The Furuno 1834c Radar can be purchased with either a dedicated screen (daylight viewable) or in a "black box" arrangement that allows you to connect the radar unit to any monitor you select (I am assuming a standard computer monitor). I have been out of the boat high tech market for too long and have no idea why one would prefer the dedicated screen or the black box arrangement. My preference is to use the radar unit as a stand alone unit and not connected to any other systems. Also there will only be one station. Does anyone know enough about the benefits / downsides of the dedicated unit versus the "black box" to give an opinion? Thanks Marty Campanella Bay Pelican KK42

Snip:"... My preference is to use the radar unit as a stand alone unit and not connected to any other systems. Also there will only be one station. Does anyone know enough about the benefits / downsides of the dedicated unit versus the "black box" to give an opinion?..." I have a "black box" type system and it feeds to my navigational PC thru an Ethernet type cable. I can display it on a separate screen if desired and/or overlay my nav chart with the radar imagine. The overlay is a great method to verify position, chart, identify buoys, day marks, moorings, shorelines versus another objects. If the PC goes out I can plugged it into my lap top (loaded with the same software) display and control the radar from it...so I have a certain amount of easy backup. If the scanner/magnetron goes out I'm on visual ...just as if the dedicated stand alone goes out. Best of worlds is two with one being a new broadband type radar for close in definition and detal. Check out Panbo.com which is an electronics chat blog of high order. They usually beat on emerging boat electronics and are a good resource. Joe "Carolyn Ann" GH N-37 Hoping to make Solomon's tonight from up the Potomac.

I evaluated both options when I purchased my 1834c unit. The black box option allows/requires you to supply your own monitor so you can choose the size you prefer. I believe the resolution of the image is not changeable though - just displays larger or smaller depending on screen size. At the time, the monitors I looked at... including the FURUNO monitors they sold for the blackbox units were not very bright and the resolution was pretty fuzzy... probably because the image from the processor was expanded to fit a larger monitor. They may be better now especially with the LED LCD displays that are out there that provide much better contrast and brightness then a standard LCD. If your monitors will be placed further away, you may want a display larger then 10" and then need to put the controls closer to the helm chair which the blackbox option would allow you to do. The blackbox may allow you to do some more customization then you could probably do with the standard unit but nothing that I found interesting for my setup. I decided to go with just the standard, stand alone unit and it has everything that I need. You can use it as just a radar display only or just a chart plotter display or multiple displays side by side on the same screen or overlay chart and radar on one image. I started with the 10" display on the lower helm and then added the 7" display on the flybridge later. The second display is connected via a "network cable" and gets all of it's data (GPS location, depth, etc) from the lower helm display including the chart data. You could also install additional displays at your one location for use as a chart display and have radar display on the other then you would also have a backup if one of your units were to go out. You would just need to make some configuration changes. Dale Klahn >>> "Marty Campanella" <baypelican@gmail.com> 6:44 AM 7/30/10 >>> The Furuno 1834c Radar can be purchased with either a dedicated screen (daylight viewable) or in a "black box" arrangement that allows you to connect the radar unit to any monitor you select (I am assuming a standard computer monitor). I have been out of the boat high tech market for too long and have no idea why one would prefer the dedicated screen or the black box arrangement. My preference is to use the radar unit as a stand alone unit and not connected to any other systems. Also there will only be one station. Does anyone know enough about the benefits / downsides of the dedicated unit versus the "black box" to give an opinion? Thanks Marty Campanella Bay Pelican KK42 _______________________________________________ http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/trawlers-and-trawlering To unsubscribe or modify your subscription options (get password, change email address, etc) go to: http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/options/trawlers-and-trawlering Trawlers & Trawlering and T&T are trademarks of Water World Productions. Unauthorized use is prohibited.