The latest from R Electronics

The latest from R Electronics


ecaineMarine electronics and navigation specialist, Errol Cain has supervised the installation of marine electronic systems into thousands of Riviera luxury cruisers in his 29 years experience.  In this issue, Errol talks about the latest releases from Raymarine and Garmin.

 


 

New from Raymarine

Raymarine has launched the largest all-in-one touchscreen multi-function glass bridge display – the massive gS195 – 19”. This new, high, bright glass bridge display joins the 9”, 12” and 15.4” glass bridge displays in the top of range “gS series”.

The big brother of the “gS series” uses the same fast and fluid Lighthouse II software as seen across the entire range. The benefits of one software platform across the entire 70 (yes, 70!) multi-function displays available from Raymarine is that is doesn’t matter if you’re in the tender with an e7 or running your 75’ luxury Riviera with gS195 displays, the operating system is the same.

The current Riviera 75 in-build has selected six Raymarine gS195 – 19” displays for a fully integrated glass bridge helm. Due to this selection, Raymarine chose to undertake the worldwide launch of the gS195 in Australia at the start of the Riviera Festival of Boating. Mark Garland, head of Raymarine global sales from the USA, attended the launch.

Along with the new gS195 displays, Raymarine has also just released new models in the “a series”. New 9” and 12” displays join the 5.7” and 7” displays in the “a series” family. The Raymarine “a series” is a touchscreen-only display with no buttons which gives a very clean look. The new “a series” displays also use the same very fast Lighthouse II software platform as the entire Raymarine range.

 

The impressive new helm of Riviera’s 75 Enclosed Flybridge comes together with Raymarine’s latest all-in-one touchscreen multi-function glass bridge display.

 


New from Garmin

Garmin has just released the new 820xs 8” and 1020xs 10” multi-function displays.

These new 8” and 10” displays are non-touch with button-only operation. Both new Garmin models are full multi-function with Chart, Radar, AIS and sounder capabilities.

Both units also have built in 1kw sonar, Chirp and DownVu sounder technology.

There are many other functions built into these displays like sailing features which include laylines, enhanced wind rose, heading and course-over-ground lines, as well as true wind data fields.

Both new units are full NMEA 2000-equipped for functions like engine and instrument data for integration into a Garmin network.

Garmin 820xs and 1020xs


Software

It’s hard to believe but since the launch of the first new-generation multi-function displays from Raymarine in December 2011 with version 1.11 software, there have been 16 new software releases. We are currently on software version 10.34.

Why so many you may ask? Each software update adds new features and enhances performance of the multi-function display.

Software version 10.34 can be downloaded for free onto an SD card and uploaded into any current Raymarine multi-function display.

Download the software from Raymarine here

 

Following is an example of the updated features between software 9.45 (previous version) and 10.34 (latest version) straight from the Raymarine website:

  • Support for multiple active sonar modules on the network
  • Ability to display multiple sonar channels simultaneously
  • Ability to create custom sonar channel profiles
  • New horizontal split-screen Fishfinder page
  • Corrected TVG control on CP450c
  • Added support for Navionics Sonar Log depth recordings
  • Added support for Navionics Plotter Sync (requires appropriate Navionics mobile apps)
  • Lighthouse Charts updates
  • Digital Switching Alarms
  • Update to SIRUISXM Marine Zone boundaries
  • New Home Screen icons for Fishfinder app
  • New Fishfinder simulator modes
  • AIS Dangerous Target Simulator improvement – in simulator mode it is defaulted to off
  • Additional languages – Czech and Slovenian
  • Various fixes and improvements

Many software improvements are not particularly relevant to Australia like the additional languages for Czech and Slovenian however most will improve the performance of your system.

Next time you are aboard, when your Raymarine system starts up, check the software version at the bottom right-hand of the display before you hit accept to continue. If your software is below 9.45, please consider an upgrade.

Raymarine launches new software program for its multi-function displays

 

For further information on any of the above, please contact;

Errol Cain
R Electronics
+61 7 5561 7900
ecain@relectronics.com.au

Visit the R Electronics website here