another Garmin Q water temp shows on plotter not on GMIs

[vas]

title says it all really

Got a NMEA2K network, everything sees everything, GMIs list the DTS800 (or whatever the AIRMAR depth speed temp sensor is called) and the mushroom so does the 751plotter.
Now, when I turn the lot on, the GPSMAP751 shows water temp (currently around 27C in the port!) together with GPS speed, depth et al, BUT GMI10s DONT show water temp They do show gps speed (from the mushroom obviously) and depth from the AIRMAR though.
I'm not even mentioning the useless paddlewheel that the first week was showing around a third of the real speed and has stopped since, but temp would be nice to see from the f/b.

Any odd reason for that happening? It's obvious that sensor works as temp is shown on one device on the network. Couldn't find any odd config setting for the GMIs

cheers

V.

 

[jfm]

I can't think of any reason for that. Makes no sense - as you have already concluded for yourself of course!. Never had that problem on gmi10 or 20. Urgh, reload the firmware? (I realise that consumes an hour of your life)

Just to be clear, you're saying you can find the water temp on the menu when you configure the page on the GMI 10, and then it just shows a nil value or a dash, right? Or can you not even find water temp on the menu?

 

[vas]

Correct John, GMI10 shows _._ C

V.

 

[jfm]

Correct John, GMI10 shows _._ C

V.

That's really odd. It's not getting the data or it's getting it but not dealing with it correctly. Feels like the latter, and feel like the firmware has a glitch whereby it is not allocating the data item that has the temp PGN stapled to it to that data field in the GMI10. The data must have the correct PGN else the plotter wouldn't display it. I'd install another firmware. I'll check mine this weekend and report back

 

[vas]

Thanks John,

just back after a 3h session adding turbo gauges and installing the NASA AIS receiver on the plotter.

First observation is that plotter reports the depth speed temp AIRMAR sensor as a DST200 whereas it is a DST800. Downloaded the latest s/w for it and will install it in the morning. Hope it's an automated process and the plotter will figure out there is a s/w firmware there for a non-Garmin device once I stick the microSD in the first slot

Also faced another issue with the plotter orange cable NOT outputing 12V as it should (aux out for devices like the AIS and in my case the analogue to NMEA2K engine data black box) Went through all the menus nada. I'd have thought it doesn't need an instruction to work, would it?
No wonder AIS wasn't working
Changed to a proper power supply, configured first NMEA port to high speed, and AIS worked! Well impressed

cheers

V.

 

[vas]

First observation is that plotter reports the depth speed temp AIRMAR sensor as a DST200 whereas it is a DST800. Downloaded the latest s/w for it and will install it in the morning. Hope it's an automated process and the plotter will figure out there is a s/w firmware there for a non-Garmin device once I stick the microSD in the first slot

quoting myself, how sad...

sticking the microSD left the plotter completely unimpressed. What would be the process of updating the s/w on a NMEA2K device that doesn't have a USB or some other way of connecting to it? Oddly AIRMAR HAS a s/w upgrade for it, wonder how you are expected to use it!
Theoretical question as I just checked their site again and the ver. of the firmware is the one reported by the sensor as well. So no luck there.
May try an older ver. of the s/w on the GMIs and report it to Garmin.

Also faced another issue with the plotter orange cable NOT outputing 12V as it should (aux out for devices like the AIS and in my case the analogue to NMEA2K engine data black box) Went through all the menus nada. I'd have thought it doesn't need an instruction to work, would it?
No wonder AIS wasn't working
Changed to a proper power supply, configured first NMEA port to high speed, and AIS worked! Well impressed

Hm, went through all the PDFs (installation and operation manuals) and there's no mention on turning on or off the access output. Need to have NoLand analogue eng->NMEA2K and NASA AIS getting power only when the plotter is on.


Final Q:
Reading the GPSMAP751 installation manual under NMEA2K Considerations it has the following NOTICE:

If you have an existing NMEA 2000 network on your boat, it should already be connected to power. Do not connect the NMEA 2000 power cable to an existing NMEA 2000 network, because only one power source should be connected to a NMEA 2000 network.

Which means, either remove the power cable to the NMEA2K bus (the yellow cable, or don't give power to the GPSMAP as it will take all it needs from the NMEA2K drop cable coming into it

It's written as if I should only give power to the GPSMAP in which case if it's not on nothing will work? Pointless if I want to have the cabin GMI10 running anchor drag getting signals from the NMEA2K mushroom and depth sensors!

OK, just tested and it's just pointless and confusing. Systems wont run without the yellow NMEA2K power cable, and ofcourse plotter wont power up from the bus only powersupply. So needs both (as I had it already)

NMEA2K backbone on MiToS is rather long (say 20M?) with the power being at 14m from the bow end of the bus with devices littered all over the place...

cheers

V.

 

[jfm]

Yup that instruction isn't too clear. The n2k bus needs the yellow wire power supply even if some devices on the bus (eg plotter) also have their own 12/24 supplies. Basically any n2k device (eg plotter) that has its own power input is isolated from the power cables within the n2k bus, and connects only to the data wires. In contrast, N2k devices without their own power input draw their power from the bus and you have to tally up the LEN numbers so you don't overload the 10 amps or whatever maximum applies. So the bus always has to have its own power supply, = yellow wire. This is handy in overnight anchoring because you can turn off the plotters and use anchor alarm/GMI10 powered from the bus

BTW, if you read into the detail of n2k bus specs you can have multiple power supplies. On my current and previous boats there are 2 x 12v inputs (yellow wires) into the bus, each located about 1/4 (in LEN terms) from the end. On my last boat this 12v came from a single 24-12 dropper whose output was paralleled to both yellow wires. On current boat each yellow wire has its own dropper, and occasionally I get quirks in data transmission so I plan on changing the two separate 24-12 droppers to a single bigger dropper (I have about 30-35 devices on the bus)

20/14m dimensions are not a problem. Nothing wrong with even a 50m+ bus. When the bus gets uber big in physical length terms or LEN load you split it into two independent busses and install a bus end -to-bus end bridge from Maretron so that in data terms the two busses mimics a single bus. I bet they sell about one of those a year, if they're lucky

 

[jfm]

I don't know how you update the firmware on the Airmar - I can see your problem! Only possible thing that comes to mind is install a maretron usb100 onto the bus then you have direct laptop connection to play around with bus devices

 

[vas]

agree J.

as I said Airmar does have the latest firmware (as reported by the plotter) so currently my main issue (after the water temp not showing on GMIs) is to get the bleeding plotter to power the NASA AIS (0183NMEA) and the NoLand Eng analogue to NMEA2K without having them on a separate fuse that I'll have to remember to switch on when going out...

Will try carefully measuring V output again and do a bit more of headscratching...

cheers

V.

 

[jfm]

Surely you can just power the nasa ais and the NoLand from the same power supply as the plotter. Or have all three breaker switches side by side so you turn them all on and all off. The latter is how I do it; I never turn on/off the plotters from their own local switches. I have a big bank of trip switches for all the vav gear, n2k bus, radar, VHFs and camera and all of that, and turn the whole lot on or off in one frenzied switching session when I leave or return to dock)