Garmin GMI-10 N2K Display Just Released - Review

This week feels like Christmas all over again. First Garmin ships me the new 4210, today they send me the new GMI 10, 3.5" NMEA2000 (N2K) Marine Display.



The new GMI 10 is Garmins recent effort to produce a multipurpose informational display. It has a color 3.5" display, a few buttons across the bottom, and a "look" like the rest of the new Marine Family of displays from Garmin like the 5212 or 4208.



First impressions - when I first opened the box from Garmin I though "Lucky me", being one of the first to get one of these (or a box full in my case). The GMI 10 comes packaged with a high quality plastic cover, similar to the other marine displays, and a full N2K network. It has the removable "silver" top and bottom trim piece which makes flush mount the unit from the front a breeze. Thats right, everything you need to build a N2K network is right in the box. The construction of the display is heavy and feels high quality. It has a 4" round area on the back to make it easily fit into 4" holes you might already have on your dash. The back of the display has a port for N2K (just like any N2K device has) and a port for the included power/data cable.



You are probably wondering why the power cable does data too since this is a N2K device. Well...it also does NMEA0183. The GMI 10 is able to receive data from 1 other NMEA0183 device. It will display this data on the screen but it will not pass it through the device in either NMEA0183 or N2K format. This will be useful in legacy applications, for example where you might want a repeater display for your Garmin 3210 (which is not NMEA2000), or any brand of NMEA0183 device. Of course if you do this the GMI 10 will "show up" your 3210 and make you feel compelled to upgrade...

What next - I had a few minutes to set up an operational N2K network this morning, been meaning to do it for a while. Setting up a NMEA2000 network really does just take a few minutes. Since I am a seasoned pro I was able to do it in 1 minute and 58 seconds! I connected the included Yellow N2K Power Cable to my 12V power supply, connected that to a N2K T, then connected 2 more T's. One for the GMI-10 and one for a 5212 we have on display. I then stuck the terminators included with the GMI-10 on each end of the network. Easy enough right? It really is that easy.



Next I powered up the 5212 and GMI-10 in no particular order. Whoa momma, the GMI-10 display was as bright as the 5212 display. Make no mistake, I am a junky for this N2K stuff, and I was a bit disappointed when I found out Garmin's screen was only going to be 3.5", but what they lack in screen size they make up for in brightness. I have have tested all the screens currently available, this little Garmin GMI-10 is incredibly bright. Here it is compared to a Northstar M84 that happened to be mounted nearby.



Speaking of screen brightness, the GMI-10 has a feature called "network sharing". Alledgedly this will maintain the screen brightness of one unit across the network. I did not hook up 2 GMI-10's to test this but I could not get it to work with the 5212 it was hooked to via NMEA2000. So either I am doing something wrong or this feature is strictly for the small instruments and not the big displays.

Next I played around with it. I found the menu system very intuitive and had it pretty well figured out in a minute or two. The screen is very customizable, you can split it up into 1-4 sections. Once you have your desired pages created pushing on one of the arrow buttons will cycle you to the next page. Below are screen shots of various pages.


















There are probably 400 other pics I could post of data layouts, the ones above are just what gets cycled through when the store demo is running.

The future expandability of this display is endless. All new marine electronics coming down the block will be N2K enabled. So this will interface with any other N2K device. In fact in building my NMEA2000 network for this review I used a 2' cable from Maretron and a T from Lowrance. Garmin has a whole pile of N2K stuff coming out including a Fuel Flow sensor for Gas engines which we just got a pile of, depth/temp transducers which will plug right into the network, and other manufacturers already have engine sensors, weather sensors, heading sensors, and whatever else. If you haven't jumped on the N2K bandwagon now is a good time to start.

In general I am exceedingly pleased with this device. Garmin has hit another homerun. The only thing I would like to see is a bigger screen, but that is easily remedied by adding a 2nd display. The MSRP on these is $535, street price much less.

Garmin 4210 Just Released - New Features!

Garmin has just released their new 4210 with a whole bunch of new features and innovations that further their commitment to bringing the best products to the market. This review will focus on the innovations the 4210 has over teh other units Garmin has put out in this series over the previous year to include the 4212 and 4208.

When I opened the box the first thing I noticed was the flush mount template. My box included 2, not sure if this was a mistake or if all boxes will include 2, but it allows for you to mess up at least once . The neat thing about these new flush mount templates is they have advesive on one side - they are basically a big sticker. So you will not need to tape them in place to draw out your lines to cut. Basically you can put this sticker in place and cut along the line (no more blue tape required).



The next innovation is including all of the NMEA2000 components. Lowrance has been doing this for a couple of years, but Lowrance actually uses the power cable for the display to power the nmea2000 network. Garmin has gone one step further to include a complete Stand-alone nmea2000 network in the box. It has a power cable (yellow cable in pic), 2 120ohm terminators for each end of the network, 3 T's, a 2' cable to go to the 4210, and a 30' cable to go to the GPS antenna. There is a T for the 4210, a T for the GPS antenna, and a T for the power cable.



Garmin's new GPS antenna, called a GPS17x NMEA2000, is a nmea2000 antenna. It has a standard NMEA2000 micro-c socket on the bottom of it. In fact all of Garmin's NMEA2000 cables are standard Micro-C. Since you can easily connect the cable to the antenna this allows you more flexibility in running your GPS antenna cable. NMEA2000 cables can be cut and spliced very easily so the GPS cable can be shortened if need be, or run from teh bottom up or top down as required. If you have a real skinny cable run you can cut the connector off and splice it back on.



Next is what I found to be the coolest innovation. Garmin is now including 3 ways to mount the antenna. The first is the standard threaded base which you can screw to a standard antenna mount.



The Second is a little plate you can screw to your hardtop or arch (pictured on the right)



And the third method of mounting is really cool, it is a platform you can screw to the underside of a surface. You are probably thinking "a gps won't work unless it can see the sky". This is not always true, in fact they can typically see through fiberglass very easily. I can see people using this to mount their antennas under poling platforms, or inside of electronics boxes, or under the top of the dash on an open boat. While this certainly won't be the most popular way to mount the GPS antenna, it sure is mighty nice of them to include it as an option. Garmin is the first to offer such a part.



The final innovation is the removable top and bottom strips on the front of the display. This allows the unit to be screwed into a flush mount surface from the front. Prior to this you had to insert some threaded rod into the back on Garmin units. This new format will make mounting the unit go a lot easier.



Finally, here is the unit powered up next to its big brother and little sister, the 4212 on the left, the 4210 in the middle and the 4208 on the right. The cousin 540S is on the far right.

Tradition Yachts

A little late with this news, but better late than never. In February we committed to being the Tradition Yachts Dealer for the Northeast. Tradition Yachts are the best passagemaker offering we have seen in recent history, so we jumped at the opportunity to be the dealer for these boats. The passagemaker market is as hot as ever, the better yards are seeing waits of 24 months or more. This is the perfect time to bring a new contender into the mix. Tradition Yachts are built using the finest components and most modern construction methods.

In early February we went out to visit some of the design team, and owners of the company in Vancouver. We were very impressed by their staff and on-site resources. We had a chance to inspect "Feisty", the first Tradition built. Feisty is 54' of serious cruiser.

If you are in the market for a true passagemaker give us a call, we'd love to tell you all about the Tradition Series.

Stephanie is here!

After 5 years of begging we finally convinced Stephanie Woron to come work for us! I have known Stephanie for 10 years, all the way back to when we worked in South Florida together selling yachts. Since starting BOE Marine in 2002 I knew she would be a perfect fit for our program. Late 2007 we moved her up here to take the reigns of our Yacht Sales Division.

Stephanie brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience in the 40' to 80' yacht market. Some of the lines she has worked with include Outer Reef, Alaskan, Defever, Ocean, Navigator, Jupiter and more. What is most impressive is her focus on customer needs and thorough follow-up. I can't wait to see where she takes our Yacht Sales Dept in 2008!

She didn't come alone! She brings with her a puppy Pug named Orsin. If you are looking to buy or sell your boat give Orsin's mom a call.

- Jim