Tacktick wireless instruments ?

[Sven]

We don't have any wind instrument other than the Windex and a hand-held anemometer.

The Tacktick wireless instrument looks like an interesting and useful last minute addition. I do recall reading some earlier reviews about lack of reliability but since the company is still in business I wonder if they got the problems taken care of ?

Any first hand experiences or trusted anecdotal stories ?

Thanks,



-Sven

 

[robjpowell]

Sven,
I've not had experience with the anenometer but I have not had good luck with TackTick's mast mounted compass'. Twice they had problems shortly after 2 y's and the company has no service available out of warranty just a pro-rated replacement offer. I would advise you check if that is still the case as it got expensive fast.

Rob

 

[Maine Sail]

We don't have any wind instrument other than the Windex and a hand-held anemometer.

The Tacktick wireless instrument looks like an interesting and useful last minute addition. I do recall reading some earlier reviews about lack of reliability but since the company is still in business I wonder if they got the problems taken care of ?

Any first hand experiences or trusted anecdotal stories ?

Thanks,



-Sven

I just installed one last week and the wind seems to work ok. The depth instrument however is badly affected by noise. I have been messing around with ferrites and such since the boat went in the water yesterday but as of yet the depth still goes berserk when the motor is on or certain other devices.:0

I will be speaking with Ralph at Raymarine on Monday to see what the suggested fix is as every trick I know of for noise has not worked. As of yet I am not real impressed but I will wait to see what Ralph or Lee has to say Monday...

 

[MarkA]

I'm having a hard time understanding the appeal for wireless instruments when both the transducer and display are permanently mounted. Although I'd love one of the new Raymarine e series displays so I can monitor everything on my iPhone or iPad, I would not hestiate to drop a wire down the mast and hardwire a wind instrument.

 

[AleksT]

The boat that I race on regularly has had tacktic instruments for some years (5 or 6 I believe). They work great. The backlit displays work all night long and even on a cloudy day they recharge very quickly (5 to 10 min). You do not have to mount the displays permanently, We attach them with some velcro.
We did recently start having a problem with the unit not giving true wind direction (apparent still works). Since there are other more important issues that need to be adressed first we have not had time to fix the problem. One of the displays was dropped when the place where they are mounted had been repainted so that might be the cause.

 

[Sven]

Thanks for the answers. It sounds like there are still some issues.

As for Mark's comment we asked the rigger about getting another set of wires into the 50-60' conduits in the mast and he was not encouraging unless we dropped the mast again ... not worth it.

Now we'll have to make a decision.

Thanks again !



-Sven

 

[mherrcat]

I have a TackTick wind instrument and it seems to work fine. Occasionally the anemometer gets stuck, but I think that has to do with the large amounts of dust that get into the air in my location; lots of agricultural activity around Oxnard. It seems to get itself unstuck when it rains. Also, now and then, the display will come on but it won't register any reading. I have learned to fix that by pressing a little rubber pad on the back of the unit. I guess there are a couple of contacts under that pad that reset the unit. I don't recall seeing anything about that in the documentation; I kind of figured it out by accident.