Connecting XM DSC radio to Garmin GPS

[DavidGrieves]

Hi All
Trying to help another boat owner, He has a Garmin 128 GPS and wants to connect it to his XM DSC VHF radio.
I thought I had it sorted but it doesn't always work.

I connected the blue NMEA out from the GPS to the Yellow wire on the radio and the black wire NMEA ground to the green with on the radio.

It does work sometimes and radio shows correct position and time. But sometimes they stop talking to each other and radio says no GPS.

Any ideas???

Chreers

Dave

 

[Saltram31]

Have you set the baud rate correctly to match the radio? You can change it from the settings menu on the Garmin.

 

[RichardS]

Have you set the baud rate correctly to match the radio? You can change it from the settings menu on the Garmin.

Loose connection/broken wire somewhere?

Richard

 

[bitbaltic]

Loose connection/broken wire somewhere?

Richard

Indeed

If you connect both NMEA -ve to a common ground and then+ve connections to each other, it will work this is simple and old equipment. Suspect the OP’s pal has bridged the -ve connections together and then both to ground, it should work but he has two connections to be dodgy and interrupt the signal.

Usual riders about a common ground (same battery/batteries), baud rates and garmin versus NMEA out apply.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Hi All
Trying to help another boat owner, He has a Garmin 128 GPS and wants to connect it to his XM DSC VHF radio.
I thought I had it sorted but it doesn't always work.

I connected the blue NMEA out from the GPS to the Yellow wire on the radio and the black wire NMEA ground to the green with on the radio.

It does work sometimes and radio shows correct position and time. But sometimes they stop talking to each other and radio says no GPS.

Any ideas???

Chreers

Dave

Blue to Yellow is correct. At the VHF, you can simply connect the NMEA IN - (green) to the 12v negative, or any convenient 12v negative. If it works sometimes the baud rates and setting will be correct, it has to be a bad connection, as per post #2.

 

[barongan]

interesting thread, I had the same question

 

[DavidGrieves]

Hi
The baud rate was set at 4200. Is that the right rate for the XM DSC radio?

 

[prv]

Hi
The baud rate was set at 4200. Is that the right rate for the XM DSC radio?

The NMEA standard specifies 4800baud. Hopefully your 4200 is a typo since this isn't a normal speed for a serial port.

Pete

 

[bitbaltic]

The NMEA standard specifies 4800baud. Hopefully your 4200 is a typo since this isn't a normal speed for a serial port.

Pete

Pretty much has to be because a Garmin128 certainly can’t be set to that