raymarine

Raymarine Axiom 2 Pro long-term mini-review

This is a bit of a departure from what I normally write here, but today I’m going to talk about our chartplotter, the Raymarine Axiom 2 Pro S 9″. Now, as a forewarning, this is going to be a pretty critical review but I’m not criticizing the software or hardware engineers who built this: the responsibility for the quality level lies solely on management and the bean-counters. They are the ones that determine product priorities and development budgets.

I call this a mini-review because it is not a comprehensive overview of all the software on the Axiom 2 Pro, but focused on what we use regularly and the issues I’ve noticed. With over two decades of experience as a software quality engineer, I’ve got a pretty good idea of why these issues occur in software, and usually a pretty keen eye for bugs and quality issues. Note that I have the latest version of the software installed and have continually kept the unit on the latest software version ever since installing it a year and a half ago.

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Life changes plans/Updates on boat systems

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It’s been a lot longer than I would have liked since I made a post here. Boat work hasn’t stopped, but as will become obvious from this post, we haven’t untied the lines or started heading up the Inside Passage. Unfortunately my partner has been dealing with a mysterious health issue since the beginning of the year, and we’ve delayed our plans to deal with it.

But, in the mean time, there’s always boat work. The schedule has changed in a lot of ways, but many projects have been completed and we’ve had time to get a feel for our electrical system and solar panels. The short version? The results are extremely promising.

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Solar panels and ethernet

While we finish the Raymarine install–just some final mounting things to get done that have been waiting on materials to arrive–plenty more has been done. More of the Raymarine gear is installed, including the rudder sensor and linear drive, the SeaTalkNG/NMEA2000 network has been running beautifully for weeks now, and I’ve gotten the Signal K server all set up. With the last step, I also added a RuuviTag environmental sensor outside that is linked to the CerboGX over bluetooth, providing temperature, humidity, and pressure data.

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Installing the new Raymarine gear (part 1)

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We’re about halfway through getting our new Raymarine nav gear set up, and while we’ve been doing that (routing cables appears to be the majority of the work, unfortunately, see my rant at the end of this post) I’ve been working on a few minor projects, as well as taking delivery of a few more major items (and future projects).

While upgrading from the original 2007/2008 year Raymarine nav electronics, I’m taking the opportunity to link up other devices to the NMEA 2000 network (aka SeatalkNG, Raymarine’s branded NMEA 2000 network and plugs) as well as run a few additional cables from the nav/distribution area to the helm.

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Replacing the standing rigging

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As Kestrel still had her original standing rigging from 2008, it was time to replace it. This is a pretty standard thing to do for any sailboat before a long trip, particularly if you’ll be going offshore. Having a nice, healthy standing rigging an important aspect of safety. As this was a task I was not able to DIY, I hired Puget Sound Rigging to do the work. They were great to work with and did an excellent job!

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