Secrets of Raymarine

colobear · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:54 pm Post subject: Secrets of Raymarine

For some time now I have been frustrated with the poor quality of Raymarine's owners manual for the C-80. I have managed to figure out some thing, like how to reset trip mileage, etc. that are not intuitively obvious, but there are many, many other things I don't know about or know how to do. So, I am starting this thread with the idea of it being a place where we can post questions about our Raymarine products and also post tricks, shortcuts, etc. we have discovered and thus build a knowledge base for Brats about Raymarine products.

So... To start the ball rolling Here are the direct telephone numbers for Raymarine tech support and Navionics tech support so you don't have to go through the website.

Raymarine: 1-800-539-5539 M/F 0400-1800 EST
Navionics: 1-800-848-5896

Plus: According to Raymarine, if you have inputted a BOATUS or other MMSI number into your Raymarine VHF and want to get rid of it so you can input the official FCC MMSI that you get when you obtain the FCC ship station authorization, you must send your radio back to Raymarine in New Hampshire to do so.

And my first (of many) question is: How do I set up an EBL (Electronic bearing Line) on my radar showing the bearing from my boat to a MARPA or AIS target? According to a Raymarine podcast with Chuck Husick, such a thing is possible.

Pat Anderson · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 3:57 pm Post subject: Re: Secrets of Raymarine

The Raymarine C80 records trip mileage? I had heard that it did but was never able to, you know, actually find it...of course, with typical Raymarine logic, resetting it would be on a completely different softkey, on a different menu, on a different screen than the one that display trip mileage!

colobear · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 7:43 pm Post subject:

OK Pat,

In true Raymarine fashion setting and clearing and displaying trip mileage goes like this:

1. To reset the mileage, (yes I know this explanation seems backward) With the C-80 on go to menu, scroll to system setup, from there go to Ground trip reset. There are four ground trip logs, 1,2,3,4. You might want to reset them all to zero when you get to that point.

2. To display your trip mileage, go to menu, then to databar setup, then to configure, add data, scroll to vessel. You will see a long series of trip-log listings. Choose the one you want, i.e. trip 1, and add it to the data bar. Remember there is limited space on the databar so something else may have to go. The Log feature (I think) keeps a continuous log of the vessels mileage whenever the C-80 is on. C-Cakes, for example has 713NM as of today.

Again, I think, the trip mileage is computed whether it is displayed or not. So if you don't want to or don't have room to put the trip on your databar all the time you can check it by going through 2 above to show it briefly and then remove it to put your regular databar info back up.

This is exactly why I think this thread will be helpful and I hope others chime in with things they want answers to or that they have figured out how to do despite Raymarine's manual.

chromer · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:03 pm Post subject:

Colo,

Since the databar is limited to about 4-6 items, I discovered that all kinds of information can be added to the data page. Its the page with a bunch of sub-boxes of data values. Tomorrow while I'm out, I'll figure out the exact key sequence for configuring that page, and post it here.

Dreamer · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:59 pm Post subject:

Atta Boy Barry!

Good start to this thread. Let's keep it going. We all need help on this one..

Roger

JamesTXSD · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:32 pm Post subject:

Well, here's one that may be unique to our E-80. If you don't hold the ON button for the right amount of time on start up, the unit will turn on, but the screen will stay blank (as in black). At first, I thought it wasn't working, but then noticed a bit of light coming from behind the one dial. I tried holding the power button for the right amount of time to shut it off (a long 3 seconds)... nothing. We found that you have to completely cut battery power to the unit to get it to reboot. When we had a problem with our Autopilot and had to send the display unit in for replacement, I asked the Raymarine tech about this other situation... he said, "Yeah, we're aware of that." No fix, just aware.

OK, not an actual useage tip, but one that may spare someone some concern when it seems like their screen isn't working.

Great thread, Barry - thanks for suggesting it! Thumbs Up

Best wishes,
Jim B.

Pat Anderson · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:12 am Post subject:

OK, here is a Raymarine usability tip - use a Garmin GPSMap76 for your trip computer!!!!

flagold · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:19 am Post subject:

That is what I do. I use the Lowrance unit for the trip/time/depth., calculations and the Raymarine for the map and radar. I manage to get there somehow.

SeaSpray · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:02 am Post subject:

This is a great idea! I will probably have more questions than answers.

Steve

starcrafttom · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:40 am Post subject:

I was having a hard time picking out fish on my raymarine c-80 screen. All I got was small blobs and not the clear "arch" of a fish that every one talks about. Well I finally got around to playing with the settings and found something interesting. you can change the width of the area on the screen, not the width of the screen. What I mean is that you can have the screen set to show 200 ft of info behind the boat or you can show 2000 ft of info behind the boat. So I had the screen set at 2400 ft of info in a 8 inch screen. Well that just crunched the info into too small a area to read, small blobs for fish and not archs. Well if you change that to 200 ft of info in 8 inches of screen , now you can see the archs and see more of them separated from one another. I will have to go back and write down the key strokes later. Its in the screen set up for the fish finder and has to do with the amount of speed off set I believe. More later.

drjohn71a · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 9:20 am Post subject:

ON the E 80, the Trip Log setup lists 4 Trip logs and a total running log and the Reset option.

I got the Raymarine VHF with the remote mike and speaker thinking I could have two separate radios - one at the helm and one at the aft station. I found the second station uses the same radio receiver/transmitter and costs more than most complete VHF radios, so did not add the aft helm station. No redundancy benefit to it.

Right now I am glad you posted the news about having to send the entire radio in to Raymarine if you put the MMSI from BoatUS on it, in order to get the FCC MMSI.

My current important question is this - My Raymarine VHF freqently emits this outrageously loud alarm and warning that the MMSI number is not installed. It drives me crazy and prevents me from monitoring the radio much. Can you set the Raymarine radios so they don't repeatedly send out this alarm?

John

sportner · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 9:57 am Post subject:

My last boat had a Lowrance GPS, when you moved the cross hairs accross the screen it would give you the distance and coordinates to the cross hairs, I miss that and it was helpful to determine how many miles I had to go to a certain point or to find friends that gave me their coordinates. Can this be done with the Raymarine?? Also my water temp is reading 140 degrees F. in the Pacific ocean, I think its wrong....Maybe I need to spend more time with the manual or maybe its just me, but the Raymarine seems a bit cumbersome after using the Lowrance.

Thanks for starting this thread.

drjohn71a · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 10:35 am Post subject:

Russ,

The E-80 has measuring capabilities. I think the problem most of us have is that, by the time we get the rest of our busy lives arranged so we can get on the boat, we just want to go boating, fishing, exporing, cruising, etc.. The last thing we want to do is spend hours trying to figure out mapping details.

You can input waypoints and get the distance between them, or you can set the "ruler" thing and count out the distances.

JOhn

hardee · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:10 pm Post subject: Raymarine Secrets

C-Cakes Crew, Great thread. Thanks.
Like others, I will probably have meore questions than answers. Here is a starter:
1. Is the differnce in the Raymarine software systems, (C vs E), the same no matter the size of the Display (60, 80, or 120), so that it is only a size thing? So that if I see a discussion here and it is a C-80, I am wondering if it will apply to my C-120 as long as it is software related?
2. Does anyone know of an aftermarket, or outside source, for Raymarine that is clear and recomendable?
Thanks and you all stay safe.
Harvey
Sleepy C Moon

drjohn71a · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:16 pm Post subject:

The 80 and 120 refer to sizes.

The E series was developed with a greater number of communications systems in mind and wider 'plug-in' adaptability to accessories. NMEA 2000 is a key communications protocol which allows a wide variety of plug-in accessories. You can plug-in engine guages, TVs, VCRs, outside or underwater cameras, etc, easily on the E series.

Now, Raymarine is issuing upgrades to the C80/120 series to make them more adaptable. You can subscribe on the Raymarine site to emails clarifying the upgrades to your type of unit. I get a Raymarine email about every week to ten days telling you about how to do things or solve problems.

When I got my E-80s, you could not have dual C-80/120s operating on the same system. I wanted an aft unit, so went with the E series.