Raymarine E Series Touch Screen

blackdiamond296

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Spent a few minutes looking at the raymarine touchscreen units at the New York boat show and was pretty impressed with the screen clarity and the interface.

Anybody have any experience with these units? I think the touchscreen interface is slick, just not sure how easy it'll be to use in 3-5's!

I also got a recommendation for the new Simrad unit while at the show, but from past experience I've always found their interface to be slow and painful. Thoughts?
 
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NSE is a very nice unit, little faster then the NSS. However, i don't find the NSE worth the extra cost unless you are using the new 4g radar with it. If looking at a plotter alone, plenty of other units cheaper. I believe the new raymarines support CHIRP as well, which is a nice feature for canyon fishing.
 

plowin

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I like the Simrad NSE units but I am fearful of there parent company "Navico". As long as the unit works as it should , no worries it looks awesome.
 

CEShawn

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I have had a NSE8 for 3 three years, first year I had a failure with it. The unit would fail to shutdown, kept restarting. First off, not sure if its when you call and get to select SIMRAD over Lowrance on the help desk or what. When I called always quickly got a person that knew exactly what to look at. Within 30 minutes gave me three things to look at, then he shipped a new power cable. New power cable same thing happened. Once that happened, he asked me to ship the old unit back, when I provided them with UPS or Fedex tracking, he shipped out a new unit, no questions. This all happened in about 4 days.

Never had any other problems with the unit and just on the new boat bought the NSS8 because not sure I can justify the extra cost, love the 3G radar. I will also say, once I went touch screen it was hard to go back to a normal unit, I keep wanting to touch the screen... Just my 2 cents...
 
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if you were starting from scratch

What fully integrated system would be best for coastal cruising was looking at Simrad chart plotter depth and radar and add auto pilot in the future. Looking for 12 inch screen. I liked the Simrad screen and dual touch and dial. Trying to keep total package <$5k. Open to suggestions and why. Thanks for the advice. I will be looking this spring at the Maine and New England boat shows.
 

googinhater

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I think the older e series was better the touch is a pain in the ass to look at all day hate seeing the finger prints that's the olny bad charts are great ff and radar is great love it just not the touch screen. That's my take good luck
 

plowin

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That is great to hear Shawn, my experience with Navico has been "ship it to us in MEXICO and we will send it back in 6 weeks..............unrepaired:mad:. But, this was a bit of time ago and would not be too surprised to hear that they straightened the ship out. That NSS unit looks awesome for sure, and I am sure that it is. My only issue and example is that the Northstar product was the go to machine and used to be flawless, look what happened when Navico took over. I am thinking you have SIMRAD all the way with Navico support only instead of vice versa.
 

blackdiamond296

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Thanks for the replies fellas, the Simrad guys are giving me a lot more to think about now.

Anyone add in the wifi repeater component yet? I think it would be awesome to have someone in the passenger seat when running in low light keeping their eyes on the radar via an iPad.
 

CEShawn

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This was right out of nh. The part I liked was the first contact person answered everything.
 

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I honestly just wrote over a ten thousand word response to this thread, breaking down the NSS, NSE, c/e Series, Furuno, Garmin, along with stories for each manufacturer and how they've either earned praise or do not belong on a boat. I hit control + X, which closed the browser, down, and I lost it all. I literally have been writing for an hour and a half. Aside from wanting to throw my computer through the wall, I figured it may have been fate, as who wants to read a book when they can just read the cliffs notes. So here we go.

I had quoted Plowin's comment about Navico and their 'Send It to Mexico, and We'll Send it Back, Still Broken' with laughter, as it is a true story, and I had to deal with it on multiple jobs to the point where we wouldn't touch anything Navico other than their autopilots. However, they hired some key guys, including Lou Chemi (designed the C and E-Series at Raymarine) to run the show, and Brian Gifford who is the National Warranty Manager who literally works in the Tech Support Trenches, listening in and jumping at each chance to fix a problem. They have really managed to turn things around, and have some great products and the support to go with it. They're gunning to reach the Furuno level of product support, and spending a TON of money to make it happen, see the Five Year Advantage Program. (I detailed the program in the earlier post, but not this time. Maybe if someone replies with a question about it.)

Raymarine has also thrived since their acquisition by FLIR, as FLIR pumped big money into R&D to produce the new Hybrid e-Series and c-Series, new instrument displays, and dropped their pricing to compete with the Garmin junk of the world. (Also went on a Garmin rant about the mass produced Twinkie products and shitty warranty support, but I'll leave that out too. I'll simply say, their smaller units, the 740S and smaller, are decent affordable units that serve a boater that isn't going far, but their larger networked displays and devices have major malfunction issues. Google "GMR Error Code" and read about other people's pain.)

Getting to the displays, I will say I actually prefer the NSE to the NSS, as I will admit to liking buttons on a machine, especially the quick soft-keys to switch to Chart/Radar/Sounder/Etc. It's a more robust machine than the NSS, and obviously has its advantages when it comes to the 4G radar and expanded networks. The NSS I feel shines when looked at next to Garmin's aging line of touch-screen displays, as it is a fast, crisp, easy to learn system that can still be used as a dual-display setup, can utilize the BSM-2 CHIRP sonar as well as the broadband radar, making it an ideal solution for many different types of boating.

Raymarine's e-Series, the HybridTouch, has been very popular since the introduction of the e7D, which blew the doors of the 740S and I feel goes toe to toe with the NSS Series. We have done a TON of e-Series installations, major networked systems to standalone units, and have not had ONE product failure. Knock on wood, but that is an incredible track record. I cannot say the same for their pilots, as we all know that when it comes to pilots, it's Simrad. I don't care how flashy the display is, the system needs to work properly, and in every sea condition. One thing I like most about the Raymarine system is the additional button controls, providing the ability to control the unit in so many different ways, allowing for an easier learning curve to people who have never used a touch-unit before, and it truly is a Hybrid system. Raymarine's CHIRP is also VERY impressive when compared to the BSM-2, although the built in sonar is also very strong if fishing less than 1K feet, just like the built-in sonar's of the NSS7 and NSS8. Both the Simrad and Raymarine offerings use the Navionics charts, which I feel need a bit of a refresh, but are constantly being updated and accuracy is the key to charts, otherwise they're useless. Both have outstanding radar, however you have to compare Ray's 'HD Color' to the BR24 3G/4G to get a more apples to apples comparison. However, Raymarine's HD Open Array I feel has significantly better resolution both at range and up close. Simrad's OA's serve their purpose, but on multiple installations we ended up installing both a Broadband Dome for close range, and an open array for birds and weather detection. Another thousand, but every client has said it was worth it as soon as they got stuck in the soup.

Not mentioned above, but of course deserving mention, is the Furuno NavNet3D and TZTouch. We have installed more Furuno MFDs than we have Raymarine e's or NSS's combined, and almost always in a multiple station, full radar/high performance sounder package. We've done multiple radars, multiple Black Boxes, even 6 GPS sensors on one boat, and from my fingers to God's ears, have NEVER had a problem. The units are bulletproof. Even though the NavNet3D system is 'old' compared to the units out today, I would still put an MFD12 on my boat if in fact I owned one right now. Between the NOAA Raster charts, the incredible radar, and DFF1 and DFF3 sounders, there is not a more complete package available, EXCEPT of course the TZTouch. There is not even a comparison among the reps, the technical dealers, between the TZT units and anything else on the market. It's simply the fastest, easiest system to use, and surprisingly to me, very touch-friendly. Furuno really broke the mold of being a difficult system to master when they introduced the TimeZero engine and NN3D OS, compared to the utilitarian NavNet Vx2s. However they managed to still improve on the NN3D OS with the TZT, and actually built the unit for modern warfare. There is a reason the TZTouch systems carry such a high price tag, one of them is that Furuno Electric in Japan designed the system literally to MilSpec, MIL-STD-202. The system is actually qualified to DEFENSE standards in terms of shock, vibration, etc! This is no iPad, yet it's just as easy and fun to use. This unit right now is King, and Furuno has earned it's seat at the throne through their continued support of new AND ancient systems to the end user. Anyone who has ever dealt with Furuno's Support Team will attest, and I could go on for hours with different stories, and I am just in awe that the company that is clearly on top of the game, still makes sure to take care of the guy who bought their product 25 years ago, rather than to just say 'Buy a New One.' Reliability is the number one factor to me when 'rating' marine electronics, because it doesn't matter how many bells and whistles a unit has, if it doesn't work when you're 100 miles offshore, it's as worthless as the box it came in.

Thanks for reading.
 

CEShawn

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Thanks for taking your time... I feel your Pain, I feel like ever since I got my Toshiba that same thing has happened several times and of course you rewrite it shorter.

I just feel like you need to rob a bank to buy a Furuno these days... lol

I do miss the NSE8 compared to my NSS8, those ones at West Marine, displays for $1500 seem TEMPTING...
 

blackdiamond296

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Thanks for the details Wharf Rat, great information and perspective. The information about the various products' service track record is especially helpful.
 

Wharf Rat

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Thanks for the empathy, Shawn. This is what I get for using a laptop as a desktop replacement. I made my bones building custom high performance desktops, always going for the horsepower instead of the convenience of a notebook form factor. I get a laptop, and boom, I lost my Senior Thesis. God works in mysterious ways. Also, mentioning 'West' is like blasphemy! Those blowboaters have been trying to put us little guys out of business forever! Repent, and I possibly will consider still hooking you up with an NSE8 for an even more tempting price!

Black Diamond, thank you very for the compliments, and welcome to the board. Great group of people on here, with tons of knowledge without an ego. It really is my favorite place on the internet, and that's saying something. As far as electronics go, if you have any more questions, you can send me a PM, or click on our company's website link in my signature and give me a call personally. I'm there every day even in this frigid weather during normal hours. I'm just lucky that I get to play around with these machines for a living.
 

CEShawn

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I though shall never buy marine electronics at West Marine... lol

Sadly, a few years ago my NS6000i failed on July 3rd and it was weird with timing. I had to go and buy a NSE8 off the shelf, that hurt...
 

plowin

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NS6000i= "old Navico support"= Junk! I am glad to hear that they are improving there support, your nse should serve you well.
 
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