Older Raymarine A98 vs new Axiom?

[Sea Change]

I'm planning a significant upgrade of our instruments and was considering an Axiom (probably a 7") as the heart of it.

I've just spotted, on FB marketplace, an A98 9" plus radome, for less than the Axiom 7 on its own would cost. Obviously it's very tempting!

According to Google the A98 has WiFi, which is essential to my plans (I want to be able to remotely check on things like wind speed/dir without getting out of bed).

I know there are pros and cons to touch screens in the cockpit, but that's another discussion.

Will I regret not going for the newer Axiom?

 

[geem]

I'm planning a significant upgrade of our instruments and was considering an Axiom (probably a 7") as the heart of it.

I've just spotted, on FB marketplace, an A98 9" plus radome, for less than the Axiom 7 on its own would cost. Obviously it's very tempting!

According to Google the A98 has WiFi, which is essential to my plans (I want to be able to remotely check on things like wind speed/dir without getting out of bed).

I know there are pros and cons to touch screens in the cockpit, but that's another discussion.

Will I regret not going for the newer Axiom?

With the Axiom you can use screen mirroring to a tablet. What ever is displaying on the axiom will be viewable from bed

 

[Sea Change]

With the Axiom you can use screen mirroring to a tablet. What ever is displaying on the axiom will be viewable from bed

Which is something I would find very useful!
I see the A98 has WiFi too, but I'm not sure what functions this provides. On some devices it will say 'WiFi' but it's only for software updates and downloading charts.

 

[Momac]

I have the e7 hybrid which is the same generation as the A98 but with buttons /rotary control as well as touchscreen.
A firmware update requires the firmware to be loaded on a micro SD card and then inserted in the MFD. However I can see the e7 MFD screen on my phone via the Raymarine app. But I can't get the new Raymarine app to work with my (quite old) android tablet. So maybe the remote access app needs a fairly new android of apple product to work .

The Axion is in a different league with regard to firmware updates which I believe can be done direct from the mfd via a stable internet connection. Also firmware updates for Axiom are still ongoing while I believe support of the old school equipment has stopped.

 

[TSB240]

For less than £100 you could add a dual channel yakka to provide WiFi of all 0183 nmea sentences from your existing instrumentation to a tablet. I have just installed one.
Great piece of kit making any of the 0183 nmea sentences on an older system available to mobile phones or tablets to act as repeaters anywhere on the boat.

For marginally more cash either 2000 or 0183 sentences can be transmitted with an Onwa converter allowing a mixture of old and new nmea equipment sentences to be viewed remotely.

I am most reluctant to shell out on a complete new system in one go.
wifi converters might add a little to the total bill but in the short term mean obsolete instruments can be partially replaced with new standards without the considerable cost of complete replacement of all displays and sensors.

The biggest issue I face is at what stage to ditch the older raymarine classic cp as this remains a working radar system.

 

[DrSpock]

The a98 suffers from touchscreen failure. It will happen at some point rendering the unit useless as it has no buttons.

 

[Sea Change]

For less than £100 you could add a dual channel yakka to provide WiFi of all 0183 nmea sentences from your existing instrumentation to a tablet. I have just installed one.
Great piece of kit making any of the 0183 nmea sentences on an older system available to mobile phones or tablets to act as repeaters anywhere on the boat.

For marginally more cash either 2000 or 0183 sentences can be transmitted with an Onwa converter allowing a mixture of old and new nmea equipment sentences to be viewed remotely.

I am most reluctant to shell out on a complete new system in one go.
wifi converters might add a little to the total bill but in the short term mean obsolete instruments can be partially replaced with new standards without the considerable cost of complete replacement of all displays and sensors.

The biggest issue I face is at what stage to ditch the older raymarine classic cp as this remains a working radar system.

I'm all ears but also a bit clueless.

Currently, I have a set of newish Raymarine standalone instruments which use STNG- depth, wind, autopilot. I don't currently have any sort of plotter* and we are using our phones for now, which has obvious limitations.

I've got a speed/temp display too but no transducer to go with it, and I'm not convinced that it's worth the cost and the hole in the hull. But I do miss having the true wind info.

Currently, the instruments aren't networked, and are in a crappy knee height pod on the pedestal.

I'm going to relocate them to the bridge deck, where they will actually be easier to read from the helm, despite the extra distance. And also far easier to read when you're tucked up under the sprayhood with the AP on, which is how we spend 99% of our time on passage.

I would then mount an Axiom or similar at the helm.

My wish list is to have the ability to access wind data remotely, and preferably also depth, SOG/COG too. I was thinking about repeaters at the nav station but I think doing it over WiFi would be even better, and then whoever is off watch can be kept in the loop very easily with a glance at their phone. I might want a dedicated repeater tablet at the chart table but then again, maybe not necessary.

It would be nice to be able to alter course on the AP from down below too... but AFAIK that can't be done over the Raymarine app? I could use the Axiom at the helm, and put the AP display down below. But maybe having it on the bridge deck would be good enough. Not a bad thing to have to stick your head up before you change course, just in case there's something out there that you haven't seen.

One slight complication in my plan is that my AIS is a clunky 0183 device, so I'll need an adapter for that.

Finally, I'd like to add radar, bit would likely need to go secondhand for that due to cost. I only really expect to use it for dodging thunderstorms.

Questions:
- do I need to stick with Raymarine?
- would it be better to separate the plotter and WiFi functions?
- should I be considering a rugged tablet for the helm, with some sort of hub to do the WiFi and get everything talking? The Axiom would do everything in one neat package, but it's a bit pricey.



* I say I don't have a plotter, but actually I do, it's just not really useable. It's an ONWA 7" with built in AIS. The detail and accuracy of the charting where I am is abysmal, and simply moving the cursor around is an exercise in frustration. So whilst it's a useful AIS display, it's hopeless as a main chart plotter.

 

[Sea Change]

The a98 suffers from touchscreen failure. It will happen at some point rendering the unit useless as it has no buttons.

Yes just read that on the Facebook group. So I think I'll pass on the secondhand one.