Part 5: Reflections and Opinion
In total, adding the Orca system and integrating into my legacy system, cost £2163 incl. VAT. Adding the NMEA 2000 backbone cost £88.58 and my AIS cost another £760 including the DeviceNet (NMEA 2000) spur cable.
This compares very favourably with the Raymarine upgrade; adding just a single 12" Axiom screen (to keep my helm looking neat) on the upper helm would have cost £2686.
Adding an AIS unit at the lower helm would have meant a lot more additional cable routing because SeaTalk 1 can't carry AIS data. Conversely, adding an AIS unit at the upper helm would have meant putting the Core 2 there as well, along with adding an additional AIS antenna and routing the VHF cable to it.
The most expensive item in the Orca system is the Display 2. I think this is essential if there's a chance it will be exposed to the elements, but for non-flybridge boats with enclosed helms, many people would probably be satisfied with an ordinary Android tablet - saving quite a bit of money.
The Positives- Orca 2 and Display 2 are good value for money; build quality is excellent and the whole setup feels very intuitive.
- Saved me a lot of cable routing.
- A single Display 2 unit can be easily moved between upper and lower helm positions, and a tablet can serve as a backup.
- Compass calibration seemed easier than my legacy fluxgate one.
- I love the fact that I can prepare waypoints and routes on my phone or MacBook, and they're automatically synchronised with the Display 2 and other devices.
- So nice to have maps that update themselves.
- I like the "Connected Devices" screen where it's easy to check what the Core is seeing and using.
- As the Display 2 has its own battery, my display doesn't have to reboot when I start the engines.
- The duplication of the Autopilot controls on the navigation screen is effective.
- The logbook feature is excellent.
- The autorouting is very good - on a recent trip where we were following another boat, the autoroute was pretty much what they'd decided to follow manually.
The Negatives- I think the charging mounts are a bit expensive for what they are. Two mounts cost more than the Core 2 and I think this is excessive. £100-£150 seems a more appropriate price to pay for this sort of thing.
- I miss the ability to show a list of AIS contacts and their distances/bearings like I had on my Raymarine e95.
- It's not possible to edit waypoints by editing the coordinates manually - you have to do it via the screen. Whilst this might be OK for single navigators, this is a serious omission for anyone travelling with a fleet where someone else has prepared the waypoints.
(Note: you can add a waypoint by searching via coordinates and then Save it, followed by editing the details. It's a bit convoluted, but it does work.)
Suggestions for Improvements- I think it would be good if the AIS contact icons for Local Receiver (ie. your own AIS) and the Internet were slightly different, eg. a border around the icon for the Local Receiver ones.
- When you edit the instrument layout, it affects both orientations. Would be much better if the order was stored separately for each orientation.
- At the moment you can only export single waypoints; sometimes it is useful to be able to export all of them, and this feature should be added.
Conclusion
I like the Orca system a lot. I find it much more intuitive and responsive than the Raymarine e95 on my last boat. It is not perfect yet, but the software is under continual development, and I look forward to each new version and the improvements they bring.
I'll be adding more thoughts to this page as I gain more experience in using this system.
|
Kevin Millican