Furuno RD-33 remote display review by Jedi :)

[s/v Jedi]

After the GP-33, it's the RD-33's turn now. These two units are from the same line and look exactly alike; here you see the RD-33 on the left and the GP-33 on the right at Jedi's nav-station:

The RD-33 shows graphical magnetic heading and the GP-33 the plotter with active GOTO.

I have selected this display after reading this article on Panbo.com: Panbo: The Marine Electronics Weblog: Furuno RD-33 & GP-33, looking very good
My specific wishes were N2K compatibility, the waypoint highway display, graphical magnetic heading to replace steering compasses and all the usual instrument data. Two RD-33 displays would replace three old B&G displays plus a small Raymarine plotter in the cockpit.

I will show some displays first; the compass can be seen in the picture above. I like everything about this display and it's a main reason for buying the displays. I got a good Plastimo hand compass and two fast gyro stabilized heading sensors in the N2K network, so why would I keep paying hundreds of dollars to replace membranes in my two steering compasses that fail every time?!

Next is the wind display:

This layout allows you to add additional data, shown as apparent wind speed and speed through water here. But every item can be customized through the menu's of these displays.

The graphical highway display is used a lot aboard Jedi. This is what is activated by the navigator when he/she wants to show the helm where to go in tight situations like around reefs etc.. It prevents any miscommunication, loud calling etc. so that the helmsman can concentrate on steering and keeping lookout. What is shown here on the RD-33 is a GOTO activated on another device, like the GP-33 GPS, Furuno chartplotter, or MaxSea TimeZero. The helmsman doesn't need to touch a single button.


Next display shows pitch and roll. This information comes from the Maretron SSC200 heading sensor and the RD-33 is fully compatible with it.

I also tried the rotation info (turning in how many degrees per minute) from the same sensor and the Furuno has a very nice graphical display for that too. Works 100%. For sailboats this would only be useful during compass calibration I think so I skipped the picture here.

Next is the plotter display. My photo failed, so I grabbed this from panbo.com instead:

And here we see lay lines yay !!!! So good to see these appear in standard cockpit instruments! Now everybody can see when to tack and make it to the destination waypoint !

I'm not going to post any of the boring displays with lots of numbers showing because every display can do that. So let's go on to the dark side of the unit... what is wrong with it?!

I am unable to select data sources. Well, I am able to select them, but the unit keeps displaying the data from the same sensor. I will take this to Furuno but they are still busy with my GP-33 report for now.

Next is that the unit does not understand the rudder angle as transmitted to it by the Simrad AP25 autopilot. Other displays show this correctly and the N2KAnalyzer shows the PGN to be correctly encoded by the AP25.

But that is all I could find and these are not too bad. One bit of advice though: these units are bigger than I thought, so make sure they fit where you plan to install them!

ciao!
Nick.

[DotDun]

Nick,

Did you test the anchor alarm?

I'm curious if the buzzer/beeper is as loud as the MFDs.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by DotDun

Nick,

Did you test the anchor alarm?

I'm curious if the buzzer/beeper is as loud as the MFDs.

Ah yes, the alarm. It isn't ear drum rupturing like my old B&G alarm but it should be plenty loud enough to wake somebody in the other end of the boat when it is quiet. Let's say it's as loud as the 1993 Yanmar engine panel alarm for low pressure / no alternator output.

cheers,
Nick.

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

... it's as loud as the 1993 Yanmar engine panel alarm for low pressure / no alternator output.

That'll work!

Thanks!

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by DotDun

That'll work!

Thanks!

Oh... I now see the comparison with MFD alarm it's the same.

ciao!
Nick.

[lateral]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

I got a good Plastimo hand compass and two fast gyro stabilized heading sensors in the N2K network, so why would I keep paying hundreds of dollars to replace membranes in my two steering compasses that fail every time?!

Next display shows pitch and roll. This information comes from the Maretron SSC200 heading sensor and the RD-33 is fully compatible with it.

I also tried the rotation info (turning in how many degrees per minute) from the same sensor and the Furuno has a very nice graphical display for that too. Works 100%. For sailboats this would only be useful during compass calibration I think so I skipped the picture here.
ciao!
Nick.

G'day Nick,
Sorry to dredge this up but searched the topic ie ssc200 & RD33 & up it came.
A couple of questions please:
What do you mean by steering compasses? Traditional fluid filled magnetic compasses?

By fully compatible, can you configure the ssc200 via the RD33? Both nmea sentence output & png's?
I guess you have the Maretron multi to do that?
Anything further to add having had more time to evaluate the ssc200 & RD33?
Thanks
Roly

[Littlechay]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

What is shown here on the RD-33 is a GOTO activated on another device, like the GP-33 GPS, Furuno chartplotter, or MaxSea TimeZero. The helmsman doesn't need to touch a single button.

I have MaxSea TZ attached to my simple N2K network; which consists of a couple of RD-33 displays, a PB200, and a DST module so far. The connection is via an Actisense NGT-1.

I had assumed that the RD33 displays would show goto information from TimeZero but I can't get that to work at all. Creating a route or just setting a goto in TZ results in nothing being shown on RD33.

I don't have a N2K GPS display/processor at the moment but I didn't expect that to be a problem. I connected an old GP-31 GPS to the RD-33 via the NMEA 0183 port and when I set a goto on the GP-31 the RD-33 shows the relevant information... but zilch from TZ...

Any ideas please? Any configuration tips for TZ that might be an issue?

Chris
SY Morgane

[s/v Jedi]

I believe MaxSea TZ needs a Furuno plotter before it starts sending out data? I'm not sure but I never tested without plotter.

I don't think MSTZ is sending out the data.

[Littlechay]

I think your correct, there is no data being sent. There is no plotter - that's the point of MSTZ onboard!

I have an old Furuno GP-31 GPS connected to the RD33 via NMEA 0183 and when I activate a goto on that the relevant data comes alive on the RD-33.... so I think that it is all down to MSTZ.

I'm wondering if plugging in a GP-33 would do the trick.

Think I'll drop tech support a line and if I get anything useful I'll post it here.

Thanks.
Chris

[barnakiel]

No AIS screen?

;-(

b.

[Littlechay]

Yes I have an AIS transponder, a Vespermarine Watchmate which is connected to the VHF by NMEA0183 but not on the N2K network. For ocean work it's the only instrument that I need to have powered up, the others can sleep to save juice.

[barnakiel]

I mean RD-33 has no AIS screen (?). Why.

b.

[Littlechay]

OK.

I mailed MaxSea tech support on this and they tell me that transmit (from the PC) is not supported by TimeZero and that you have to use NMEA 0183 to achieve this. I'm pushing them to tell me whether there are plans to provide full support or not.

I made up a cable to connect a serial/usb to the RD-33's NMEA port and configured that port in TimeZero as the autopilot output and all routing information started appearing on the RD-33. Not ideal as it's not as isolated as I'd like, I'll consider adding a mux or the actisense NMEA 0183 converter to achieve galvanic isolation.

Chris

[Littlechay]

I got a cryptic message from MaxSea support regarding bi-directional N2K development. It basically said that they don't have a release date yet but will inform me when they do

....... so I guess they are working on it, like everybody else in the field I suppose.

Ciao