Using Raymarine Wind Transducer Without Calibration or i70s display

[SpaceRnglr]

So my plans to install a new wind instrument just hit a road bump. I was going to replace an old Raymarine wind transducer with a new standard arm transducer part number R28170. I was going to use the iTC-5 and a spare Raymarine a65 MFD mounted above the companionway, all connected with STng / NMEA 2000. I would also connect depth and speed transducers so everything is on the NMEA network with all transducer wiring terminating at the iTC-5 in the cabin near the mast.

I just read the small print of the iTC-5 that I can only calibrate the wind instruments if I have a i70s display, or one of the older analog versions connected directly to the transducer wires with a separate Seatalk connection (more wiring, more failure points). I wasn’t planning on getting a small instrument display and they aren’t cheap!

If I go ahead with my plan of using only the a65 MFD display, iTC-500 and wind transducer am I asking for trouble as I won’t have the ability to calibrate the wind transducer?

[Jim Cate]

if you mean calibrating the anemometer, not really necessary... it will be close enough! (We don't call them "knots of wind speed", but rather "arbitrary wind units".

But if you mean getting the apparent wind display centered correctly, that's more difficult. Aligning the masthead unit exactly along the boats center line is damn hard to do, even with adjustment at the instrument head... becomes daunting if one needs to go aloft to make each tiny change until it is right.

Jim

[SpaceRnglr]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

But if you mean getting the apparent wind display centered correctly, that's more difficult. Aligning the masthead unit exactly along the boats center line is damn hard to do, even with adjustment at the instrument head... becomes daunting if one needs to go aloft to make each tiny change until it is right.

Jim

Apparent wind direction is more important. The main reason for installing is my wife is new to sailing and I expect we will have inexperienced crew on the boat pretty regularly that don’t have a “feel” for wind. A few degrees out is ok but I’ve see stories on the forums of them being 180 deg out. I wonder what other’s real world experience is...

[Jim Cate]

OK, my real world experience, spanning several different wind instrument installations is that one can eyeball it within perhaps 5 degrees. Doesn't sound like much, but it means sailing 5 degrees high on one tack and 5 degrees low on the other, and that's enough to make a difference and to confuse a novice helmsman.

Being 180 degrees out means a substantial problem in the instrument... warranty time, perhaps!

Jim

[GILow]

I wonder if you could borrow the required head unit from someone and do the calibration that way?

[Dr. Sea]

You might want to reconsider and buy an i70. It's a great piece of equipment that you can customize in a lot of different ways. You can buy them brand new on eBay for a fairly reasonable price.