MFD Compatibiity

[PDineno]

Our boat has an ST7000 autopilot and I am looking to upgrade the small GPS to a larger MFD type. My question relates to the compatibility of the current autopilot and the latest generation of MFD's/GPS. I would also like to incorporate cameras as this boat is blind in reverse.

Any suggestions?

I believe the St7000 is now a Raymarine product but I am not certain of that.

[Pblais]

The ST7000 interfaces with Seatalk or NMEA data.

We have an ST7000 now. I've never wanted to integrate it with the chart plotter. I prefer setting a course to the auto pilot and changing as I need to. I would say the cost of a different autopilot (installed) is more then the cost of a packaged radar integrated chart plotter.

Our last boat had the GPS integrated and I could have set a route and handed it off to the autopilot. I never did that. In strong cross currents the setup can be quite deadly. Steering to a course then hitting the auto button just seems to work too well for me. I prefer to plot the course before I take off so that I've thought about it and perhaps set up some alternates should things not go well.

[PDineno]

Thx for the reply. We have a Furano monochrome radar which works great, so I will probably leave that part alone. The Garmin GPS we have now works but is small, compraed the C80 we had on our previous boat. I figured since I was going to upgrade the GPS I might as well try to integrate but you raise some very good points. On our last trip I just set my route and adjusted as necessary on the autopilot. Another reason for the upgrade is to add cameras. This boat has a large covered aft deck which hinders my rearward vision....blind actually. I know the Raymarine E series will handle cameras at a reasonable price, so I will probably go for that and get some new 3D charts etc.

Thanks again.