Electronics ecosystem... help!

[Swandoggg]

Hey everyone! Calling on electronics ecosystem experts. I have a Nicholson 35 and trying to update the AIS and add WiFi.

Goal:
- Upgrade AIS, add WiFi, and project all AIS/Instrument data etc. to SailProof tablet and chart plotter.

Current equipment:
- Raymarine ST60+ instruments (Wind, depth, log etc). 2010
- Raymarine Chart plotter a75 (shows Radar and AIS receiving) 2015
- AIS NASA Engine 3 (2011) - connected to chart plotter
- Garmine 128 GPS (2000)
- ST60+ Raymarine repeater (2010)
- Radio DSC VHF 7200 (2007)
- NAVTEX w. H-Hector Antenna (2017)
- Radar - Raymarine Digital Radar Scanner (2015)

Purchased for install:
- Digital Yacht AIT2000 Class B
- Digital Yacht LanLink NMEA -> Ethernet
- Poynting EPNT-4 5G/LTE atenna
- RUTX14 Router with 2 sim inputs
- SailProof Tablet for a navigation

The aim is to install the router w/ EPNT-4 antenna on the transom with dual SIM cards. That is PoE that can run into the boat and connect to LanLink, which is in turn connected with AIS unit and instrumentation and chart plotter. Then the 3G/4G/5G signal will be boosted as boat wifi with all of the ship data together in that signal. The challenge is that all the connections are a mix and I am not at the boat to pull the panels off and dive in and I am trying to prepare for a trip at the end of March to visit her. And I don't know much about backbones, how to arrange them, or manage them...

Raymarine components will all be SeaTalk. The AIS NASA Engine to Chartplotter is 9 pin. The new bits and pieces will be NMEA 0183 and PoE... Is this going to be a serious headache to put together or am I over complicating this in my mind and it will be fairly plug and play if I have a bunch of adapters handy? I have never attempted anything like this before.

Any advice is appreciated as I think I am going down the right path but want to make sure I haven't missed a crucial piece in the puzzle. I would love some advice from the seasoned pros out there.

Cheers!
Alex

 

[DoubleEnder]

crikey. Quite complex!

 

[Yngmar]

It's possible, but you might give yourself a headache doing it!

Main problem is getting the data out of the proprietary ST1 (SeaTalk1) into NMEA0183, the rest is pretty dull standard IT stuff. There is an original Raymarine converter box, which only has a number instead of a name and hasn't been made in a long time and is pretty hard to find used. Or one of several homebrewed converters, perhaps one of the better ones here: Yacht Devices NMEA 0183 to Seatalk1 Multiplexer - YDNM-02

You plumb one end of that into the ST1 bus and the NMEA 0183 end into your Ethernet box and from there onto Wifi and the tablet (although most people skip the Ethernet part, not sure why you bought that bit). You'll also have to hook up the AIS separately, as that's a different speed and needs to go into a separate port and then multiplexed together into a single NMEA0183 stream for the other devices. If you don't know about IP addresses, TCP and UDP, ports and the difference between setting up an access point and joining a network, bring along a generic computer person and feed them coffee and biscuits until it works

I assume the Navtex and Garmin GPS are standalone (or at best only feeding GPS to the DSC VHF), so those can be left alone.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Hey everyone! Calling on electronics ecosystem experts. I have a Nicholson 35 and trying to update the AIS and add WiFi.

Goal:
- Upgrade AIS, add WiFi, and project all AIS/Instrument data etc. to SailProof tablet and chart plotter.

Current equipment:
- Raymarine ST60+ instruments (Wind, depth, log etc). 2010
- Raymarine Chart plotter a75 (shows Radar and AIS receiving) 2015
- AIS NASA Engine 3 (2011) - connected to chart plotter
- Garmine 128 GPS (2000)
- ST60+ Raymarine repeater (2010)
- Radio DSC VHF 7200 (2007)
- NAVTEX w. H-Hector Antenna (2017)
- Radar - Raymarine Digital Radar Scanner (2015)

Purchased for install:
- Digital Yacht AIT2000 Class B
- Digital Yacht LanLink NMEA -> Ethernet
- Poynting EPNT-4 5G/LTE atenna
- RUTX14 Router with 2 sim inputs
- SailProof Tablet for a navigation

Have you purchased these yet ?

The aim is to install the router w/ EPNT-4 antenna on the transom with dual SIM cards. That is PoE that can run into the boat and connect to LanLink, which is in turn connected with AIS unit and instrumentation and chart plotter. Then the 3G/4G/5G signal will be boosted as boat wifi with all of the ship data together in that signal. The challenge is that all the connections are a mix and I am not at the boat to pull the panels off and dive in and I am trying to prepare for a trip at the end of March to visit her. And I don't know much about backbones, how to arrange them, or manage them...

Raymarine components will all be SeaTalk. The AIS NASA Engine to Chartplotter is 9 pin. The new bits and pieces will be NMEA 0183 and PoE... Is this going to be a serious headache to put together or am I over complicating this in my mind and it will be fairly plug and play if I have a bunch of adapters handy? I have never attempted anything like this before.

Any advice is appreciated as I think I am going down the right path but want to make sure I haven't missed a crucial piece in the puzzle. I would love some advice from the seasoned pros out there.

Cheers!
Alex

Going NMEA 0183 is a giant mistake.

 

[KompetentKrew]

There's minimal need to bring TCP/IP into your boat instruments. At most you gateway NMEA out to your wifi network so you can view your GPS position / speed / depth / AIS on a tablet. But that gateway is the only thing that spans both networks (it's possible this isn't strictly true, but unlikely).

5G / LTE / SIM cards have nothing to do with your boat instruments network - they're for watching Netflix on your tablet and sending emails and whatnot.

Maybe I'm being a bit blunt, and you want to argue with this comment, but viewing TCP/IP and wifi as being part of the "same network" as your boat's NMEA instrument data is just a bad way to think about these electronics. They are two separate networks.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Just noticed, this was posted on18th Feb and the OP has not been back since the 20th.

No point posting anything more unless he returns, IMO.

 

[tillergirl]

What is an electrical ecosystem? I would have thought there was at least a solar panel in there!

 

[Alex_Blackwood]

What is an electrical ecosystem? I would have thought there was at least a solar panel in there!

Miss print perhaps should be a "G"

 

[tillergirl]

That just confuses me further. But I am easily confused.

 

[vas]

I think Alex forgot a smiley in his post
g instead of c in second word, maybe?

 

[tillergirl]

 

[Alex_Blackwood]

I think Alex forgot a smiley in his post
g instead of c in second word, maybe?

Yeah, That what you get for working on the hoof Should have stopped and drawn breath.