Vesper Watchmate Vision Reviews?

[a64pilot]

The land outline is astonishingly accurate, but that is all it is, an outline, might be OK for situational awareness, but no Marine data on it at all. It is good for knowing if the targets are in a marina, or anchorage etc.
Assuming you have the AIS integrated into the plotter, the Vesper is sort of redundant. Course I'm primitive and have not yet networked everything so I can't be sure, but I have my Vesper downstairs and currently pop my head down there if the alarm goes off.


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[Sandero]

I am more and more averse to relying on a MFD for the AIS... leaning to a stand alone unit with a self contained GPS.

Among the advantages is that all your eggs are not in one basket and you can run your AIS without the MFD...

I was just explaining to my wife some of the limitations of AIS for collision avoidance... or navigating on low visibility... and the main one being that not all vessels are class A or B and other "things" such as rock out croppings would show on radar but not be equipped with AIS (of course).

I think we need to see more penetration of AIS B to get the full impact for collision avoidance.

[Scott Berg]

We use a Vesper 650 (original style) and much prefer it to a chart plotter offshore. It uses very
little power compared to any plotter and who needs a plotter 250miles offshore?? We've met many people who leave their plotters on just for AIS and add 50a/h+ to their daily load. The Vesper Watchmate uses a tenth of that and agreed, the interface is intuitive and shows all we need... No shore profile at sea of course....


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[travellerw]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

The vision is not intended to replace any Chartplotter, we have five chartplotters onboard. The Vision supposedly places the AIS targets on its own screen against a very crude Chartplotter background showing land instead of the normal bullseye background.

At least, that's what the Vesper people told me via email.

Has anyone with a Vision had a different experience?

That is %100 correct. The background is very similar to OpenCPN base maps. You can see the outline of land and such, but not any details.If I want to see more of a targets location, I can always look on my Chartplotters. Although I have never needed to do that.

The filtering is based on 3 built in profiles (Harbor, Coastal, Offshore). I actually think the Vision will automatically switch between profiles, but I always manually switch it.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

We're thinking about upgrading our present AIS receive only system to the Vesper Watchmate Vision. Anyone currently using this system? Pros, any cons? Anything better out there?

This inquiring mind wants to know prior to purchase.

Thanks

Ken

Ken,

We inherited a Vesper Watchmate 850 with our boat. [The model before the Vision: No WiFi or touchscreen, and monotone as well...]

It is a very reliable, feature rich unit with excellent filtering and very low power requirements. It is connected to the primary VHF masthead antenna using a Vesper splitter. [An excellent device from our experience...]

The anchor alarm has earned its place as our primary one. [3 others are set also- along with a RADAR perimeter...] As I have mentioned in prior posts re: AIS, our AIS is broadcasting all the time- even at anchor- but that is due to the areas we currently cruise. [Our SOP may change in other locations in the future...]

Since our person overboard [POB] alert devices are PFD mounted AIS transmitters [with GPS] we also installed a VHF with AIS Rx only [for AIS Rx redundancy.] Both AIS sources are fed to our N2K network so our MFD is our primary AIS Target screen [We can select which AIS source to use...] We added a GoFree WiFi1 device to our N2K network, so AIS data is available to all N2K and WiFi devices. [Like you will be able to do with a Vision.]

Since we rely on AIS to alert onboard crew of a POB, we want to make sure the alarm is loud enough to be heard. The Watchmate 850 has a provision [and likely other AIS models as well...] to easily wire in an external alarm, which we did [with it's own on/off switch for muting...] We even wired in another switch to additionally activate our airhorns. [All can be muted in an instant... This is very important as you cannot talk over either alarm...]

Therefore, [for us...] being able to activate external alarm(s) of choice is an important feature of AIS. That is a requirement I am keeping on my list for future AIS replacements.

In case this is useful.

Cheers!

Bill

[Ndavies]

It is an excellent product and their after-sales service/support is first rate. I needed some help with an integration issue and they solved the problem for me very quickly. I have owned one since 2014. I recently sent some in depth info to a friend on my set-up which includes using it wirelessly with iPad and iNav X. If you are interested, let me know and I will forward the email to you rather than clogging up this post.

Neil

[Sailshabby]

I use the 8000 and it's a dream. If you're Stateside, cannot recommend Milltech Marine highly enough for sales and more important, service. A year after I bought my unit I hit around to installing it and had issues. I called Doug (Miller) at Milktech and you'd have thought I'd just bought it!

[travellerw]

Originally Posted by Sailshabby

I use the 8000 and it's a dream. If you're Stateside, cannot recommend Milltech Marine highly enough for sales and more important, service. A year after I bought my unit I hit around to installing it and had issues. I called Doug (Miller) at Milktech and you'd have thought I'd just bought it!

I %100 second this.. Milltech marine and Vesper both have some of the best service I have ever encountered.

[basssears]

Neil, have been on the fence between just going with AIS receiver (like Standard Horizon GX2200 all in one VHF radio) or going for full transceiver... in reality the WiFi of the Vesper might be what puts me over the edge on the full transceiver side.

I will PM an email address if you're willing to share this doc with others I'd appreciate getting a look at it.

Thanks!

-- Bass

Originally Posted by Ndavies

It is an excellent product and their after-sales service/support is first rate. I needed some help with an integration issue and they solved the problem for me very quickly. I have owned one since 2014. I recently sent some in depth info to a friend on my set-up which includes using it wirelessly with iPad and iNav X. If you are interested, let me know and I will forward the email to you rather than clogging up this post.

Neil

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Ndavies

It is an excellent product and their after-sales service/support is first rate. I needed some help with an integration issue and they solved the problem for me very quickly. I have owned one since 2014. I recently sent some in depth info to a friend on my set-up which includes using it wirelessly with iPad and iNav X. If you are interested, let me know and I will forward the email to you rather than clogging up this post.

Neil

Neil,

Please post the information.

Ken

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by basssears

Neil, have been on the fence between just going with AIS receiver (like Standard Horizon GX2200 all in one VHF radio) or going for full transceiver... in reality the WiFi of the Vesper might be what puts me over the edge on the full transceiver side.

I will PM an email address if you're willing to share this doc with others I'd appreciate getting a look at it.

Thanks!

-- Bass

We currently have the Standard Horizon GX2200 with the cockpit remote onboard which works just fine. But last season while heading North along the Western Corsican coastline, we had a very close call encounter with a dumbass traveling directly towards us at 20 knots on his powerboat with 10-12 foot swells behind him. Nobody on watch on his boat.... it was like a 30 ton knuckleball heading straight for us... the dope was totally relying on his AIS alarm. We saw him visually and with our receiver, but since we weren't transmitting, he didn't see us. He finally came up from down below to hit reverse throttle and **** his pants just 50 meters off our starboard bow at 2:00.

There's more and more of this idiocy going on along the coast. So now we either upgrade or modify our travel routes to further offshore.

[colemj]

NMEA data over WiFi is like crack - you don't know what you're missing until you try it, and then you can't quit. And you keep spending more on it.

Mark

[Abgreenbank]

The vesper watchmate looks good just wish more people would install AIS transponders.

Regards

Ab

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Abgreenbank

The vesper watchmate looks good just wish more people would install AIS transponders.

Regards

Ab

I noticed that you deleted most of your post after I recieved the email. To clarify, our Standard Horizon unit is only able to receive AIS, it's not designed to transmit a signal.

Hence, the need to upgrade to a transmit and receive unit. It's unfortunate we have to spend money to protect ourselves against other people's boneheaded behavior. We were keeping a vigilant watch on radar and visually at the time... The other guy wasn't. We'd steer to starboard to avoid him, the next wave would knock his boat in our direction... We'd the steer to port... The same thing, his boat would again turn towards us.

Ken

[Abgreenbank]

Exactly, I initially thought your unit was a transponder and thus unwise to operate in receive mode only as I am sure you are aware, as I have said already I wish more people would fit Ais transponders.




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