortune for consumables or necessary 'accessories'. Raymarine do it with cables too, which cost far more to buy than their true value, but which you can't avoid because of proprietary connectors. Boat builders are not immune either. When I bought my Dragonfly trimaran 20 years ago the standard specification came with no engine and no sails. Describing it as a boat with no means of propulsion was pushing it a bit. Engines are an optional extra on the boat I'm buying now, but at least as standard it comes with sails.

Shall we call it 'the business model'. Same applies in the automotive industry; sell them cheap and sting the customer for after sales parts.

I actually like the German way of selling a basic model and add the bits you want and if I had the Lotto winnings for my dream boat I'd be looking to specify as much as I could.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Getting back to the original question..... The thing in question is a sealing gasket, it is not there to retain the plotter, same with all of the other Raymarine displays etc (and other makes). I always fit the gaskets with the sticky side on the plotter, so if you want to remove it, or move it, you don't need a new gasket.

If you use double sided sticky stuff it makes removal difficult and it makes removal of the sticky stuff a pain the the bum.

 

[KeelsonGraham]

Getting back to the original question..... The thing in question is a sealing gasket, it is not there to retain the plotter, same with all of the other Raymarine displays etc (and other makes). I always fit the gaskets with the sticky side on the plotter, so if you want to remove it, or move it, you don't need a new gasket.

If you use double sided sticky stuff it makes removal difficult and it makes removal of the sticky stuff a pain the the bum.

That’s a clever idea Paul. I’ll do that.