"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Paul" wrote in
:

Issues:
- Obsolete, no feature enhancements in the future (will never support
AIS) - Uses CMAP chart chips, which are good, but the new Raymarine
gear uses Navionics charts instead

All part of the marketing. The Garmin GPSMAP 185 sitting next to it
can't even get a new chart any more. We're forced to replace all
electronics every 3-5 years, no matter what it costs. It's a travesty.

I can still get the Cmap chart updates, and would happily stick with the
RLC80 for a bit longer, but given the "reset" problem with the current
chartplotter I am ready to upgrade rather than repair an obsolete (but
functional) system. I suppose the reason that I haven't already swapped in
the new Raymarine E-series is that I'm waiting for the first generation of
new-system bugs and important upgrades to be settled. That, and the hassle
of pulling new cables from the mast and helm to the navstation. Soon,
though.

I'm not married to Raymarine, but do want to get gear that networks well,
and I've grown comfortable with Raymarine. I'm trying to keep an open mind,
though.

- Sharing waypoints between the networked units, or an attached PC, is
difficult (for me) to make work well

Make sure the waypoint statements are turned on in the RLs. I had some
troubles because many of the damned statements were defaulted OFF from
the factory. There's a menu choice buried in there that lists them all.

My problem is that waypoints entered at the helm (for example) don't always
show up at the navstation, or if they do show up I can't "go to" them.
Also, waypoints on the PC (using Raytech software) don't co-exist nicely
with waypoints entered at the chartplotter. I will definitely look into the
waypoint statement options. I don't feed the waypoints to the autopilot, so
this issue is merely an annoyance.

- Doesn't recognize the NMEA output from my B&G wind instruments (it
expects a different NMEA wind message). My other NMEA inputs are
recognized.

Which B&G do you have. Lionheart came with B&G "Network" instruments,
which are just a daisy-chained NMEA0183 system, so we stuck with the
obsolete equipment, adding Network Pilot, Network Depth, Network Data
(repeater at the nav station) to what was there.

I also have the "Network" instruments: Wind, Depth, Speed, and Pilot at the
helm, and the "Data" repeater at the navstation. I've got the B&G
electric/hydraulic ram at the rudderpost, and it has been a solid performer.
All the B&G NMEA data is run through a Seatalk converter into the
Chartplotter, it's just that the Chartplotter is expecting a different NMEA
Wind message -- there are two types and the B&G sends the wrong one (for the
Raymarine unit). I also run NMEA from the B&G, and from the Raymarine gear,
into a Shipmodul Bluetooth multiplexer, which feeds the Pocket PC program I
have previously mentioned. I have seen a NMEA mux that can convert between
different NMEA variants, but this isn't important enough for me to mess with
(especially as I plan to do a major upgrade, and expect that I will then
have to solve a totally different set of incompatibilities).

Of course, now, none of
the new B&G instruments are NMEA compatible with new proprietary
crapware. With Network instruments, you pick out the red data wire from
any cable in the loop and all the statements from all the Network
instruments plugged into the loop are all right at your disposal.

Every now and then I consider putting in the latest stuff from B&G to
replace the "Network" units, but the old stuff is still going strong. B&G
claims that their new autopilot has better performance, and the new Wind
gear can be more accurately calibrated, and they probably are better, but
what I've got seems to do the job. Perhaps if VALIS were an "Open 60" racer
I would care more about this, but my needs are really pretty modest in this
department. Most of the time at sea I'm using the Monitor windvane, anyway.
Some of the B&G accessories do look nice, though (such as the wireless
remote). Of course, the Raymarine Depth, Speed, Pilot, etc, also look like
they would suit me. I am paralyzed with indecision -- too many choices, not
enough obviously correct answers!

We find that the compass sensor for B&G Network Pilot is a MUCH better
NMEA compass than either the Raymarine compass sensor or the Smart
Heading Sensor. It just shows as more stable, even though it's mounted
about 3' from the Raymarine compass sensor. Network Pilot running off
Network Wind offshore makes a dandy wind vane steering device for night
runs in the rain. We build what looks like a miniature trailer hitch of
a bellcrank on the rudder post in the aft cabin under the bunk to hook
Pilot's electrohydraulic actuator to. If the rudder doesn't fall out,
we'll have steering..(c; The Pilot's learning algorithms make beautiful
turns after it stores the boat's characteristics for a while.

I wonder if the difference in compass response is due to heavier (slower)
filtering on the B&G compass? My Raymarine Smart Heading Sensor is just
used to feed the Chartplotter, to make MARPA more usable. I have a B&G
compass that feeds the autopilot. I like to think that in a pinch I could
patch around a broken compass using the working one, but I haven't tried
doing this. I am not feeding any of the Raymarine NMEA waypoints into the
B&G Pilot, I just steer to compass or wind. I claim that I don't want to
compromise the reliability by interconnecting all this gear, but the truth
is that I'm just too lazy to connect them together. It works fine the way
it is, though.

We don't navigate from the Raymarine's old charts. We use The Cap'n on a
Dell Latitude laptop, which now has an SR-162 AIS receiver plugged into a
Radio Shack RS-232C to USB adapter cable to feed it AIS data. It drives
the B&G Pilot through a Noland multiplexer. Backup is the boards I
salvaged from a portable Yeoman plotting board my captain left in his
pickup truck in the sun in Atlanta. All the foam glue turned to jelly
and he was about to toss it in the trash. I took the boards out and
mounted them with industrial double-sided tape to the bottom of the
Amel's mahogany chart table lift top. Yeoman's signal to its puck works
fantastic through 1/2" of mahogany and the whole Maptech chart books just
folded over to put the chart we want on top. A velum sheet lets us plot
by hand in case of massive electronic failure using the Yeoman's puck
every hour over the chart book. The Yeoman can feed waypoints to The
Cap'n and Pilot as well as anything.

I do my planning and weather routing on the laptop, usually using Raytech
Navigator, and only use the Chartplotter for approach and harbor situations.
I carry a good set of charts, but I typically don't use them. I log my
position, course, and speed, in the logbook every few hours, and consider
this my dead-reckoning backup should the electronics give out. My Pocket PC
"Black Box" software also logs this data (and everything else), so I've got
multiple ways of starting up a dead reckoning track if necessary. I did use
the paper chart last summer when we were entering Kaneohe Bay (in Oahu), as
my electronic charts were out of date and they had recently moved some
channel markers. Kaneohe is full of narrow channels and coral heads, so
having the current paper chart kept me out of trouble.

The navstation chartplotter does run 24/7 in order to feed my PocketPC AIS
and "black box" software. It is also nice to see our projected course line
on the chartplotter screen pointing in approximately the right direction.
On passage I usually turn off the helm chartplotter, to keep power
consumption down.

My captain loves all the toys....(c; He hands me new boxes and says,
"Can you make this work on our system?"....usually as he's headed out the
hatch to get out of the way. Gotta love him....(c;
Larry

On VALIS, I'm the captain, electronics tech, and owner. I struggle to keep
the captain's love of gadgets from giving the tech way too much to do, and
making the owner upset with the unnecessary expense. It can be a challenge!
It's a good thing they are all such nice guys. Brave and handsome, too!
And no, we're not schizophrenic.

-Paul