Raymarine setup - feedback

[BigAl.NZ]

I have added a poll. This whole discussion on reliability and support is interesting.

[svfinlandia]

Originally Posted by BigAl.NZ

Hi All,
Anyone want to recommend a place to buy in the US?
Thanks

Al

I recommend that you email your list to Pete Waterson at Seacoast Marine Electronics in Oriental, NC - info@seacoastmarineelectronics.com
Pete is a Raymarine dealer and has always given me the very best prices on Raymarine equipment that I could find anywhere. Seacoast Marine Electronics is also a certified Raymarine Electronics Repair facility.
The website is Seacoast Marine Electronics - Eastern North Carolina

Another Al - Al at S/V Finlandia

[Seas the Day]

Originally Posted by akprb

As to the repeater at the nav station we use an iPad linked to the wifi of the e7 (effectively another unit) Works great and saves one more piece of equipment ;-)

What software are you running on the iPad?

[jibstay]

Originally Posted by akprb

As to the repeater at the nav station we use an iPad linked to the wifi of the e7 (effectively another unit) Works great and saves one more piece of equipment ;-)

We do this too. It's great to use the iPad anywhere on the boat, even in the cockpit in a LifeProof case.

[jibstay]

Originally Posted by Seas the Day

What software are you running on the iPad?

RayView by Raymarine Belgium BVBA
https://appsto.re/us/MWWnB.i

[skipmac]

If you will be totally, exclusively Raymarine this might not be a concern, but they use a slightly different network system, SeatalkNG that will require some finagling and special cables to connect to any industry standard NMEA2000 equipment.

I was able to connect my Garmin chartplotter to a new Simrad AP by just connecting it to the NMEA backbone using the standard cables that came with the Simrad. Totally plug and play, no fuss, no muss.

Can't comment about Garmin (never had to call) or Raymarine but you call Navico (parent company of Simrad) and you get to talk to an actual engineer that knows the gear. No call center in Kazakhstan or Tierra del Fuego where you get someone that has never even seen the gear and can only read from a handbook.

[mr336]

I've used RM stuff for the last 15 years and have had good luck with it. On my new to me boat I plan on doing some upgrading on the electronics. I've called RM 3 or 4 times to inquire about products or install compatibility questions and have gotten thru within seconds to a tech who was helpful. They may source it out of country cause a couple times the tech had accents but were very nice. Not that it matters and I could be totally wrong. Even politically.

For us "do it yourselfers" that's more than half the battle.

Now the other companies could be just as easy to get a hold of but I don't have experience with them. And I hate that I have the "latest and greatest' bug.

Cheers

[captainjay]

So for those that don't know what I do. I am the fleet manager for a charter company in the Caribbean. We are a Raymarine dealer but do not normally sell to retail customers. We became a dealer in support of our charter boats. We have a lot of Raymarine equipment on boats. We are also a Beneteau dealer for charter. So we have a lot of B&G gear. We also sell and manage new Foutnaine Pajot catamarans so we do have some Garmin units as well.

Raymarine has been solid for years. I posted my thoughts on the OP's wish list on the first page. Those observations are based on years of experience with multiple different units. Three generations of radar and autopilots in the ten years I have had this job.

If I where building a new system from scratch it would be a toss up for me between B&G and Raymarine. I would rank Garmin as third on this list. Support is good from all three companies.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by captainjay

So for those that don't know what I do. I am the fleet manager for a charter company in the Caribbean. We are a Raymarine dealer but do not normally sell to retail customers. We became a dealer in support of our charter boats. We have a lot of Raymarine equipment on boats. We are also a Beneteau dealer for charter. So we have a lot of B&G gear. We also sell and manage new Foutnaine Pajot catamarans so we do have some Garmin units as well.

Raymarine has been solid for years. I posted my thoughts on the OP's wish list on the first page. Those observations are based on years of experience with multiple different units. Three generations of radar and autopilots in the ten years I have had this job.

If I where building a new system from scratch it would be a toss up for me between B&G and Raymarine. I would rank Garmin as third on this list. Support is good from all three companies.

Thanks for the post and information. Comments from someone with real world, hands on experience is priceless, especially when that experience covers years and dozens of units.

Have you mixed any of the B&G systems with Raymarine, specifically interfacing Seatalk or SeatalkNG with NMEA2000? I'm planing to link a Raymarine bidata to a standard NMEA2000 backbone. It will require some converters and adapter cables but on paper looks like it will work. Just wondered if it works in the real world.

[captainjay]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Thanks for the post and information. Comments from someone with real world, hands on experience is priceless, especially when that experience covers years and dozens of units.

Have you mixed any of the B&G systems with Raymarine, specifically interfacing Seatalk or SeatalkNG with NMEA2000? I'm planing to link a Raymarine bidata to a standard NMEA2000 backbone. It will require some converters and adapter cables but on paper looks like it will work. Just wondered if it works in the real world.

I have done some commingling. We had a cat with Furuno autopilot, wind and depth that we converted to partial raymarine. A plotter new displays etc.

To take traditional analog data from the Raymarine system. The wind, depth water temp etc you will need an ITC-5 box. Then a raymarine backbone to NG with the adapter cable for Nema 2000.

Jay

[VanIslandGuy]

We love Raymarine gear because the older units keep getting supported with software changes. We just installed an ES97 this week. Great daylight visibility, it integrated well with my old RM instruments, and the new lighthouse software pretty much does everything that the pricey B&G does. We went with Navionics Platinum charts.

My only thought for the original poster is to skip buying a 7" model for down below, and get a nice iPad Pro to use instead. The ES create their own wifi network and you can send infomation between the iPad and the plotter. I would rather spend on a high end tablet than on a second MFD. Just make sure your iPad is LTE/3G/as well WIFI so that you get the GPS on it to work independently.

[Zven]

It is worth adding that Android-based tablets are also supported by the Raycontrol apps...
Hence no need to necessarily go with Apple gear. One can use Sony, Samsung or almost any of the thousands of other mobile devices out there.

[Dave22q]

my autopilot ST6002 reads about 30 degrees off the compass heading. there appears to be a Ravmarine GPS antenna installed Any ideas on how to isolate the problem source? this is a new issue/ have not used it in 6 months.

[ScubaPete]

Originally Posted by Dave22q

my autopilot ST6002 reads about 30 degrees off the compass heading. there appears to be a Ravmarine GPS antenna installed Any ideas on how to isolate the problem source? this is a new issue/ have not used it in 6 months.

There is a calibration procedure outlined in your operating manual that will let you reset the reading. They can get out of whack when not used in a while.

I believe the course is detected by a fluxgate or a gyro compass, not the GPS receiver.

[rom]

Lots of good input in this thread, my 2cts:
- EV400 sail works great, so much better than the previous S3, very easy to setup. Great choice. A friend of mine is still trying to figure out how to calibrate his B&G pilot after 2 years ...
- I lost the radar 2 years ago, seems I can live without it. I mostly used it to check for clouds...
- AIS: Some problems with the raymarine 650 unit on a friends boat. We would need to reboot it from time to time. But that was about 4 years ago, could be fine now. I am rather happy with the vespermarine xb8000. Not such much with their VHF splitter. I would advice a dedicated AIS antenna if possible.
- MFD: lost it with the radar, I ended up doing pretty well with navionics on my smartphone when approaching unknown anchorages. Almost free. I use Opencpn a lot and mostly control the AP from inside the boat.



As someone said already, you should draw a diagram. I did that, it took me quite some time to be convinced I had a the best possible setup and then I purchased quite precisely what was needed (number & length of cables, connectors, ...). Installing the components became the easiest part.