Help Choosing GPS/Chartplotter/Sounder/VHF

Don't agree.

Garmin is good, Raymarine is good. I use both, and would be hard pressed to make a choice. At the moment the E80 Raymarine is my system of choice. You can always go online and find support for whatever system you tout -- I've sold, serviced and used 'em all. We all, the old one included, tend to justify what we use. Life is like that. :wink:

Dusty
 
From Chuck a Marine Sevice Tech



Joined: 18 Jun 2006
Posts: 152
Location: Where ever the boat is!
Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 4:33 am Post subject:

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As the largest electronics provider Raymarine can probably count the most units on the water. That does not make them the best unit on the water. As a marine service tech I spend most every day dealing with Raymarine products and problems on many boats. You won't find a Raymarine product on my boat. On the other hand I can not remember the last time I was called to service a Garmin. And we are still running Garmin products that have been in continued use on our boat for over ten years. That has been my experience with both products.
_________________
To Boldly Go!


Chuck
 
Chuck,

Beautiful boat, your TC! Still miss my old 24 Tomcat. You are right, of course - more Raynav = more service. They all go belly up once in a while, and usually when you need them most. The bulk of my electronics customers were commercial fishermen in AK- the meanest kind! Lots of Ray stuff, and some Garmin. Rare problems with either brand. Furuno was my radar of choice at that time - probably still would be except the E80 package does all I need at a more reasonable price.

And I still have some of my old Garmin equipment from when they first started building them, and of course I used Garmin in the air and loved it! Still have my old Collins ham gear... they come and they go! Sad. :(

Dusty
 
We have Raymarine C80 full set-up and bascially have no problems with it.
Had big Garmin set on last boat and do agree it was easier to use but since we only use about 20% of all the functions anyway.....

Did have one problem with the C-80 display which went intermittant which of course loses everything, and that, to me is the diggest disadvantage of the fully integrated systems.
Kudos to Raymarine, it didn't take many call or much time to get it replaced but it was a PITA to have nothing while we waited. Even a depth sounder would have been nice because with that and a chart you can go most places.

Now have a very old but totally reliable Garmin 176 (with battery back-up) mounted above the C80 Just in case. (A handheld would do just as well).

If all that fails it's back to charts, compass, fog horn and two eyes outside the boat.


Merv

(PS. Nice to see a post from Dusty. Hope you are feelin better)
 
I haver used Garmam products since our first boat. Always good results when calling the factory. There warranty service is just about perfect. I will continue to use Garmin.

Fred, Pat and M. Gray( the cat)
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that Raymarine's fishfinder is better than Garmins. I'm not talking depth but rather the way it display's bottom structure ect. Anyway I'm sure it's not too big of a deal but I do like my c-80 but like Dusty said we tend to defend our own choice even to a fault at times.
 
How about Lowrance? Anyone have experience with their products. They seem pretty rich in features. I was looking at the LCX-28C HD which includes a 30gig hard drive and comes preloaded with all of Lowrance's maps.

Thanks again for the info.

Rob
 
Loved the Old-Old-Old... Lowrance paper chart finders. Get one of those set up right and you could find every fish out there. Didn't help much in catching or landing... but you could find them!

Merv
 
Merv,

Still have my old paper chart Lowrance. Great machine.

Rob,

I use the Lowrance 28C on my tin boat. Very good. Lots of bang for the buck.

Of course, and I'll get a whole bunch of negatives, the Raynav digital depthsounder is absolutely the best I have used in its price class. Some of the hi-dollar commercial units are better, but not much -- and only then at 600 ft or over, when you are digging halibut.

Dusty
 
Rob & Karen":1p2e5vtl said:
How about Lowrance? Anyone have experience with their products. They seem pretty rich in features.
Rob
Click to expand...

I had experience with the LCX-104 and overall found Lowrance was right up there with the others. What I liked the most was that one could stick a memory card in and record the entire trip from the fishfinder view then transfer it to your home computer and literally re-live the trip. More importantly if you were looking elsewhere when the boat passed over some highly productive structure, you could stop the replay directly over the "honey hole" and create a waypoint for your next trip.

Would have probably stuck with Lowrance had I not got an "incredu-deal" on a complete Raymarine C-80 system. At the time Lowrance didn't do radar and Garmin's radar was more like a C-22 parasol hard cover rather than a decent size radome.

Still miss the track creation and fishfinder data save features of Lowrance. Much better than Raymarine.

Don
 
We have the LCX 26C Lowrance (last years's model)--excellent unit. The new one has a larger hard drive, more input ports and more charts on the unit. I assume it still takes Navionics charts. We use the Navionics Hot spots for lake and river detail, the built in charts for the coastal. Tides and currents are very good. I also have the Standard Horizon with C map Max. They are comperable. Depth sounder works very well.

Bob Austin
 
I Put ALL FURUNO NAVNET...NAVPILOT front and Rear...RADAR .. FISHFINDER.. GPS....Front &REAR helms....Furuno VHF Front and REAR... on "Shirley Mae" AS far as Marine Electronics Furuno ...bullet proof...

used by most comm. fishermen

...inland chart plotter maps suffer however so if you are NOT doing Marine....
.. Garmin is the best chartplotter ...and inland maps rule.. ..more intuitive even over Furuno...but Bear in Mind ..Garmin fishfinders are ok but Furuno ..Raymarine..and others are MUCH better... Furuno in Radar is Legendary...Garmin is OK...so for inland use I recomend get a separate Garmin chartplotter..Furuno Fishfinder..Furuno Radar if needed....and you WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED and will beready to Rock!!!

Dick E
Orinda,Ca
 
Got a Garmin 198C GPS/Sounder and an ICOM M402SA VHF, both of which allegedly have DSC capability. Both say they use NMEA 0183 protocol, but the GPS uses version 2.3 and the VHF wants a version 2.0 or 3.01 GPS.

Are these two going to be able to talk to each other? In the Garmin manual, there are a couple lists of approved sentences (one generic and one proprietary), but I see no similar checklists in the ICOM manual.

I hit the Garmin Support site and can not find out any answers there. Sent in an email to ICOM Support and am waiting for a reply.

Thanks for any help.
 
Dave, The sentence out should be OK for the GPS position to show up on the DSC transmission--and that is most important. You may not get the position in (showing the vessel in distress) on the Garmin with this combo--but this is quite common.

Hook it up and give it a try.
 
Dave:

I don't think the Icom you have is capable of talking to a chartplotter. Some Icom 400 series do, some don't. Check the wiring to see if the Icom has a NMEA OUT connection. If it does, you're in luck. Otherwise, you'll just have NMEA IN + and NMEA IN -, and the Icom will only receive position data from the plotter. Any position information received from other vessels via DSC will be displayed on the Icom, but not relayed to the plotter. If you've got the NMEA Out on the Icom, then it will relay position information to the plotter, which will display corresponding icons, and allow you to select the icon's location as a waypoint.

If you want, send me an e-mail and we'll arrange to talk by phone to go over connections and setup.

david
 
Almas Only":144f9bpy said:
I don't think the Icom you have is capable of talking to a chartplotter. Some Icom 400 series do, some don't. Check the wiring to see if the Icom has a NMEA OUT connection.
Click to expand...
Thanks, guys. I think you're correct: it only has NMEA IN. What is confusing is that the connection labels in the VHF manual show an "RCA" for the one going to the GPS, but the plug (female) does not resemble any RCA audio plug I have ever seen. [EDIT: Doh!!! I was looking at the wrong plug! the weird one is for the speaker and the conventional RCA plug is for the GPS! thanks to Tim down at the Astoria Englund Marine for being so polite in pointing out my brain fart!!! ]

I'm headed down to Englund Marine today to talk to their tech staff for confirmation, and to see if they have the plug I need. This radio needs to be dismountable, so I want to use plugs in the hookups.
 
mikeporterinmd":mygeau22 said:
I used a cheap Radio Shack plug for my connection. Not a good idea.
Click to expand...
Mike, ICOM suggests wrapping those connections with electrician's tape, but I was thinking adhesive-lined shrink tubing might be better. What do you think?
 
AstoriaDave":1a3d4imc said:
mikeporterinmd":1a3d4imc said:
I used a cheap Radio Shack plug for my connection. Not a good idea.
Click to expand...
Mike, ICOM suggests wrapping those connections with electrician's tape, but I was thinking adhesive-lined shrink tubing might be better. What do you think?
Click to expand...


Well, I wanted something that would be easy to disconnect should
I want to remove the radio. http://terminaltown.com/.

The site basically sells aircraft electrical components, so
it occurred to me they would have good plug connector setups. So, I
order a bunch of parts from them today. Cost about $12, but I
should be able to do the 8 pins I need for the radio and some other
stuff.

If it works well, I'll post photos and add to this thread. I have
an Icom 422 which uses coaxial wiring. This means the light
wire covering has to be unraveled, twisted into a wire and put into
a connector. Then the very tiny center conductor has to be stripped
and put into a connector. Not so easy to do. I'll probably solder them
on.

Mike
 
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