Garmin AIS600 MMSI input

[Ripster]

I have a Garmin 4010 plotter and have had a AIS600 unit attached to it. The AIS can see others but no-one can see me yet as the dealer who fitted it says he didnt have my mmsi number at the time (which he didn't). He tells me that it is done by connecting it to a PC via a USB lead but he never seems to get around to doing it, despite promising...blah blah...

So I thought, how hard can it be? Anyone done it? I have the AIS600 CD that came with the unit and a can easily get a usb lead - but is the input/programming process simple enough?

 

[david_bagshaw]

Judging by the digital yacht prog I have looked at , easy, but get the mmsi number right first time as there seems to be a convention of back to the dealer to fix.

 

[Bilge Rat]

Yes. We've done it. It was quite straightforward. The only difficulty we had was getting the laptop close enough for the short little USB cable they give you. You can also input the name, type of vessel and loa and beam of your boat at the same time.

 

[David2452]

Piece of cake, I've done three or four, assuming you have the CD, some earlier laptops don't seem to work with the programme or rather don't recognise the USB port easily but most will. If you do not have a CD I can loan you one, though of course the dealer should have left you with one. The USB cable is OK to use with an extention so that needn't be a problem. Don't worry too much about the seemingly intricate GPS reciever position entry and just leave the defaults.

 

[Ripster]

Many thanks all. I will have a go at the WE. I have the CD on the boat and will take a much longer USB lead or an extension.

 

[JSYmartini]

It asks you for dimensions from your antenna to the port and starboard sides of the vessel and also distance to bow and stern. Sounds a bit random but these get added up to give your loa and beam which is broadcast. I seem to remember that you can only give figures to the nearest metre so you may have to cheat slightly in order to end up with the correct vessel size.. Ie a 3m wide boat put down 2m to the port and 1m to the stbd even though your antenna may be on the centreline.

 

[richardbrennan]

I have a Germin 5012 which is basically a slightly larger touch screen version of the 4010. I linked this to a Digital Yacht AIS but I suspect the innards are the same regardless of the model. The setup sounds exactly the same and was very easy to do. The one snag I found was that the information on AIS in my original 5012 manual was very thin. The newer manuals are much more informative so if your 4010 manual is a few years old it might be worth looking at the up to date version on line.

 

[Ripster]

Just as an update. Ran the install CD on a laptop, turned the AIS on, plugged in the cable and after a bit of configuring (I needed to tell the PC that I wanted to install the serial/USB that was the AIS - it would not do this without going through the add hardware wizard manually) it connected. Then filled in the boxes. The previous posters were right, the dimension boxes take a bit of messing with to get the units right, at one point I had a boat 11cm x 4cm! - but you can change these as many times as you want and just update. The only thing you can't change is the MMSI once you put it in. Overall it was very easy to do.

 

[Bilgediver]

I have a Garmin 4010 plotter and have had a AIS600 unit attached to it. The AIS can see others but no-one can see me yet as the dealer who fitted it says he didnt have my mmsi number at the time (which he didn't). He tells me that it is done by connecting it to a PC via a USB lead but he never seems to get around to doing it, despite promising...blah blah...

So I thought, how hard can it be? Anyone done it? I have the AIS600 CD that came with the unit and a can easily get a usb lead - but is the input/programming process simple enough?

It would be a good idea to familiarise yourself with inputing info as there are possibly a number of fields in the AIS which should be filled with boat details. The manual could be helpful! If these fields are not completed then you will just a mystery echo on other screens with no indication as to who or what you are!!!!



Manual;;;;
http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/AIS600_Instructions.pdf