I have no working electrical instruments on my boat. I do have a compass and a windex but it would be nice to know that I have adequate water under the keel and perhaps even know the direction and speed of the wind.
If you have purchased instruments in the past couple of years what are you using?
Randy G
Paisley Moon
NS26 #37
Buffalo NY
First question what do you have that is non working?
Datamarine Depth and Speed
Hi Randy, I went the Raymarine route with an Axiom 9 and i50-i60 instruments. They all integrate and give me tons of information including VMG! There’s no way you need all that info but it is fun. 
It even partially integrates with my older generation Raymarine pilot.
Paul M
NS30U #211, Sandpiper
Cowichan Bay, B.C.
+1 on Axiom. I have Raymarine ST60+ for instruments and ST4000+ for autopilot.
Bob Gehrman
NS30U #396 “Quickbeam”
Baltimore, Maryland
I just purchased a B & G Sail Pack this spring that included a Vulcan 9 MFD, B& G Wind Speed and Direction sensor, an Airmar Triducer for depth, speed , & water temperature, and a B & G GPS compass. I liked that it is really designed for sailing and calculates all kinds of cool things like apparent wind speed, lay lines, start line timers etc., for racing. I should also be able to connect my Raymarine ST4000+ via some adaptors and do autopilot while under sail. It was about $2700 CAN and I like it so far.
Ken Julian
“Idyll Ours” 1981 NS26C
Saint John, NB, Canada
One thing to watch with Raymarine is that they’ve acquired some companies and relabeled the products as their own, but not completely integrated them.
For example, their wireless wind sensor is the former TacTik, which works great standalone, but provides information that my Axiom 7 refuses to accept and present.
– Bob
Solar Wind
Nonsuch 26C #143
Bob has correctly raised the issue of integrating different systems. Friend of mine even had a Standard Horizon radio and plotter. Couldn’t get it to integrate until he found out from Standard Horizon that you had to wire the blue to yellow and the brown to blue and so on… The written information in the manuals did not apply to the devices that he had..
Calling the supplier can sometimes resolve these outlier issues.
In passing I have been playing with Aqua Maps. As plotting software it looks good so far. The maps resemble paper charts, draw quickly on my mid range Samsung Active Tab 3, chart updates are simple. I will keep the Garmin 76 with Blue Charts at the helm and mount this off the dodger rail. It will make it easier for the non steering crew to maintain situational awareness. There are discounts for INA members on the Web site, comes with a 5 device license for Apple iPad and Android concurrently.
Cheers Thor
Integrating older and newer instruments isn’t as difficult as it seems, and an understanding of the language the systems use is beneficial. NMEA 0183, 2000, Seatalk…etc..there are devices that can integrate them all. The data that your average windmeter spits out is caveman-stuff…very easy to understand. In terms of bringing the data together on a screen that lets you do what you want (navigate, control an autopilot, AIS etc), the average iPad or tablet holds more computing power than most commercial systems, at a fraction of the cost.
Before spending 10-12 thousand dollars on B&G or Raymarine’s latest offering, do a bit of research on Wifi multiplexers. I know several people who have purchased an HDMI screen and a Raspberry Pi for less than $200 and used them to bring together older depth, speed, wind and magnetic compass data (communicating in either NMEA 0183 or 2000).
It’s ALL on Youtube…no kidding…waterproof helm displays and integrated systems for under $500.
John
NS30U#400
Tauranga, NZ
John;
I’ve been writing NMEA-2000 code, and interfacing with my NMEA 2000 Bus. (ok, all still at home, ensuring that I can get it all working before I head off somewhere important)
My Raymarine/Airmar transducer for depth - I’m having a bit of trouble finding interface/circuitry/info for it; Airmar does not publish anything of course and I’d like to remove the Raymarine ST60 tri-data and put something where it was.
Anyone done any home-brew circuitry/code for an old school depth transducer?
John Stewart
NS26C 046
Kingston ON.
John, what model Airmar?
Check this short video out:
How to Sail Digital for CHEAP with Raspberry Pi | Sailing Balachandra S02E32 - YouTube
Here is one of goodness knows how many very cool ways to use raspberry Pi on a boat. Lord knows there must be hundreds. R Pi is a Linux system. I would guess 99% of all wifi routers run Linux, most internet servers , electric cars run on Linux. I been using it on my laptop for over a decade in place of Windoz. Andriod and Mac OS are based on the same core programming code.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-4-project-boat-computer-sailing
Thanks John, our man in New Zealand. I was out of internet connectivity or a bit there. Out sailing. 
I did run Signal-K on a Raspberry PI at home for a while, it did work fine for NMEA 0183 (serial) stuff. A wintertime project, for not last winter, but the winter before. (2019-2020 for us right side up). Right now I’m having fun really going through NMEA-2000, seeing what makes it tick. I had hoped to use it for one of my contracts but I don’t think it’ll be possible. Right now it uses Linux computers, I had hoped to see about using chart plotters, but the jury is still out on that one, though. I think my linux 3d rendering code is better than the chart plotters, anyhow. (one’s got to puff up ones’ chest once in a while, right??)
The Airmar depth sounder - the issue I’m having is determining how to generate the signal and listen for a return. I can likely bodge my way through the design of the electronics, but hope that I do not fry it in the process!
Thor is of course right about Linux; most of my career has dealt with using and developing for it and it’s everywhere. I first downloaded it when working for Sun Microsystems in Wellington New Zealand back 1991-92, which brings this conversation round in a nice circle!
John A. Stewart
NS26 #046
Ottawa Ontario
First came across Linux’s parent in the early 90’s SCO Unix as I recall.
