GPS to radio feed

A

All_at_Sea

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 Aug 2005
Messages
1,381
Location
Hampshire
Visit site
Here's the problem. Having just installed new chartplotter radar combo l now have a gps feed, usual end to cable but need to get the info to the radio. The radio has a plug and several wires out of this could be used but l need to get the gps info to it. Is there some sort of clever bit of switching l can use?

I have the Raymarine c90w chartplotter with the inbuilt gps.
 
I did this two days ago but with a Garmin plotter and Standard Horizon VHF. Your manuals will tell you which connections you need. NMEA out for the plotter and GPS in for the radio. On the Garmin you need to set it up for NMEA in/out, in settings. For this plotter there are two possibilities, one for an autopilot and the other for a DSC radio, so you need to select the correct wire. Two wires to connect, signal and return.
 
GPS in

Can I use the coax cable somehow or do l have to use the feed from the Raymarine gps? The reason l ask is that the Raymarine is on the wrong side of the wheelhouse whereas the gps feed (with coax plug) is on the radio side, and l would like to bale to use this if poss....
 
Hi, I did this last week. I linked the Raymarine A65 to my RM VHF. The hand book instructed me to use Green to green and yellow to yellow wire from the A65 NMEA feed onto the input for the radio. The raymarine site hasvery good section for downloadable handbooks.

cheers
smudge
 
All_at_Sea said:
I have the Raymarine c90w chartplotter with the inbuilt gps.
Click to expand...

The C90W doesn't have a gps built in. It needs a GPS input, either via NMEA or SeaTalk, from an active antenna.

All_at_Sea said:
Can I use the coax cable somehow or do l have to use the feed from the Raymarine gps? The reason l ask is that the Raymarine is on the wrong side of the wheelhouse whereas the gps feed (with coax plug) is on the radio side, and l would like to bale to use this if poss....
Click to expand...

If you have something with a coax plug, it's unlikely to be an active antenna.
 
GPS

pvb said:
The C90W doesn't have a gps built in. It needs a GPS input, either via NMEA or SeaTalk, from an active antenna.



If you have something with a coax plug, it's unlikely to be an active antenna.
Click to expand...

Strange cos mine does! Picks up a good signal as well.
 
C90W

From the website:

Each Raymarine C Series Widescreen display is equipped with an internal high sensitivity GPS sensor. This high performance GPS sensor eliminates the need for an external GPS antenna for most installations.
 
All_at_Sea said:
From the website:

Each Raymarine C Series Widescreen display is equipped with an internal high sensitivity GPS sensor. This high performance GPS sensor eliminates the need for an external GPS antenna for most installations.
Click to expand...

In your original post, you said you had a C90W. This doesn't have an internal GPS receiver - it needs, as I said, a GPS data input via NMEA or SeaTalk.

If yours has an internal GPS, it isn't a C90W. It might be one of the newer generation c series, perhaps the c95 or the c97.

You'll never get good advice if you can't even describe the equipment you own correctly.
 
Does it look like this...

c.jpg


or does it look like this...

C%20Series%20category.jpg
 
All_at_Sea said:
Tha second one, the c90w.
Click to expand...

My apologies, the C90W installation manual confusingly says "Depending upon your GPS type it may be either connected via SeaTalk or NMEA 0183", but the C90W user manual does indeed say it has an internal GPS receiver. If you want to connect your VHF radio to it, you'll need to take the data from NMEA port (unless you have a SeaTalk compatible radio, of course). You don't say what your other GPS is, but it will need to output NMEA (or possibly SeaTalk) if you want to connect its output to the VHF.
 
Make sure the radio accepts the same version of NMEA0183 that the plotter exports. My new radio had no "reverse compatibility" so it couldn't operate V1.5 or 2.0. I bought a new GPS in the end, just to drive the DSC Radio. It has the added advantage of a bigger screen than my 12 year old Magellan so I'm swapping them around this winter. I need to keep them both as my sailing computer relies on V1.5.
 
Wow!

I've never understood why people seem to find it so complicated to make a single NMEA connection, but this thread is doing its level best to complicate the subject!

Pete
 
with apologies for being late (enjoying an eerily empty solent yesterday)...

I have a C90W (which does have inbuilt gps although you have the option to disable that and take an external feed :-) feeding the VHF. As Pete says, it's pretty straight forward.

The C90W installation manual (p.32) lists the functions of the different coloured wires coming out of the "Multi cable" which also contains your power wires. You have a choice of which wires to use, but I'd go with yellow (+ve) and brown (-ve): These are the nmea 4800/9600 "out" wires. 4800 is the default setting for this port on the C90w and it's almost certainly what your radio will be expecting. Obviously these don't stretch far but you can extend the wires (p.32 tells you spec of wire to use and max extension of 5m). I used BT-type gel filled connectors to join signal wires, but there have been threads on here about peoples' preferences for that kind of thing.

You don't say what type of radio you have but your objective is to join "out" on the C90W (wires I've mentioned) with "in" on the radio, +ve to +ve and -ve to -ve.

If your radio can transmit DSE/DSC sentences (big clue is if it has nmea output as well as input), for bonus points, connect the vhf's nmea output to nmea inputs on the C90W (ie white/green if you went yellow/brown for output) +ve to +ve, -ve to -ve. This should get position replies displayed on the plotter although you'll have to fiddle with the settings to enable it (my icom radio you have to explicitly enable output).

You don't say what your other GPS is. As has been mentioned, the coax is not what you need to look at but you should be seeking a couple of signal wires coming from whatever the coax is connected to. As Topcat47 says, check your radio's manual for the minimum version of nmea supported. An old GPS might not work.

You might want to stop reading there, but...having to have the plotter on just for a gps feed to the DSC radio was not really what I wanted so I recently did a McDoon special, butchered a 2 quid 12v to usb adapter and attached it to a br-355 gps receiver. Brief anxiety as I realised the output was single-ended rather than differential but my radio doesn't seem to care. Next step is to install a DPDT switch to flick between plotter and standalone GPS.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top