Replacing DRS4A with NXT

wkearney99

Furuno Super Fan
I have a DRS4A radar connected into a HUB101 with four MFD12 displays. The radar has been intermittent and it's time to upgrade.

My plan is to replace the DRS4 with a DRS6ANXT/4, and two of the MFD12's with two TZT3-16 displays.

The existing DRS4 has both an Ethernet and 12vdc power to it. There is no PSU for it.

Can I re-use these for the DRS6ANXT/4? It'd sure be convenient not to have to pull out the old Ethernet cabling.

And if I'm reading correctly, a DRS12A-NXT would require 24vdc and it's own combined power/lan cable down from the unit.

Are there any head-to-head comparisons of the DRS6A-NXT vs the DRS12A-NXT?

Obviously the 12 has greater power, but I'm not sure my boating needs demand it. The boat gets used for recreation cruising, in-shore 90% of the time. The 10% off-shore is for trips up to New England from Annapolis. I'm looking at the array vs the dome to get better target differentiation for night/fog conditions and small items like fishing buoys and markers. I'm not trying to find bird 6 miles out. But I'd very much like close detail differentiation at night in ranges under a mile.

The DRS6A-NXT would save me some money/installation costs, esp wrt to the cabling and PSU.
 
In general you won't be able to reuse the cable due to the current. The older DRS units ran off 48vdc so they pull less current up the cable than something running 24v or 12v. If you have a really short connection run; we might could run the numbers and see if it is possible but it is very unlikely you can reuse the old cable.

The DRS6ANXT can only run 12v if using the supplied 15m cable and beyond that it must be 24v powered. The DRS12ANXT must be 24v powered. This 24v can be from the 24v boat power or 24v that has been boosted with a power supply from the boat 12v.

From the descriptions of your needs it sounds like the DRS6AXNT would fit what you're looking for.
 
Hmm, I'm not near the boat so I can't cite the exact model# but I could swear there's a 12vdc connection into the dome with the Ethernet cabling. That and I don't recall seeing a power supply anywhere that connects with it. It was just the power and the ethernet, and the ethernet ran straight into a HUB101. I've been all over the boat and don't recall a PSU hiding anywhere. But it's coming out so it's not like that'll matter.

I don't think it'll be beyond 45' of cabling. It's up about 8' of mast and then ran to an amidships lower helm station to the chart plotter. There is, of course, some up/down/over/under cabling involved, but very likely to be less than a 15m total length.

One small concern was there's not a "good" place to stash a PSU for this, so being able to use 12vdc would save some effort trying to find a creative place for it.
 
If you have a DRS4A; it is 48v. It would draw power either from an older NN3D MFD12/MFDBB or from the PSU012 power supply that takes 12v and makes 48v for the radar.
 
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