Tacktick depth & speed system - what have I got, what do I need?

[MissFitz]

I thought I could manage without a depth sounder on my new Sonata until the winter but it turns out I need one for Round the Island (& tbf I'd quite like one anyway). So I'm trying to work out the quickest & cheapest way to get one set up. The boat already has the basics of a Tacktick system fitted so I'm assuming it makes sense to go with that - however, as a complete newbie & numpty I'm finding Raymarine's website very confusing.

What I have at the moment is: a T121 hull transmitter plus separate depth transducer & log, both of which I assume go with the Tacktick system. Any displays have been removed, so I have no idea if any of this is still functional, although it all looks to be in fairly good nick.

What I'd like to know is: a) how to check whether the fittings I've got still work; b) if they do, the quickest & easiest way to get a system set up; & c) if I'd be able to run it off a lithium car starter battery (as previously suggested by a forumite for simple electrical systems) or a motorbike battery (another recent suggestion for small boats).

I know I could ask our local Raymarine dealer about this but I feel it would be unfair to waste their time as I have every intention of buying anything I need online.

Please excuse ignorance. Any help much appreciated, as always.

 

[northwind]

Simplest and cheapest is to go with a nasa clipper depth.. about £130 for the display and sensor and to ebay what you have. Otherwise you'll need to buy new displays for the tacktick. Really depends on if you want to get integrated data in the future.

 

[r_h]

As far as powering the system is concerned, on the Quarter Tonner I used to have the small (roughly 4in square) solar panel that's sold with the Racemaster/Triducer package was ample to keep the internal transmitter powered up. You may find the solar panel is sold separately as an accessory; otherwise you could pick a suitable generic one up on ebay cheaply. The system uses very little power, so you really don't need to generate or store much.

I still have a little used Racemaster display: http://www.raymarine.eu/view/index.cfm?id=1208 that's been sitting in a cupboard for years that I haven't got round to selling...

 

[ex-Gladys]

All you need is a Tactick Instrument head, all the devices have internal batteries (hull transmitter and instrument head). The latter has a built in solar panel, and as was said earlier, you can have a panel to charge the hull transmitter. They draw next to nothing in power if you do have a battery you can connect it to.

 

[Daverw]

Hull transmitter needs external power, as you've said the displays don't as they have rechargeable power and external option., I've both depth,log and wind, used sticky tape first to try location until decided where they would be best

 

[reeac]

I would just add that although you hear scare stories about TackTick display batteries our system has worked perfectly since 2006 with the batteries needing only maybe 15 minutes sunshine to charge fully after a Winter lay up. I always unclip the displays and store them down below when we leave the boat.

 

[Dirty Bertie]

Did you have any luck working out whether the parts were servicable. I have a T121 and depth, speed and temperature triducer. It doesn't show up on my T070 Racemaster display and I want to work out whether the problem is with the triducer, the hull transmitter or the display.

Many thanks

 

[ex-Gladys]

Easy to diagnose hull transmitter... Not sure with the Racemaster display, but with a standard display you need to go through the Options menus until you get to health... that will enable you to see whether the Hull Transmitter is on the network, if not you need to go through the networking process so that the Racemaster sees the hull transmitter... Once that is done you should see your transducer data