new to furuno person, help

[njwater]

Hello all,
I just purchased a 2008 GW that has a full Furuno set with the NAVnet vx2 Navionics gold, radar, sonar, chart plotter. The problem is I am a Garmin or Raytheon user and familiar with NEMA2k and I'm a little lost. My first thought was to take out all and put a new Garmin system in, but everything works and seems like it works well, so maybe I just leave it in place. Can I get some guidance on the following?
I have 2 RDP 149 displays with 2 additional smaller displays with depth, temp, lat/long, and a Simrad AP.

1. Is there a black box somewhere that ties them all together, or do they function via the 149 units?
2. I want to add, class b AIS, will the FA70 Furuno work with this system?
3. I may replace the AP with Garmin or Raymarine, can I make newer NEMA2k products work with this system?
4. The NAVionics card is outdated and is 128MB Can I upgrade to the newest version?

Thank you all for any input.

 

[Titanic II]

Is there a black box somewhere that ties them all together, or do they function via the 149 units? ANSWER: each unit is an independent processor referred to as a Multifunction Display (MFD). They communicate with the other units via Ethernet.

I want to add, class b AIS, will the FA70 Furuno work with this system? ANSWER: Yes, the FA70 will work. It is connected via NMEA0183 interfacing to DATA PORT 2 of one of the RDP149's.

I may replace the AP with Garmin or Raymarine, can I make newer NEMA2k products work with this system? ANSWER: You can use a NMEA0183 to NMEA2000 converter. Connect the 0183 side to an unused data port on one of the RDP149's.

The NAVionics card is outdated and is 128MB Can I upgrade to the newest version? ANSWER: Navionics has discontinued the chart cards that work with the NavNet VX2. However, the software in the RDP-149 can be converted to read C-Map chart cards. Please check with C-Map to verify they still have charts available that will work with the VX2. https://www.c-map.com/

 

[njwater]

Is there a black box somewhere that ties them all together, or do they function via the 149 units? ANSWER: each unit is an independent processor referred to as a Multifunction Display (MFD). They communicate with the other units via Ethernet.

I want to add, class b AIS, will the FA70 Furuno work with this system? ANSWER: Yes, the FA70 will work. It is connected via NMEA0183 interfacing to DATA PORT 2 of one of the RDP149's.

I may replace the AP with Garmin or Raymarine, can I make newer NEMA2k products work with this system? ANSWER: You can use a NMEA0183 to NMEA2000 converter. Connect the 0183 side to an unused data port on one of the RDP149's.

The NAVionics card is outdated and is 128MB Can I upgrade to the newest version? ANSWER: Navionics has discontinued the chart cards that work with the NavNet VX2. However, the software in the RDP-149 can be converted to read C-Map chart cards. Please check with C-Map to verify they still have charts available that will work with the VX2. https://www.c-map.com/

Thank you very much, you helped save me from a lot of guessing and poking around the internet.