Electronics upgrade plan (Furuno, B&G, Raymarine)

[maddmike]

Here's my plan for an electronics upgrade on our Tartan37 (about 20,000 lbs displacement).


1. Replacing the underpowered ST6002 wheel autopilot:

Furuno NavPilot 711C
Raymarine Type 2 Short drive unit

2. Replacing 1985 radar and installing a real chartplotter instead of our Android tablet:

Furuno TZT9F chartplotter
Furuno DRS4D-NXT radar

3. Replacing ST60+ instruments:

B&G Triton 2 instrument
Airmar DST-810 Smart transducer

B&G WS320 wireless wind

We plan to install the autopilot controller, chartplotter, and instrument displays at the helm. Remote control from the nav station through Furuno's Android apps plus OpenCPN on laptop, tablet, and phone.


Anything I'm doing wrong here?



Do Furuno and B&G stuff ever go on sale? Their Internet prices seem pretty well controlled.


Thanks.

[TheOffice]

Type 1 Deiss more than adequate.

[Mal Reynolds]

I'm curious why you selected B&G for instruments when you are choosing Furuno for the autopilot, chartplotter and radar. I get that the B&G should output the wind and speed through water data to the autopilot, but I would worry about risk.

But then, I've never dealt with NMEA 2000 so I don't know what I'm talking about. I also have no idea about Furuno instruments.

What is your AIS plan, if you have one? I assume this gets pushed to the chartplotter and maybe wifi?

[4arch]

Defender often has B&G on sale around the boat show">Annapolis Boat Show season (starting this week and next week) and/or around black Friday / Christmas. I've never seen anything Furuno on sale.

You could also buy this radar package and save a big chunk of change while getting a larger chartplotter and standardizing on B&G. The HALO20+ radar gets excellent reviews.

[Joli]

We're very happy with our Furuno gear. The B&G gear we've owned hasn't been supported as new versions become available.

[goboatingnow]

If you have a choice of stay with the same manufacturer of all the kit.

[maddmike]

As a former sailboat racer, I like the features of the B&G instruments better. And they seem to have the best wireless wind sensor.


The boat already has an ACR AIS, so I'm keeping that. Instruments and chartplotter communicate with NMEA2000, so I was expecting cross-manufacturer differences wouldn't matter there. It's a different story with radar & chartplotter which seem to use their own ethernet protocols.



Thanks.

[Mal Reynolds]

Yes, radar and chartplotter not a big deal.

I guess I should have been more specific: you are comfortable with the wind data feeding the Furuno Autopilot brain?

I wouldn't be.

[jordanbigel]

I recently (2019) replaced all instruments and radar - went with the same Furuno radar you noted above (DRS4D-NXT), the TZT12F and 2 FI-70 instruments in the cockpit and 2 at the nav desk below, the FI5001L (long stem wind transducer) and the Airmar DST-800. I did not replace my AP. The furuno radar, chartplotter and instruments all work great together. I expect this gear to last at least ten years - I don't have that kind of faith when it comes to B&G, but I am not an expert.

Also, I would say you should not rely 100% on wireless data down below. I like having actual instruments down below.

You should also know that so far, there is no support for the DRS4D-NXT radar in OpenCPN. I have my TZT down below at nav desk and I use an iPad to display charts at the helm on those occasions where I need them.

I have played around with the Furuno mirroring apps (on iPad not Android) which let you see the radar also on the iPad and it seems to work, though I have not used it in a real situation where radar is important (inclement weather).

[Bycrick]

All the dire warnings about "keeping to a single manufacturer" are, IMHO, way overblown. For the mainstream user, the much-bruited incompatibilities often don’t have much impact. However, real problems do exist:
1. Most MFDs have a way to fully control the same manufacturers autopilots and radars. But the autopilot function on a Raymarine MFD, just for example, won’t work with a Simrad AP. Not that you lose all connectivity functions, just some of them.
2. Some devices require calibration during installation. Usin g the same manufacturer's displays increases the chances that the calibration functions work without extra equipment.
3. Over the life of the equipment, you’ll almost certainly have to upgrade the internal software. Using all the same manufacturer's equipment makes it more likely that you won’t need to install extra equipment to do the update.
4. A simple system is usually easy. Reading the apparent wind speed/direction is likely to be plug-and-play. If you decide you want real-time roll/pitch/yaw data along with speed-through-the-water to accurately compute True Wind Relative to the ground, you’ll be into a long, involved technical odyssey.