Rayymarine AP remote options

spikedaddy99

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Jun 11, 2008
2,579
Prentice, Wi
Boat Info
2005 500 DB
Engines
QSM-11
I talked to my dealer about installing a remote for my autopilot. He gave me 2 options: the standard S100, or a smartcontroller. Anyone use the smartcontroller and can give me opinions if it's worth the extra $? It's not a lot more, and features such as depth on a handheld could be useful if away from the bridge. Mike
 
How would you use a remote AP?

My personal boating situation, when AP is being used, there is still a responsibility for a person at the helm. If I walk away from the helm, I make sure the person who is at the helm is capable of operating the boat - and dealing with any navigation issues.

In areas of Florida we have lots of crab/lobster pots. Sometimes lots of dodging. If traffic shows up the person at the helm owns course adjustments.

Just my thoughts.

I am excited about the ability with my recent upgrade to be able to monitor the chart plotters for navigation, AIS, and radar.
 
About as far as I would go would be the seating forward of the helm to join in conversations. I could make minor adjustments without getting up. No crab pots in Lake Mi. The smart remote allows speed/depth/course. The regular one is just a control. M
 
As FootballFan knows, I am an enthusiastic user of helm remotes, currently using the Garmin version. To answer your question, when I had Raymarine, I had the smartcontroller. But, I actually think the standard version would be just fine. If you're near the helm, you probably already can see the control head; the smartcontroller screen is really just a mimic of that and less easily readable. BTW, I would consider doing the install myself as long as I could get to the back of the control head. Install consists of just plugging in one wire.
 
I have the smart controller and believe it is worth the extra few bucks. it gives you the capability to look at depth, Distance to waypoint, Heading, etc. You can also switch between Auto and track and acknowledge the next way point for a turn. Having the LCD screen you get confirmation of what is actually going on. Not sure if the s100 does all of this. I use it all the time even though i am sitting at the helm.
 
I also have the smart controller. Works great and allows me to just sit back in the helm chair and make minor adjustments. I’ve not had a chance to use the s100 but I’m sure it would be fine for me because I don’t leave the helm to operate and I have all the displays anyway. I love having the remote though!
 
@spikedaddy99 - I installed the E15023 (smart controller) and documented here:

http://www.clubsearay.com/index.php...atalk-and-nmea0183-wiring.90194/#post-1019824

I have only used it to date around the marina / harbor. I'll be able to post a much more detail review about it once I take my first trip with it to Catalina Island sometime in the spring.

I could not get the speed to display on mine - and posted the problem to the Raymarine forum and received this response:

http://forum.raymarine.com/showthread.php?tid=6863

I was surprised that the SmartController didn't get the speed from the MFD GPS speed and instead relied on a paddle wheel - so it sounds like if the boat doesn't have a paddlewheel for speed that one might not get the full functionality on the display.
 
@spikedaddy99 -

I could not get the speed to display on mine - and posted the problem to the Raymarine forum and received this response:

http://forum.raymarine.com/showthread.php?tid=6863

I was surprised that the SmartController didn't get the speed from the MFD GPS speed and instead relied on a paddle wheel - so it sounds like if the boat doesn't have a paddlewheel for speed that one might not get the full functionality on the display.

"Speed" in navigation (and Raymarine displays) usually means speed through the water (STW) which can only be measured directly using a sensor such as a paddle wheel or pitot sensor.
GPS systems provide speed over ground (SOG). Until GPS, STW was the only speed measure generally available. Now, of course, STW sensors are less common but the labels are still sometimes with us.
I am pretty sure that SOG is one of the available data elements you can select for display on the SmartController.
 
Last edited:
@alnav - Good point. I’d rather know / see SOG instead of STW - so I’ll go back to the SmartController and see if I can change what is displayed.
 

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