Dream Electronics Setup

G

Godfry Paul

New member
If you were equipping a CD 22 with what you consider to be the best electronics setup, what would it be?

- GPS
- Radar
- Chartplotter
- Autopilot
- Etc.

What about these integrated setups such as the Raymarine C-Series and E-Series that hooks everything to one screen? Does anyone have experience with that kind of setup?
 
That list is variable. How do you use your boat? I've used both the C-80 and E-80 and both fit my particular requirements.

Many skippers don't want or need radar - I use it almost every time I'm underway. GPS is a must because I've got to return to shrimp and crab pots, and I use it all the time to locate my fish holes in addition to regular navigation.

Each skipper on here has his own specific list!!

PM me if you would like more specifics on the C-80 or E-80. There are several other equal systems but I know the RayNav line very well.

Happy boating,

Dusty
 
Well lets see. My dream setup would be to have an E80 for the rear Helm hooked to an E120 on the dash. I would have the DSM300 fishfinder black box, 4kw Radome, and the GPS. I would also have the RayTech 6.0 (not out yet but soon) that is coming out with their eithernet switch so I can tie in the laptop to the system with another 10" touchscreen at the helm. But of course this will end up being about 7 grand! :cry

For Autopilot I would go with TR1 Gold for trolling and TR1 Gladiator for cruising and both would be tied into the Raymarine system (Another 6k out the door!) :disgust

Oh, I would also put a video camera on the rear of the roof so I can monitor my rods from the forward helm station.
 
Gary-

That would be quite the trollers dream system. But I'll make a suggestion that will save you "lots" of money:

Replace the rear view video system with 75 cent bells clipped to each rod. It's not only cheaper, but doesn't add one more screen to watch and impede your forward view.

Now you can easily afford the rest!

Joe.
 
A word about downriggers is in order. Most people here run the electirc scotys as I do, but they would not be my dream choice. I have the c-80 system with auto pilot, radar, fishfinder and gps all in one and its great. but for a second station in the back I would love to have a bottomline depth finder linked to two cannon digi-troll IV. You can controll the depth of the downriggers from the bottonline unit and set the balls to cycle at depth or stay at a distance from the bottom no matter what the bottom does. So if you are coho fishing and want to work 40 to 30 ft deep you can program the balls to cycle from 30 to 40 ft every ten seconds or every ten mins. your choice. If you are working blackmouth or halibut and want to stay 3ft off the bottom you set the downriggers to do just that and if you come to a hump the balls rise with it and then fall after it. no more hiting the balls on rock out croppings or lossing bottom on along shelfs that are slowly dropping off. The digitroll IV are over a thousand each and can be programed with out the bottom line unit but only one at a time. just something to dream about.
 
It looks like the E-80 is about $1,000 more than the C-80.

Is it worth the extra price? It looks like it has the ability to use Navionics Platinum Charts which look quite impressive.

I really like the Garmin GPS but the Raymarine seems to have a totally integrated package including the auto pilot which Garmin doesn't even offer.
 
Gary,

I'd just put ditto marks on your list!

The E-80 is about a grand more, true -- worth it?? Ooooh, Mrs. Dusty thinks NOT (that's big letters), Old Dusty thinks it is a worthwhile upgrade. Soooo - you get a whole bunch more with the E, but the C-80 is a great unit too. If I really wanted pretty pictures for charts I'd buy a Rembrandt or something -- from a navigational point of view the C-80 can handle it all. I personally prefer the look of the maps on my ex Garmin -- but C-80 maps are IMO as good operationally... and on the E-80 they are beautiful, and the much faster loading e-80 screens are a joy when working tight areas (around rocks, etc.).

Just a couple of cents from a user.

Now if I could just find that danged pm button :roll:

Dusty
 
Tom,

If I were going to spend that kind of money on a downrigger I would rather get the Walker with the built in camera! With that you can watch the salmon going after your bait while trolling ;) And it'll link right up with the E-80 so you can see it in a window right along side the GPS and Sounder info.

The E series has networking capabilities that the C series doesn't this means that you can use a single transducer for the sounder so you don't have conflicts between 2 competing sounders. That is my main reason for wanting the E series. I am however moving closer and closer to just going with a PC only solution.
 
The E-80 is about a grand more, true -- worth it?? Ooooh, Mrs. Dusty thinks NOT (that's big letters), Old Dusty thinks it is a worthwhile upgrade. Soooo - you get a whole bunch more with the E, but the C-80 is a great unit too. If I really wanted pretty pictures for charts I'd buy a Rembrandt or something -- from a navigational point of view the C-80 can handle it all. I personally prefer the look of the maps on my ex Garmin -- but C-80 maps are IMO as good operationally... and on the E-80 they are beautiful, and the much faster loading e-80 screens are a joy when working tight areas (around rocks, etc.).

* * * * *

Thanks Dusty!

I'm really starting think about digging a bit deeper in the wallet for the E-Series. When I compared the Garmin screens to the C-Series screens, the Garmin looked much clearer to me and I liked the maps better as well. They seemed to have a bit more detail. But the new charts for the E-Series and that screen really do look impressive. It's interesting that the Raymarine person told me that an E-Series was overkill for a 22 foot boat but it's good to hear that you are with me on this overkill.
 
Ain't no such thing as overkill when it's zero-zero outside and electronic gadgets are what keep you nearly sane. The E is a work of art for sure, but in all fairness the C series can handle any task I've been faced with. Used the C on 3 boats for lots of foggy trips and never had a doubt. The map overlay feature is way cool up here when there is so much tanker and tug/tow traffic and fog and low viz are a way of life.

But the fish bite, foggy or not!!

Dusty
 
starcrafttom":2z8vmc2c said:
A word about downriggers is in order. Most people here run the electirc scotys as I do, but they would not be my dream choice. I have the c-80 system with auto pilot, radar, fishfinder and gps all in one and its great. but for a second station in the back I would love to have a bottomline depth finder linked to two cannon digi-troll IV. You can controll the depth of the downriggers from the bottonline unit and set the balls to cycle at depth or stay at a distance from the bottom no matter what the bottom does. So if you are coho fishing and want to work 40 to 30 ft deep you can program the balls to cycle from 30 to 40 ft every ten seconds or every ten mins. your choice. If you are working blackmouth or halibut and want to stay 3ft off the bottom you set the downriggers to do just that and if you come to a hump the balls rise with it and then fall after it. no more hiting the balls on rock out croppings or lossing bottom on along shelfs that are slowly dropping off. The digitroll IV are over a thousand each and can be programed with out the bottom line unit but only one at a time. just something to dream about.
Click to expand...

I've thought about those too - especially for blackmouth. However, in many places I troll, the bottom contours can change quite a bit (+/-20-40') so I've wondered how well this would work in practice. E.g. unless one had an electric reel also hooked to the same system, the slack wouldn't be taken in when you go from deep to shallow. Going from shallow to deep would be OK if the drag was set relatively loose but what would happen if say you went from say 100' to 120' back to 100', back to 120' and then back to 100'. My sense would be that on the first 20' drop, a low drag setting would allow 20' or line out. When the ball comes back up to 100', you'd have 20' of slack that would loop out. Now when the ball goes back to 120', the drag on the 20' of slack would cause some more line to be taken from the reel. Now when you come back up to 100' you have maybe 25' of slack that makes even a bigger loop, etc. That is it seems to me that cycling up and down will result in an ever increasing amount of slack that will still require me in the cockpit to work the reel AND if I'm back there anyway, I might as well work the rigger too. I agree it would be nice to only focus on taking up the slack on the reel but I'm not sure that alone makes the depth finder/downrigger connection worthwhile. Others?

Roger on the SeaDNA
 
Roger,

Those are my thoughts exactly!

For my money it would be much more "FUN" to watch what the fish are doing behind the rigger than worrying about depth so much.
 
Going through that right now. We ordered the c-80 on our CD-25 with GPS/radar/sounder/autopilot. After seeing the set up on Tom and Susan's boat, we were sold! We have a Garmin chartplotter (176c) that will run on batteries that will be a backup. I guess I am not overly concerned about the integrated system and system failures. While no direct experience with the Raymarine, I have flown behind an integrated flight director that was flawless. Seems that if there is ever a problem (after getting any bugs worked out), it is an electrical problem that will shut down the whole system anyway (OK, maybe not on an aircraft where you can isolate electrical buses). That integrated panel sure cleans up the real estate in front of the helm. I am really looking forward to getting some "hands on" on that set up. But... the c or the e? Interesting discussion about that choice on another thread.

Best wishes,
Jim & Joan
 
I think Raymarine is definitely going to win my vote. It's just a matter of getting the C-80 or the E-80 and if I don't tell my wife there's an option other than the E-80 for our boat, I'm probably all set.
 
If I go with the complete Raymarine integrated setup, what about the best autopilot setup from Raymarine. Is anyone using the new S100 wireless remote control?

And what's more common, 2kw radar domes or 4kw radar domes? Is the 2kw enough for most situations?
 
Godfry Paul":2jgg32mk said:
And what's more common, 2kw radar domes or 4kw radar domes? Is the 2kw enough for most situations?
Click to expand...
2kw is more than enough for most situations, IMHO. The height above water is truly the major limiting factor on a C-Dory using the latest Raymarine radome.

Don
 
Tough answer! In CA and most other human habitat areas 2 KW will do the job. Here in the NW, when the fronts come through in waves and rain by the bucket -- I've been in total whiteout with 2 KW. 4 KW would be better, and even that might be a stretch. I've been doing radar, marine and airborne, professionally and amateur (ish) since 1944 -- and there just isn't a simple anwer.

Money talks! If I didn't care about the green machine I'd buy the E-80 and 4 KW head. Why the E-80? With its separate video processor it is much faster. The screen is brighter, and it will take the Platinum... none of these reasons make it better operationally for a small boat. Why 4 KW? The latest C-machines (and Furuno, and... and) are many times better than just a few years back -- back when I was a dealer in these gadgets. The more power you have to punch through the crud, the better off you are. If'n one had any sense he wouldn't be in that kind of crap anyway!!!

Bottom line I think. If you can afford the E 80 and 4 KW do it, because if you don't you'll always wish you had. From an operational point of view -- the C-80 and 2KW power head will do the job in most areas, and at least 95 persent of the time here in wet country.

HTH,

Dusty
 
west marine has all the Raymarine items on salle this week, just got the flyer in the mail. They also have the garmin radar dome on sale. The raymarine is $799 for the 2kw and the garmin is $1499 for the 2kw. Thats alot of differance in price. The screens for the garmin are the same as the e-80 but twice the c-80 and still no auto pilot. If you compare bundles of the two systems lets see what we get.

Raymarine system bundle
4kw radar dome
125gps head
dsm300 fishfinder module
smart heading sensor
electronic compass

price 2999. and a c-80 screen for 1699..for a total of $4698.00

garmin systems
3010 screen
gms 10 net work port
gsd 20 sounder
gdl 30a weather reciever ( have to get monthly subscription)


price $2549 plus a 4kwradar for $1999. and we have a total of $4548 and no ablitiy to add a auto pilot.

if you dont want a auto pilot you can leave off the smart heading sensor from the raymarine and save a little more. I dont think the raymarine is capible of weather reciever but it maybe. Dusty my know that answer.
 
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