jaywoodz
Member
- Nov 12, 2012
- 522
- Boat Info
- 1999 Sea Ray 310 Sundancer
- Engines
- Twin 350 MAG MPI Horizon w/V-Drives
You can always just unplug the Raymarine e120 from your multi plug - and leave the DSM150 and MercGateway in there.
But as I said before as with any debugging - eliminate the easy stuff first. Clean your transducer face, check your batteries and maybe remove the e120 from your SeaTalkNG plug. That would be a start. - when you debug many issues - first issue is to bring the list of potential issues down. The "faulty" DSM300 is ALSO very sensitive to voltage issues - so as I said. start with my little list first.
But sorry to hear Raymarine now wants money for the "update" I thought I read it would deadline at the end of march. But check it out anyway. But IF you consider upgrading to the new e series - get the e127 where the DSM300 is built in. That works very well. But then you also need a new radar
And my brain kind of just absorbs useless information which is why I know a lot of the Raymarine issues....
And if you want to buy some cables etc. - try and find a NMEA 2000 starter kit on eBay. Then you at least have a complete "independent" NMEA 2000 net - and then buy one of the Navico blocks. Then you are future proof - and have a few items in your "dock box" for future use. You can pick up starter kits for < $50 on eBay if you wait a bit.
And about NMEA OneNet - it is not meant as a replacement for NMEA 2000. It is an addition for items that need high speed data - like Sounders, Radar, cameras and Internet access. I think most of the current generation MFD's can be upgraded to OneNet as they all have Ethernet. Raymarine and Garmin has been a bit "hesitant" to follow Ethernet (IP) standards despite having RJ45's equivalents on their machines - but Navico (Simrad/Lowrance/B&G) are VERY open in the network part and can already now be setup as you want - and follows RFC's for IP traffic.
And I can for the life of me not understand why so many boat owners insists on Raymarine - when Simrad makes the VesselView 7 for Mercruiser (and the N2k gateway) - and the VesselView 7 + Simrad chartplotter are such a great match. IMHO Simrad beats Raymarine current generation by MILES in usability if you have Mercruiser engines. :grin:
I may just unplug the Raymarine. Everything the raymarine spits out, the Maretron does, and shows more. That may be my temp fix, but doesn't obviously allow me to expand in the future. I don't really think there is anything else I would want.
Yes, the rep at Raymarine said it stopped at the "end of February", so I guess it's done. He told me to pull it out and see if it's made in Mexico. If so, I should send it in to get repaired. He said it would take 3-4 weeks, which puts me out of not being able to take my boat out until mid-late May. That's IF I get it out today and send it. Why would I need a new radar for the new e127? Doesn't the e125 work with my current DSM and radar?
I think I'm going to go ahead and get the starter kit for such a low price. That way, I can go ahead and extend whatever I need for future use. I would like to have some other maretron sensors they offer.. they're just so damn expensive.
I only kept Raymarine since it came on my boat when I bought it. I really don't have a preference, but they look slick.. at least the newer ones do. I may look into Simrad and see what they have to offer.
I'm going to the boat today to test the batteries, unplug the Raymarine, plug the gateway and DSM 150 into the block, and test. Maybe it will work even without a weird power on sequence and the NMEA 2000 hook up is incorrect and causing that issue. Either way, I will definitely let you know. I'm putting money on a bad battery. I went and picked up a battery tester last night, so I don't have to take all the batteries out which are a pain to get to on my 99 310DA.