Showing posts with label installing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label installing. Show all posts
Friday, 3 March 2017
Boat builders installing marine electronics Is this really a good idea
Like the title asks, should boat builders be in the marine electronics business? I think the answer for some is maybe yes. For some absolutely not. Then there is everything else in between. So I'm going to opine a bit on this subject and explore the pluses and minus of this approach starting with the costs to the buyer first. For the buyer the big plus of a factory electronics install is it's easier to finance the electronics on a new boat when it's folded into the mortgage.... provided it's well installed.
Certainly lenders will allow buyers to finance both dealer, or outside firms added marine electronics. The downside of this is it requires knowing in advance the hard costs to do so resulting in many cases a higher price to manage the unknown issues involved with the install.
Certainly lenders will allow buyers to finance both dealer, or outside firms added marine electronics. The downside of this is it requires knowing in advance the hard costs to do so resulting in many cases a higher price to manage the unknown issues involved with the install.
I've had the opportunity to see some end user pricing on electronic packages. There are a couple things to note. Rarely is the equipment pricing less than full boat retail, and the install labor costs are generally less than a bargain either. In most cases the end user price is substantially higher than the aftermarket purchase and installation price.
Here is a real and quick example. A factory installed electronics package has a cost of $18,000. It has two high end MFD's, sounder module, transducer, VHF radio and antenna. I loosely priced this gear at MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) or in other words full retail. This comes out to be about $11,000. What's left is the labor portion and it's a whooping $7,000.
Let's say the boat builder is selling its labor at full blown marina labor rates. I'll use $100.00 per hour and this may be low, for marinas at any rate. This makes the man hours to install this system about 70 hours. This is almost nine working days. In the real world a good installer would easily be able to do this same install in three days or less without working up a sweat, well at least if they weren't working in the subtropics.
Now even worse I could have reconfigured the above system, saved over $3,000 in hardware costs, reduced the labor installation time and improved the system's capabilities.
Okay so it's more expensive to have the builder install the system, but it's professionally done while the boat is being built. The system costs although higher have the warranty support coming from both the dealer and the builder so I'm well taken care of aren't I?
The difficulty is not all of the statements above are correct in many cases. I'll start with the professionally part of the equation. I'm sure at the factory one or two of the personnel are certified. In most cases this means they have taken an open book test and passed it. I would aver that a good install requires more than a manufacturer's certification which indicates a basic understanding of that electronics brand installation needs. This doesn't guarantee the installers have a full grasp of the entirety of the system and its overall integration into other systems on the boat.
Can they take the boat out and properly set up and test the autopilot on a step hulled boat that can travel at 70 miles per hour? When they installed the autopilot compass did they clearly mark where the compass was placed so the owner doesn't inadvertently set the lunch hook anchor near it. Do they understand the basics of ABYC wiring standards. Are the how's, why's, and where's of transducer installation well understood. Do they even fully test the systems before they leave the factory?
I believe that only the basics are being given a cursory check leaving the nuance for others. This is why I'm seeing so many problems. I'm sure many factory installers are more than capable and very skilled. But the numbers tell me many are not. The examples used here are from four name brand boat builders and involve two MFD manufacturers.
The point of this rant is I have recently dealt with a number of poorly installed factory systems. Transducers badly installed. A poorly installed radar that couldn't see an aircraft carrier in front of it. An autopilot system powered through a 5 amp fuse which did a dandy job of protecting the autopilot's 20 amp fuse for about a blistering two milliseconds. A MFD's sonar was in simulation mode. Autopilot plumbing that wasn't purged. Wires left unconnected. A failed sounder module. The software isn't current, and the list goes on and on. All real and all occurred over about 8 weeks of time.
What is happening is too many builders are shoving these boats out the door and leaving their problems for the dealers to contend with. At what they are charging for these systems they should be absolutely perfect every time. They have all of the advantages I don't have. Transducers can be installed before decks are dropped on. Wire pulls are exposed and easy to get to, access is easier. They even get to work in the shade instead of the glare of a stinking hot Florida melanoma inducing sun.
Now about the mystical warranty coverage on these factory installed systems. This is a shaky deal at best, and I am more often than not on the losing end of these transactions. So here is new boat with a factory installed system suffering from technical aliments. What do I know about the install? Squat, zip, nada, nothing, zero. A pile of manuals are in the package and that's it.
I have to go look and see what's actually installed, and compare it to what the system believes is installed. Hmmm... I see a weather module inside the console but the system doesn't. Then there are the integration issues? Why are the side and down view sonar pages only available on one MFD? The real problems arise when it comes time to play the blame game for problems, and who is going to pay for it? The builder. The electronics manufacturer? The dealer? WTF, do I have to eat these damn costs again? I'm a little over this.
Here is where things get real fuzzy with the warranty issues. Who pays to figure out what's wrong in the first place and then what needs to be done to fix it? It recently took me an hour alone after cutting a zillion tie wraps to find a small module buried in a bundle of wires behind a battery discovering it had been incorrectly connected.
An autopilot that blew a fuse in the middle of bay while trying to get the autopilot system set up. It took an hour to trouble shoot in a cramped 100 degree console. Tie wraps raining down trying to trace the power wire till I found it fused in a block at 5 amps. OMG, why would I be looking for a freaking 5 amp autopilot fuse in the first place? 15 amps and up, yes, and there were just few. Then the time it took to tie everything back up. Another hour was wasted going back to the dock to get a correct fuse from the truck, and then back out into the bay to start anew.
This was the builder's fault, but they will grump about it. Are you sure? Our folks wouldn't have done that, they're professionals you know. The dealer's guys must have done this. What? You're trying to bill us two hours over a blown five amp fuse? Not a chance! What makes all of this worse is the owner often gets stuck in between the bickering about who pays who for what.
To be fair some builders do an excellent job on the installs. They typically are the ones who put the boats into the water and carefully check their work. There is also a correlation between the system complexity and problems. As complexity increases, the potential for integration issues rise exponentially.
For MFD manufacturers bad boat builder installs can and will quickly damage your brand image. One unhappy customer shredding your product because of installation issues on a long "The Hull Truth" thread will keep the marketing department busy for a year. Your field staff have to stay on top of your builders, work with them to improve the quality of installs and documentation. Their job is to insure installs are done well and you have customers happy with your brand. Yeah I know this is real work, but it needs to be done.
My last point is if there are install issues in the field, manufacturers need to expeditiously help the dealer because the typical builder isn't typically going to fly in a tech to help. A customer who is upset because 20 grand worth of electronics on his brand new boat can't tell him how deep the water is shouldn't be told the field rep will get back to him next week. This is your brand, protect it well and you will keep the customers forever. If you're slow to respond and really don't care.... well we know what will happen.
For builders this is true also. You sting your dealers too often with poor work and problems this will be the end of your factory electronics install business and maybe your product line with them. Builders need to improve their interaction with the buyers. A conference call between your installers, the buyer and the dealer will go a long ways in improving the installs. This has the plus of making your buyer feel important by allowing letting them participate in the decisions. Oh you're left handed? We'll install the autopilot control head on the port side of the helm to make it easier for you to hit the standby button. Lastly to the builders. Take some real time to check out these installs before shipping and advise the dealers about what yet needs to be done. In other words drag the boat out into the harsh light of day and see if the GPS and other gear really works. Lord knows your being paid more than enough to do that.
The dealers need to take more time prior to delivery and make sure when there are electronics issues that they are quickly resolved. In the end it's your customer and you have to make sure problems are resolved earlier than later. You have to also gracefully beat on the builders and the system manufacturers if you start having regular issues. Your job in the end is to support your customer, even if you have to dig into your own pockets on occasion.
There is an alternative for dealers and that's using a good local installer. He or she can meet with the customer and help them decide what they need and want. There is no finger pointing. Warranty issues are promptly handled. And best of all the installer can spend time with the customer teaching him how to use the system thus giving them the confidence needed to boat safely and catch dinner if they desire. There are thousand of us and we're not hard to find. We have extensive real world experience and we care about our work. Pay attention boat builders. Do it right or not at all. I have seen enough poor work to last a lifetime.
Here is a real and quick example. A factory installed electronics package has a cost of $18,000. It has two high end MFD's, sounder module, transducer, VHF radio and antenna. I loosely priced this gear at MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) or in other words full retail. This comes out to be about $11,000. What's left is the labor portion and it's a whooping $7,000.
Let's say the boat builder is selling its labor at full blown marina labor rates. I'll use $100.00 per hour and this may be low, for marinas at any rate. This makes the man hours to install this system about 70 hours. This is almost nine working days. In the real world a good installer would easily be able to do this same install in three days or less without working up a sweat, well at least if they weren't working in the subtropics.
Now even worse I could have reconfigured the above system, saved over $3,000 in hardware costs, reduced the labor installation time and improved the system's capabilities.
Okay so it's more expensive to have the builder install the system, but it's professionally done while the boat is being built. The system costs although higher have the warranty support coming from both the dealer and the builder so I'm well taken care of aren't I?
The difficulty is not all of the statements above are correct in many cases. I'll start with the professionally part of the equation. I'm sure at the factory one or two of the personnel are certified. In most cases this means they have taken an open book test and passed it. I would aver that a good install requires more than a manufacturer's certification which indicates a basic understanding of that electronics brand installation needs. This doesn't guarantee the installers have a full grasp of the entirety of the system and its overall integration into other systems on the boat.
Can they take the boat out and properly set up and test the autopilot on a step hulled boat that can travel at 70 miles per hour? When they installed the autopilot compass did they clearly mark where the compass was placed so the owner doesn't inadvertently set the lunch hook anchor near it. Do they understand the basics of ABYC wiring standards. Are the how's, why's, and where's of transducer installation well understood. Do they even fully test the systems before they leave the factory?
I believe that only the basics are being given a cursory check leaving the nuance for others. This is why I'm seeing so many problems. I'm sure many factory installers are more than capable and very skilled. But the numbers tell me many are not. The examples used here are from four name brand boat builders and involve two MFD manufacturers.
The point of this rant is I have recently dealt with a number of poorly installed factory systems. Transducers badly installed. A poorly installed radar that couldn't see an aircraft carrier in front of it. An autopilot system powered through a 5 amp fuse which did a dandy job of protecting the autopilot's 20 amp fuse for about a blistering two milliseconds. A MFD's sonar was in simulation mode. Autopilot plumbing that wasn't purged. Wires left unconnected. A failed sounder module. The software isn't current, and the list goes on and on. All real and all occurred over about 8 weeks of time.
What is happening is too many builders are shoving these boats out the door and leaving their problems for the dealers to contend with. At what they are charging for these systems they should be absolutely perfect every time. They have all of the advantages I don't have. Transducers can be installed before decks are dropped on. Wire pulls are exposed and easy to get to, access is easier. They even get to work in the shade instead of the glare of a stinking hot Florida melanoma inducing sun.
Now about the mystical warranty coverage on these factory installed systems. This is a shaky deal at best, and I am more often than not on the losing end of these transactions. So here is new boat with a factory installed system suffering from technical aliments. What do I know about the install? Squat, zip, nada, nothing, zero. A pile of manuals are in the package and that's it.
I have to go look and see what's actually installed, and compare it to what the system believes is installed. Hmmm... I see a weather module inside the console but the system doesn't. Then there are the integration issues? Why are the side and down view sonar pages only available on one MFD? The real problems arise when it comes time to play the blame game for problems, and who is going to pay for it? The builder. The electronics manufacturer? The dealer? WTF, do I have to eat these damn costs again? I'm a little over this.
Here is where things get real fuzzy with the warranty issues. Who pays to figure out what's wrong in the first place and then what needs to be done to fix it? It recently took me an hour alone after cutting a zillion tie wraps to find a small module buried in a bundle of wires behind a battery discovering it had been incorrectly connected.
An autopilot that blew a fuse in the middle of bay while trying to get the autopilot system set up. It took an hour to trouble shoot in a cramped 100 degree console. Tie wraps raining down trying to trace the power wire till I found it fused in a block at 5 amps. OMG, why would I be looking for a freaking 5 amp autopilot fuse in the first place? 15 amps and up, yes, and there were just few. Then the time it took to tie everything back up. Another hour was wasted going back to the dock to get a correct fuse from the truck, and then back out into the bay to start anew.
This was the builder's fault, but they will grump about it. Are you sure? Our folks wouldn't have done that, they're professionals you know. The dealer's guys must have done this. What? You're trying to bill us two hours over a blown five amp fuse? Not a chance! What makes all of this worse is the owner often gets stuck in between the bickering about who pays who for what.
To be fair some builders do an excellent job on the installs. They typically are the ones who put the boats into the water and carefully check their work. There is also a correlation between the system complexity and problems. As complexity increases, the potential for integration issues rise exponentially.
For MFD manufacturers bad boat builder installs can and will quickly damage your brand image. One unhappy customer shredding your product because of installation issues on a long "The Hull Truth" thread will keep the marketing department busy for a year. Your field staff have to stay on top of your builders, work with them to improve the quality of installs and documentation. Their job is to insure installs are done well and you have customers happy with your brand. Yeah I know this is real work, but it needs to be done.
My last point is if there are install issues in the field, manufacturers need to expeditiously help the dealer because the typical builder isn't typically going to fly in a tech to help. A customer who is upset because 20 grand worth of electronics on his brand new boat can't tell him how deep the water is shouldn't be told the field rep will get back to him next week. This is your brand, protect it well and you will keep the customers forever. If you're slow to respond and really don't care.... well we know what will happen.
For builders this is true also. You sting your dealers too often with poor work and problems this will be the end of your factory electronics install business and maybe your product line with them. Builders need to improve their interaction with the buyers. A conference call between your installers, the buyer and the dealer will go a long ways in improving the installs. This has the plus of making your buyer feel important by allowing letting them participate in the decisions. Oh you're left handed? We'll install the autopilot control head on the port side of the helm to make it easier for you to hit the standby button. Lastly to the builders. Take some real time to check out these installs before shipping and advise the dealers about what yet needs to be done. In other words drag the boat out into the harsh light of day and see if the GPS and other gear really works. Lord knows your being paid more than enough to do that.
The dealers need to take more time prior to delivery and make sure when there are electronics issues that they are quickly resolved. In the end it's your customer and you have to make sure problems are resolved earlier than later. You have to also gracefully beat on the builders and the system manufacturers if you start having regular issues. Your job in the end is to support your customer, even if you have to dig into your own pockets on occasion.
There is an alternative for dealers and that's using a good local installer. He or she can meet with the customer and help them decide what they need and want. There is no finger pointing. Warranty issues are promptly handled. And best of all the installer can spend time with the customer teaching him how to use the system thus giving them the confidence needed to boat safely and catch dinner if they desire. There are thousand of us and we're not hard to find. We have extensive real world experience and we care about our work. Pay attention boat builders. Do it right or not at all. I have seen enough poor work to last a lifetime.
Friday, 11 September 2015
Installing the Garmin GSD 26
It's large, heavy, and packed with high resolution analog to digital converters, and a dual core digital signal processor (DSP) system. Although installation is fairly straight forward, there are some nuances you need to deal with when wiring the broadband transducer into the box, as I have learned.
The sounder module is heavy enough, that you need to pay attention to how you mount it. In this case the module is attached to the inside wall of a center console boat. At best I can get slightly more than 1/2" of screw depth into the wall, without popping through to the other side. It could have been through bolted with finish washers used on the console exterior, but in this case, there was a well attached piece of Starboard being used to to hold the battery switches. I set the bottom of the module edge on this to reduce the vertical screw loading that will come from pounding in rough seas.
Here's the catch. When the transducer arrived, the sheath had been neatly trimmed back leaving the exposed wiring for hook up. The wiring is all color coded, but there are four shield wires you have to connect.
Inside the big wire, there are actually three separate bundles of wiring, each wrapped in blue foil. For example the low chirp bundle has a blue/white wire, black/white wire, and a bare shield wire. You have to connect the shield wire for each wire bundle in the right location. In order to identify each bundle, I had to cut off an extra inch of the cable sheath to see each bundle still wrapped in the foil. Once you do this, the rest of the hook up is a piece of cake. There is also an outer shield wire that you connect to a grounding screw below the blocks.
One of the bundles contains an orange wire (XID), brown wire (GND), and a shield. These connect to either one of the two identical blocks on the right, or left side. Since this is an inhull transducer unit we are not using the temperature, or speed connections.
Now for the transducer. This is an inhull R599LH 25 element, 3000W beast, and at about 6" x 15" it's large. The tank has to be cut to fit the dead rise angle of the hull so the transducer is pointing straight down, and then epoxied to the base of the hull. As a small side note, this unit is for solid hulls, if you have a cored hull, all of the core must be removed so the sounder is just chirping through solid fiberglass only. Also tap on the gelcoat in the transducer area to identify any de-laminated gelcoat, and grind these areas out if you find them.
Because of the size of the tank, and the rounded corners, this has to be carefully done. In a perfect world, you could use a table saw to do the side cuts, but this requires some jigging of the saw because of the tank's top flange, and most likely, your saw won't get to the half way point, and a jig saw, or the ilk will be needed to finish the cuts. I did this one insitu with a jig saw. You have to do this carefully especially at the corners. A belt sander cleaned up the small deficiencies of my cut. This is an expensive box, so do this right the first time.
The tank epoxies to the hull using a 14 ounce Marine Tex putty kit you can buy at West Marine. It gives you an honest 30 minutes working time in moderate temperatures. Do the normal prep work on the hull surfaces, and have some extra popsicle sticks, you just get one with the kit. Don't leave big epoxy blobs on the hull bottom that the transducer is going to look through. If the deadrise angle is steep, and this one was, have something figured out in advance like tape, or a wedge to keep the tank from sliding down hill. Give the epoxy a full 24 hours to fully cure.
The tank actually has a foam layer inside of it, and a cork layer has to be cut to fit inside the tank to provide additional sound insulation. Do this before you install the tank, it will make your life much easier.
It's transducer time. Fill the tank, but not completely, with non-toxic antifreeze. In this case it took a little more than a gallon. You know you have enough liquid when some antifreeze pours out of the housing when you drop the transducer into the tank. It is important that the tank be completely filled. The transducer generates heat, and the liquid helps to transfer the heat. Attach the bolts and fill hole fittings, clean up and check for leaks. If all is good you can crawl out of the hole, stretch, and take a short break.
All in all the transducer install isn't that difficult, but the scale is substantial, and I think the transducer alone with its mounting plate weighs about 20+ pounds. A few other items to keep in mind. The GSD 26 comes with a software upgrade chip, but it may be necessary, and in this case it was, to do a fresh latest version software download and system update. I would just do this anyway out of principle. The software attached to the GSD 26 is sophisticated, and offers a lot of control and flexibility. We had just started up the system dockside, and the first thing we saw was a crab crawling under the boat on the bottom. The target resolution is staggering.
I'm almost finished with a guide to buying the right broadband transducer for your boat, whether you fish deep off shore, or in shallower coastal waters. I will cover both inhull, and through hull units, and will give you the tools you need to decide what's the optimum for your boat. These are large and expensive units, and you need to get it right the first time. There will also be lots of screen shots from both the eight element B265LH (1000W) and the 25 element R599LH (3000W) units.
Saturday, 16 August 2014
Installing the Simrad SGO5 steer by wire autopilot and playing with the Sea Station
Most of my autopilot installs I just grind out. Do the plumbing and contain the oily mess. Punch holes in the dash for control displays. Add NMEA network pieces, hang black boxes, and connect a bunch of wires. At the end of the job I smell like I've showered in hydraulic fluid, and dried off with a sweat soaked rag. It's very close to the truth. This autopilot system install is different, and different is good. No plumbing, no greasy fluids, few parts and it was easy-ish. This boat also has some very new Sea Star tech I had the opportunity to play with and really liked.
This is a new center console boat with a nice factory installed Simrad system. Twin 16" NSS displays, CHIRP sonar and Halo radar. The boat is also equipped with a SeaStar Optimus 360 joystick steering system, and hence why we need a steer by wire autopilot.
To do this install we only need two major pieces. The first is the Simrad SG05 you see above. There are several flavors of this unit seen above with the primary difference being cabling and interfacing for other steer by wire systems like Volvo's EVC/IPS and others.
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The other important part is we need a compass, and in this case it's the new Simrad Precision 9. It's simple to mount, and even easier to adjust. There is just one cable that connects it to the NMEA 2000 network.
Before we get started take a look at the diagram. The SG05 is a gateway that translates NMEA 2000 into CANbus that the Optimus system understands. NMEA in, CANbus out and vice versa. So one cable (SimNet) goes to the NMEA 2000 network, and the other (the permanently installed one) goes to the CANbus network. Don't mix these two up.
We are also using the NSS display in place of an autopilot head. This saves another hole in the dash and the cost of the autopilot stand alone control head.
We are also using the NSS display in place of an autopilot head. This saves another hole in the dash and the cost of the autopilot stand alone control head.
It's not in the installation instructions, but is covered in a Navico service bulletin. We have to isolate the power to the Optimus system. In other words we can't let the N2K network power connect to the Optimus CANbus system. A small inline isolator takes care of this. I made sure you can read the Simrad part number for the little thingy.
The connections are very simple. The SG05 connects to the NMEA 2000 network with a SimNet to device net (regular N2K tee) cable. The permanently installed cable connects to the Optimus CANbus network. In my case I pulled a termination resistor and moved it to what will be the end of the network. The photo shows the result. Add tie wraps and the physical installation is done. My elapsed time is about four hours and it's time to set it up on the briny.
Set up is generally straight forward. You start by calibrating the compass. Look to the left at the vertical sliding menu. Click on Network, then Device list, and then Precision 9 compass. Now click Calibrate.
Like any compass set up you want low wind and fairly calm water conditions. Press Calibrate and start a turn in either direction with the goal being a full 360 rotation in about 1.5 to 2 minutes. It's not rocket science and the system will grumble at you if you're too slow or fast. Keep turning until it says it's done. My calibration only needed two turns. The Precision 9 compass was on the money when it was first installed, and retained it's correct heading after calibration. It's within a degree of a steady COG and that's as good as it gets.
The autopilot setup is a bit more nuanced. Locate on the vertical sliding menu and click on the Autopilot followed by Commissioning.
This is not the page I actually used. I lifted this screen grab from a Simrad demo boat at the NMEA conference. The software display is somewhat generic and this page is tweaked depending on the gear attached to it. In my case Sailboat was grayed out and the only two available boat types were displacement and outboard. Follow the screen instructions and fill in any blanks. Transition speed for a power boat is the lowest speed needed to maintain a comfortable plane.
Point the boat in a direction that gives you about a mile forward of maneuverability. Set the throttle to the recommended speed, press Autotune and let go of the helm. The best speed for a planing vessel is the highest speed you can go with no notable bow rise. This is around 7 or 8kts up to around 10 to 12kts tops. Bow rise will affect the tuning and make sure your seat back table is secure and trim tabs are in their fully upright position.
This is the part I like the best. In days of yore it would a tedious hour or two manually tuning the autopilot while plowing back and forth in the bay. Tweak the counter rudder and do it again, add some gain, oops not good reduce the gain. What happens now during an autotune at a very macro level is the pilot commands a turn of say 5 degrees. It uses its sensors to measure what actually happened and makes some algorithm changes to optimize. Repeat and with large and small turns and you can tell you're near the end when the boat straightens out and steers straight and it's done.
The autopilot works perfectly. Minimal cross track error and a clean dead straight wake. In fact the Optimus is doing the steering and is being told what to do by the Simrad pilot. Total time to do the install was six hours, and I could easily slash two hours off the next time I do it now that I have read all of the docs and lived the installation dream.
So is it suitable for DIY install. I think the answer is yes if you have some familiarity with NMEA and CANbus networks. The tricky part you might need some help with is identifying the CANbus network and where to do the interface. If you're not sure then get professional help. I have seen what happens if you wire it incorrectly and it is not pretty or predictable.
So is it suitable for DIY install. I think the answer is yes if you have some familiarity with NMEA and CANbus networks. The tricky part you might need some help with is identifying the CANbus network and where to do the interface. If you're not sure then get professional help. I have seen what happens if you wire it incorrectly and it is not pretty or predictable.
This boat as you now know has a SeaStar Optimus 360 joystick steering system. It also has the new "Sea Station" option which I believe was formally introduced at the IBEX show this week while I was there. Not to step on others terminology who in turn stole it from many others this is a sky hook system. Translated, the boat has the ability to hold a stopped position with a further option to hold the position with a specific heading.
To pull this off they have dual GPS's in a housing and uses them to calculate both position and the heading without the need for a compass. The Sea Station also has a small display for set up and advising what mode the system is currently using.
It works really well but what impressed me even more is how well and gracefully the joystick steering works. I have been on many boats with joystick steering and in general they all worked well and did their job. But to be honest the shifting of the engines on most of these boats have all seemed to have a sense of violence about it. The clanking and banging and jumping of the engines makes me wince and at the same time wondering it they are using shaped charge explosives to shift the engines. Well it's not that bad, but it makes me think the transmission life will likely be shortened. The Telefex Optimus 360 is devoid of most of this. They have some secret sauce software and interfaces that hugely reduces the number of times it needs to shift the engines in the first place, and when it shifts it does it smoothly. It's the best Joystick system I have used to date and the Sea Station option functions smoothly and quietly even in fairly strong winds.
Thursday, 11 August 2011
Installing the Rear Deck
Click on any photo to enlarge it. Blog starts with the Sept. 23rd post.
While I was at Jamestown Distributors to pick up supplies, I bought a pair of stainless steel eye bolts with 1/4"-20 threaded shafts to serve as rudder mounts. These were mounted on the rear stem prior to the deck installation.One of the remaining sheets of ply was placed over the back half of the canoe and the outline was traced with a pencil.
Another view.
I cut a half inch (12 mm) outside the pencil mark.
Test fitting before applying the epoxy.
I used a special marking stick to locate the position of the screws that will hold the deck in place until the epoxy cures.
After removing the deck, I applied an epoxy/ sawdust mix to the stringers. The deck was reinstalled and clamped in place. As they say, you can never have too many clamps....
The outside edge was secured with #8 x 1" brass screws. The holes were pre-drilled with a countersinking bit.
Another view. I cut a half inch (12 mm) outside the pencil mark. Test fitting before applying the epoxy. I used a special marking stick to locate the position of the screws that will hold the deck in place until the epoxy cures. After removing the deck, I applied an epoxy/ sawdust mix to the stringers. The deck was reinstalled and clamped in place. As they say, you can never have too many clamps....The outside edge was secured with #8 x 1" brass screws. The holes were pre-drilled with a countersinking bit.
The deck in place with screws installed. No screws were installed around the cockpit. Monday, 31 January 2011
Installing the Garmin GSD 24 sounder module
This is the first opportunity I have had to see or install the shiny new GSD 24 Garmin sounder module. This model is replacing the venerable GSD 22 which has been around for a few years now. Before you buy the GSD 24 check first for compatibility if you are planning on using your boat's existing transducer.
Lets start off with what you get in the box. The first thing I noticed is the new GSD 24 is larger, and notably heavier than its predecessor. You get almost everything you need to install the unit, including update software which most will need, a marine network cable, and what I will just call the "Magic Box."
Lets start off with what you get in the box. The first thing I noticed is the new GSD 24 is larger, and notably heavier than its predecessor. You get almost everything you need to install the unit, including update software which most will need, a marine network cable, and what I will just call the "Magic Box."
Magic box is the right word, because it allows you to use most, but not all Airmar transducers already installed on your boat, by cutting off the connector, and connecting the wiring onto terminals inside the box. In my case the existing transducer was a Northstar transducer, which loosely translates to an Airmar 744V with a Northstar connector on the end.
The process is straight forward. Start first by identifying your transducer. Airmar placed a tag, and it's a sturdy one, on the wire either up by the connector, or down near the transducer that at the minimum will have a part number. If the actual model number is not on the tag, (In this case the model number is a Triducer B744VL) you can go to Airmar's website and search for the part number. If the tag is missing, check with the old sounder module manufacturer for a list of compatible transducers to narrow the search, or call the boat builder if it was original equipment installed on the boat. Now if any of that didn't work, call Garmin, and or Airmar, and get some advice. Airmar did make a handful of transducers with special features for some manufacturers, that also may, or may not work. In this category are all Raymarine transducers which use a special sense feature. These units are not compatible. Some smaller Lowrance, and Hummingbird transducers are not compatible, along with all side scan transducers. The good news for most users is you will not have any problems.
Without trepidation, lop off the connector, and strip the wiring back about 5". The manual says 3 1/2 inches, but since you're going to strip the wires after you pass them into the box, don't stint, cutting them too short makes them harder to work with, and there is lots of room for them in the little box. There are two pass through fittings, well in my case three. Two smaller, but identical ones you see in the picture, and a third, and larger one installed on the little box. I will save you some effort right up front, the larger dual (Siamese) Airmar cables, will only pass through the larger fitting. Strip off a fat 1/4" of the sheath, and terminate the wires on the block following the wire color tables in the instructions. The wire color tables are not numbered, but are in the correct 1 though 8 order. Another small note is with the Airmar 744vV transducer you will have two bare wires. Twist them together and they both will go to terminal 3 in the magic box. Seal the magic box up, plug it into the module and you're done.
One of my personal gripes with both the new GSD 24, and the Raymarine DSM300 modules is they use a slotted hole mounting feature that pushes you to mount the unit with the cables hanging down from the units. What happens is that in many cases if the status light is facing down, it can be very difficult to see the light's indications. I wish that both of these modules just had round fastener holes in them that easily allowed mounting in any orientation. The provided mounting screws are overly long, and you will probably have to replace them with much shorter ones. The other small screw you see in the picture is the ground for the shields (bare wires) in the transducer cable. Use it.
With the box in place, hopefully with an easily visible status LED, the rest is plug and play. The power cable gets wired, the magic box plugs into the XDCR connector, and the marine network cable goes to an available MFD network plug.
One last step to go now. Turn on your Garmin gear, and take the provided software upgrade chip, and upgrade the system. Once that's done, switch to the sounder page, and prepare to be be amazed. The image is stunning, and the detail is the best of any non-chirping system I have personally seen to date. I don't typically do product testing and reviews, and I'm not starting today. If you would like to see some really good screen shots of the GSD 24 being contrasted with the GSD 22, there is a really good slide show at Spearfish Planet. The improvements in the GSD 24 over the GSD 22 are substantial indeed.
The process is straight forward. Start first by identifying your transducer. Airmar placed a tag, and it's a sturdy one, on the wire either up by the connector, or down near the transducer that at the minimum will have a part number. If the actual model number is not on the tag, (In this case the model number is a Triducer B744VL) you can go to Airmar's website and search for the part number. If the tag is missing, check with the old sounder module manufacturer for a list of compatible transducers to narrow the search, or call the boat builder if it was original equipment installed on the boat. Now if any of that didn't work, call Garmin, and or Airmar, and get some advice. Airmar did make a handful of transducers with special features for some manufacturers, that also may, or may not work. In this category are all Raymarine transducers which use a special sense feature. These units are not compatible. Some smaller Lowrance, and Hummingbird transducers are not compatible, along with all side scan transducers. The good news for most users is you will not have any problems.
Without trepidation, lop off the connector, and strip the wiring back about 5". The manual says 3 1/2 inches, but since you're going to strip the wires after you pass them into the box, don't stint, cutting them too short makes them harder to work with, and there is lots of room for them in the little box. There are two pass through fittings, well in my case three. Two smaller, but identical ones you see in the picture, and a third, and larger one installed on the little box. I will save you some effort right up front, the larger dual (Siamese) Airmar cables, will only pass through the larger fitting. Strip off a fat 1/4" of the sheath, and terminate the wires on the block following the wire color tables in the instructions. The wire color tables are not numbered, but are in the correct 1 though 8 order. Another small note is with the Airmar 744vV transducer you will have two bare wires. Twist them together and they both will go to terminal 3 in the magic box. Seal the magic box up, plug it into the module and you're done.
One of my personal gripes with both the new GSD 24, and the Raymarine DSM300 modules is they use a slotted hole mounting feature that pushes you to mount the unit with the cables hanging down from the units. What happens is that in many cases if the status light is facing down, it can be very difficult to see the light's indications. I wish that both of these modules just had round fastener holes in them that easily allowed mounting in any orientation. The provided mounting screws are overly long, and you will probably have to replace them with much shorter ones. The other small screw you see in the picture is the ground for the shields (bare wires) in the transducer cable. Use it.
With the box in place, hopefully with an easily visible status LED, the rest is plug and play. The power cable gets wired, the magic box plugs into the XDCR connector, and the marine network cable goes to an available MFD network plug.
One last step to go now. Turn on your Garmin gear, and take the provided software upgrade chip, and upgrade the system. Once that's done, switch to the sounder page, and prepare to be be amazed. The image is stunning, and the detail is the best of any non-chirping system I have personally seen to date. I don't typically do product testing and reviews, and I'm not starting today. If you would like to see some really good screen shots of the GSD 24 being contrasted with the GSD 22, there is a really good slide show at Spearfish Planet. The improvements in the GSD 24 over the GSD 22 are substantial indeed.
Excellent job Garmin. And for Jim, it was worth the wait, you will love it.
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