Electronics Upgrade Project

Gervie

Gervie

New Member
Oct 5, 2006
82
Spring Lake, Michigan
Boat Info
430 Sundancer 1005, Dual Raymarine E120
Engines
Cummins 480CE
I thought I would share my experiences of upgrading the navigation system that is about to begin. The boat today has the Sea Ray Navigator II multi-function display with 4kw radar open array (Sci-Tek/Koden for Maptech). I am upgrading the whole system to Raymarine dual E120 series, 4kw Raymarine 5s open radar array, RS125 gps, DSM300 digital sounder, 20W hailer horn for the Ray 240 vhf, Seatalk network and Navionics Platinum charts. Also, they will be adding a new through hull and fairing for the sounder. I also ordered new instrument panels that are ready for the E120s to give the OEM look.

I also have to upgrade the autopilot corepack from the S2 to S2G. It is an upgrade done by Raymarine. They add a gyro to the unit that enables MARPA to be displayed on the radar overlay.

I plan to add the Sirius weather when the ability to overlay the charts is included.

The Navigator computer, radar, gps and sounder will go on eBay.

So far we have ordered the hardware. The boat is in heated storage with power available and mediocre lighting. This is a big deal for me and I hope it goes well.

Any suggestions, ideas or helpful hints would be appreciated. The boat yard I am working with is a premier Raymarine dealer so I am heavily relying on their experience but I want to stay up to speed. I caught the needed upgrade of the corepack so I guess it doesn't hurt to keep on top of this project as best as I can.

Project should start in a couple of weeks. I will keep you posted.
 
Sounds like fun. What model transducer are you putting in for the fishfinder? Are you keeping the old removable one in there or are you going to just make that hole bigger for the new sounder?
 
Wonderful Life, ah what a project. I sent you an e-mail this moring with a response from Raymarine on the weather overlay.

Also check out this thread, some good insight offered on the weather. E120 and Sirius Weather/Radio

Winter, at least it is heated storage - still sit and have a cocktail on board without freezing.
 
Gervie.
I have ur new set up on my boat. The only thing i am chaning is the radio. the 240 even though its raymerines top of the line is a piece of crap in my eyes. 3 handsets and two bases units later my radio still sounds like heck. They temp'd a cnnection to a ICOM cheap unit that they had in there truck from an old install and the Radio sounded fine and worked. So thats the only item I would give a 2nd look.


Any use questions on the e120's ask away.


Rob
 
Rob, so what radio are you going with and where at the helm are you installing it. We have also had issues with our 240 and want to change it out.

This is our helm, similar to your's I'm sure.

helm_2.jpg
 
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Tell me what you didn't likw on the SR Nav II's. im looking at a boatr that has them. And why are you not waiting for the new Ray G Series?
 
There's my twin again. There won't be many differences with the G-Series, just bigger displays and a black box processor. Go with the Ray218 VHF, it matches the E-Series displays perfectly and actually is a nice radio unlike a lot of its siblings. I think the 218 is an awesome radio in fact.
 
Gervie, You might want to look at a Simrad autopilot unless it's too late. The MARPA displays on the plotter with arrows, target(s), speed(s), and distance(s) calculations, but the really nice thing about the SR is how well it holds your track line in the crazy Lake Michigan chop we get. It is seldom off by more than 30 feet even in big, confused seas. SBW
 
The transducer for the DSM300 is the 600 Watt Bronze through hull transducer with depth speed and temperature. Includes high speed fairing(B744V).

The reason for the change is for several reasons. I wanted full redundancy. If you install dual Navigators you can only use one for radar. We boat in Lake Michigan where there is usually morning fog. The Navigator does not support MARPA which is important to me. It is difficult to find anyone to service the Navigator. You typically have to send it to Colorado for service. The Raymarine equipment is tried and proven.

The autopilot in our boat is the Raymarine 7001+. It is just a matter of money that I don't swap it out for the Simrad. By upgrading the corepack I can save a few bucks. I have not had any problems with the autopilot. Something to think about in the future.

I saw the G series announcement. I think the displays are too big for the instrument panels. I need to look into that.

What is the radar screen going to look like when they turn both on inside a metal building full of boats? It should look like fireworks.

I have not had any problems with the Ray240 VHF except for a tussle to get the clam shell open at times. I will wait for the problems to show up and decide what to do then. Where will you mount the Ray218?

The hailer that is being installed is a Newmar PA 30/20 - 20W. Do any of you have experience with this product? Also, what do you think of the RayNav software for the PC and SeaTalk network?

BTW, it is Salty Dog's dual E120 system that motivated me to do the upgrade. It is a sweet installation.
 
Your radar will not be any more redundant with 2 e120's. If one of the screens goes down you will need to unplug the radar out of the back and plug it into the other screen same as the Maptech setup. I would not let Marpa play too much importance, its one of those features on a cruising boat where the cool factor is the most useful part of it. I have it on both of my boats, however the only time I have actually used it (aside from showing my friends how cool it is) was on a 4 day passage at 9 knots to Panama, it helped keep track of ships on the horizon.
 
admin said:
I would not let Marpa play too much importance, its one of those features on a cruising boat where the cool factor is the most useful part of it. I have it on both of my boats, however the only time I have actually used it (aside from showing my friends how cool it is) was on a 4 day passage at 9 knots to Panama, it helped keep track of ships on the horizon.
Click to expand...

MARPA is important when transiting shipping lanes in northern Lake Michigan. Grey's Reef and the Straits are filled with large ships and pleasure boaters. They are all going to the same waypoints as water depth goes from 600 feet down to 25-30 feet to get through the passages. If you are not sure of closure rates, you shouldn't be in the area. Same thing with the Manitou Passage. These areas of the lake are the most popular. MARPA is even useful for avoiding the Lake Express which goes back and forth across the lake at 45 knots. We use MARPA all the time.
 
I agree sbw1, I started using our MARPA feature diligently this summer. I will admit, partially because I like "toys" but also want to use all the tools at hand for safety. Definitely nice in the shipping lanes as you pointed out.

Gervie, thanks for the words. Now, I will have to add more electronics so as to keep up with the "Jones".
 
Admin, I guess I misunderstood the redundancy of the radar. Am I right to think that I can have radar on both screens at the same time or one or the other?
 
Gervie, yes with the setup you outlined you can have radar on either or both screens at the same time. I will have full radar on the main screen with chart/radar overlay on the other screen, especially when crossing the lake or in the Manitou Passage and Grey's Reef.

I think what Jim was saying was if the "master" goes down you will not have radar at all. Jim is that a correct statement?

When you have 2 e-series networked one is the "master" unit and the other is the "slave" unit. I did experience the master crashing once and I did still have all chart and gps functions on the "slave" unit, not sure I noticed radar. Will have to check that out this summer. In that situation, I just rebooted the master and we were back in business.

Also a note, once you start tracking a target with MARPA the target is displayed on the radar and the chart, regardless if you have the chart/radar overlay on or not, nice feature.
 
You can have radar on both screens assuming both are working. But you said you were looking for redundancy which would imply you are thinking if one screen goes down you would like to see radar on the other. Having 2 screens will be redundant but if the screen fails that has the radar plugged into it you will need to unplug it and plug it into the other.

To each his own on Marpa, we have tons of ships up and down the Chesapeake all the time. I have never needed Marpa to dodge ships. I just look out the windshield. I personally find Marpa useful if you have very little traffic and want to keep track of an object that could easily go forgotten. When it is very busy I find it better to have eyes on the horizon than eyes buried in the screen trying to scroll around to click on each target. It is a cool gizmo though.
 
I do hear ya on the closure rates. If everybody is coming and going the exact same channel and it is all bottlenecking it would be nice to know when targets will get there. Marpa will certainly help with that. Most places I boat on the east costs are a free for all with boats going every which way, like the chesapeake, li sound, buzzards bay, etc so Marpa is not of much use.
 
admin said:
I do hear ya on the closure rates. If everybody is coming and going the exact same channel and it is all bottlenecking it would be nice to know when targets will get there. Marpa will certainly help with that.
Click to expand...

This where MARPA shines. Even though those 600 foot long ships are only going 14-18 knots they are surprisingly hard to get out of the way of if you are on a collision course. We have lots of hazy weather in the great lakes and visibility is frequently 3-5 miles. The distances are so vast it is hard to estimate how far away things are. MARPA takes the guess work out of the equation.
 
Paul,
as soon as I have an answer on the radio ill let u know. The customization on the e120's is limitless. Thats a cool thing. Good luck Gervie.

Rob
 
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