TZTL15F, combined with a TZT3 16

[Sdpaddler50]

I have 8 year old TZTL15F's on the lower, and upper helm. They have the latest software updates. The lower helm has been rebooting alot, and sometimes down for 6 or more minutes. I run the boat at night often and rely on the radar.

My plan is to replace the lower helm TZTL with a TZT3, and keep the existing TZTL on the upper helm as it still works fine.

Furuno TS told me the following on the phone:
1. Can go 1 version up, or down, so going to the 3 is ok. IE, the older TZTL on the upper helm and newer TZT3 on the lower helm should play nice.
2. Keep up with software updates to ensure the two systems stay friendly.
3. Can be done mostly plug and play, no changes to backbone, etc.

A few questions:
1. Anything else I should be considering?
2. Has anyone else done the similar? Issues?

46 ft Trawler
DRS4D-NXT, SC30, 711C

 

[Quitsa]

When I installed two TZT3 16s at my main helm when they first came out in 2021, I had to use a TZTL 12F at my tower helm because the smaller TZT3 display with the hybrid control was too wide to fit the space available. I never had any problems, The TZTL was plugged into the same ethernet network and NMEA 2000 backbone as the two TZT3s. You shouldn't need to do anything except unplug the TZTL and plug in the TZT3. The power cord connector is the same on both units so you could even leave the old one in place.

The software download pages for the two models has some explanation of the compatibility issue. Generally speaking, if you have the final V8.01 software on the TZTL, it will work fine with the TZT3 running the latest version. The only thing you cannot do is have a TZTL and the new TZTXLs on the same network.