Furuno 1815

ZZ13

Well-Known Member
Nov 25, 2009
5,319
Lady's Island, SC
Boat Info
2001 400 Sedan Bridge
Engines
Cummins 450 Diamond
I've long wanted a relatively low price standalone radar with at least 4kw and color. The Furuno 1715 was a candidate but was neither 4kw (2.2 KW) nor color. But they now have the Furuno 1815. This looks like it may be the answer. I also need a new VHF so if I pair the Standard Horizon GX2200 with Furuno 1815 to provide it GPS and AIS, I may be a happy boat owner. I already have two other chart devices, so replacing my RL80C (its radar dome is broken) with the 1815 would not be an issue.

Does anyone have a Furuno 1815 yet? Looks like it might be time to call Jim.
 
Well I ordered both items. I’ll report back on my impressions after I use it. I have a couple of installation options I first have to decide on.
 
Can’t wait to hear how this goes!

Josh
 
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So the stuff arrived. I got the VHF installed today. I had hoped to pedestal mount the radar display with the pedestal that comes with it. But the base is way too big for any flat space I have left. So for now I took out the L760 fishfinder and put the display there since the cutout was a perfect size for the Furuno. Eventually I hope to relocate the autopilot controller and mount the radar and fishfinder side by side
 
The NMEA wires on both units are very thin. Seems like at least 30awg. How do I connect them together? The 18-22 shrink connectors are too big. Only thing I can think of is to strip it far down and start filing the wire to thicken up the connectingvend.
 
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Thanks Josh. Hardware is all installed. Dome was easy. Just four new holes drilled and all done. Paint pretty much fell off the underside of the mount. Time for a remove and repaint of the mount, I guess.
 
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Yippee! Radar again after living with an inoperable broken radome for two years.

Of course in the process I broke the FM connection at the FM antenna, so I had to rework that
 
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If anyone else decides to get one of these I have found the NMEA/AIS interconnect documentation is a bit vague and confusing. I am going through a trial and error process trying to sort it all out. Apparently I need to provide it heading data to get to display AIS ships. So I’m working on that. I did figure out how to get the GPS data to it.
 
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I figured out the wiring. I easily got gps data to it and ais data to it, but it needs heading data to display the ais targets. I read through all my manuals and the only source of heading data is from the course computer via NMEA. Fortunately it’s NMEA out connection is unused. So I connected it to the NMEA heading data input on the radar and that took care of it.

The unit has three NMEA inputs. #1 and #2 are generic, but #3 only looks for heading data sentences. I put the gps data from VHF gps on #1 at 4800 baud and ais data from VHF on #2 at 38400 baud. And the NMEA heading data from course computer on #3.

Here is a view with everything connected and working. The little pointy triangle at the bottom of the screen is a detected ais ship.
 

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