Furuno Nav Net 2 Additional Monitors

[solanderi]

I understand that I can buy additional screens and monitors from Furuno to enable remote viewing and control of my Furuno Nav Net but all that I really NEED to do is to repeat whatever is showing on the main control screen of the fly-bridge in the salon and in the master bedroom. I have the Furuno expansion hub because I am running multiple antennaes and sources into the main Furuno Nav Net 2 on the bridge, (depth, GPS, RADAR, Satellite weather)

How can I accomplish this short of buying $2000 computer monitors from Furuno or some other marine monitor company. Thank you for any help,

Greg
Hat Time
1985 45C

 

[DeeRow]

What NavNet2 unit do you have?

Some of the units have a plug to plug in a monitor. Other units have a "card" that you install to get video output.

If your unit already has the port for video out, then you can get a long monitor cable and run it to a LCD computer monitor. If you have a LCD TV with PC video input, you could display info on it instead. Before you buy any monitor or TV, check the frequency and refresh rates. Some low end monitors cannot handle the output from a GPS.

Mark

 

[ThirdHatt]

What NavNet2 unit do you have?

Some of the units have a plug to plug in a monitor. Other units have a "card" that you install to get video output.

If your unit already has the port for video out, then you can get a long monitor cable and run it to a LCD computer monitor. If you have a LCD TV with PC video input, you could display info on it instead. Before you buy any monitor or TV, check the frequency and refresh rates. Some low end monitors cannot handle the output from a GPS.

Mark

That's the setup I went with. I had a video out card installed in my 1944c/nt before it shipped to me from Consumers Marine. Apparently any Furuno shop can install one and they are cheap, about $25 or so. There is one for $125 or so that accepts video in, if you want to display external video (flir, video, camera, etc) on your Furuno display.

I ran a 50' serial monitor cable and ran it back to the master bedroom. It plugs right into a 19" Samsung LCD TV so that I can watch the radar/chartplotter/depth from my bed. I use this for anchoring out so that I can sleep better. I dim the screen all the way and whenever I roll over I can take a quick peek. As an extra precaution I also ran an external alarm buzzer so that any alarms I set at the helm will wake me in the master if needed.

Easy and inexpensive, a rarity in boating!

 

[solanderi]

Thank you for the info. Are you able to split the signal for salon and bedroom ?

 

[ThirdHatt]

In my boat, the helm is in the salon where all three of my nav screens are visible from anywhere in the room so I had no need to send the signal to two different televisions, just the one in the master. The Furuno card sends one video signal out, so I am not sure if that could be split and if so would it be degraded from the already very low resolution.

I run a Garmin 4212 as my main plotter and I also use that video out to the master s/r. That unit comes from Garmin with two video inputs along with the one video out. I am currently using only one of the video inputs for the backup/stern camera.

Below is a pic just as I got the electronics hooked up in the custom teak helm pod (note the screws not holding the face board down yet). My laptop runs The Capn software which sits to the left of the helm just out of the picture.

 

[solanderi]

Very slick set-up ThirdHatt. Does the signal really degrade that much ? That doesn't make me too excited about this option....especially if I split it and it degrades further.

 

[Boatsb]

I believe there is two issues with the signal here. First the Video out he is speaking of may be composite therefor lower resolution than VGA. Second is the signal strength. A DA ( distribution amplifier will fix the loss of signal strength for the second run therefore no further degradation.

I have a VGA out of my system (Raymarine) and it runs to a VGA input on a TV/Monitor in the salon. I see no degradation there and it is on a 50 foot cable ( the shortest I had handy)

 

[ThirdHatt]

I believe there is two issues with the signal here. First the Video out he is speaking of may be composite therefor lower resolution than VGA. Second is the signal strength. A DA ( distribution amplifier will fix the loss of signal strength for the second run therefore no further degradation.

I have a VGA out of my system (Raymarine) and it runs to a VGA input on a TV/Monitor in the salon. I see no degradation there and it is on a 50 foot cable ( the shortest I had handy)

It looks great on the monitor in the Master s/r. I believe the output is at least VGA (maybe SVGA) which looks great on the monitor in the Master s/r but I wonder if you split it from there down to two monitors it may make the resolution less than desirable, that's all.

 

[Boatsb]

You can use a VGA DA and it will look great on both.