Advise on Garmin Instruments

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garrywillis	Advise on Garmin Instruments		Lead	[-]
Posts: 368 10/27/09 09:45:05 Moderator	Tags : None Well, I'm about to pull the trigger on updating my 14+ year old Navico wind, speed, depth, chartplotter and radar instruments and replacing them with a full Garmin set of the same. But before I do, I wanted to throw it out to the collective wisdom of this forum to see if any of you have any experience (good or bad) with these relatively new Garmin instruments. I'm leaning toward Garmin because of the inherent user friendliness of their systems and Defender is having a good sale on them right now. One of the other things that I like about them is that I can get rid of one of my transducer thru-hulls because Garmin has one that will read depth, speed and temp all in one. Anyway if any of you have thoughts one way or the other about them, pls let me know and thanks in advance. Garry "Breezn" #502 2-Cabin Marina del Rey, Ca.
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Endless Summer	Garmin vice Raymarine	#1	[url]	[-]
Posts: 12 10/30/09 08:39:02	Greetings, I have been working with a Raymarine sponsored installer for over a year now and have had horrible results. I contracted to install (10K) a new Raymarine Plotter, Weather, Sirrus Radio and AIS send/receive... they have been working on this for almost a year - UNSAT. I have had to contact Raymarine cooperate with minimal results!. Recommend you go with Garmin - more user freindly as well. Steve Capt Steve
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garrywillis		#2	[url]	[-]
Posts: 368 10/30/09 13:36:34 Moderator	Thanks Steve, I too have heard horror (it's almost Halloween!) stories about Raymarine too. For example, one local installer told me today that he normally has to go through 3 of their E-Series units before he finds one that works properly. Totally unacceptable. In any event, I haven't heard from anyone about their experiences with the new Garmin instruments so I guess I'll be the guinea pig on this. I ordered them today along with their HD radar and 4210 chartplotter so I'll let you know how they turn out. Garry "Breezn" #502 2-Cabin Marina del Rey, Ca.
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vela42		#3	[url]	[-]
Posts: 89 10/30/09 18:13:36	Hello Gary, The only negative about the garmin or raymarine is the price and user interface. For the depth speed and wind i would say to choose the brand you personally like the best. example; I have ST50's and i dislike feature to dim or brighten the units. No biggie. As for the GPS/ chart plotter, I feel so strongly about the Coastal Explorer system i recommend you try it out for yourself before you buy anything. A few things i think make it better; If my computer dumps on me i can always use a back up or by another laptop anywhere in the world. It runs AIS. I keep it separate (it has overlay) from my radar in case i have a failure. I do not want all of my electronics down at once. I use a nav-data repeater at the helm for COG SOG BTW VMG etc. At night there is no bright screen to blind me. If you are running a computer already for music or other apps there is no additional power consumption. I have had many different crew on the boat and even the most non-sailor can figure it out in a few minutes. If you have a problem, they answer the phone. no phone Que, no call center. I was going to upgrade everything last year and almost spent the 10 k too, I am so glad I went with Coastal Explorer. Chris Last Edited By: vela42 10/30/09 18:17:05. Edited 1 time.
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Izablue2	Garmin	#4	[url]	[-]
Posts: 152 10/31/09 07:36:22	Ditto for Costal Explorer... I have Raymarine and lately it going wacko???? I run my laptop, which is intergrated with the Raymarine Seatalk down below on the navtable. It is great! I have take my laptop, with a portable GPS racing on other boats and it is sooo cool! Lot's of great features, they are always upgrading and they take your grips and sugestions serously and make improvements based on your imput Mark Izablue #835
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begold	Garmin vs Raymarine	#5	[url]	[-]
Posts: 14 10/31/09 07:45:04	I have used the Raymarine and the Garmin on a couple of trips to Puerto Vallarta and back on different boats and I would avoid the Garmin. I also thought the Garmin interface would be very user friendly but I was very wrong. We still have not been able to get the Garmin unit to kick out some of the most basic info. and the menus are terrible. The Ray stuff has a fairly steep learning curve but once you get used to it, it works much more intuitively.
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garrywillis		#6	[url]	[-]
Posts: 368 11/01/09 09:56:01 Moderator	Begold, Can you pls tell me which Garmin instruments you are describing?? Garry "Breezn" #502 2-Cabin Marina del Rey, Ca.
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begold		#7	[url]	[-]
Posts: 14 11/04/09 18:58:21	I will get you the model #s this weekend and let you know but I spoke with the installer today and his comments were that if I thought the operations were painful you should try the installation that was a nightmare of faulty products that needed to be returned and impossible configuration of cables etc that made it a very difficult installation of the radar etc.... Sorry to be so negative but is my experience that leads me to be very careful with the new Garmin chartplotter and radar combinations .... begold
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garrywillis		#8	[url]	[-]
Posts: 368 11/05/09 08:37:46 Moderator	Begold, Thanks. I'm looking at the brand new instruments that for the most part have been out for less than a year. They include wind, depth, speed and radar/chart-plotter. As I understand the installation, it is all plug and play format...what could be easier?? Before this present generation of Garmin instruments, I don't believe they offered the wind, depth and speed stand alone instruments and only recently the radar. Obviously, they have offered chart-plotters for awhile now and the first batch of radars they offered a few years ago were large and overweight. The new ones have been rated pretty highly by Practical Sailor and other reviewers. I'll wait till I hear from you about which models you are referring to. Garry "Breezn" #502 2-Cabin Marina del Rey, Ca.
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garrywillis	Update on Garmin Instruments	#9	[url]	[-]
Posts: 368 12/06/09 16:16:08 Moderator	Well, they're installed.....and working superbly. The Garmin's - as advertised - and after reading the manual and calling tech support (very helpful and knowledgeable people) a few times, are a simple plug and play installation and believe it or not worked right out of the box. The clarity on the HD radar is incredible and ducks are now frequent targets on the screen. The options you can pull up on the individual instruments and chartplotter are amazing too. VMG info for both waypoint and wind, water speed or GPS speed, barometer, water and air temps etc., etc. Another neat thing is that you can install the GPS antennae under the deck so it is out of the way but still receives the signal. They also offer a tri-ducer which measures speed, depth and water temp all in one so I am going to plug up the old depth transducer hole at next haul-out as I hate holes in the boat. One glitch was that I received a bad backbone cable (so all instruments can see each other) but Garmin overnighted one to me right away n/c and all is good again. I hired a local rigger - Byron Pfeiffer - to help on the install and who now claims they were one of the easiest installations he's ever done. So anyway, so far so good and thanks to those who gave me some input. Garry "Breezn" #502 2-Cabin Marina del Rey, Ca.
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Endless Summer		#10	[url]	[-]
Posts: 12 12/08/09 12:18:55	Garry, Congrats on the Garmin instal - I'm sure you'll be very happy. Fair winds and following seas. Aloha Steve Endless Summer #693 Moored: Fort Monroe, VA Capt Steve
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