Electronics

What would be a good middle priced brand of electronics to have on a 36 albin.. the electronics on it now are out of date and not working . There are 2 stations that would have to be equipped... I see there are some for instance the autopilot can be done with a wireless remote so only one would have to be installed .. GPS depth sounder ,autopilot vfh etc any thoughts? thank you
Kevin G

I have a Garmin series 4000 complete with two stations, radar/chartploter, fishfinder conected by NMEA2000 with a simrad autopilot. Cheap, efficient and enough

Great so far!

depth

Do you also have a depth sounder ??

KEVMAR said:

What would be a good middle priced brand of electronics to have on a 36 albin.. the electronics on it now are out of date and not working . There are 2 stations that would have to be equipped... I see there are some for instance the autopilot can be done with a wireless remote so only one would have to be installed .. GPS depth sounder ,autopilot vfh etc any thoughts? thank you
Kevin G

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The question is honestly not very answerable in my opinion. Everyone wants something different. I get by fine with depth sounder, Navionics on an iPhone and handheld VHF. I have a compass and VHF radio that never get used. Radar and chart plotter in my garage will not be installed as I have no need to clutter the dash.

Everyone is unique so no real one size answer.

Kevmar

I have a Garmin two station system similar to Portagee. In my opinion It is middle of the road prices and an overall good system.

KEVMAR said:

What would be a good middle priced brand of electronics to have on a 36 albin.. the electronics on it now are out of date and not working . There are 2 stations that would have to be equipped... I see there are some for instance the autopilot can be done with a wireless remote so only one would have to be installed .. GPS depth sounder ,autopilot vfh etc any thoughts? thank you
Kevin G

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Garmin 741 with HD18 radar two units and radar around 3000. Depth sounder another 100

Garmin should have products to suit your needs.

Most every electronics brand will have something that meets your needs. Go play with a couple different brands, say at a West Marine store or a friends boat and see what brand you like.

Then if you really want to save some money look at any close out models or last years units that might be for sale.

Not sure what "middle price" means. For the lower price points, Sitex, Lowrance, Humminbird are all popular, depending on what function (plotter, radar, sounders) What kind of cruising do you plan on doing? I see a New Bern home port. Just staying local or going farther afield?

There are two manufacturers who have a full line of recreational marine electronics: Garmin and Raymarine.

Either of them would be good. But stick to one to minimize interface issues.

David

djmarchand said:

There are two manufacturers who have a full line of recreational marine electronics: Garmin and Raymarine.

Either of them would be good. But stick to one to minimize interface issues.

David

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I think Furuno , Simrad, Lowrance and Sitex would strongly disagree with that. Just to name four.

Garmin all the way because I luvvvvvv Garmin products, and everyone should think the way I think and never disagree with me because my opinion is the only right opinion.

I am disappointed in Garmin new, upgraded autopilot... Over $4,000 discounted. GHP20. True that includes the one size fits all pump but still... $4k in the box...ouch...

Two Garmin 741xs' with basic Nmea backbone with simrad ap and a N2k ducer.

Raymarine e127 and 125 (built in sounder and GPS), open array radar, Evolution autopilot, all connected to an N2K backbone. Standard Horizon radios for comms.

Lower helm has a stand alone Mac running open CPN software.

We are faced with the same issue for our 30 year old Fu Hwa 38. I am leaning toward a complete Garmin setup but decided to hold off for newer technology.

Specifically, first, I would like the Radar, the AIS, the sounder, and other devices to feed the Multi Function Displays via WiFi.

Second, Garmin needs to add a wireless router and access point to their lineup.

I may be waiting for awhile but it is frustrating that the electronics manufacturers are not doing more to integrate wireless technologies into their product lines. Maybe someone can convince Apple to go into the marine electronics business.

Greetings,
From what I understand Garmin charts are proprietary meaning you can't download free charts from the net and the only place you can get upgrades is from Garmin. That's a bit of a restriction IMO. That being said, Garmin DOES make good stuff.

Donsan said:

We are faced with the same issue for our 30 year old Fu Hwa 38. I am leaning toward a complete Garmin setup but decided to hold off for newer technology.

Specifically, first, I would like the Radar, the AIS, the sounder, and other devices to feed the Multi Function Displays via WiFi.

Second, Garmin needs to add a wireless router and access point to their lineup.

I may be waiting for awhile but it is frustrating that the electronics manufacturers are not doing more to integrate wireless technologies into their product lines. Maybe someone can convince Apple to go into the marine electronics business.

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I like your thought process, but the fully wireless route has a lot to overcome. Lots of interference potential in the various wireless signal paths to overcome, as well as having transmitters powerful enough at each device location to overcome RF and other electronic noise.

Garmin is the easiest to use of all the brands I've had. Lowrance doesnt do well in deep water with there sonar. There chart system is excellent. If anyone is interested I have 2 HDS 10s that you can buy for cheap.

The Garmin 741xs' along with a lot of newer garmins have built in Wifi.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
From what I understand Garmin charts are proprietary meaning you can't download free charts from the net and the only place you can get upgrades is from Garmin. That's a bit of a restriction IMO. That being said, Garmin DOES make good stuff.

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I have been advised that Garmin does there own charting and therefore you may find items on their charts that are out of date as compared to other products.

My biggest complaint against Garmin has always been about their proprietary charting...other than that they have rocketed towards the top of the recreational market in barely over a decade.

Another thing to consider is the availability of tech support should you have an issue or need to ask an operational question. My personal experience is that you can be "on hold" for hours (seriously) waiting to speak to a Raymarine tech. We tore out 5-year old E series Raymarine electronics due to our frustration with the equipment's reliability and the bigger frustration of waiting for tech assistance.

We replaced two Raymarine chartplotter MFDs, radar, depth sounder and autopilot with Garmin units. We also removed a Raymarine satellite TV dome and replaced that with an Intellian I-4. After 2-years experience with the new equipment all has been flawless. The few times that I needed tech support to better understand a function etc., a Garmin tech (USA based I might add) was on the line within minutes.

As they say, "just sayin." Good luck, Howard

Greetings,
Mr. hm. My experience with Garmin has been the opposite. I've waited for, what seemed like hours, to get and PAY for upgrades to charts. A friend used to work at WM and gave me the store private # for Garmin. The phone was answered within three rings.

Donsan said:

We are faced with the same issue for our 30 year old Fu Hwa 38. I am leaning toward a complete Garmin setup but decided to hold off for newer technology. ..............

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Yep. I'm waiting for color TV to be perfected (you probably have to be pretty old to understand that comment).

Seriously, all the manufacturers are constantly working on newer technology so you could wait forever. If you need new stuff now, buy new stuff now.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. hm. My experience with Garmin has been the opposite. I've waited for, what seemed like hours, to get and PAY for upgrades to charts. A friend used to work at WM and gave me the store private # for Garmin. The phone was answered within three rings.

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You can do it online quickly.

While we all like to think we have the latest electronic charts, if the paper charts they are created from haven't been updated the new electronic charts will be identical to the ones being replaced.

I am not an Electrical Engineer but I disagree on the interference issues. WiFi has been used in all kinds of environments including industrial and there do not appear to be RFI interference problems with today's technologies. In fact, Garmin and other manufacturers already use remote controls for autopilot functions.

It is noted you stated you have a NMEA-2000 radar feeding your MFD but to my knowledge NMEA-2000 doesn't have the bandwidth to adequately support radar data and overlays. Garmin uses the Garmin Marine Network, which is basically Ethernet, to transmit radar data and sounder data.

IMHO, the real challenge of marine electronics is to make all the data WiFi and use NMEA-2000 to provide power to the devices.

Just looking at the Garmin product line, they use direct battery power for radar and their sounder power, the Garmin Marine Network for radar and sounder data, NMEA-2000 for data and power to MFDs, autopilot and other devices. The whole setup could be simplified by using NMEA-2000 as the bus to provide power to all devices and WiFi for data from high data rate devices like radar and sounders.

There is a better way to do it fellas and it will happen in time. My challenge to the marine electronic manufacturers is to make it happen now.

Donsan said:

The whole setup could be simplified by using NMEA-2000 as the bus to provide power to all devices and WiFi for data from high data rate devices like radar and sounders.

There is a better way to do it fellas and it will happen in time. My challenge to the marine electronic manufacturers is to make it happen now.

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Pretty unrealistic to expect N2K to be able to handle the amperage draw of radars & sounders. Many transmit in kW. An analogy would be trying to supply water to a whole neighborhood with just one garden hose - good luck with that.

Lowrance doesnt do well in deep water with there sonar.

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I don't know how true that really is, but it only matters if you are doing some serious fishing. Certainly you shouldn't buy Lowrance and expect Furuno performance.

Correct. I fish in 3000+ feet of water regularly. If the Lowrance cant "read" the bottom it locks up and sends lines across the screen. Not a localized event. 3 different machines on 2 boats. One had a 600 watt 'ducer, other had a 1000 watt. Same thing. They wont read even when set to 300 feet, which is what I need to see. We mostly tuna fish at WAY LESS than 300. More like 100, but cant get even that. In shallow water (1000 or less) it is great. The charts cannot be beat, especially in cities or towns. Go figure.