I decided it was time to re-wire and re-tool my entire navigation system. I’ve written articles on parts of each of these, and they’re linked below. Here’s a general overview of what I had, and what I wanted to do. I started with:
- Raymarine ST2000+ autopilot with wireless remote
- Tacktick wireless instruments for depth, speed, GPS, wind, compass, heading, including NMEA interface
- Handheld Garmin 76 GPS
- Uniden VHF radio with wireless remote
None of the systems above really worked well together, other than the Tacktick instruments and the autopilot. I used those two to sail a specific set degrees off of the wind when under sail. The purpose this process was to increase the capabilities of the system, and make sure everything talked with everything else.
I ended up with:
- Raymarine ST2000+ autopilot with wireless remote
- Tacktick wireless instruments for depth, speed, GPS, wind, compass, heading, including NMEA interface
- Uniden VHF radio with wireless remote
- Shipmodul NMEA multiplexer with Bluetooth
- Smart Radio AIS receiver and VHF splitter
- Garmin GPSMAP 5208 chartplotter
- PC using Coastal Navigator software