Northstar 8000i

[MSSound]

I played with the new Northstar 8000i 12" unit at IBEX and was very impressed with the interface and redraw speeds. Does anyone have any experience with these units. They are obviously more expensive than Raymarine or Garmin comparable multi-function units. Is the added cost worth the it?

[go fish]

you get what you pay for. last boat, i had a nstar. current boat has furuno. furuno is much slower and harder to use. my friends garmin 3010C is so much worst, i can't beleive anyone would purchase one except for the price.

[ScubaSteve]

We have used one of the 8000i's great unit. We have it on a very good friend's 36' that i regularly fish on. Sounder module is excellent very good detail with a 1kw transducer. There was only one complaint we had but i can't remember at the moment what it was. A function that the 6000 had that wasn't on the 8000 i believe can't remember though. Overall solid machine you would be happy with it.

Neil

[prodigalson]

I have installed and operated one on this boat:

http://picasaweb.google.com/myblueeagle

You can see it in a lot of the pics. It's a BBprocessor, a 15in display, remote keypad, a 12 inch display (cockpit station) FF module, Hub, and GPS ant. I had Out of box failures of the 15 inchdisplay and the BBprocessor.

It runs way too hot (130+ f), and occasionally locks up for no reason at all, though it usually starts with one reboot. Rebooting take about three minutes.

the fish finder performs poorly in auto mode.

the montior cable only comes in a 4 ft.

the manuals I have, circa june2007, are all marked first draft, and have several errors (and I mean Errors in information, not typos).

After three calls to customer service, while dealing with the out of box failures, I realised that the tech had less knowledge of the unit than I did.

The toch screen is a little twitchy, and as it's not really a touch screen, but a IR grid over the screen, will respond to a dangling shirtsleeve, and cleaning it without turning it off is actually kinda funny the first time you see someone try it.

I give it a two thumbs down.

[M.E.K.]

I just purchased three 8000I 15" units, I waited almost a year for them to work out the bugs that Prodicalson has encountered, the rep at the IBEX show told me they had everything taken care of. Personally I've never seen a unit as nice and as fast as this one, but then again my experience is limited to the boat show. Did anyone notice that considering how much these units cost, the IBEX display looked like it was built by a 9 year old? Why wasn't there a 15" display at the show?

Now I have to wonder if I threw away my money on these units!?

[prodigalson]

Just a note-

though I was assured that they had plenty of units out in the field and all the bugs were worked out, these units were newstock back in april.

I hate to say it, MEK, but you may not have waited long enough.

[M.E.K.]

Prodigalson, what I really need to know now is do I need the remote keypads with the 15" units? Can they be located out of the way and the 8000I used as a touchscreen only or do I need the keypads close by?

[prodigalson]

I think (I'd have to double check) that I really have only needed the remote keypad to do some of the root setup, for the bios levelstuff that is sub-touchscreen. Other than that, the touch screen has not been needed at all. I might even consdier keeping it in a handy locker, and just plugging it in as needed.

I suspect that when you lay out the system, you might find you have a spare panel mount USB port or two- I might simply mount one of those next to the master display, then pull the keypad out of the drawer and plug it in as needed. I'd think, as they are USB, and the system is windows underneath, that you could hot swap it.

[MSSound]

What is everyone's impression of the 6000 series Northstar? How about the touch screen Garmin 5000 units?

[prodigalson]

6000i was a decent chart plotter, but was in no way water resistant enough for the marine enviorment...

We installed a lot the first year they were released- almost 400. The only ones that did not have moisture issue within the first year were those on climate controled wheelhouses.

The radar is terrible, the FF is poor (though I think they have improved to fair).

it is also possile to loose the chartcard inside the machine- DON'T try it- you have to split the case to get it out- trust me, it can be done

[M.E.K.]

I'm going to pray that after spending over $40k on my Northstar setup (3 8000's, AP, etc) that they have the bugs worked out. Otherwise the units will be inserted directly up the Northstar reps A$$!

[bencashen]

I"ve got a Northstar 6000 8.4 inch on the Grady-- Great unit, I only use it as a plotter--

[radarguy]

I didn't think the 6000i radar was all that bad. Only/biggest complaint was "blocky" targets. 4kw dome.
Kinda expected it considering who was making the scanner.