J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Shopping Instruments, GPS Data on ST60 Speed display

Hi All, Those of you whom have purchased the ST60 instruments, Can you get the GPS Waypoint VMG and BTW displayed on the ST60 Speed or the Tridata from the nmea interface. I know I can if I get the Graphic display but I'm trying not to have to. The lack of GPS information is pushing me toward Tacktick. Fresh Opinions wanted.
Thanks

I ended up with the ST60 wind/depth/speed even with the same situation. We decided to just use the GPS dislay not integrated with the wind/water instruments for our VMG. Pain because the GPS is on a swing arm into the companion way rather than in the instrument cluster. Really thought hard about the TacTic stuff but decided the cost was better spent on the sail fund. Rather than bulkhead mount, we ended up fabbing an integrated instrument bridge across the weatherhood like the J105s, and then had to provide wire routing. TacTic gear would have solved that problem. I struggled with what you are facing and could not solve it without the extra couple hundred bucks for the integrated ST60 package. Puts you near the costs of TacTic. We were almost to tying in the autohelm, but that extra step should have pushed us to newer Raymarine or the TacTic set.

If interested I have some pics of the instrument bridge, the wire route covers and internal moulding/wire raceways to get all our wires off the bulkhead inner face. We are down to Port and Starboard compasses on the blukhead and no wires catch things up on. Drop me a note at jageck@earthlink.net if you want to see what we did.

I started building a TackTick system (got a couple displays, compass, transmitter), but the cost to finish building it out is ridiculous so I'm selling it on ebay.

Instead, I'm getting the newer simrad stuff.

I plan to get the IS20 Combi for basic speed/depth/temp, a IS20 Wind, possibly a compass, then the IS20 Graphic.

I will display all the GPS/Bearing/Bearing info on the Graphic, and it can also be used to watch trends in any of the data, vmg, etc. I can always add a 2nd graphic later.

I plan to mount this on a instrument bridge but i have yet to figure that. I was thinking about getting one of these, but fabricating a different bar mount that hugged the deck and was less clunky.

JoeBob, I'd love to see your instrument bridge, I'm emailing you now.

Dan - you've got the most expensive components with the TackTick stuff now, and you've already done the install work. I'd recommend sticking with it and buying the TackTick T122 NMEA interface or the T106 Wireless Remote system that includes the NMEA interface. That way you can add on whatever you want that supports standard NMEA 0183 protocol outside the TackTick system and put that data on the TackTick displays. I wouldn't take a step backwards with the Simrad stuff since you've already made the investment. You won't regret it. I built up the Rhapsody TackTick system over time and have a complete network integrated with 2 GPS units, Autohelm and a PC. Read more at this link.

Bill - well - I added it all up - after adding what I think I could get for the TackTick stuff already purchased, the difference was something like $1,000 more to continue with TackTick.

The big items were the difference in wind instrument cost, and the fact that the IS20 Graphic can display 4 data items. So for typical offshore racing mode I would have a single IS20 showing Heading, Bearing, Distance to next, and SOG. With the occasional glance to wind that would basically be all I would look at. With Tacktick I had to buy a 2nd dual display to do the same.

Putting that money into a new chute this year.

Dan - you do know that you don't need a TackTick wind instrument to integrate everything if you added the T122 NMEA interface. Any wind instrument that talks over NMEA 0183 can integrate with what you have. The Simrad IS20 wind instrument has a NMEA 0183 interface according to the manuals on their site. I still think you are better off keeping what you have and adding the T122 NMEA interface. You could also add the IS20 Graphic display as it has NMEA 0183 and can act as a repeater. If you were going with a graphic display, you should check out the Garmin GMI 10 - a very nice small programmable color display that talks NMEA 0183.

Just remember to factor in the time to redo what you've already done if you decide to take it out and replace it. That's not trivial, particularly since you and your boat are not co-located!

Dan, Are your TackTicks listed on ebay yet, or Forum site? i might be interested in them. Don

Hey Bill - you convinced me to take a much deeper look at this!

One question right off the top is how reliable VMG-to-wind and true wind speed/direction are when you are mixing and matching instrument types using NMEA. I've heard a lot of griping about these numbers being off, and seems like getting compass from one source and wind/speed from another might not help things. Think this will be a problem?

That said, given what I have already, and my display needs (analog wind, depth, water speed, compass heading, COG, SOG, bearing, distance to next - plus ability to scroll to stuff like VMG when needed), I figure the following:

Pure Tacktick - $2,380 - Buy: wind, 2 x dual displays, NMEA adapter

Pure Simrad - $1,700 - Buy: IS20 wind, graphic, combi, compass. Sell: Tacktick hull tx, dual display, hull tx, compass

Hybrid - $1,900 - Buy: IS20 wind, graphic, tacktick NMEA

Both the Tacktack & Hybrid options have me using a cheesy old NEMA depth gauge I already have to avoid buying another display.

So the hybrid and all simrad options are close enough to be a wash...at the moment I'm leaning toward the hybrid so I have the option of adding the wireless TackTick handheld unit in the future...assuming I can trust the calculated true and vmg numbers.

-dan

Dan,

The answer has two parts - first is the same no matter what you have. The data is only as good as the calibration. Take the time to set things up right and calibrate the sensors to whatever the instrument manufacturers allow & recommend.

The next part is associated with data rate. Some purists will tell you that you need a 10 hz update rate to be meaningful. I work on the philosophy that the boat as a "system" has a much slower response time and that the once per second update rate offered by NMEA 0183 is sufficient. You can also set different averaging and integration times on various instruments. Thus the calculations for VMG, true wind, etc are non-issues. Look at it this way - when you see boat speed are you looking at absolute value or tweaking to get the most speed.

You'll find that you have more data than you know what to do with. Try a number of data display combinations and learn what works best for you. Upwind you may want something different than downwind. Crusing waypoint displays are great, but not needed around the buoys.

On my "system" - all the sensors are TackTick. The GPS is Garmin or Lorance and my Autohelm is Raymarine X-5. I successfully integrate them all and can say the autohelm performance is excellent. Plus the autohelm is using its own roll / pitch sensor. I have used it in relative wind steering mode both close hauled and off the wind. the wind data and GPS data from two different sources through the TackTick to the Raymarine Autohelm works just fine.

I think you'll be happy you considered opening your aperture to work a system that integrates what you have with what you can buy to add on, rather than starting from scratch. It may take a little more effort on the instrument setup and configuration, but once you figure that out it will work just fine you won't have sacrificed anything in performance.

Blll and Dan,
Thanks much for your postings here. I am starting from scratch with instruments and your insights are very helpfull.
So far I think I will go with the TackTick T104 Super sail system. I have a Plotter I will interface to the nmea and connect my Raymarine ST 2000+ autopilot as well.
I will use a swing arm bracket so I can get most navigation information from the chartplotter. I also will interface my pc which I run Nobeltec Software and should get me everything I need.
The best part of the TackTick is the lack of wiring issues.
Do the Tacktick displays ever get knocked off their mounts?