Laptop / Seatalk?

[Blue5]

On my old boat used a laptop with an NMEA connection for GPS and AIS, Maptech charts and it worked a treat. New boat has Raymarine Kit which is all new to me, Sea Talk, C70 plotter, wind, depth etc,etc, now the C70 is at the nav table and I would like it at the helm so I thought another plotter at the helm hooked up would do the trick. Having just come off the phone to Raymarine gloom has decended. Cant do that with C series sir, "what you need sir is 2 E series plotters, one at the helm, one at the nav table, you can probably sell the C series on e-bay and get some money back"

The guy is probably doing his best to get their share price up but short of robbing a bank it aint happening, so the question is if I move the existing C70 to the helm is there any way to get the NMEA data from Sea Talk to my laptop so I could run said laptop at the chart table with my existing maptech charts.

 

[alan]

Laptop/Seatalk

What do you need to feed to the laptop? Just GPS data? or also AIS?
I can't remember if the C70 has NMEA output in addition to Seatalk but will check in a moment.

If you have a Raymarine Smartpilot (autopilot) this has both Seatalk and NMEA outputs; so if your C70 is connected to the Smartpilot you could get the NMEA output from there to your lappy.

Alan.

Edit: just checked and the C70 has one NMEA output; but you need to check which sentences interest you and make sure that the C70 outputs them.

Interfaces: 1 NMEA 0183 input, 1 NMEA 0183 output, Raymarine SeaTalk, Raymarine SeaTalk2/ NMEA 2000 Port*, DSM250 Echo Sounder Input, Pathfinder Radar Input

 

[nimbusgb]

On my old boat used a laptop with an NMEA connection for GPS and AIS, Maptech charts and it worked a treat. New boat has Raymarine Kit which is all new to me, Sea Talk, C70 plotter, wind, depth etc,etc, now the C70 is at the nav table and I would like it at the helm so I thought another plotter at the helm hooked up would do the trick. Having just come off the phone to Raymarine gloom has decended. Cant do that with C series sir, "what you need sir is 2 E series plotters, one at the helm, one at the nav table, you can probably sell the C series on e-bay and get some money back"

The guy is probably doing his best to get their share price up but short of robbing a bank it aint happening, so the question is if I move the existing C70 to the helm is there any way to get the NMEA data from Sea Talk to my laptop so I could run said laptop at the chart table with my existing maptech charts.

Without spending some big bucks you cant share raymarine based map data.


With Raymarine looking likely to join the Garmin stable I suspect that things with Raymarine equipment will only get worse. Rather than going towards more open standards they will get ever more proprietary focussed. Garmin equipment is excellent stuff but I wont buy it for just this reason.

Anyone in to hacking the flashed OS on the Raymarine series multifunction displays to allow people to do what they want with their hard earned cash rather than what Garmin/Raymarine want? Wonder if any code is likely to 'leak' out of the factory when they all get made redundant?

 

[Taffy]

Multiplxer

Hi,

The C70 has a NMEA output so you get GPS data out and other stuff but you need a multiplexer (approx 200 gbp) to get it into your PC. The data can be used by the PC in other SW programs, but the navionics maps can only be used by the C70 so you will need scanned charts or other mapping SW to make any use of the NMEA data in the PC.

Possible but not necessarily practicle.

 

[RestlessL]

.... Rather than going towards more open standards they will get ever more proprietary focussed. Garmin equipment is excellent stuff but I wont buy it for just this reason....

One reason I have continued buying Garmin products is because they seem to one of the few big players who are committed to open standards - specifically NMEA2000. Most of the others use bits of NMEA2000, but adopt their own connectors making it expensive to interface with other maker's kit.

 

[Blue5]

Hi,

The C70 has a NMEA output so you get GPS data out and other stuff but you need a multiplexer (approx 200 gbp) to get it into your PC. The data can be used by the PC in other SW programs, but the navionics maps can only be used by the C70 so you will need scanned charts or other mapping SW to make any use of the NMEA data in the PC.

Possible but not necessarily practicle.

Thanks all, I now have the picture, I have pc and mapping software that I know works so the multiplexer may be the cheapest option, funny how the sales team always suggest the dearest solution

 

[alan]

Laptop/Seatalk

"so the question is if I move the existing C70 to the helm is there any way to get the NMEA data from Sea Talk to my laptop so I could run said laptop at the chart table with my existing maptech charts"

To answer your specific question:
The C70 has an NMEA output. Connect this to your Laptop (via a serial to USB converter if needed); you don't need a multiplexer if you just want GPS data.

Try and use all Seatalk for your inputs/outputs to the C70 (e.g. GPS antenna e.t.c.), the reason for this is that you cannot set the NMEA input/output ports on the C70 to different baud rates, so if you are using the NMEA input port for something at a particular baud rate then the NMEA output port will also be at that baud rate ..... this may be a problem for your PC mapware.

Alan.