Any info on Simrad electronics?

[Larry's Time Out]

Hi, i'm the new owner of 26 Blackman. Russ Hugh's previous Boat. thinking about upgrading the electronics to 12 inch touchscreen combo Simrad. any comments? Thanks. Larry

[Hamachi Girl]

Welcome to BOCA Larry.

Have you had the opportunity to talk to any of the SIMRAD reps? I think there was a difference in processor speed between the NSE and NSS.

I have played with the NSS, NSE, and HDS Touch at West Marine with the sales monkey. Touch is very intuitive and easy to use. No idea how either work on the water.

I assume you are also looking into CHIRP too? Pretty slick stuff. The downside is the BSM-2 and transducer are pricey. Price together a system on Star Marine Depot.

NSS12, BMS-2, Structure Scan unit (down and side imaging sonar), and the Airmar R209 transducer is around $7400.

If you don't want CHRIP then the HDS Gen 2 Touch has everything you need for $2900 (no transducer option). It's touch, and includes the BSM-1 (non CHRIP broadband sounder) and Structure Scan (down and sidescan) all in one box. The HDS does not put out the power that the NSS/NSE does though.


Raymarine just came out with a little unit called Dragonfly. Chartplotter and Sonar with CHIRP for $650 (transducer and mount included). Only a 5.5" display and not NMEA compatible (can't even link your DSC function on your VHF). But for the price that is very little money to get into CHIRP. I'm thinking of picking one up for my Hobie kayak.

Please let us know what you decide to go with so we can check it out on your boat.

[Larry's Time Out]

Hi. Thanks for the reply. We looked into the differences between the NSE and NSS. Big price difference and the NSE didn't look quite as user-friendly. Also talked to the people at Simrad. 2 different guys in tech support said that for what I'm doing, the BSM-2 is overkill. It's more for the professionals. Then there was the decision of whether to choose the 3G or 4G radar. That was harder, as it is supposed to be about 30% clearer in 4G. But in the end, we opted for the package deal of the NSS 12, BMS-1 and 3G. It's ordered on the internet. Should take about 2 weeks to get, as the cheapest place was backordered. I hate not getting the newest and best technology out there, but there was about a $3000 difference.

[DOGHOUSE26]

Simrad makes some nice stuff, but You can't go wrong with Furuno and I'll bet you'll see Furuno on 75% of the West Coast Commercial boats and that means something!

[Hamachi Girl]

Do you plan on doing the rigging yourself? I'd be interested on how easy it is get everything to talk to each other.

[Larry's Time Out]

Yes, I plan on doing it myself. It looks pretty straight-forward for the modules I'm getting.Each module comes with its ethernet cord, which plugs into the NSS unit, which has 3 ethernet connections. If you are adding more than 3 things then you need to get an ethernet port. Of course the radar unit plugs to the antenna and the sounder unit plugs into the thru-hull transponder. I'll have to pull the boat for that.

[Wa Mei]

LOL...just tell me where the gain button is Alan!

Welcome aboard Larry. The commercial guys at my dock uses simrad and really like them.
He's got it on 3 of his boats.

Hi. Thanks for the reply. We looked into the differences between the NSE and NSS. Big price difference and the NSE didn't look quite as user-friendly. Also talked to the people at Simrad. 2 different guys in tech support said that for what I'm doing, the BSM-2 is overkill. It's more for the professionals. Then there was the decision of whether to choose the 3G or 4G radar. That was harder, as it is supposed to be about 30% clearer in 4G. But in the end, we opted for the package deal of the NSS 12, BMS-1 and 3G. It's ordered on the internet. Should take about 2 weeks to get, as the cheapest place was backordered. I hate not getting the newest and best technology out there, but there was about a $3000 difference.

[Billy V]

Hi, i'm the new owner of 26 Blackman. Russ Hugh's previous Boat. thinking about upgrading the electronics to 12 inch touchscreen combo Simrad. any comments? Thanks. Larry

As I recall there is a big hole in the Simrad/Lowrance Mapping. Check to see if you have any bathymetry contour from Del Mar to the Mexican Border (Including all of La Jolla) is missing from their data. I had been battling with them for 2 years during my ownership, providing GPS# and Screen Shots of Missing Data for their engineers to correct the missing data. I went as far as to pull up the missing cartography during a sales demonstration at the Fred Hall Show.
-Needless to say they weren't selling many units many that day.

-Still after all the conversation nothing was done to correct their mistake. They told me they were going to make the fix in January 2013, but I had not heard anything was done.

I have several detailed e mails between myself and Mike Campbell (Senior Regional sales manager Navico Americas) Louis Holmes (west marine General Manager) Steve Hamber (Navico Americas), Shane Coloney (Product Manager – Content & Cartography Navico)

Test your unit by placing the map cursor in La Jolla Canyon - if you do not see any bathymetry contour they have not fixed the problem yet.

[Larry's Time Out]

Apparently they've corrected the problem. I've got my new stuff installed, except for the new transducer. (Haven't had time to pull boat and the old one is working). Was out of town for a week, but checked today and all bathymetric rings are all the way down to Mexico. Couldn't find any gaps. Love the new system! G4 radar is killer!