WiFi Camera direct to Raymarine Chart Plotter

[MichaelB1969]

Hi all, I know my Raymarine plotter has built-in WiFi. Aside from buying the $700 Raymarine camera, are there other more reasonably priced cameras that would connect directly to the plotter?

Thanks!
Mike

 

[MichaelB1969]

Hi all, I know my Raymarine plotter has built-in WiFi. Aside from buying the $700 Raymarine camera, are there other more reasonably priced cameras that would connect directly to the plotter?

Thanks!
Mike

Just did some research. Seems like an IP camera that is ONVIF compatible "should" work, but Raymarine doesn't guarantee it.

So at $45 something like this is about $400 less than the Raymarine camera with similar specs.

https://www.amazon.com/Security-Out...id=1511998657&sr=8-7&keywords=onvif+ip+camera

These cameras will connect to most of the relatively new Raymarine Plotters with the addition of a PoE (Power over Ethernet) injector since the IP cameras are typically powered by Ethernet, and the Raymarine Ethernet ports don't supply power (with the exception of the newest models).

I guess another option, which might be the simpler one, is an analog camera with a BNC connection such as this:

https://www.amazon.com/SmoTecQ-1000...TF8&qid=1511998213&sr=1-5&keywords=bnc+camera

Not sure what advantage there is, if any, of the IP camera over the analog one. I suppose if you had a plotter with powered Ethernet ports, it would be a simpler install with an IP camera...but most of our plotters likely don't have powered Ethernet ports.

Anyway, just posting some additional information after doing some research. Hope it helps.