GPS Antenna wiring help!!

[Jones the Boater]

Hi there.

I have a Garmin GPSMAP 4008 and a NMEA 183 cable.

I recently purchased a RS-232 GPS Receiver, ( i have added the image of the receiver below. )

I know nothing about wiring things like this, perhaps someone on here could give me a heads up on which wires from the NMEA 183 (there are many, i think the phrase is "A Nest of Wires") corresponds with the wires from the GPS.

The wires from the GPS are:

Black - larger wire
Black - Thin wire
Blue (TX)
Yellow (RX)
Red (VCC 12-24V)

Any help on this would be great as i have said, i am no good at this stuff, my brain refuses to deal with it.

Many thanks.

 

[Refueler]

OK .. first ... NMEA standard states that no damage should occur by mismatching leads .. as long as you dont connect power to the NMEA of course !!

Second ...

You have two black leads - both marked as GND ... (-ve).

To provide NMEA out to your Plotter .. you need the NMEA Tx lead (Blue) and a GND .... connected to Plotter NMEA Rx and its GND respectively. Which GND you use - you use the one that you chose not to connect to -ve 12v supply. Check the manual to be sure GND to use etc.

So :

One GND black wire and Red +ve wire - they connect to your power source.

Other GND black wire connects to the GND wire of the plotter NMEA
Blue NMEA Tx wire connects to the Plotter NMEA Rx or IN wire.

If that does not work ... come back and we'll have a shufty !!

 

[Sandy]

Hello and Welcome

I have an ancient Garmin GPSMAP 740 that has an internal GPS receiver and thought all their kit did.

 

[Refueler]

The manual for the GPSMap4000 - 5000 series certainly shows GPS capability built in ...

https://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/GPSMAP_4000-5000_Series_OM_EN.pdf

Maybe built in has failed ??

 

[Jones the Boater]

OK .. first ... NMEA standard states that no damage should occur by mismatching leads .. as long as you dont connect power to the NMEA of course !!

Second ...

You have two black leads - both marked as GND ... (-ve).

To provide NMEA out to your Plotter .. you need the NMEA Tx lead (Blue) and a GND .... connected to Plotter NMEA Rx and its GND respectively. Which GND you use - you use the one that you chose not to connect to -ve 12v supply. Check the manual to be sure GND to use etc.

So :

One GND black wire and Red +ve wire - they connect to your power source.

Other GND black wire connects to the GND wire of the plotter NMEA
Blue NMEA Tx wire connects to the Plotter NMEA Rx or IN wire.

If that does not work ... come back and we'll have a shufty !!

I 'll do a little diy wiring this evening when i get home and see how i get on.

Many thanks for taking the time to reply and give me a dig out with the info, it is much appreciated.

 

[Jones the Boater]

Hello and Welcome

I have an ancient Garmin GPSMAP 740 that has an internal GPS receiver and thought all their kit did.

News to me! But any news on boat electronics is news to me i'm afraid!

I sent Garmin Europe, who seem to be based in Southampton a message asking them how to wire up the 4008 to that GPS antenna, and they never mentioned that it has an internal GPS, having said that, they never told me what wires to connect from the NMEA either, and said something about Garmin products only, yadda yadda yadda, buy here, £280 quids worth of gear! I laughed heartily into my sleeve as i closed the tab. I'll have a go at Refuelers tip above to see how i get on.

 

[PaulRainbow]

The manual for the GPSMap4000 - 5000 series certainly shows GPS capability built in ...

https://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/GPSMAP_4000-5000_Series_OM_EN.pdf

Maybe built in has failed ??

40xx and 50xx plotters did not have built in GPS, i don't know where you are seeing that in the user manual.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Hello and Welcome

I have an ancient Garmin GPSMAP 740 that has an internal GPS receiver and thought all their kit did.

The OPs 4008 pre-dates yours by a few years Sandy, it was released in 2007, yours was released in 2010.

 

[Refueler]

40xx and 50xx plotters did not have built in GPS, i don't know where you are seeing that in the user manual.

Paul ... think you need to click on the link I gave ... the 4008 is included in the listing on first pages of that manual .. the manual talk about first satelite acquisition - does not talk about connecting external GPS.

I don't have the unit - so I can only post based on what I read in the manual ...

Anyway - even if manual fails in its wording - not first time for Garmin - lets be honest - Guy has a starting point from my rough wiring post already given.

 

[Sandy]

The OPs 4008 pre-dates yours by a few years Sandy, it was released in 2007, yours was released in 2010.

Thanks @PaulRainbow and I thought Noah had used a GPSMAP 740.

 

[johnphilip]

The installation instructions do refer to installing the separate GPS aerial, this link to it also has a pretty good wiring diagram which should help our new friend although it does seem to expect connection to a full network.
https://static.garmin.com/pumac/GPSMAP_4000-5000_Install_EN.pdf

 

[PaulRainbow]

Paul ... think you need to click on the link I gave ... the 4008 is included in the listing on first pages of that manual .. the manual talk about first satelite acquisition - does not talk about connecting external GPS.

I don't need to click on your link, i've had that manual for the last 15 years. The reason the manual doesn't talk about connecting an external GPS is because it's the user manual, not the installation manual.

I don't have the unit - so I can only post based on what I read in the manual ...

But you looked at the wrong manual.

Anyway - even if manual fails in its wording - not first time for Garmin - lets be honest - Guy has a starting point from my rough wiring post already given.

The manual doesn't fail in its wording, you used the wrong manual. See the manual in post #11

You're right though, post #2 should get him going.

 

[Jones the Boater]

,

 

[Jones the Boater]

OK .. first ... NMEA standard states that no damage should occur by mismatching leads .. as long as you dont connect power to the NMEA of course !!

Second ...

You have two black leads - both marked as GND ... (-ve).

To provide NMEA out to your Plotter .. you need the NMEA Tx lead (Blue) and a GND .... connected to Plotter NMEA Rx and its GND respectively. Which GND you use - you use the one that you chose not to connect to -ve 12v supply. Check the manual to be sure GND to use etc.

So :

One GND black wire and Red +ve wire - they connect to your power source.

Other GND black wire connects to the GND wire of the plotter NMEA
Blue NMEA Tx wire connects to the Plotter NMEA Rx or IN wire.

If that does not work ... come back and we'll have a shufty !!

So i wired it up last night and i didn't get any joy. Mushroom was outside in the lawn, so i wasn't a case of not seeing any satellites.

Any further suggestions would be great.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Hi there.

I have a Garmin GPSMAP 4008 and a NMEA 183 cable.

I recently purchased a RS-232 GPS Receiver, ( i have added the image of the receiver below. )

I know nothing about wiring things like this, perhaps someone on here could give me a heads up on which wires from the NMEA 183 (there are many, i think the phrase is "A Nest of Wires") corresponds with the wires from the GPS.

The wires from the GPS are:

Black - larger wire
Black - Thin wire
Blue (TX)
Yellow (RX)
Red (VCC 12-24V)

Any help on this would be great as i have said, i am no good at this stuff, my brain refuses to deal with it.

Many thanks.

GPS red = + 12v
GPS larger black = - 12v

GPS thin black to plotter black wire in NMEA cable
GPS blue to plotter white wire

Make sure the plotter baud rate matches the GPC receiver baud rate

 

[Jones the Boater]

GPS red = + 12v
GPS larger black = - 12v

GPS thin black to plotter black wire in NMEA cable
GPS blue to plotter white wire

Make sure the plotter baud rate matches the GPC receiver baud rate

I'll have a go at this tomorrow when i get home and let you know how i got on.

Thanks Paul for helping out. Much appreciated.

 

[HunterWanderer]

GPS red = + 12v
GPS larger black = - 12v

GPS thin black to plotter black wire in NMEA cable
GPS blue to plotter white wire

Make sure the plotter baud rate matches the GPC receiver baud rate

Also connect Garmin White/orange to gps thin black -ve.
If it doesn't work disconnect gps blue from white and connect gps yellow to white.
Some manufacturers of gps label the data cables to where they are to be connected!!
Theres no voltage on data cables so you will not do any damage.

 

[Jones the Boater]

Also connect Garmin White/orange to gps thin black -ve.
If it doesn't work disconnect gps blue from white and connect gps yellow to white.
Some manufacturers of gps label the data cables to where they are to be connected!!
Theres no voltage on data cables so you will not do any damage.

Thanks mate for the heads up with regard to this.
I would be absolutely stumped without all your help.
You'd need a freakin' degree in electronic engineering to wire this stuff up!
And i was contemplating getting a fishfinder to compliment the chartplotter!
I'm contemplating no longer! There will be no fishfinder! Wiring this thing will finish me off! hahahahahhaaa!

Thanks again!

 

[PaulRainbow]

Thanks mate for the heads up with regard to this.
I would be absolutely stumped without all your help.
You'd need a freakin' degree in electronic engineering to wire this stuff up!
And i was contemplating getting a fishfinder to compliment the chartplotter!
I'm contemplating no longer! There will be no fishfinder! Wiring this thing will finish me off! hahahahahhaaa!

Thanks again!

Fishfinder is easy, it's all p lug and play, you just need a transducer and a GSD 22 sounder unit. The sounder has been discontinued for some time, but they do crop up on Ebay from time to time.

 

[Jones the Boater]

Ok, so i finally got the GPS going.

GPS red = + 12v
GPS larger black = - 12v
GPS thin black to plotter black wire in NMEA cable
GPS Green to NMEA Green / White wire
GPS Yellow is unused.

A bit of a united effort from us all.

Thanks guys for all the help. i think i would have given up if it wasn't for the assistance i got on here. I hope this helps someone else if they find themselves in the same quandary!