I like having instrument data and it's cool that it displays in OpenCPN. I've got the old B&G Network stuff and for the most part it's working. I sure don't have any intent to 'upgrade'. But other than the depth I don't need any of that data. That's something these instrument companies need to figure out. I need the AIS, I need the VHF, I need the GPS, and I need the depth. All that other stuff is just fluff although I must admit it's nice to have auto steer to wind. But hey all the critical data except for depth comes from my Icom equipment which at least so far seems to be more like professional grade stuff since the commercial guys are using the same equipment.

I was at the Ibex convention this year and was speaking with the B&G guys about my issues and all they could suggest was that "you're system is old you need to buy a new one". To which I just scoffed and walked away. They really aren't getting it. I went and talked to another guy who said I could probably easily reverse engineer the wind speed transducer and fix it myself and that's been my intent but haven't gotten around to it. You can bet I will though rather than pay the $400 for the tiny PCB or the $700 for the whole masthead unit. At some point a guy is tapped out on low grade stuff and every purchase of this sort stands between me and my ability to get out sailing.

It's my impression that most boat equipment suppliers think their customers are a bunch of rich guys who don't have a clue how things work and just throw money at a problem. Maybe some of you guys are like that but a lot of boat owners are not. Some of us know how stuff works and could and have designed our own. I can't help but think that companies like B&G want to keep their customers in the dark and they want them to be dependent on the one service person they have in the States. But like I said they are just not getting it.

In the old days electronics shipped with a schematic, you can bet Miles the service guy has schematics and interface specs. These days everything is throw away and replacement parts are incredibly expensive. Hell the damn system is 20 years old; if they're worried about losing that IP then they are stuck back in the stone age. At least give those of us who bought your product in the past the ability to keep going with it and repair it as needed. Release schematics and documentation for systems two generations old or something. But they wont. What they will do is obsolete the components and hide the documentation so that customers are forced to upgrade to an entirely new system. I guess this isn't just B&G but a pretty typical attitude across electronics manufacturers of all types today.

Abusing your customer is not a good long term plan. These days the wealthy seem to have no end of spare cash for expensive toys but for how long? Who knows maybe there will always be enough asshole rich guy sailboat racers that need the latest whiz bang to prove their manliness over other asshole rich guy sailboat racers that they don't have to worry about regular joes on tight budgets like myself. But when times change and instrument makers and boat builders who have been pandering to the rich all these years start to whine about going out of business you won't be hearing any sympathy from me.

I'm not about to throw out a working system for a new system when all that has failed is the wind speed transducer. I'm not about to throw out a working system for some system with an unknown interface when what I really need are NMEA183 outputs to plug into my OpenCPN computer.

I've been wondering a lot lately about what it would take to get into a business supplying instrumentation and autopilots for people who aren't made of money and don't just throw a blank check at some guy to get things fixed. Seems like a small market but then every year I see new brands so there must be some space and some desire for choices. As I mentioned I've worked on the autopilot and believe I have one better than the ACPI from the B&G Network series. There are explicit instructions on-line on how to build your own ultrasonic wind transducer. This stuff could be done and done with parts that can be sourced at reasonable prices if only the part numbers and schematics were available.