Garmin upgrade

[Katmat]

I have a 2012 29S.
Looking to see if anyone has upgraded the Garmin 5215 to the 8616xsv.
If so how did it go. Any problems & were you able to use your existing antenna?

Thanks,
Matt Murphy

 

[fishheadbarandgrill]

If you’re referring to the GPS antenna, I’m pretty sure the 8600 series has an internal GPS antenna.

 

[scross]

I looked at upgrading by my Garmin 5212 Chartplotter and realized that nothing Garmin in my boat was compatible with the new chartplotters. I stopped looking when the new Chartplotter, Autopilot, Smartpump and associated parts were well north of $10k. Staying with my current system....

 

[knotflying]

Interesting, Whenever I spoke with the Garmin rep he led me to believe that the newer units would work fine with the older equipment. Good to know.

 

[Katmat]

Interesting, Whenever I spoke with the Garmin rep he led me to believe that the newer units would work fine with the older equipment. Good to know.

I thought the same.

 

[fishheadbarandgrill]

When I was contemplating installing a Garmin AIS 800 on my R29 with circa 5215 chart plotter, I was told the 800 was compatible, but future firmware upgrades to the 800 would eventually make it non-compatible. So I installed the older AIS 600. I suspect the same issue would follow any singular component upgrade to our older boats as described. Upgrade all or none. 🙁 🙁

 

[TugScout]

I just finished this upgrade on my R-27 Classic. The existing antenna worked just fine. I did have to update the antenna firmware due to the GPS rollover issue, but it was not related to the install of the new 8600 series Garmin.

Check it out and there are pictures in my album:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13316&p=89416

Cheers,
Mark