Chartplotter Recommendations......Integrations Advice

Chris Reinke · Post by **Chris Reinke** » Apr 16th, '10, 14:40

I have a question for all the marine electronic techno experts....which I am not one.

I currently have a Raymarine SL70 stand alone radar with a 24NM radome that mounts at my nav station and also on my binnacle. I have it linked it to my Garmin GP51 GPS via nmea data feed so it can display my location data, waypoint, tracking, and route details on the radar screen. I understand the SL70 is not SeaTalk compatible so it can not be fully integrated with the newer chartplotters on the market, so I want to look at my options for installing a new stand alone chartplotter.

Any recommendations on a chartplotter? I will be mounting in along side my radar screen at the helm so I want weatherproof, and a bright enough screen to vis in direct sunlight. I am considering the Raymarine A70, although I am still looking for feedback. I am also wondering if I can use my existing Garmin GPS antenna with a replacement chartplotter (it is currently mounted on an aft radar pole and replacement would be tricky).

Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Chris

Jeff and Sarah · Post by **Jeff and Sarah** » Apr 16th, '10, 15:20

I'm no expert, but I'm leaning towards the Garmin 740s. Networkable chartplotters are too expensive since they cost a couple thousand each and you need at least 2 of them to even realize their capability. The new 7 series seems to walk that fine line of high capability while only losing networking with another GPS. It works with NMEA 2000 components, and people seem to like the touchscreen system.

I think I'm going to go with the Radar bundle package that is available with the 740s. I haven't ordered it yet, but it's just a matter of time.

Joe CD MS 300 · Post by **Joe CD MS 300** » Apr 16th, '10, 16:53

I don't know how old your radar is but I'm a big fan of the radar overlay on charts. It provides a great confirmation of the location the GPS is giving you. If I was starting from scratch I world definitely go with Garmin. A lot of flexibility and not in the financial trouble that Raymarine is.

mahalocd36 · Post by **mahalocd36** » Apr 16th, '10, 17:04

Before you buy a Raymarine chartplotter, hop to your local marine store and try to actually use one. Try to pick a point on the chart and "goto" it. Scroll around, etc. Then try to use a Garmin or Standard Horizon. Actually looking at a manual is cheating. That might make your decision for you.

Zeida · Post by **Zeida** » Apr 16th, '10, 18:19

Melissa, what is your current setup on Mahalo? Are you 100% happy with it? Since the good color chartplotters are awfully expensive, this is one area where I have needed to improvise. I ended up buying a $220.00 Icom GPS, which is very easy to use, nice large numbers and info and connected it to the laptop which has the Maptech Offshore Navigator software which I think was around $450. to buy. I need to keep these two inside my nav station, and I have to peek from the steering ped. to look at the screen, but this is doable. I also keep a small, old Magellan black and white smaller GPS at the pedestal by the wheel, and when under way, I am constantly comparing notes between the two. I normally work out the routes and plan out trips in the inside unit, since the maptech offshore program is very good. Of course, I wish I had the $$ to buy the bigger color units that you can have in the cockpit, but I guess there are other priorities. in any case, here is my navigation version.

<a href="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc26 ... top010.jpg" target="_blank"><img width="600" src="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc26 ... 0.jpg"></a>

<a href="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc26 ... top005.jpg" target="_blank"><img width="600" src="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc26 ... 5.jpg"></a>

<a href="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc26 ... _00367.jpg" target="_blank"><img width="600" src="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc26 ... 7.jpg"></a>

<a href="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc26 ... _00347.jpg" target="_blank"><img width="600" src="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc26 ... 7.jpg"></a>

<a href="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc26 ... _00364.jpg" target="_blank"><img width="600" src="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc26 ... 4.jpg"></a>

Jeff and Sarah · Post by **Jeff and Sarah** » Apr 16th, '10, 21:14

Z,
Thats a nice solution. Just out of curiosity, where do you sail at an altitude of 67'?!
Jeff

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Apr 17th, '10, 02:48

Definately would go with garmin here. I had an SL70 Raymarine on my boat when I bought it, I opted to do a total electronics refit (insturments, radar, everything). So I decided on Raymarine since they offered everything with simple linking, which I have been entirely happy with (except the autopilot I added a year ago to replace the old cetrek that finally died, nothing but trouble with the Raymarine ST70/X10 autopilot, over 2000 miles on it and it has not worked yet for more then 200 and has had to go back to Raymarine for software updates 2 times and mechanical repairs 2 times due to being destroyed by bad software! but I digress). But working with the system you have and integrating to it, you are better off with Garmin, better UI and generally friendly integration with non Garmin componants (Raymarine supports NEMA, but some features you expect might not exist unless you use one of the many variations of SeaTalk which mostly will not work anyway with your SL70, Raymarine is not big on backward compatability).

Maine Sail · Post by **Maine Sail** » Apr 17th, '10, 13:11

My pick would be to ditch the old stuff, it's getting long in the tooth to be considered dependable for marine electronics, and go Garmin 740 series with a GMR 18HD radar dome.

The 740 series has a built in antenna and is very, very easy to wire and hook up.

Another option that can save lots of money is to find a dealer who still has an older 3206 plotter but for the feature/benefit of the new 740 series it really wins out..

MFC · Post by **MFC** » Apr 17th, '10, 14:33

I like Maine Sail's 3206 idea.

I found one for $750 (google "shop"). Best part might be that you can network it with the new 4200 line if you later want to put the 4200 at the nav station. The way the garmin tech explained it to me, the 3206 will have complete N2000 functionality if it is connected to the 4208.

I bought a Garmin 441 to sail back from Florida with and I really like the interface and the loaded info such as "local services" and "tides" is great. The 441 is trully standalone and a bit too small . . . for not much more $$$, the 3206 will provide the bigger screen, radar overlay and the ability to run the autopilot.

Matt

mahalocd36 · Post by **mahalocd36** » Apr 21st, '10, 09:17

Zeida wrote:Melissa, what is your current setup on Mahalo? Are you 100% happy with it?

We are very happy with our setup, but it's not ideal, because I think ideally we'd have radar overlay with charts.
Here's what we have:

Mahalo came with a Raymarine radar system on a swing out arm from the companionway. This setup works well, can see it from helm or under the dodger, or in the cabin. However it doesn't have chartplotting capabilities, though are GPS interfaces with it to give it speed and direction.

Under the dodger we have a Garmin charplotter (492C I think) that we like. Very easy to use.

At the helm last year we added a Standard horizon CP3000 7" chartplotter. I wanted a larger chartplotter than the garmin but we didn't feel like spending *too* much $$ and this was a nice compromise. I love it. It has the feature of being able to split the screen into 2 views - like one distant and one zoomed in.

On our laptops we have navigation software that frankly we don't really use anymore. It did get use when we just had GPSs without chartplotting. However we don't do a lot of route planning like some people do. The 2 chartplotters we have are so easy to use - just point and 'goto' that we don't usually plan out a route in advance on the chartplotter (we do looking at a paper chart and discussing where we are going to go and how we are going to get there, but we don't worry about having a GPS route all planned out) . Besides Winds, plans and moods change

We used to do that, and have lots of waypoints named+stored, before the chartplotter, but we haven't felt the need to do that anymore, especially as we are getting familiar with the waters here.

When the radar hits the end-of-life, which hopefully won't be for a while, we'll change out of Raymarine to something easier to use, integrated with a chartplotter.

Zeida · Post by **Zeida** » Apr 27th, '10, 08:44

Jeff... I think the "altitude" reading in my ICOM GPS refers to the approx height of where the satellites are "seeing" my boat.
When I was filling in the info on the unit itself, it asks the location and highest point of the boat, which was my mast (54 ft.) and that is what I put in there... so I assume that altitude reading has something to do with that. For sure, I am not flying...

Len · Post by **Len** » Apr 27th, '10, 09:15

Integrating your electronics is nice, but we all know that electronics fail, If you are going to have radar/chartplotter combinations . I like the following setup; radar /chartplotter in nav station, and chartplotter at helm. I prefer them not nema interconnected. That way I have two independent gps' working for safety and comparison.
I use Standard Horizon chatplotter and raymarine radar/chart. The reason is that the same c map charts fit in both units, and I don't have to buy duplicate charts. The down side is that the charting function can only be used one at a time. The upside is that routes, marks, etc. can be moved from the helm to the nav station to a computer ( with map tech charts) with relative ease. No data is lost if one of them goes down.

Joe CD MS 300 · Post by **Joe CD MS 300** » Apr 27th, '10, 10:51

Len wrote:Integrating your electronics is nice, but we all know that electronics fail, If you are going to have radar/chartplotter combinations . I like the following setup; radar /chartplotter in nav station, and chartplotter at helm. I prefer them not nema interconnected. That way I have two independent gps' working for safety and comparison.
I use Standard Horizon chatplotter and raymarine radar/chart. The reason is that the same c map charts fit in both units, and I don't have to buy duplicate charts. The down side is that the charting function can only be used one at a time. The upside is that routes, marks, etc. can be moved from the helm to the nav station to a computer ( with map tech charts) with relative ease. No data is lost if one of them goes down.

I agree with the idea of redundancy but I think the radar (with overlay) is better to have at the helm. I'm not suggesting that there be a separate radar screen and chartplotter at the helm. For a backup and redundancy I like a separate stand alone GPS Chartpolotter either down below or semi-portable or handheld that can be moved and has an independent power source that can be operated on batteries in the event of a power problem.

By the way I really like the look of the pilot house/hard doger added to your 36. Did Robinhood do the work? I'd like to see more pictures.

Joe

The Cape Dory Board

Chartplotter Recommendations......Integrations Advice

Chartplotter Recommendations......Integrations Advice

My pick..

Garmin 3206

Integration

Re: Integration