Ais and chart plotter combo.

[Jnitti1014]

Hi all, My new to me 2002 macgregor x "Neumenon" is getting bottom painted and will be in the water in a couple of weeks. My home port will be college point yacht club in NYC.

I am new to sailing and have only had a runabout on lake George and the sacandaga, this will be my first experience on salt water in the Long Island sound.

Anyway, the boat came with an old garmin 188c plotter and a vhf radio. I purchased a standard horizon vhf dsc handheld unit and got my mmsi number. In the interest of safety and being a gear head I would like to buy a newer chart plotter and ais class b unit. Can anyone recommend a combination? I may add a ray marine autopilot in the future also.

[eodjedi]

So many may disagree, but I decided to go full Raymarine Route. I currently use a Raymarine A67, Raymarine EV-100 Sail, and some 3rd party VHF. The VHF is NMEA 2000 compatible so I just need to pick up the adaptor wire for my Raymarine SeaTalkNG Backbone. I plan to get the WiFi Radar Quantum Q24C 18 and Raymarine AIS 350 to add to the backbone as well. By sticking with all raymarine products, I will have no issue with incompatibilities with other systems. All of those systems integrate seamlessly. The reason why I initially went the Raymarine route was because of the EV-100 sail. Raymarine is really the only company that makes a viable autopilot for the Macgregor 26m in my opinion.

[NiceAft]

Just this last spring I updated my old electronics to a Garmin GPSMAP AND echoMAP 741XS, and a Standard Horizon Matrix AIS/GPS GX220 35 watt VHF/FM marine transceiver.

I did not have a chance to check it all out on Lake George this summer, but I hope to do so on a week's trip to Annapolis, MD. next spring/summer.

Individually they worked great. The newer imagery on the Garmin is terrific. I just have not had a chance to see what it looks like with the Standard Horizon unit AIS hooked up with the Garmin.

Ray

[kadet]

My next electronics project will be a Raspberry Pi running OpenCPN with a dAISy AIS Receiver I hope to build the complete unit for under $200 but it will only be a back up to my Garmin Plotter and a GME AIST120

[Sumner]

My next electronics project will be a Raspberry Pi running OpenCPN with a dAISy AIS Receiver I hope to build the complete unit for under $200 but it will only be a back up to my Garmin Plotter and a GME AIST120

I have a Pi up and running with OpenCPN and NOAA charts and Bahama charts on it. I have a Standard Horizon radio with AIS and will use it with both the Pi and the Standard Horizon cpn700i chartplotter in the cockpit for AIS targets on both. Used it with the old computer with OpenCPN on the Bahama trip and it worked great. Highly recommend the Standard Horizon radio. I picked up NOAA weather over 100 miles from Florida in the Bahamas on it. The Pi will be running at the nav station.

I really like the Pi. I have about $200 in it with the Pi, a case, 32 gig SD, USB key board/mouse and a 10" HDMI monitor running off the HDMI port on the Pi. I have a USB to VGA/audio dongle on it to run any of the VGA monitors I have and will probably run one of those since they are a little larger than the 10". It is amazon how small it is and all that it will do. It is way faster on the internet than I thought it would be and I do everything on it that I can do with my laptop.

I also have a USB GPS connected to it and a 4 port serial box connect to it. I'll be able to plot a course on it with the OpenCPN and send the waypoints to the chartplotter in the cockpit if I want.

Sumner

============================
1300 miles to the Bahamas and back -- 2015

The MacGregor 26-S

The Endeavour 37

Trips to Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[kadet]

I have a Pi up and running with OpenCPN and NOAA charts and Bahama charts on it.

Great minds hey!!

[Sumner]

I have a Pi up and running with OpenCPN and NOAA charts and Bahama charts on it.

Great minds hey!!

At times I wonder if mine is still all there

Sumner

============================
1300 miles to the Bahamas and back -- 2015

The MacGregor 26-S

The Endeavour 37

Trips to Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[Jnitti1014]

Eodjedi-
Yeah I pretty much decided, when I do it it will be one fell swoop of ray marine products, probably the quantum radar package. No sense piecemealing it and having to hire an electrician multiple times.

Nice aft-
Lake George NY? I think I've seen you out there while aboard my friends boat the Cats Paws. I lived in ballston lake 14 years, before moving to the city recently. I still have a house on the sacandaga in town of day.

All, thank you for the replies!

[Highlander]

here,s what I bought this winter to go along with my Raymarine auto pilot & wind Inst.
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab1/ ... kzvt7z.jpg

Now if I could just find someone to make the radar arch I have designed I can then mount the radar dome & my 3 solar panels

J

[Bilgemaster]

As I've already mentioned previously on these forums, I've been truly impressed by that freebie OpenCPN for Windows running on my kids' former ancient little HP 14" laptop with a little GPS USB dongle that only cost about $10. Sadly I cannot say the same for its Android distro that I tried out on my phone and tablet a few months back. That gurken was uninstalled within the hour, though assume its Linux flavor may be comparable with the Windows one, if not better. Sure, an old laptop ain't exactly what you'll want there in the cockpit when the breakers are a'broaching as you stand there resolutely grimacing into the spray in your Gorton Fisherman's getup, but it's just the ticket for planning your voyage at the cabin table, and will do double duty as your entertainment center. If you've got some geriatric laptop just gathering dust, I highly recommend repurposing the old girl for your boat with OpenCPN and a GPS dongle.

I'm gonna take another long look into that Raspberry Pi. I recall first hearing about them about 5 years ago, but despite an early predilection for such geekiness (my first uploads to what was then the pre-web Internet was about 1991 or thereabouts, when the Archies and Gophers still ruled the digiscape), but didn't really explore or have time for that gearheady geeky stuff any more.

As for your Android phone, I've found the freebie MarineWays to be a thoroughly decent and handy GPS with the free NOAA charts. That's what I use in the Amphicar to keep an eye out for charted shallows and obstructions on the Potomac.

[Sumner]

So far I have not seen a difference in the Linux version on the Pi being any different that the Windows version on the laptop.

I paid about $70 on Amazon ....




https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberr ... berry+pi+3

.... for a bundle that included the Pi, a case, a power supply, a 32 gig Sd card with the operating system and other software already on it and another thing or two. You are up and running in minutes and connected to the internet. You don't need to go download anything going this route. Later I did set up another SD with the operating system and other software just to do it but one doesn't have to do this if they buy that package.

I am using a wireless mouse and keyboard and you could connect to any HDMI tv or monitor. I bought a $10 adapter that let's you use a VGA monitor and a speaker.

It is a slick setup and uses less power than a laptop.

I love OpenCPN, got me to the Bahamas and back,

Sumner

============================
1300 miles to the Bahamas and back -- 2015

The MacGregor 26-S

The Endeavour 37

Trips to Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[eodjedi]

Eodjedi-
Yeah I pretty much decided, when I do it it will be one fell swoop of ray marine products, probably the quantum radar package. No sense piecemealing it and having to hire an electrician multiple times.

Nice aft-
Lake George NY? I think I've seen you out there while aboard my friends boat the Cats Paws. I lived in ballston lake 14 years, before moving to the city recently. I still have a house on the sacandaga in town of day.

All, thank you for the replies!

Whoa whoa whoa, you're the owner of a Macgregor. That means you're the electrician, engineer, fabricator, engine repairer, and sail maker.