Rick,
Thanks for posting your proposed electronics. It looks like a really good setup to me, and mirrors mine except for the primary equipment vendor.
I am close to completing the “line up” for our boat. Like most of us on here, I am typically pretty “cheap” when it comes to spending money on electronics, preferring to find deals where I can, and enjoy making things work. However, with a new build I want to ensure that the electronics “just work” as much as possible. I landed on Furuno a few months ago, based upon my personal assessment of the big four electronics companies. All four have good products, but in discussions with two of them, I felt Furuno had the more knowledgeable people on their tech help line. I also have yet to be put on hold when I call them. I like the breadth of the charts available from Furuno. The TZ3 MFD line is a major upgrade in ease of use and computing power over the TZ2.
During the NMEA workshops I was able to attend in September in Orlando, I received good feedback on all four. Different techs favored different brands. With the Furuno supporters I didn’t hear negatives, just positive comments. I would say Garmin was also positively supported with the one caveat about them sunsetting products quickly coming up in a couple of conversations, and the lack of support after that. I had run into that same issue with a new install of a Raymarine I completed in 2017 and so was a bit snake bitten. (In fairness to Garmin, I have also heard the exact opposite in terms of after sunset service.)
Again, I don’t think you can go wrong with any of them, so personal preference is the most important criteria in my view.
Here are my selections for the boat.
Furuno
TZ Touch 3 16” MFD
TZ Touch 3 12” MFD
Radome (DRS4D-NXT) Solid State radar
SCX20 Satellite Compass
Auto Pilot
FAP 3011 Control Unit
FAP 3012 Processor Unit
Rudder Reference Kit
AP OctoPump 16-12
Safe Helm 2
DST-810MSF Bronze Thru-Hull, Digital Depth, Speed, Temp Sensor, NMEA2000
Communications/AIS/Monitoring
Vesper Cortex w/ H1 and H1P VHF handsets
Morad HD VHF/AIS 159 Mhz Antenna
Network
Pepwave Max BR1 Pro 5G Router
Peplink Mobility 42G 7 in 1 Antenna
TBD Actisense or Yacht Design NMEA to LAN
Cameras
Axis M7104 Video Encoder
Cameras TBD for Backup and Engine Room
Satellite TV
KVH Tracvision TV1 system
The 16” MFD will go in the PH. I plan to put it, the AP control unit, and the tethered Cortex handset on the helm if there is room, with the Mercruiser engine monitor placed just forward of the wheel on the “flat” area. I have seen that setup in pictures. The untethered handset will be used on the flybridge when driving the boat and in the bedroom at night for the anchor alarm.
We settled on the NXT radar after some consideration. About $500 more than the non solid state radome after some discussion with Furuno (and due to it being a new build).
The SCX20 satellite compass takes the place of a heading compass, is installed on the arch, and informs the plotter, AP, and radar of the boats pitching and yawing
We purchased the Vesper Cortex, the Pepwave BR1 Pro 5G and the Peplink 42G from Doug Miller at Milltech. As others have mentioned here before, he does a really nice job of explaining products, and supporting what he sells. The reason I am going with a modem router is that various friends and family members who are still working will travel some with us, if they can work from the boat. With the change to folks working from “home” for a few days a week, this became an important consideration.
Using a KVH Tracvision to deliver TV, will lower cellular bandwidth usage on the boat. The Pepwave equipment allows prioritization between cellular and WiFi. So, when we are in a marina with a sufficient network, the Pepwave will default to that. Underway, the cellular will take over. I may use an Actisense converter to broadcast the NMEA2000 and 0183 signals to a PC or tablets as a backup to the plotters.
For cameras, I am still trying to settle on a brand . I will have a backup camera, and one or two engine room cameras. Using the Axis video encoder will eliminate the MFD using cpu time for rendering images.
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