Raytheon - worth paying for?

[rogerroger]

I'm going to remove my NASA Target echo sounder and separate log and am thinking about replacing them with a combined depth / speed unit and adding a GPS repeater.

The Clipper combined unit is about £150 - the Raytheon ST40 "Bidata" combined unit is about £230.

The Raytheon looks better - but is it worth paying the extra for ?

Roger Holden
www.first-magnitude.co.uk

 

[tonyleigh]

Bought new R_Autohelm. Packed up after about 5 weeks - these things can happen. Dropped into Jersey where agent got replacement card flown in and fitted in 2 days (inc non-working(?) Saturday) at no charge. Back-up like that may be worth paying for.

 

[billskip]

I have had two bidata autohelm (now Ratheon I think)..both gave good very accurate readings but both failed due to water /damp getting into indicator unit..Replaced with Clipper bidata unit but not happy with readout...seems unstable.. dosent give me confidence....

 

[rogerroger]

what do you mean the readout seems "unstable" ?

Roger Holden
www.first-magnitude.co.uk

 

[HaraldS]

Out of 10 instrumnets of the ST60 range I had three replaced in the first year.
A multi was getting hung up beeping more and more frequent, the depth just went blank and wouldn't power on and the wind became very noicy, probably a loose ferrit core in the internal dc-dc converter. Mechanically and water resisntance wise they appear pretty good.
The yard replaced all failing units without hesitation.
I have another sounder, Radar, chartplotter and d-GPS from Simrad, with no hardware problems, only the software needed two updates until it was pretty ok.
The Raymarine technical support via e-mail is first class.

 

[billskip]

Re: re clipper

I fitted the new clipper duel depth/speed march 2001 I sail in Aegean.so depth changes are a bit quick...the Autohelm seemed to have some sort of "damper"on the readout and seemed to ignor the occasional missed pulse therefor giving a stable readout over its range ...the Clipper seems to need every pulse or it goes to "out" ..in shallow water..it reads "out" and flashes depth and changes over 1mtr info when flashing...unit is allways flashing some depth indication very rearly showing a depth reading as was the autohelm..I have spoken to clipper and they said they will look at the unitand very helpfull on phone..but if you can get a copy of the owners /opperating/install book I suggest you read first..difficult for me to explain hope you make sense of it..also Im shure others have this unit and can explain better..maybe I got a doggy one??..

 

[billmacfarlane]

I bought a ST50 11 years ago , one of the first. One of the units packed up in first year. Raytheon , the Autohelm , replaced it without question sending a replacement to the nearest station to my marina. It performed faultlessly after that for 10 years. They do seem to have very good after sales service and very large dealer network which prompted me to choose Raytheon again for my new boat.

 

[charles_reed]

Both are pretty cheap-and-cheerful, but in this world you get what you pay for.
Raytheon's warranty back-up is fairly good - Tony Klcher's is pretty inadequate.
Both are about as reliable as each other with about 8-10% fail rate.
In the final analysis which is easier to read.

Hope this gives you some measurables on which to base your decision.

Personally I'd choose neither and would save the money to get good upgradeable instruments, inert-gas sealed and with reliable software.
You will have to be paying rather more money for them

 

[philip_stevens]

I've read all the other postings, and offer no comment on them on Raytheon or NASA.

Have a look at the (Plastimo marketed) New Zealand made Navman range. I've fitted them and have had no problems at all. All have NMEA output, and can be linked to other NMEA compatable instruments and equipment.

Dearer than NASA, and cheaper than Raytheon (or whatever they are now called), but with good backup from Plastimo - my log impeller got damaged by a rope, and a replacement was sent from Plastimo via a chandler by return of post.

regards,
Philip

 

[jfkal]

It sure is. But go for the ST60 line, more functions and better quality. My Simrad components are giving me headache anfter headache. Raytheon do far has been plug in and use. Only NMEA integration needs an extra box to convert other than that SAETALK works great.

 

[kingfisher]

Damper settings

There's a bit of tweaking involved in setting up the sensitivity of the Clipper depth sounder. Mine used to go all over the place in the first weeks. Got it about right now ,though.

I've got the Clipper Depth and GPS Repeater. Both working fine. I chose the Clipper range, because they have the largest characters displayed on the market (unless you want to go for the B&G or Raymarine big$creen$).

After one season, both are still operating marvelously.

Obi-Wan

 

[billskip]

Re: Damper settings

Tried all every which way with tweeking..clipper say to send it back must be dud..I like the big display dont have to use binoc´s at the helm...