[emarrero]

Here's the helm as it was when I bought the boat. One of the previous owners was definitely a techie and probably some pretty deep pockets at the time.
   

The plan was to declutter this whole thing, mount the VHF where I can see it, move the flowscan to the other side, and add some music.

First step was to use the design tool over at frontpanelexpress.com to draw out the panels. Mounting cutouts were easy to get from the online pdf installation manuals of each device.  About 5 days and $250.00 later I had a pair of beautifully machined anodized aluminum panels at my front door.
   

The only thing left to do was spend the better part of another day moving stuff around. This after picture still shows a little caulk from the previous installations but things are looking much cleaner and easier to understand now.
   

Notes:
Both screens are Simrad GO7 units. The starboard side is an older first generation unit I already had and the port one is a new GO7-XSR which is able to accept radar input. Radar was out of scope & budget this time around but we're ready to tackle that another day.

Each screen has input for one transducer so the starboard one is connected to a new Bronze HDI Thru Hull 50/200/455/800 Khz transducer and the port has a fancy forwardscan connected to it. They're both plugged into a NMEA2000 backbone as is the VHF so they can all talk & listen to each other. Each screen has a GPS receiver as does the VHF so the only way we're losing track of where we are is if a couple of satellites go dark.

The original autopilot is also connected to the NMEA2000 backbone through a Shipmodul MiniPlex-3USB-N2K. This lets me see rudder position & the output from its Simrad RFC35 electronic compass on the displays.

The forwardscan hasn't been as useful as I was hoping it would be. Lots of times it just calls out random numbers and I find I can't trust it. 

Going forward I'd like to add a radar and get more stuff talking on the NMEA2000 network.