SeaRay Navigator - Use as a monitor?

[Greg]

Since I don't really use the SeaRay Navigator I was wondering about the hardware. It still seems to work fine, But I have 2 Raymarine displays.

I've never had it out, is it a panel PC or is there some way the LCD could be interfaced to a different PC?

I was toying around with the idea of putting in a more powerful PC to run some different apps and just using the SeaRay Nav as the display. Anyone know if something like that could be done?

The other option would be to get a marinized display and just replace it, but I figured I could save a few bucks and see if I even like having it before investing in it, and hacking up the dash.

I am pretty sure I would like it though, I've already identified a few things I would like to put on it.

1) Nav Software (Rose Point: Coastal Explorer, maybe?)
2) Video Capture, to display Engine Room Cams
3) MP3 player, ok a little gay, but gotta have tunes.

 

[Four Suns]

I've always wanted to hack into one of those things and see how to do what you are suggesting. I just don't have one... As you probably know, I built my own ruggedized PC and hooked it to a nauticomp display. The display is the expensive part of something like this and if it's possible to gut a Navigator and make it a generic PC running Coastal Explorer, etc., I'm sure there's an audience of people that would do it. It would make a great how-to article: "Turn your Crapigator into a touchscreen daylight-viewable PC". The problem for me was that people selling them used on eBay think they are worth >$2000... They aren't worth a poop in their current configuration IMO... They have to be transformed into something an end-user can support...

 

[370Dancer]

Go to the Raymarine site and download the specs, and install/user manual.
The biggest complaint will likely be resolution. You'd be lucky if it's 1024x768.
more likely due to the vintage of that unit, it's 800x600 or worse.
My 10.3 screen on the RL80CRC is 640x480.

 

[fc3]

What Gary said. The problem is that while the software is, at best, iffy, the hardware isn't quite that good.

Now I've never opened one of these things up, but I presume that it's a SBC with the processor, memory, hard disk, video, LCD drivers and touch screen drivers all on the same board. (Think notebook pee cee motherboard.) I remember reading what CPU they used but I forgot the spec. It's not a beefy one. Doubt you can upgrade either the CPU or real memory, so you'll probably be limited to which Microsoft OS and which Nav package you can run on it.

Sorry that I can't be more specific. Like I said, I never had one apart. I'm guessing that you can probably rip into one and replace the guts with the motherboard with a semi-recent vintage notebook PC's guts and have something that might be half-way decent. If someone wants to donate a dead one to the cause...

Best regards,
Frank

 

[Greg]

Yeah, I've been looking, I thnk I am just going to get a new panel PC and replace the whole thing. I just have to figure out which one, and if I really need 1000 nits.

 

[Four Suns]

If you want to go the PC route, I would recommend getting a good marine monitor and then putting a small rugged PC under the helm... Have you seen my setup?