Radar and Gps upgrade time. Any suggestions?

[donradcliffe]

One of the issues is power consumption. Any comments on the power draw of these integrated units with and without the radar on??

[richardhula]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

One of the issues is power consumption. Any comments on the power draw of these integrated units with and without the radar on??

My Raymarine C80 draws 10 watts at full brightness. The attached 2kw radar draws another 28 watts when transmitting & 9 watts on standby.

My gripe with Raymarine which they refuse to act upon, is that at present the radar always comes up in standby when you switch the C80 on. It would be so easy to program it so it remembers the (on or off) state from last use. I guess they are catering for the dumbasses who forget to switch it on then complain it doesn't work.

They point out that it's only a small amount of extra current but on a sailboat that counts. Not sure about extra stress on klystron either.

If anyone agrees with me on this issue please let me know, maybe we could petition them.

[Gudgeon]

Look at the Simrad units they now own B&G. Shold be able to interface easily. I love mine you are able to see the screen in bright sun light.

[2divers]

I'm trying to remember which one of the chart plotter manufactures has a fade in/out from chart to radar.. Does any one know and how well does it work?

2divers

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by richardhula

My Raymarine C80 draws 10 watts at full brightness. The attached 2kw radar draws another 28 watts when transmitting & 9 watts on standby.

My gripe with Raymarine which they refuse to act upon, is that at present the radar always comes up in standby when you switch the C80 on. It would be so easy to program it so it remembers the (on or off) state from last use. I guess they are catering for the dumbasses who forget to switch it on then complain it doesn't work.

They point out that it's only a small amount of extra current but on a sailboat that counts. Not sure about extra stress on klystron either.

If anyone agrees with me on this issue please let me know, maybe we could petition them.

Richard, I am pretty sure that the default stand-bye mode when you power on is a mandatory safety regulation which makes sense to me.

2 things:

Radars go through a self test (approx 50 sec) before powering up the scanner and if there is a problem they will tell you what it is rather than let you do further damage.

Proper training instructs the operator to always check that the scanner is clear (especially open array) from lines or crew climbing the mast.

I have a sign that I put on the radar control as a reminder

[richardhula]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Richard, I am pretty sure that the default stand-bye mode when you power on is a mandatory safety regulation which makes sense to me.

2 things:

Radars go through a self test (approx 50 sec) before powering up the scanner and if there is a problem they will tell you what it is rather than let you do further damage.

Proper training instructs the operator to always check that the scanner is clear (especially open array) from lines or crew climbing the mast.

I have a sign that I put on the radar control as a reminder

I agree with your comments regarding fault damage but it only adds weight to my gripe.

Whilst the radar scanner is out of standby mode (the situation I would prefer on powering up MFD) no power is applied to it (or if open array with external power source, this is not applied) so no possibility of damage. When the user takes the positive action of turning it on into standby, surely he would be more aware of any possible fault than if it came on by default, when all he wanted was the chartplotter.

The safety issue is answered by having an additional transmit button. The scanner will not rotate or transmit until this is pressed.

BTW I think the delay between turning on and being able to transmit is because the klystron is a thermionic device and needs to warm up.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by richardhula

BTW I think the delay between turning on and being able to transmit is because the klystron is a thermionic device and needs to warm up.

Also Correct!