Raymarine touchscreen issues

[amstrong32]

Against my better judgement I have a Raymarine a7 chartplotter with touchscreen on the binnacle. It works well until it rains or is sprayed with seawater. The touchscreen responds to the drops of water and becomes useless. I can use RayControl on a tablet but it is over-ridden by the next drop of water. I didn't want to use a cover but will probably have to although not easy to fit. Any suggestions?

 

[PaulRainbow]

Against my better judgement I have a Raymarine a7 chartplotter with touchscreen on the binnacle. It works well until it rains or is sprayed with seawater. The touchscreen responds to the drops of water and becomes useless. I can use RayControl on a tablet but it is over-ridden by the next drop of water. I didn't want to use a cover but will probably have to although not easy to fit. Any suggestions?

How about some Rainex on the screen, should make the water run off.

 

[johnalison]

My e7 with a touch screen is inside but the normal way of dealing with this on my set is to temporarily disable the touch screen as per the instructions. I don't normally have to do this, but it is the first thing I would try before anything complicated.

 

[Carib]

Sell it and buy a Raymarine Element! Only slightly tongue in cheek; I don't know about the a7 but I had an e7 I disliked for various reasons, and it sold for nearly £400 on ebay. Once I'd sold the charts included with the new plotter, the swap from an 8 year old plotter (albeit higher spec in terms of some features I wasn't really going to use) to a brand new one, which I find vastly better in terms of usability, cost about £50.

 

[Ningaloo]

I would agree that you will find many benefits from a new plotter. I recently crewed on a boat with Raymarine E series and was horrified at how limited it was (no pinch to zoom!) and how it failed to function when wet.
I'm a B&G fan and feel confident enough in their all weather touch screens to recommend the low cost Vulcan range. There is usually an offer in spring that bundles a top spec continental chart pack.

 

[AndyL]

You don't need to wait till spring - There's a cashback offer with the Vulcan right now which pays for the chart (depending on screen size)

 

[KompetentKrew]

Love my Vulcan 7. Have the Link app installed on a tablet so I can operate it, and view the track and heading, from the comfort of my scratcher.

 

[johnalison]

He doesn't need to spend money. He has a disable touch screen function and only has to use it.

 

[dunedin]

He doesn't need to spend money. He has a disable touch screen function and only has to use it.

The e7 certainly has that option, but does the a7 ?