GPS receiver upgrade

[jasavo]

On board I have a full suite of old Stowe Dataline instruments, which are working fine. Except the GPS receiver, which is slow to lock on and regularly drops out. If I remember correctly it is a six channel receiver with multiplex tracking of up to 8 satellites.

Questions:

1 If I fit a new GPS receiver is it likely to communicate with the displays and dataline system? Don't know which version of NMEA 1803 my present system runs on though.

2 Recommendations for the GPS receiver, I have seen them from less than £50 to several hundreds.

 

[Talbot]

My old magellan GPS got very slow and difficult to lock on, and i just left it on, eventually it a[[eared to have up-dated all the ephemeris data, and it now performs better than when it was new 11 years ago. Just leave it running and see what happens, meanwhile get hold of a cheap hand held, so that if the built-in wakes itself up, you have a useful addition to the grab bag.

 

[pvb]

NMEA version...

I have a Stowe Dataline system, and I think it uses v1.5 of NMEA0183. However (and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong), I think later versions of NMEA0183 are backwards compatible. I'm not sure that there were significant changes to the core sentence structure in later versions, more likely there were extra sentences introduced. So newer GPS models should work with it.

Only potential problem is how to connect to the Databox, because the way in which NMEA circuits work has changed slightly, I believe. It might be necessary to connect only the NMEA+ (out) of the GPS to the A terminal of the Databox, and leave the NMEA- (out) of the GPS unconnected. As long as the Databox and the GPS share the same ground connection, that might work. If not, you'll need to connect the NMEA- to the B terminal of the Databox. I'm just in the process of wiring a new GPS into mine, but haven't got to the point of trying it.

 

[Stork_III]

Re: NMEA version...

My DatalineX system will not accept versions of NMEA 0183 higher (later) than V1.5.

Trying to link to higher versions causes depth to read nonsense and Wind/Tack to switch off.

GPS connection is via NAV 2 pin socket into data box, next to compass input

 

[Guest]

Re: NMEA version...

It is not unusual to have to set the GPS to output older NMEA format ... but unfortunately more and more GPS are coming on market without older NMEA possibility.

Check with our guys / members on : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/ and I'm sure a good answer / solutiopn will be forthcoming ....