The Vesper Watchmate XB-8000 is an awesome piece of equipment.
If the XB-8000 can be improved I have yet to figure out how!
What attracted me to it was the combination of Wi-Fi and NMEA2000 compatibility, along with what appeared to be, and was, an easy installation.
Most of what’s needed comes in the box, although most people will need the Vesper VHF splitter as well as additional connecting cables. In addition the external alarm (or two) are highly recommended.
Installation is straight forward. To my surprise I found that the external GPS antennae is sensitive enough to work with a substantial amount of GPS between it and the satellites such that it could be mounted in an aft locker. No holes needed throughout the deck nor threading of cable through stantion posts.
Adding power connections via the main switch panel were relatively straight forward and other cables were essentially “plug and play”. The only challenge may be fitting the correct fuses and while I have an “inline” solution, a simple upgrade remains a follow on project to posted here at a later date.
I have not yet linked to NMEA 2k and instead I am using it with a Wi-Fi link to my iPad. When installing the free software on the iPad makes sure you have the latest version. I was puzzled setting up alarms until I found out I was using an older version of the software
The external alarm is equally easy to attach. It will only mount on relatively thin panels using the threaded nut. On Dragon II the alarm is mounted in the cockpit and the panel is quite thick, so in this case I simply used Sikaflex to seal it in place and it looks rather neat since the surface of the alarm is flush with the facia. It is worth buying the correct sized drill to make a clean hole. I’m contemplating fitting another alarm alarm in the cabin.
Below you can see the output from the XB-800 on the screen of an ipad pro running iNAVX.
A Dragon's Tale 