daddyox
Member
I thought it would be a bit helpful to share my installation of a new VHF radio (on my 2004 320) with a few of the less technically inclined as I am one of them. Usually I don’t have the time or patience, or I’m afraid of making a problem worse, and I just end up writing the check.
All simple projects, for me, turn harder and involve swearing to myself, and usually a cut knuckle or two.
My Raymarine 215 was toast due to the infamous “frayed mic cord” that has plagued many of us. It was actually working, but duct-taped together and time for a change. So, I thought, how difficult would this be for me to replace it? I usually just “pay the man”. From reading here and elsewhere, it sounded pretty easy. So I thought…maybe it was, but I’ll share.
First, I have the old Raymarine SL70 as my 2004 vintage GPS, which plugged into my radio for DSC/NMEA. I believe there were 6 wires in that plug (2 for power, the rest for NMEA), which as a newbie I found daunting. The Raymarine chart plotter had a convenient plug that easily plugged into the chartplotter. Obviously they were meant for each other. The replacement standard horizon gx1700 had 6 wires, but no connector plug…
Step 1: I bought the Standard Horizon GX1700, which already has GPS built in, which I figured I’m not going to bother to tie into my vintage GPS at this point, so I only need to wire in power (which worried me) and my antenna. Read the reviews, and it sounded good. I also bought the “flush mounts” as advised on here, to connect to the backing plate.
Step 2: What to do about a backing plate? Thankfully to KevinC on here, the backing plate was ordered and is beautiful. I was able to cut a new hole into the backing plate (with my inferior power tools) and ultimately it worked out fine and covered the opening, as it did not require a trip to the ER when I took the inevitable shortcut in cutting the opening. Note however, if I had made at the cut a little bit higher on the panel, it would have overlapped my old clarion stereo remote. I didn’t think of that, and thankfully got lucky on that one. So keep that in mind if doing it yourself.
Step 3: Go to boat and remove old radio, connect antennae, connect power. Simple! Well, first, the antenna wire doesn’t’ reach the VHF, since the old Ray215 actually had an antenna cord built in about 3 feet long, and my boat was configured so the antenna wire did not reach. I couldn’t pull the any wire through, and it is zip-tied about 10 times with other wiring under the helm. I’m not messing with that! I’ll break something or make it a mess in there. I looked online about buying an extension and it looks like it is something that I could purchase and I actually looked in west marine. Flummoxed, I removed the side panel on the radar arch. There was a little bit of cord that could be pushed down, but not much. Then, I removed the plastic panel on the SB side of the helm. Bingo! the vhf antenna cord was looped there and I was able to push enough of it down towards the helm to give the slack needed. Yay! (side note: I did look back to where the wiring comes from the radar arch, and it’s all sealed with sealant- it would be interesting pulling something else through- I guess you’d have to cut through it? )
Step 4: put my new radio into the hole where the old radio was. Should be simple again, right! Dang! The hole isn’t big enough! Just about a ¼ inch on both sides. Of course, I didn’t have a cutting tool with me. Enter the wife a while later with my dremel, and I was able to sand it enough to get it through.
Two of the backing plate screws didn’t line up perfectly with the old, so I had to pre-drill a bit into the fiberglass and put the new screws in.
Step 5: I bought some small female connectors and was able to connect the red and black wires to the fuse panel under the helm of the 320.I added a small 3 amp fuse- even though the VHF has a fuse built in to the power wire. Not sure if that was correct, but it’s wired and powered on and working! Looks good!
Step 6: Got the MMSI from Seatow, and programmed it in. All is working and looking good.
All in all, probably a 30 minute job turned into a 3 hour job, but it’s working and I learned something. Again. Never as easy as I hope.
I believe I could have connected the wires to the GPS but decided not to at this time. I’m not sure it would accomplish much with the age of the chartplotter. I would have to remove/cut the raymarine “plug” and connect the wires, probably shrink wrap them together. I can still navigate to a position if I get a DSC call, but I’ll have to do it a bit old school. It’s nice to have a backup GPS position sensor on the radio regardless.
Maybe it’s time to replace the Raymarine GPS/ Radar? NO!
All simple projects, for me, turn harder and involve swearing to myself, and usually a cut knuckle or two.
My Raymarine 215 was toast due to the infamous “frayed mic cord” that has plagued many of us. It was actually working, but duct-taped together and time for a change. So, I thought, how difficult would this be for me to replace it? I usually just “pay the man”. From reading here and elsewhere, it sounded pretty easy. So I thought…maybe it was, but I’ll share.
First, I have the old Raymarine SL70 as my 2004 vintage GPS, which plugged into my radio for DSC/NMEA. I believe there were 6 wires in that plug (2 for power, the rest for NMEA), which as a newbie I found daunting. The Raymarine chart plotter had a convenient plug that easily plugged into the chartplotter. Obviously they were meant for each other. The replacement standard horizon gx1700 had 6 wires, but no connector plug…
Step 1: I bought the Standard Horizon GX1700, which already has GPS built in, which I figured I’m not going to bother to tie into my vintage GPS at this point, so I only need to wire in power (which worried me) and my antenna. Read the reviews, and it sounded good. I also bought the “flush mounts” as advised on here, to connect to the backing plate.
Step 2: What to do about a backing plate? Thankfully to KevinC on here, the backing plate was ordered and is beautiful. I was able to cut a new hole into the backing plate (with my inferior power tools) and ultimately it worked out fine and covered the opening, as it did not require a trip to the ER when I took the inevitable shortcut in cutting the opening. Note however, if I had made at the cut a little bit higher on the panel, it would have overlapped my old clarion stereo remote. I didn’t think of that, and thankfully got lucky on that one. So keep that in mind if doing it yourself.
Step 3: Go to boat and remove old radio, connect antennae, connect power. Simple! Well, first, the antenna wire doesn’t’ reach the VHF, since the old Ray215 actually had an antenna cord built in about 3 feet long, and my boat was configured so the antenna wire did not reach. I couldn’t pull the any wire through, and it is zip-tied about 10 times with other wiring under the helm. I’m not messing with that! I’ll break something or make it a mess in there. I looked online about buying an extension and it looks like it is something that I could purchase and I actually looked in west marine. Flummoxed, I removed the side panel on the radar arch. There was a little bit of cord that could be pushed down, but not much. Then, I removed the plastic panel on the SB side of the helm. Bingo! the vhf antenna cord was looped there and I was able to push enough of it down towards the helm to give the slack needed. Yay! (side note: I did look back to where the wiring comes from the radar arch, and it’s all sealed with sealant- it would be interesting pulling something else through- I guess you’d have to cut through it? )
Step 4: put my new radio into the hole where the old radio was. Should be simple again, right! Dang! The hole isn’t big enough! Just about a ¼ inch on both sides. Of course, I didn’t have a cutting tool with me. Enter the wife a while later with my dremel, and I was able to sand it enough to get it through.
Two of the backing plate screws didn’t line up perfectly with the old, so I had to pre-drill a bit into the fiberglass and put the new screws in.
Step 5: I bought some small female connectors and was able to connect the red and black wires to the fuse panel under the helm of the 320.I added a small 3 amp fuse- even though the VHF has a fuse built in to the power wire. Not sure if that was correct, but it’s wired and powered on and working! Looks good!
Step 6: Got the MMSI from Seatow, and programmed it in. All is working and looking good.
All in all, probably a 30 minute job turned into a 3 hour job, but it’s working and I learned something. Again. Never as easy as I hope.
I believe I could have connected the wires to the GPS but decided not to at this time. I’m not sure it would accomplish much with the age of the chartplotter. I would have to remove/cut the raymarine “plug” and connect the wires, probably shrink wrap them together. I can still navigate to a position if I get a DSC call, but I’ll have to do it a bit old school. It’s nice to have a backup GPS position sensor on the radio regardless.
Maybe it’s time to replace the Raymarine GPS/ Radar? NO!
