using Garmin autopilot w/o GHC 20

[pcg]

I'm planning the helm layout for my project boat and am wondering how easy it is to use the Garmin Reactor 40 autopilot with just the chart plotter for display and control. I'd like to save a few bucks and keep the helm station as clean and uncluttered as possible. Garmin says the GHC 20 isn't necessary if you have a Garmin chart plotter on an NMEA 200 network.

So my question for those of you who use this autopilot... could you (do you) live without the GCH 20 display? Is there anything that the GHC 20 display provides that is highly desirable and not convenient to display on the chart plotter if you're dedicating the chart plotter screen to chart, radar overlay, and GPS position? Is it easy to set an auto pilot course using just the chart plotter?

Thanks!

 

[Avidmagnum12]

I think it depends which chart plotter you have. With my older 4208 all I can do is get it to follow a course. It is easy to do so. Don’t know what the new chart plotters will do. I would not be without the GHC-20, it’s easy to change heading, does my fishing S turns, it even works in reverse. I really did not have room for it but made a bracket for it that places in the perfect area for easy operation. (Thanks for the idea Jodi) You can see photos of it in my album. You’ll love your Reactor 40.

 

[jkidd]

The 7600 series will do it but I haven't tried the fishing patterns to see if they work. Much easier to run from the GHC and gives me more screen space for other stuff.

 

[hardee]

I just did a sea trial on a CD 25 with a Garmin suite (Plotter, AP, AIS) and it had a remote for the AP. That might be an option to use instead of the GHC. Another neat feature was the Shadow Drive. No need to get to the control for a "sudden" sharp turn to avoid a log. Just take the wheel, make the turn and let go and the AP takes you right back to being on course. Much easier than hitting the AP Standby, making the turn, bringing the boat back to course and hitting AP Maintain.

The Garmin has the typical turn buttons, 1 and 10 degree. I like my Raymarine better, It has a steering wheel, about the size of a small thread spool.

Setting a course, or doing a "Go To" were easy on the Garmin plotter, which was all touch screen,, but in heavy weather, wakes or other bumpy times, that touch screen needs some place to rest your hand that is stationary with the plotter.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[hardee]

The Garmin plotter I referred to above is a 942 xs.
The Garmin Auto Pilot is the Reactor Auto Pilot.

Hope that is helpful.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[Avidmagnum12]

Good point about screen space Jody....never enough. I use my Garmin 4208 for navigation, fuel and depth. A Gamin 940s for radar. A 9” Garmin Echomap chirp for finding fish and the GHC 20 for the autopilot. Do I use all three chart plotters all the time.......no ...but if any one breaks I have redundancy.
My Admiral usually claims the 940s on her side when I don’t need it and uses it as a plotter.

Yes....I could do it all on one new chart plotter but then everything would be too small for my old eyes and I’d have to spend more $.

Tom

 

[hardee]

" .... Do I use all three chart plotters all the time.......no ...but if any one breaks I have redundancy...."

Good idea, good planning. Only once have I had the plotter screen go all blue. I learned an important lesson that time. Since then I have another option x 2 on board --> ALWAYS.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[smckean (Tosca)]

Only once have I had the plotter screen go all blue

I had that happen to me recently. As I think I posted on this forum at the time, I suddenly felt very naked indeed!

 

[thataway]

Amazing how dependent we become. on our rapidly advancing technology. Yes, I have had two chart plotter / MFD for at least the last 18 years. In 1993, a GPS chart plotter cost $10,000! Only a few years before that we were very happy to pay $3000 (probably $5,000) in today's coin of the realm.) for one good position report every good 6 hours. First major advance was Loran A/C, with TD's, and conversion manually on the paper chart, in the 70's.

Back to auto pilots--my first one was based on make / brake contact with two parallel tungsten wires in a Norton Bomb Site Compass. That circuit drove two large 12 volt relays for the main power. It hunted a little, but that chain drive, power guzzling monster put me with in a 100 yards of plotted destination over 90 miles of ocean.

What is this "S" pattern? If I was steering like that when I was the "auto pilot", going to Catalina, my dad would make some comment like "You already broke the dragon's back"....an old Chinese tradition, that when the Junks first put to sea, they steered "S" curves to break the sea dragon which might be following them's back. He taught me to keep the boat on a course =/- a couple of degrees (he preferred one degree) without constantly watching the compass.

 

[pcg]

So it looks like the general consensus is that a continuous autopilot display is necessary, whether it's accomplished by using a portion of a chart plotter's display or by a dedicated unit like the GHC 20.

I was hoping to use a portion of the chart plotter display to initially set a course with the autopilot, and then once that has been done, dedicate the entire chart plotter display to the chart, showing my track and current position. I do plan on installing a shadow drive so I can take take the wheel to temporarily bypass the autopilot to avoid logs or whatever. What autopilot info or functions needs to be continuously displayed, after a course has been entered?

 

[Avidmagnum12]

Dr Bob
Holding a steady course is important at times but when trolling for walleyes and salmon many times the fish strike when the bait makes a turn. When using plainer boards it also changes the speed of the bait on the turns. This also increases strikes. When single handed fishing the S turn on the autopilot can be a great tool. I’m sure your dad was a great sailer and taught you right but he was not a walleye fisherman! We will have to get you and Marie up on Lake Superior sometime and catch some dinner.......Tom

 

[smckean (Tosca)]

Amazing how dependent we become.....

Sure is!

As I said above, when I lost my plotter screen, I felt very exposed. I was a bit surprised at myself because I spent years in San Francisco Bay with nothing more than a hand bearing compass, a depth sounder, and paper charts, and never had a 2nd thought. So I wondered why I felt so exposed. Within minutes, I realized what it was that really bothered me.....not knowing the depth. In the olde days I had a depth sounder. The way I'm set up now....no plotter, no depth information.

I remember thinking that I should get some sort of "head" for the transducer that I keep on board as a backup, so if I ever lose the chartplotter system again, I can unscrew the depth sounder cable, screw it into this backup display, and at least get my depth back. Have I done anything about it?? Hell no.......<grin>.

P.S. I wonder if I could even find such a thing for a 10+ year old system like mine?

 

[hardee]

Only once have I had the plotter screen go all blue

I had that happen to me recently. As I think I posted on this forum at the time, I suddenly felt very naked indeed!

My experience with the "all Blue screen" was at Friday Harbor. I had 10 bags of cement in the cockpit, and several pieces of 4x4 and 4x6 for a building project I was helping with on Shaw Island. We had just pulled away from the loading dock by the fuel station, there was an inbound ferry coming around the corner, and on just ready to leave the ferry dock. I was between them and it all went blue.

I went 90* to port, to get out of the way and then started trouble shooting. I put the boat hard over into a tight circle to maintain position and shut everything down, and did a restart. Same blue screen. re shut down, including the engines and did a complete restart from scratch. Still blue. Finally got on the phone, and after a bout 20 minutes, had a new chip on the way from Radar Marine in Bellingham, via a couple of really great C-Brats heading to Friday Harbor for the weekend (Thanks Joe and Ruth.)

I lost several AP routes due to having to go back to a factory reset, and it blanked out my Raymarine Navionics chip so had to replace that. Never did figure out the cause for sure but I did get inspired to have a backup plotter from then on.

Fortunately the weather was clear so no fog, but not having the radar and depth were my first worries. I knew the area enough to do visual navigation but having the point an go AP made control much easier, (within the 1 to 2 degree bracket.)

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[jkidd]

While you turn the autopilot on and off from the MFD I haven't seen anywhere in the MFD to change the gain or settings there. I think all of those are in the GHC including the Blue Tooth to pair the remote. Not only that but I don't think you can commission the auto pilot without the GHC. Maybe it's time to put in a call to Garmin.


On edit just found this

With the release of software version 4.50, all GHP Reactors will be compatible with MFDs that support autopilot commissioning. This means that having a GHC display is no longer a prerequisite for commissioning when using one of these displays.


MFD's that support autopilot commissioning are:

GPSMAP 86xx/84xx
GPSMAP 8530 and 8500
GPSMAP 82xx/80xx
GPSMAP 76xx/74xx
GPSMAP 10x2/12x2
GPSMAP 7x2/9x2
echoMAP CHIRP 5x/7x/9x
echoMAP Plus 64/7x/9x

 

[pcg]

This means that having a GHC display is no longer a prerequisite for commissioning when using one of these displays.

Yes. My question is how awkward/inconvenient is it to use an MFD for this.

Is it impractical to think that once a course has been set, and the MFD screen reconfigured to display a chart and current track, there is no (frequent) need to go back and fiddle with autopilot parameters? This is assuming a Shadow Drive is installed so the autopilot can be over-ridden and re-instated automatically.

Having never used an autopilot, I'm just not familiar with the typical usage scenario. The reason for my question is not just a desire to save the purchase price of a GHC 20, but also to simplify and clean up the clutter of instrumentation and control devices that gather around the helm station. I'm considering making modifications to the fiberglass structure of the helm station, to make it more friendly to modern marine instrumentation - i.e. reconfigurable electronic displays. This not only improves the visual ergonomics of the helm station by only presenting information that is useful and required at the moment, but it makes it easier to build in redundancy - i.e. a chart plotter and an iPad can both access the NMEA 2000 bus and independantly present navigation and equipment status information.

The GHC 20 and MFD comunicate with the autopilot CCU through the NMEA 2000 bus, so anything the GHC 20 displays that really is critical to be viewed continuously could easily be displayed on the iPad. There are free or low-cost SignalK apps for this.

However, there are currently no apps to input parameters to a Garmin autopilot. There is an app that allows control of the Raymarine autopilot, but no one has written one for Garmin yet. So, assuming I can't do this (for now) via the iPad, if there are inputs that need to be made (after initial course input) frequently, or even occasionally, I might want to have a GHC 20 for this, if it's substantially more convenient than doing it with the MFD.

Hence my request for how much a GHC 20 is typically required after a course has been set, and is that usage just to view information, or to input changes.

 

[hardee]

Once the course is set, there is little need to go back to the GHC. It's display shows a picture like a landing pattern coming in on the glide path with your position left, right or center of your course. The course adjustment buttons are for Port or Stbd variation of the course in 1 or 10 degree increments. It might be a display and function unit that you might consider putting about eye level on or under the shelf. There, it can be seen, and accessed when needed but not in the way for more frequently used devices.

I use my AP control steering wheel more than I use my helm wheel, so I wouldn't want mine up there, but, then, I don't have Shadow Drive.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[pcg]

Thanks Harvey! That's exactly the kind of information I'm looking for.

 

[hardee]

Stuff clipped.... It might be a display and function unit that you might consider putting about eye level on or under the shelf. There, it can be seen, and accessed when needed but not in the way for more frequently used devices.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

That should have said ABOVE eye level, even ceiling mount might work, though for me that would be a bit high.

I have 3 VHF's and my Watchmate Vision screen, all mounted above eye level, hanging from the shelf, easy access and visibility, for something that is not hands on all the time but you want within easy reach.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon