Garmin AIS

pugwash60

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I've been trying to fit a Garmin AIS 600 to my boat, to interface with a Garmin 750 chartplotter, and it's driving me mad. I've programmed the MMSI on my computer, and when connected on the boat it appears to be working, ie, the led indicators show that all is well, and I get rf interference every few seconds as it appears to be receiving messages and or sending them. The GPS aerial is working fine, as I can change it over with another Garmin GPS aerial and the appropriate machine works fine on either.

However I cannot get any indication on the chartplotter of any other AIS contacts and neither the coastguard nor the local ferry can see me, and, obviously, I'm not appearing on web based AIS.

I'm pretty sure I've connected the correct wires for nmea 0183 or whatever the number is, which happen to be gray and pink on the ais out put and brown and violet on the charplotter input. I've tried both slow and fast baud rates on transmission and reception on the chartplotter. I've also tried connecting the NMEA 2000 but still with no results.

I wondered whether my VHF aerial might be the problem so sailed to my local chandler and bought and fitted a new VHF Aerial, which initially showed the same symptoms but then when I soldered the connection when I got home rather than just having the small wires swimming around in the pl 259, I got an error warning on the AIS leds, and if I put it back on the old VHF aerial this disappeared, so it's possible I've melted some of the insulation (I speeded up the heating process on the pl 259 with a blow torch which may not have been a good idea!).

I am used to ship based AIS so was also surprised not to see a menu for destination, pob, eta, draft etc, but assume that these are not included on 'B' transmitters.

Does any body have any ideas ? My thoughts are that it is either using an incorrect frequency so no body is seeing me and I'm not seeing anybody else, or there is a problem with it which the internal diagnostics are not seeing. Either way it sounds like a return to sender problem.



Thanks.
 

Keith-i

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If using nmea0183 then you must use 38400 baud rate. It will not work any lower than that. However, forget 183 and use 2000. When you have a 2000 network the 750 will be able to see the ais to at least confirm it is working, then it is just down to the aerial. Sounds to me like you have shorted the aerial wire - you really shouldn't use a blow torch on something like that.
 

fontmell

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hi - it is the settings in the Plotter look in the manual from memory it needs the nmea fast or 2000 set to the right port
 

knuterikt

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I've been trying to fit a Garmin AIS 600 to my boat, to interface with a Garmin 750 chartplotter, and it's driving me mad. I've programmed the MMSI on my computer, and when connected on the boat it appears to be working, ie, the led indicators show that all is well, and I get rf interference every few seconds as it appears to be receiving messages and or sending them. The GPS aerial is working fine, as I can change it over with another Garmin GPS aerial and the appropriate machine works fine on either.

However I cannot get any indication on the chartplotter of any other AIS contacts and neither the coastguard nor the local ferry can see me, and, obviously, I'm not appearing on web based AIS.

I'm pretty sure I've connected the correct wires for nmea 0183 or whatever the number is, which happen to be gray and pink on the ais out put and brown and violet on the charplotter input. I've tried both slow and fast baud rates on transmission and reception on the chartplotter. I've also tried connecting the NMEA 2000 but still with no results.

I wondered whether my VHF aerial might be the problem so sailed to my local chandler and bought and fitted a new VHF Aerial, which initially showed the same symptoms but then when I soldered the connection when I got home rather than just having the small wires swimming around in the pl 259, I got an error warning on the AIS leds, and if I put it back on the old VHF aerial this disappeared, so it's possible I've melted some of the insulation (I speeded up the heating process on the pl 259 with a blow torch which may not have been a good idea!).

I am used to ship based AIS so was also surprised not to see a menu for destination, pob, eta, draft etc, but assume that these are not included on 'B' transmitters.

Does any body have any ideas ? My thoughts are that it is either using an incorrect frequency so no body is seeing me and I'm not seeing anybody else, or there is a problem with it which the internal diagnostics are not seeing. Either way it sounds like a return to sender problem.

Thanks.

I have not installed or used Garmin AIS 600 but know the Em-trak B100 http://www.em-trak.com/PRODUCTS/Class-B/Class-B.aspx which has got a similar spec.

First you need to know what type of interface you are using since the AIS 600 support both.
- As already stated by in a previous post if you are using NMEA 0183, the port on the Plotter must be set to 38400 baud rate
- If NMEA 2000 using the correct cabling is important.

The AIS need only a GPS receiver, working VHF antenna, correct programming and power to transmit position data.

The other networking is to get data from the receiver to the plotter and/or VHF radio (And turn transmit off from the plotter I think)

A fault in the VHF aerial or cabling will effectively stop both reception and transmission.
We installed our AIS with a dedicated VHF antenna but we had problems similar to what you have (no transmission & reception), after plugging the emergency VHF antenna it was much better :)
MTRA114.jpg

After more research we found a bad connection in the ready made antenna cable that came with the new VHF antenna ;)

The PC program we used to configure the AIS ProAIS2 have a diagnostics page that among other things show SWR of antenna - in our case it was shown as "not good" with the bad cable..

Yes, the B class omit some of the variables you can set on class A.
 

David2452

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I have fitted a small number of 600s to Garmin MFDs and not had an issue except when trying to use it with a Classic C120 which I eventually resolved. Use the N2K obviously, it is far better than 0183, first check that the MFD can actually see the 600 on the network, if so update the network using the latest edition downloaded from Gamin for Free if that is no help then try a separate known good antenna. But first, and without wishing to teach granny to suck eggs make sure all the MFD menu options that need to be on are actually on.
 

pugwash60

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Thanks averyone and apologies for being off line for ages, I left home to go to sea, and am only just catching up. I spoke, as suggested to Garmin and ended up sending the unit back for testing. I had remade the antennae connection very carefully and as it was a new one and it was not transmitting they reckoned i was probably an internal fault.
 

pdthomas1952

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Hi pugwash60, I've just fitted the same AIS to my boat and despite leaving it on for two days on my mooring on the Plym, it still fails to show on marine traffic and in a conversation with the coastgaurd he said that he could not see me either. The "All OK" light is on on the unit, It receives information fine, I have an emergency VHF aerial that I have tried as well and still no joy, I just wondered whether your unit was showing "All OK" as well, when in fact it was faulty? I've just bought a Metz Manta as a last ditch attempt to get it to work in place of my current Hawk aerial, but would rather avoid a trip up the mast if possible. My Raymarine DSC VHF works really well on the existing aerial and I've been unable to beg, borrow or steal a SWR meter, so any comments would be most welcome. I wanted to swap from my existing AIS receiver to a transponder to improve safety on some channel crossings I'm due to undertake in the next week or so, but gear that may or may not be working will definitely not do that!
 
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