I fitted a new larger computer display to support the new radar and because the new C-Map Reveal X charting in Expedition (which is excellent) now supports 4K monitors. Removing the old radar display had left a hole in the nav station bulkhead that I had to make and veneer a new panel to fill. I was quite pleased with the results, although I had to move the radio handset to make room for the monitor.
I’ve also acquired a Victron 4LTE device on ebay. It’s now installed but not working correctly yet but it will establish a always on network connection through the mobile network allowing the Victron monitoring data to be available even when the boat is shut down. It’s handy for monitoring the batteries, but I plan to add an interface to let it monitor the bilge pump and bilge alarm so it will be able to alert me if something goes wrong whilst we’re away.
The Victron Cerbo GX is proving to be a very powerful and flexible system – I simply bought it as part of the lithium battery install a few years ago (mainly for it’s lovely display, if I’m honest) but it’s capable of doing far more than I realised. It is now also our SignalK Server and will run NodeRed allowing low code automation.
The final prep job was to fit a new display to the instrument pod on the back of the mast that has 5 B&G 2020 displays. I’ve slowly been acquiring used newer models (that are still Fastnet and not N2K) to replace the ones that are there on eBay. The later models are a bit brighter and have better waterproofing – every couple of years I have to dismantle the current ones and put new desiccant bags in them. Though the new ones aren’t in yet (I’ve got two to fit) because they need a slightly bigger hole and different fixing holes, so I need to modify the pod. My standing ebay search had spotted an A&T 2030 display, which I’d snapped up for a couple of hundred quid. These are great quality after market displays made in Lymington by a fantastic little firm: A&T Instruments. The display name comes from the fact that it fits on a 2020 cut out (and will support either fixing pattern that B&G have used) but the characters on the display are the size of those the larger B&G 3030. It works brilliantly and is so much clearer than the other displays that I went to see how much four more new ones would be: at just under £2000 each I’ll stick with the eBay search. I do hope that a few people will have bought these, and A&T’s cockpit displays, to keep old B&G instrument systems going that are now being replaced and that the A&T displays might turn up on eBay.
