Raymarine ST70, looks hot!
Do these new ST70 instrument and autopilot displays (bigger here) look beautiful or what? The problem is that the screens are probably faked, which is typical of this sort of product photography. But Raymarine assures me that they are gorgeous in reality, and may let me see for myself in a few weeks. The official U.S. unveiling isn’t until mid September but again, darn it, AskJackRabbit got the scoop, first finding some dope in England, then yesterday posting most of what went out to dealers…images, manuals, pricing, etc. Perhaps as noteworthy as rich color screens is the fact that ST70s can not only display NMEA 2000 info, engines included, but can also connect to existing SeaTalk instruments and sensors. Plus they mark the birth of SeaTalkNG (new generation), a N2K-like backbone and T cabling system. More on all after I study up.
In appearance ... this is a huge improvement over the ST60 Graphic I intensely desire to replace.
I can see myself eventually replacing all the displays.
When I see the documentation, I will first be looking to find out:
1. Power requirements
2. Will it be entirely compatible with the Maretron weather station and compass, or, do you still need to by a Maretron N2k display to get full functionality.
3. Is the software field upgradable, say from a small memory chip as the E-series is.
4. And ... can you map new sentances from N2K to display in subwindows on the ST70, information that is published from your PC. Wouldn't that be a bonus, if you can for example compute the target VMG on your PC and have that appear on the ST70 based on true wind.