E80 integration

[Graham_Wright]

I have added a second E80 to my existing but they are not (apparently) talking to each other.

Do I need to harmonise the ethernet addresses? I originally used a pin to pin cable (I think) instead of a crossover. May this have caused damage?

 

[laika]

Do I need to harmonise the ethernet addresses? I originally used a pin to pin cable (I think) instead of a crossover. May this have caused damage?

you won't have caused damage by confusing a straight through cable for a crossover cable. How have you got it crossed over? Is it an actual crossover cable or two cables connected by a crossover coupler?

Aside from physical connectivity problems with the caveat that I have no personal experience of networking more than one of these things...are they both set up as data masters? In which case I'd have a go at turning off the data master setting on one (menu->system setup->system integration->data master->OFF according to the manual

 

[Graham_Wright]

you won't have caused damage by confusing a straight through cable for a crossover cable. How have you got it crossed over? Is it an actual crossover cable or two cables connected by a crossover coupler?

Aside from physical connectivity problems with the caveat that I have no personal experience of networking more than one of these things...are they both set up as data masters? In which case I'd have a go at turning off the data master setting on one (menu->system setup->system integration->data master->OFF according to the manual

I spoke to Ray Marine support who also reassured me on the crossover concerns (I have unhappy memories from the past with RS232 and blown up transistors!). I have a commercial ethernet cable which may or not be crossed and also a Raymarine crossover box.

If I turn them on in sequence, neither asks if it should be the master but in the menu one does. (Then it started raining and the other is in the cockpit).

I do have the manual and I have been round that route. Raymarine thought that the ethernet addresses sorted themselves out which is different from my business lan.

 

[laika]

Raymarine thought that the ethernet addresses sorted themselves out which is different from my business lan.

small point but I suspect we're talking about ip address rather than ethernet address .
I'm not back to the boat until the weekend but from memory (and I could be wrong...) my C-series wide was using IPv4 link-local addresses. This is a (to some, slightly dubious) way of assigning an address to yourself which doesn't clash with other machines on the network but the addresses so assigned won't work over a router (which doesn't matter here). This is different from your business network where you'll most likely either have statically configured addresses or a dhcp server to assign addresses.

Your best bet for testing physical connectivity is to (temporarily, for testing) replace the raymarine crossover box with a domestic gigabit switch (e.g. borrowed home router?). Gigabit switches should normally work with crossover or straight through cables so you take that confusion out of the loop

 

[PaulRainbow]

Seatalk HS networking needs a crossover cable if only two devices and a router/switch with straight through cables if more than two devices. There is no need to configure IP addresses. Domestic switches work fine, as above.

 

[laika]

For clarity, seatalk hs is "fast" (see 100Mb/s which was fast for the mid-90s) ethernet. It cares about what the transmit pin is and what the receive pin is. Hubs and switches had them round the opposite way to end devices, so you'd use a straight through cable to connect to a switch, but if connecting to another computer you'd need a crossover cable:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-dependent_interface
Gigabit devices usually implement a strategy to work out which way round the other end is talking and swap transmit and receive as necessary so it doesn't matter if the cable is crossover or not. If you remove the raymarine crossover thingy and plug both plotters into a *gigabit* switch, it should work regardless of whether either of the cables are crossover or not so you may be able to get a little further with the debugging

 

[Graham_Wright]

3 a.m. in my life is inspiration time. This morning, I recalled that I have a complete schematic of most of the Raymainre service manuals including that for the E80.

My whizz kid friend Richard will sort it I'm sure if it turns out to be a hardware fault.

Both plotters have the came system software.

Accompanying the same inspiration, I wondered if I could use the DSM 300 I have to be an independent "arbiter". I could connect that (through the crossover) to each plotter in turn to prove both way transmissions. Looking at the built in diagnostics, there is an implication that one transfer direction is working but I need to consider that more deeply.

A concern is that the boat is on the hard and the DSM transducer is high powered. Will it be damaged powering it out of water?

Addendum. I have just asked Raymarine Tech Support this question and their response was don't. However, they suggest disconnecting the transducer and that would cause no damage. The DSM will, as expected, complain about the lack of the transducer but that is irrelevant.

I found both engineers I spoke to very helpful and friendly.

 

[Graham_Wright]

Bit more info. Both plotters in diagnostics declare they are receiving data but not transmitting it. (So where is it coming from?!)

I have connected the DSM (with transducer disconnected) to both plotters in turn both of which declare "No data source".

I've checked the crossover box which shows crossed over transmit and receive lines and no power, + or - connections which Raymarine say is correct.

Current Raymarine advice is "the dealer". Oh ££££££££££££!

 

[Graham_Wright]

Update.

With no rational, I thought I would connect the ethernet cable to an ole laptop. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened.

However, when I reconnected the network, everything worked.

Might be useful to someone else one day.