A question in preparation of possible upgrade.

tawcat

tawcat

New Member
Apr 14, 2007
699
Lake Ouachita, Arkansas
Boat Info
320 Sundancer
Engines
6.1 V drives
If I upgrade from a Raynav 300 GPS to lets say a Raychart/plotter C-80, aside from cutting a larger opening, is this an easy unplug one, plug in the other? Or is it more complicated than that? I am confused as to how the Smartcraft links into the GPS etc.

Or is it best I leave it to my local Sea Ray dealer?

Thanks.
 
I do know the newer models (C or E80 or 120) are pretty much plug and play, but Smartcraft does not work with Raymarine or Garmin or pretty much anything other than Northstar or the system or vessel view by smartcraft. I have a Garmin touchscreen 4208 that I installed (I had Raymarine E80 on my last boat), and also a Northstar that the previous owner had installed, that I will upgrade to a color unit and hook up to the smartcraft from the engines to that.

Barry
 
tawcat- it's a pretty simple install, but it is not simply a plug. The connection requires solder-less connectors and you will need to decide whether you are connecting via SeaTalk or NMEA and you will further need to know what data the SmartCraft needs. Most of this will be decided by what GPS receiver (antenna) you end up using. With the model #'s, you could contact Raymarine and they will send you a diagram of what wires connect. I think it's also in the manuals (you can download from RM website). SmartCraft will likely document what data it needs from the GPS as well. I can't remember the colors off the top of my head, but you won't have to dig very far to come up with it.
 
No, I don't think so. The Raynav GPS antenna is just that, an antenna with the rest of the "intelligence" in the helm box. On the R, E, and C series, the GPS unit on the arch is the entire GPS unit. It outputs NMEA or Sea Talk position data. So you need to change the 300, the GPS sensor, and wiring between the units. Think that smartcraft might have a NMEA 0183 input and output, so you should be able to tie the E series to the smartcraft to some extent. But in general, Merc doesn't like open solutions. They prefer proprietary ones that don't play nice with other kids.

Best regards,
Frank
 
I can't believe they were putting that crappy RayNav 300 on boats as late as 2005.

As Frank said, the RN 300 has the GPS brains in the display and the antenna is just an antenna. The RN 300 does however make a good display for generic NMEA/instrument data. Hooking up a different/redundent GPS, a weather gauge, etc can all be done on your NMEA network and use this for data display. Heck... some other manufacturers sell (Furuno?) an NMEA display device like this for about $600...

The RN 300 has problems with the GPS failing and I, along with other people I know, just set it up as a secondary plotter/data display device.... Hook one of these up to it:

http://www.airmartechnology.com/airmar2005/ex20/RMProducts/ElectCat.asp?ProdID=105
 
tawcat,
I have the same P.O.C. on my 02' 340 and it stopped finding enough satellites to get a fix about 1 1/2 years ago. I was going to have the antenna replaced with a Raystar 125, but the tech at my marina found that I just needed to upgrade the RN300 firmware to 4.10. Anyway, The Raystar 125 antenna will require a new cable. The C and E searies units support the NMEA 2000 standard, but the Raystar 125 only supports NMEA 0183 or Seatalk. You could purchase the Garmin 17x NMEA 2000 antenna and run a NMEA 2000 cable through the arch so that you will have a trunk for future components.
 
Hooking the Raystar 125 to the RN 300 is not really replacing the antenna and cable... You are actually hooking a full blown GPS to the NMEA input port on the RN300 and setting it up in slave mode. Actually, you can hook the Raystar 125 to the SeaTalk network with a junction box and the RN 300 will be able to see it over the SeaTalk network... In fact, the GPS doesn't need to be Raymarine but can be any garden variety supporting NMEA 0183.
 
omigosh! all this seatalk, nmea, etc is making my head spin! think this is something I need to let a pro do. i use a garmin 276C portable unit as well. for some reason i have gotten slow response in acquiring satelites lately, which got me thinking of upgrading the crappy RN300. Maybe i just need to get a newer portable!!!! ugh!!!!!
 
The stuff really isn't all the complicated and having a basic understanding of the workings isn't a bad thing... especially the way the technology is evolving so rapidly. Plus you get to use big fancy words at CSR gatherings.
 
LOL - Frank no doubt, the technology of today is moving at such a fast pace. Buy something today, it was obsolete yesterday!

I'm not sure the its the technology that scares me. My fear is messing up the boat electrics. Wiring on land is so much easier to work with. All that said, rather than altering dash, trying to run wire etc, I may opt to replace my present portable. I do wish the boat came with a radar unit for night time, but I don't do enough night navigation to really be concerned, its just nice to know whats out there when its dark.

At any rate I may run off to Barnes & Nobles today and buy a book on high tech terminology;) Thanks for all your input I greatly appreciate it.
 
tawcat- if you were to start the project or watch someone else do it, you would find that it really is very simple and straightforward. A helm mounted GPS is much more usable than a hand held.
 
Matt - I'm so sure of that point, however, a lot of this upgrading has got to have the Admirals okay! And even here at the home front, if a project includes such things as cutting holes or running wire she gets overly nervous!!!! So for my sanity, I try to appease her by doing the least amount of modification as possible. Hell I want to install another hand rail on the stern, "Are you sure drilling the holes is gonna be okay?" "Well yeah sweetie, its not like I'm drilling through the bottom of the boat."
 
Well just got an email from SR, they inform me that the GPS sensor, they call it a sensor not antenna, is a Raystar RS125. That clears up a few things for me. The C-80 uses a RS125, so that negates the problem of having to run cable for a new sensor!

Now to convince the admiral that cutting a bigger hole for the unit to fit in is ok!!!!!

Only other problem is wiring the C-80 in and doing it so it communicates with the Smartcraft system.
 
So... You are telling me that you have a RN 300 with a Raystar 125 GPS from the factory?? So the factory hooked up a Raystar 125 GPS to the RN 300 in slave mode and pitched the GPS antenna that came with the RN 300? That doesn't make sense.... Take a picture of the antenna on top of your arch and the RN 300 and post it here....
 
After you install the new C-80, don't trash your RN300. It makes a great repeater to display depth, SOG, COG, Waypoints, etc, etc.....move it somewhere else at your helm.
 
Gary,
I'll get down to the boat next weekend and take some pics. My friend that has an '04 320, has a C-80, installed by Sea Ray. So I'm wondering if the C-80 has been the standard unit installed and for some reason they installed a RN300 on this one. So maybe, being the C-80 being the "standard" unit, the RS125 may have been installed. Who knows for sure.

I appreciate you hanging in and monitoring this thread. And a question, if the sensor unit is fact, how difficult will be the install of the C-80 if I choose to go that route?

Again I am not interested in installing SeaTalk, whatever that might be, or the XM weather thingy, or the auto-pilot stuff. All I need this unit to do is talk with and provide Smarcraft whatever it needs for its displays and to be able to up load a map of lake ouachita.

Thanks again Gary.
 
and by the way, Raymarine customer tech support hasn't the foggiest idea of what systems their equipment is compatible with. i sent them a very pointed and definitive question regarding the C-80 and Smartcraft. their response was "we are not familiar with Smartcraft, however, if the Smartcraft is capable of recieving NMEA info, it can be setup using SeaTalk!!!!!

Now there ya have it, i am just as dumb and stupid as i was when i woke up this morning!!!!!
 
Okay guys! I have decided to do the upgrade and I think I am going to attempt to do this myself with the help of a friend.

Anyone having done this I'd really appreciate some wiring help. I am pretty sure I can figure out the power supply setup, but I think I don't understand at all how to connect the chartplotter data to Smartcraft.

The existing unit, RN300, is connected and it does have some communication to Smartcraft, how much, I really don't know. But I do know that when the GPS, or VHF for that fact, loses communication with Smartcraft an alarm goes off.

So all that said, any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks and keep your fingers crossed for me!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,172
Messages
1,427,835
Members
61,084
Latest member
AntonioJamm
Back
Top