Henri
We have a D365 with exactly the upgrade you are looking to do. Luckily some of it was done before we bought the boat, but we have added since then.
1. Up on the binacle we have a Raymarine Axiom 9 Chartplotter, which creates its own WiFi
2. At the chart table we have an Ipad, must be one with built in GPS, running Navionics
3. Install Raymarine Raycontrol App on the IPad. You can then log onto the Axiom9 Wifi and view / Control the Axiom9 from down below
4. Installed a Yakker WiFi bridge so that i can set up a WiFi hotspot to overlay AIS data on Navionics – See picture attached of AIS / Navionics
5. Have Navionics on our phones as well, this coupled with the Yakker gives us a personal chart plotter and AIS alarm
Good Bits
1. The whole system still uses the original NMEA 0183 databus / Raymarine St6000 series instruments, no upgrade necessary
2. Still love the ST6000 series instruments, bit basic, but simple
3. You can set the Axiom9 up to display time / SOG / STW / TWS / AWS in big numbers on the display so you don’t need to see the other instruments and you can see it below using Raycontrol App. I actually also have the McMurdo ICS NAV6 which has a page you can set up to display just about everything
4. the Yakker was about £70, to transmit AIS data on WiFi, it then goes to all Navionics logged onto it
5. Using the above, i have Axiom9 complete with AIS if i’m at the helm or at the chart table. And / or i have Navionics with AIS on the Ipad and any iphone for individual users
6. if you don’t have an Ipad, you can pick up a 2nd hand one pretty cheap as you don’t need the latest all singing model. but it must have WiFi & cellular, its the Cellular that has the built in GPS. You don’t need any SIM card in the Ipad, so its a really cheap plotter when running Navionics
7. Even though the Axiom9 is running Navionics platform, we still prefer the Navionics display on Iphone / Ipad
Bad bits
1. Axiom9 is quite expensive at about £1000, but mine came with the boat as the previous owner had just upgraded
2. You cannot get the Axiom9 to transmit AIS data on its own Wifi, if anyone knows differently, please say so i tried for days and gave up and fitted the Yakker
3. The Yakker and Axiom9 are seperate wifi networks. If i want to use the Ipad to see the Axiom9 i have to log onto the Axiom 9 chartplotter wifi, and if i want to use Navionics with AIS overlay on either Ipad or Iphone i log onto the Yakker wifi. but in reality its really simple
4. My real bugbear – Navionics licenses. The Navionics license on the Axiom9 is different to your navionics license of your IPAD / Iphone, so you have to pay twice. This is now further compounded by Garmin / Navionics further restricting Iphone / IPAD users to only two simultaneous users rather than the four it was until very recently. Before this change recently, it was not unusual to have navionics on the IPAD and both myself and my wife (The skipper) to have it on our Iphones at the same time. But again it’s not that bad as a compromise
5. The only real irritant is you cannot control the St6001 Autohelm with the Axiom9. The function is there, but does not work. Not that much of real problem though.
Bottom line if i was starting again would i install the same overall system YES
Hope this helps
John