Thanks Fred, that's helpful. Things are slowly becoming clearer to me. (and
I'm leaning a bit back towards Raymarine)
I called Ray tech support back today and they said they have a new guy
ramping up so that might be who I talked to yesterday. Mark (tech guy
today) said i70 will work fine standalone with nmea transducers ("smart" in
Raymarine lingo).The other concern I had was the i70 install manual shows "transducer pods" in the systems diagram, and some Raymarine documentation seemed to say they're required. And I'd hate to have more connections than necessary, plus extra parts that can potentially break. He said that's old, they're deprecated and have been replaced by the iTC-5 (which you only need if you have analog transducers). On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 11:47 AM, <cnc-list-requ...@cnc-list.com> wrote: > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Frederick G Street <f...@postaudio.net> > To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com > Cc: > Date: Fri, 29 May 2015 12:33:57 -0500 > Subject: Re: Stus-List New instruments? > Hi, Patrick. I’ll admit my bias up front; I design and install marine > electrical and electronics systems, and have been a Raymarine-certified > installer. > > Okay, that’s out of the way. > > Raymarine in the past did have a bit of an issue with network versions; > but now that they’ve settled on SeaTalkNG for most medium-speed data > (SeaTalkNG is basically an NMEA2000 network with one additional wire to > support the older SeaTalk1 data), that’s not much of an issue any more. > I’ve sold a bunch of i70 systems in the last year or two, including several > to people on this list. Ask them what they think of the i70. The feedback > I’ve received so far is universally positive. The i70 will repeat/display > just about any NMEA2000 data available on the network. That data can come > from “dumb” analog transducers by running them through an inexpensive ITC-5 > instrument converter. Often the old speed/depth transducers you currently > have in your boat can work this way; and even wind, if you have an older > Raymarine wind transducer. > > You can also go the route of “smart” transducers; the DST800 > depth/speed/temp triducer works great this way, and only requires one hole > for the transducer. Currently, Raymarine wind transducers do require a > converter like the ITC-5 to be used on a SeaTalkNG/NMEA2000 network. You > could go with another manufacturer’s “smart” wind transducer, but then you > lose the ability to calibrate the transducer. > > I’m surprised at the answers you got from Ray’s tech support people; > they’re usually much better than that. > > B&G makes nice stuff; but you’re probably going to pay a bit more, as the > distribution network for sales of B&G is much smaller than other > manufacturers; and that also makes it harder to get support. B&G is part > of Simrad, and tends to gear their equipment towards the racing market > (where they can command a premium price). You could spend less and get > Simrad, with many of the same features. Or go with Raymarine. > > I can source Raymarine, Furuno, Simrad and other gear for people on the > C&C list at dealer prices; let me know off-list if you’d like to talk > further about this. > > — Fred > > Fred Street -- Minneapolis > S/V Oceanis (1979 C&C Landfall 38) -- Bayfield, WI >
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