Furuno NavNet TZtouch3 - The Fisherman

Furuno NavNet TZtouch3

I had a chance to sit down with the Furuno USA engineering team for an intense instructional course on their new NavNet TZtouch3 at this year’s Miami Boat Show and was totally blown away by these easy-to-use multi-function displays. NavNet TZtouch3 offers three display options. The 12-inch Hybrid Control TZT12F (my favorite as a small boat center console guide) is an IPS multi touch display with an integrated control panel, including Furuno’s intuitive RotoKey and dedicated physical buttons to complement NavNet TZtouch3’s multi-touch controls. Those running smaller boats know that when getting bounced around offshore, it can be difficult to get an accurate tap on the screen, no matter how big it is. That’s why Furuno made their TZtouch3 12-inch MFD as a Hybrid Touch. You get the best of both worlds with a full multi-touch display and an extremely handy, built-in keyboard that features a RotoKey cursor pad and dedicated buttons.

Stepping up in size for the larger go-fast center consoles and express boats, Furuno’s larger 16-inch TZT16F and 19-inch TZT19F are sleek, all-glass, multi-touch IPS displays that deliver clear and precise visual color presentations from virtually any angle. All models incorporate a powerful quad-core processor that takes NavNet’s TimeZero technology to the next level, offering 4-way split-screen displays and lightning-fast response time.

Furuno has endeavored to make NavNet TZtouch3 the easiest to use MFD available. The edge-swipe feature makes finding what you need a breeze. Swipe from the left of the screen to view or hide navigation data, from the right to see all of your shortcuts, from the bottom to view layer options, or from the top to access Quick Pages (custom screen configurations). A single tap selects most options.

Furuno

Every TZtouch3 MFD includes a built-in 1kW, dual-channel TruEcho CHIRP Fish Finder. TruEcho CHIRP is designed to operate across a wide range of frequencies utilizing a broadband transducer, delivering significant advantages in signal clarity and target definition. Due to the constant sweeping of frequencies, TruEcho CHIRP is capable of gathering more and higher-quality data than traditional Fish Finders. For those looking for a higher-power CHIRP Fish Finder, Furuno has made it possible to pump up the power of TruEcho CHIRP by interfacing the Deep Impact DI-FFAMP to the internal Fish Finder. Deep Impact boosts your power to a 2 kW or 3 kW CHIRP Fish Finder, ensuring that fish and bottom echoes come back sharp and clear at greater depths. Alternatively, the built-in Fish Finder is capable of outputting a traditional CW signal for those who prefer the industry-standard 50/200 kHz interpretation of what’s between your boat and the bottom.

But there’s more…the hallmark of the NavNet series has always been in its scalability. This allows mariners to customize their helm to build the perfect navigation suite with award-winning DRS radars, both built-in and optional black box fish finder selections, AIS and VHF, NavPilot autopilots, compasses and multiple weather options. Once of my favorite features of all three of these new TZtouch3 displays is the ability to safeguard your treasured wreck and reef numbers. The new Power Lock Pin Code feature allows operators to require a four-digit password to be entered upon startup, keeping your data safe against theft.

Installing new cartography (Navionics and CMOR bathymetric charts) is as simple as purchasing a license and entering the unlock code. Furuno includes high-resolution satellite photography for most chart areas. With TimeZero’s PhotoFusion, you’ll be able to overlay all of your high-resolution photography without obscuring important chart details.

NavNet TZtouch3 includes an extensive library of MapMedia Raster and Vector cartography for the US coastline, with even more options available for purchase, including C-MAP, Datacore by Cloud ecosystem. TZ Cloud service allows you to back up and store your waypoints, routes and event marks to the TimeZero cloud server, as well as synchronize and edit them on your MFDs, TimeZero PC software and the TZ iBoat app for iPad. Use the new TZ First Mate app to drop an event mark with each big catch and include the species, length and weight and even take a picture with your phone, then access the information anywhere.

The new NavNet TZtouch3 definitely raised the competitive bar for next-gen MFDs with features, processing power, speed and connectability. For more information, visit www.furunousa.com.

Related

Furuno-TZTouch-XL

Product Spotlight: Furuno TZtouchXL MFDS

2024 Marine Electronics Buyers Guide

The electronics industry is pushing the envelope yet again this year, and we’ve got the scoop on what’s inside!

Furuno

Product Review: Furuno FCV-600 And FCV-800 Echo Sounders