how to connect gps to nasa ais engine

[elioti]

hi, could anyone advise me please how to connect my nasa ais engine to my gps aerial? Have the white nasa ais engine, not the older black one. Has a blue wire on one of the leads. Can i connect this blue cable direct to the aerial somehow? If so how please? Thanks!

 

[PhilipF]

Has a blue wire on one of the leads. Can i connect this blue cable direct to the aerial somehow? If so how please? Thanks!

No think not! Your NASA box should have a Phono socket on it. This is where the aerial should be connected to. For the little cost of it, I consider the 'engine' should have its own aerial. Not worth using the GPS one

 

[VicMallows]

hi, could anyone advise me please how to connect my nasa ais engine to my gps aerial? Have the white nasa ais engine, not the older black one. Has a blue wire on one of the leads. Can i connect this blue cable direct to the aerial somehow? If so how please? Thanks!

The AIS engine does not need a GPS input. However if you want it will pass (multiplex) a NMEA GPS signal from a GPS receiver from the blue wire onto the serial output along with the AIS output.

This can be useful if you are connecting the AIS engine to a laptop for example, although I prefer to use a separate USB 'puck' GPS (about £15).

Vic

 

[elioti]

thanks for replies, i have the engine which i plan to connect to my pc, and want i gps input so i can see where i am in relation to other vessels. will use sob i think. Regarding a seperate usb aerial, have just searched them on ebay, if i buy one, will it relay my position to sob? Sorry still not 100 percent sure how it works, so to the blue leads is connected to the gps reciever somehow not the aerial? Looking for the cheapest easiest option for my laptop, thanks

 

[VicMallows]

Yes, if you buy a USB GPS receiver the chartplotter program on the PC will take the position from that. (you will have to do some configuration within the program; this will vary: I use SeaClear which also comes with the NASA engine).

If you want the AIS engine to multiplex a signal from an existing GPS, it will need to have a NMEA output available. For example, on a Garmin 128 there is a flying lead in the cable for this which connects to the blue wire. You may also need to select the output within the GPS menus.

I assume you have a serial input on your laptop? These are becoming rare. If not you will also need a serial-to-USB convertor to connect the engine to the laptop. (the convertors can sometimes be a pain to get set up initially).

Vic

 

[elioti]

Hi, many thanks for your help, understand now. Have a new laptop with usb ports, but have the converter for the serial cable. Have had this running a couple years back just for fun but didnt have a boat then, thats why now looking to connect gps. Hope i can find my old sob / seaclear disk, guess can download if not. Apreciate the replies, thankyou has helped!