Instrument upgrades

Maintaining, repairing, upgrading, commissioning, decommissioning topics.

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fxalbert
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:10 am

Instrument upgrades

Post by fxalbert »

Many people will find they are reaching the end of life for their instruments or they just want to upgrade to something a little sleeker. I found myself in that boat (didn't ever try that) when I purchased my 109. I quickly realized I didn't like the Raymarine ST 60s and I especially didn't like the green glow night lights. I bought all new Raymarine i60 instruments with the red night lights. This worked well until the guy in the slip next to me bought a 109 and had the big mast mounted B&G instruments. Some time later I discovered I could buy the Garmin GNX instruments big beautiful and they integrate easily with the Raymarine stuff or any system running on NMEA 2000. The installers even got something to interface my old (NMEA 183) Standard Horizon GPS Chart Plotter that I love because it has a 12 inch screen into my NMEA 2000 buss. Now I have my four Raymarine instruments on the coach roof and three more big ones on the mast. We now hardly ever even look at the coach roof instruments. I get Heading, Boat Speed, True Wind Speed, Depth, VMG, Distance to Mark, Bearing to Mark, Apparent Wind Speed, and a couple more I can't remember. The Garmin GNX displays will pull data from the Raymarine instruments and that old chart plotter. It's as cool as it gets. Also the GNX instruments are super bright in the daylight and slowly turn to an orange/red as it gets darker. Again very cool. Anyone looking to get the large format instruments should check out the Garmin GNX displays.
Last edited by fxalbert on Thu Jan 31, 2019 10:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Vento Solare
Posts: 394
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 8:00 pm
Location: Newport, RI

Re: Instrument upgrades

Post by Vento Solare »

Great advice. I actually considered the Garmin GNX displays for my mast when I upgraded to an all B&G H5000 system this winter. The B&G 20/20 displays were pricey and the Garmin displays provided a better display surface with more information available. Unfortunately since the rest of the system has B&G display surfaces, there is no easy way to adjust backlighting without going to the mast (e.g. when it gets dark).

I looked at other options and decided to use B&G Triton 2 displays at the mast. This was driven by the following:
  • The displays in the 2 line configuration are easily readable at the helm - even without my glasses
  • Backlighting can be controlled from any of the other B&G displays I have on the spray hood or Zeus 3 chartplotter at the helm
  • The Triton 2 displays are about half the cost
ps - you should run a NMEA 2000 cable to the spray hood so you can upgrade displays there. I also put an autopilot control there to stay dry under the dodger when it is raining during deliveries.

I do know other boats that went with the Garmin displays on the mast with the rest of the system B&G.

New Mast Displays on Vento Solare
Image
fxalbert
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:10 am

Re: Instrument upgrades

Post by fxalbert »

I don't know how or why but I never adjust the lighting on the Garmin displays. The lighting for the Garmin displays is always on and set on red and high. During the daylight hours the displays are a yellow/green color but at night they automatically turn to red/orange. I do nothing to them at dark. Don't know how to post pictures but I have both day and night colors.
Daytime Garmin Instruments
Daytime Garmin Instruments
IMG_20171112_131757.jpg (311.03 KiB) Viewed 6565 times
Night time Garmin Instruments
Night time Garmin Instruments
IMG_20180121_122558.jpg (782.96 KiB) Viewed 6565 times
User avatar
Vento Solare
Posts: 394
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 8:00 pm
Location: Newport, RI

Re: Instrument upgrades

Post by Vento Solare »

Those are very nice looking mast displays. If I had known about the "auto" back-light mode switching, I might have made a different decision.
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