Thread: Autopilot
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Old 02-16-2017, 10:16 PM   #17
twistedtree
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I'm not saying your shouldn't match brands between autopilot and Nav system, but auto pilots are one area where you don't HAVE to match. Comnav is a good example, with lots of pilots and maybe no matching nav systems?

The communications that allows a pilot to follow a route is well established and standardized over both NMEA 0183 and NMEA 2000. I've used it personally and seen it many more times work just fine across brands. It's a nice example of where inter-operability actually works well in marine electronics.

But if you DO match brands, you might be able to get one or two extras. Auto pilots have control panels where you set your course, steer manually, and tell it to follow a route being broadcast by your nav system. That's all common across all APs. Additionally, if you have the same brand AP and Nav system, say Garmin, you can also control the AP via a pop-up window on the nav screen so you can engage and disengage from the nav screen just the same as you engage and disengage from the AP control panel. Some people find that convenient, and others feel is takes up otherwise useful screen space on the nav system. But that's basically what you get with matched brand between AP and Nav system.
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