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B&G Zeus Chartplotter Question

5539 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  the_abuse, 
S
I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question, but I've had trouble finding an accurate answer online. Our new to us boat (1988 28' Freedom) still has the original electronics. While the original Datamarine Link 5000 depth, knotmeter and wind speed and direction instruments work fine, we really want a chartplotter. I found the B&G Zeus series online and it looks interesting, especially this part of the product description:

"Zeus² plotters integrate seamlessly with your existing network, communicating with performance modules including Broadband Radar, autopilot, AIS, digital switching, weather modules and more."

Does this mean that I would be able to purchase the chartplotter and have it integrate with my existing Datamarine Link 5000 system or would I need to purchase new equipment (wind instruments, transducer, etc)? We are in Massachusetts and primarily use the boat for day sailing along with occasional overnight trips.

Thanks in advance for any insight,
Paul
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BarryL
Hello,

My previous boat came with a functional set of older Datamarine instruments. I have learned that Datamarine instruments do not communicate with other devices. Each instrument is separate: wind speed and direction, boat speed, depth, are all single devices and do not share data. You will not be able to interface those instruments to any other instruments.

You can add a nice chartplotter, but it won't have access to wind information or speed through water unless you replace the datamarine instruments.

If you do decide to change the instruments I STRONGLY suggest you install instruments that are NMEA2000. This will make is VERY easy to network them together.

Barry
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