Raymarine C80 Upgrade

[DAVE POTASH]

New to boating and recently purchased a 2007 Sundancer 340. I apologize in advance for any mistakes but this is all new to me. I currently have a Raymarine C80 chartplotter with 40 mile radar. I find the unit cumbersome and hard to read (tiny letters old eyes) I would like to upgrade to a 12 inch screen. I dont plan on taking the boat out long distances at night or in the fog so im not really that concerned with radar i dont think. What im mostly interested in is seeing the charts and the depth of the water. Is upgrading as simple as plug and play if i stay with Raymarine? Does the transducer from my current setup work with a new version. Also i have the Mercury smart craft guages however im having trouble reading them as well for the depth. Do any of the screens tie into that information system transducer. Lastly if the transducer does need to be replaced, is that something that can be done with the boat in the water?

Thanks in advance

 

[The Bill Collector]

Today's equipment is digital and all of your equipment is analog. You would be best served replacing everything.

 

[Henry Boyd]

I’ll echo what BC said. Current equipment is more “all in one” than the older c80 vintage. A new Raymarine Axiom 12 pro will have built in charts, built in gps, and a built in sonar module. It is natively built for NMEA2000 networking, this is not part of your current plan (nor immediately needed), but is there for future expansion, e.g. availing yourself to digital engine data on the screen. In addition the current generation of displays can handle radar wirelessly, making a future upgrade very easy. So basically all you need is an Axiom 12Pro, compatible transducer, and you are off to the races. Please note I listed Raymarine because that’s what I have and recently upgraded. There are several other brands such as Simrad (that I believe plugs directly into Smartcraft) and Garmin.

 

[pyro]

I also have C80 and looking to upgrade to Axiom 12. I have a few other suggestions that might be helpful.

First, getting Smartcraft gauges are digital, not analog. But the digital communication bus is not directly compatible, so you need a Mercruiser Smartcraft-NMEA 2000 gateway (8M0151748 may be superseeded by newer p/n). I think it's roughly $400 which is a lot for what it is. I'm also looking at a slightly cheaper Yacht Devices converter which does the same. The Axiom has NMEA 2000 (although in a different proprietary cable, so you need a converter cable). My transducer connects into the Smartcraft bus and is viewable through the Smartcraft gauges. I expect this data to also get converted to NMEA and therefore display on Axiom - although I haven't done this so no guarantees.

If you have to replace the transducer, I would not expect that can be done in the water, unless you get a in-hull transducer. Raymarine does make a few in-hull transducers, again with a converter cable.

The old radar is not compatible with the Axiom display. So I've been debating upgrading the radar along with the Axiom ($2k) or putting it off and mounting the C80 on the other side of the dash exclusively for radar. For me the downside is a giant C80 size hole that kind of means the C80 radar stays for life. I'm still leaning towards this option since the C80 radar works well and rarely gets used.

If you do regular Axiom or Axiom+ (not pro) the built in sonar module is only available in the "RV" models which are ~$200 more. The model numbers are a bit confusing, so check closely.

 

[Coz]

Yeah, but will any if that be easier to read? Which was OP real issue. You can zoom in on these maps but the text stays the same size. Drives me nuts.

 

[SeaNile]

Good luck finding an Axiom + 12 right now. Backordered......

I'm looking for one as well.