Furuno plotter

[Asterix]

What is the general opinion of the Furuno TZ mfd plotter and Furuno NavNet? I installed one a year ago and am very dissatisfied with GPS update speed to the point of thinking about getting rid of it. For a backup I carry a Toughbook with internal GPS loaded with Rose Point Coastal Explorer and it leaves the Furuno in the dust. I have used it for a number of years and it has always performed very well.

We had an incident last year traversing a particularly narrow winding rocky channel when the Furuno just froze, not encouraging.
At this point I'm glad I hadn't yet bought the radar to interface with the unit.

 

[wkearney99]

Are you using the internal GPS? And have you raised this question on the furuno user forum?

Which TZ model? The latest TZT3 are quite speedy, I have two of them on my EB47, having replaced two NN3D MFD12 units. The MFD12 were slooooooow to change pages, such that it was useful to have a pair of them side-by-side. Now with the TZT3 it's fast enough to easily change between charts, weather, radar and all manner of zoom levels without waiting. I kept two of the MFD12's but they're largely relegated to just showing raster charts over a larger area, if just for easily reading landmark names.

As for GPS, I also added their SCX20 satellite compass, which provides VERY quick and accurate position and heading data.

Depending on which model TZ you've got there is the chance that the internal hard drive is on it's way out. That could potentially be causing freezes as it retries for bad sectors. If so, it should be a relatively straightforward DIY job to replace it (at least it is on the MFD12 models). If you're handy with swapping electronic modules, that is. Otherwise Furuno has great service for just about everything they've ever made.

 

[bowball]

I am very satisfied with my TZ3’s, which are very fast.

 

[BandB]

We have no issues with Furuno and GPS speed. I'd definitely call Furuno and get their input, if I was you.

 

[Juliet 15]

I have a navnet 3d and it works great. It's the black box version, though, without separate monitors. I agree with the others. Furuno is generally top shelf. I'd call and get tech help. Their people are very helpful.

 

[ranger58sb]

What is the general opinion of the Furuno TZ mfd plotter and Furuno NavNet? I installed one a year ago and am very dissatisfied with GPS update speed to the point of thinking about getting rid of it.

Hard to imagine an NN3D unit being slow. Our previous MFD12 was always as fast as any other modern computers, similar in speed to TimeZero on our laptop, no paging slowdowns, etc.

So far, the newer TZT3 we recently installed seems at least equally fast, probably faster -- that I can't discern.

We've only always had external GPS receivers coupled with the main units, so I can't comment perfectly on accuracy.

That said, when we installed the new TZT3 along with AIS -- and the AIS's associated external GPS receiver -- our Garmin unit on the same NMEA2000 network (that had previously been using it's own internal GPS) automatically switched to using the new external GPS source. Afterwards, I noted that the Garmin MFD reported accuracy deviations in the 25' range using it's own internal GPS and more like 3' deviations using the external FA-70 GPS source.

We've mostly only had "learning questions" (not actual hardware or software problems) but Furuno customer service has been excellent.

-Chris

 

[Fletcher500]

Furono NavNet TZT2- very happy with it. The only glitch I have found is the MFD's do not like to get hot, like most electronics. The one in our upper helm can be exposed to direct sun at times and it will reboot. And it happened at the worse times of course when I needed it. Took a couple years to figure that one out. I therefore keep it covered with a towel when the sun angle is on it, and remove it when I need to look at it. I navigate from the lower helm 90% of time and that one stays cool inside.

Also, I have found updating the software every year is worth it. They do a good job working on updates for minor glitches and are often adding helpful things to the interface.

 

[wkearney99]

Hard to imagine an NN3D unit being slow. Our previous MFD12 was always as fast as any other modern computers, similar in speed to TimeZero on our laptop, no paging slowdowns, etc.

So far, the newer TZT3 we recently installed seems at least equally fast, probably faster -- that I can't discern.

Really? To me there's an absolute difference in speed between the MFD12 and a new TZT16F. Just simple things like changing from a raster map page to radar. Or even just zooming in/out on a raster chart. To zoom the MFD12's you could press-press-press the zoom in/out buttons, wait a second or two, and eventually it'd redraw. The delay was such that it was common to press too many times and 'miss' the desired zoom amount. Likewise using the page carousel to switch between raster, radar or other pages. With the TZT3 the screens almost draw faster than you can tap selections.

I had four MFD12s and they were all the same, so it wasn't just one of them acting up. Now I've just go two of them left (two TZT16F/MFD12 upper/lower). I didn't want to spend to put in FOUR new TZT3 and the performance out of it is more than sufficient. That and I've been considering using another brand of plotter in the other positions to get side-scan features. But the latest update for the TZT3 now HAS side-scan display.

We've mostly only had "learning questions" (not actual hardware or software problems) but Furuno customer service has been excellent.

That's been my experience also. The users and staff that participate on the furuno user forum have been a great help figuring things out.

My ONE gripe? That the nav markers and depth text are linked in size. I'd absolutely LOVE having the ability to have the depth text shown larger WITHOUT ballooning up all the nav markers to comical size.

 

[Fletcher500]

Agree, the Furono Forum is great and the Tech staff are often monitoring it to answer questions. I also really appreciate the call in/phone support as well. I have had them on the phone for some long conversations, especially during the first year of operation and they are willing to spend the time with me to get things right.

 

[ranger58sb]

Really? To me there's an absolute difference in speed between the MFD12 and a new TZT16F. Just simple things like changing from a raster map page to radar. Or even just zooming in/out on a raster chart. To zoom the MFD12's you could press-press-press the zoom in/out buttons, wait a second or two, and eventually it'd redraw. The delay was such that it was common to press too many times and 'miss' the desired zoom amount. Likewise using the page carousel to switch between raster, radar or other pages. With the TZT3 the screens almost draw faster than you can tap selections.

My ONE gripe? That the nav markers and depth text are linked in size. I'd absolutely LOVE having the ability to have the depth text shown larger WITHOUT ballooning up all the nav markers to comical size.

Our NN3D/MFD12 was a pretty simple system. Stand-alone CRT radar, so not connected to the Furuno, separate standalone fishfinder, separate standalone "navigator" thing... so aside from the AIS and external GPS source, we just had a DST interface and the AP interface.

But paging was always instant, zoom in/out was always instant, no lag or latency issues at all. And that's one reason we went down the Furuno path in the first place. Every action on the MFD12 was about as equally fast as doing the same thing in TimeZero on the laptop.

By nav marker/depth sizes, you mean in the raster charts? Or the vector charts? Seems to me you could set a bunch of stuff in the vector charts, but with raster you pretty much got "all or nothing" zoom control.

IIRC.

Haven't worked with the new TZT3 system very much yet. I've been too busy on other minor details...

-Chris

 

[wkearney99]

Nav marker icon size and depth text size are linked to one setting. Make the depth numbers larger and the nav icons become comically large, especially if you zoom out. I just want to see the water depths a bit larger.

 

[Asterix]

Followup

Thanks to all for the discussion, I have contacted Furuno via the forum the one setting they recommended checking was in the proper position. I have made several other adjustments so we"ll see how it performs next time we are out.
In response to one comment the unit is utilizing the GP-330B not the internal antenna.

 

[BandB]

Thanks to all for the discussion, I have contacted Furuno via the forum the one setting they recommended checking was in the proper position. I have made several other adjustments so we"ll see how it performs next time we are out.
In response to one comment the unit is utilizing the GP-330B not the internal antenna.

Pick up the phone and give them a call while you're on the boat.

I know, as a society, we've steered people away from phone calls, but in so many situations they're the most effective means of communication. Only thing better is pulling up on cam.

 

[wkearney99]

Thanks to all for the discussion, I have contacted Furuno via the forum the one setting they recommended checking was in the proper position. I have made several other adjustments so we"ll see how it performs next time we are out.
In response to one comment the unit is utilizing the GP-330B not the internal antenna.

As N2K networks get more complex it's important to remember that devices each should have their own device and instance ID numbers.

This is important, as this is how the other devices on the network can tell which source they're actually using to obtain the PGN sentences. So if you've got more than one device of a given type be sure to check the IDs. Then configure the consumers of the data (chart plotters, multi-function displays) to use the appropriately specific devices.

I've got six different things on the bus that could provide GPS data, but only one I "want" to have used, so I had to go into the config on each of my TZT16F plotters, MFD12 plotters, DSM410 and Triton2 displays so they'd all use the same SCX20 satellite compass as their source. Not the GPS330, WX220, FA-50 or internal GPS on the TZT3. They'll fall back to using one of those if the SCX-20 is offline and seem to reset back again when it returns.