Lowrance 3500C

[roycharles]

Last season I replaced my MLR312 GPS with a Lowrance 3500C chart plotter.
My Autohelm 4000 tiller pilot does not now pick up the GPS information for use in track control although it was fine with the MLR.
I know that the GPS information is leaving the chart plotter OK as the Clipper GPS repeater is working fine.
All the wiring connections seem OK.
Any ideas?

 

[LostinFrance]

Funnily enough I wuz at the Lowrance stand at LIBS today and asked if the 3500C chartplotter I bought last year will interface with a network of instruments (wind, speed, depth autopilot etc). I was told that the set is configured for NMEA 2000 (which hardly anybody else in the world appears to support yet) and although there is a NMEA 0182 output as well, it is only for linking to a DSC radio. So unless you have NMEA 2000 compatible instruments it will not be able to be branched in.

Whether I have been correctly informed or not I will find out when I plug them all together. If it is the case I will be a little bit peed off.

 

[Lizzie_B]

The company website www.lowrance.com has the product manual available as a free download on pdf format. The instructions for accessing the nmea 0183 comport menu, and configuring it to talk to auto pilot etc start on page 71 of the manual (not the file). Nice diagrams. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Lizzie_B]

I've often found guys on boat show stands are not always up to speed on the products they are supposed to be representing. Last year I asked a Garmin rep if I could get a replacement user manual for my hand held GPS. I was told only if I bought another GPS!!! LOL.

 

[Guest]

Re: Lowrance 3500C .... NMEA out ...

I have fed this into PC to drive Chart system ... I have checked sentences transmitted and appears similar to my eTrex etc.

Sounds odd ... that you are not getting sentences req'd ... have you fed to a PC and seen the info ? Then you can check for the data req'd for your auto-helm.

Pages 15 - 16 of Manual .... excerpts here ...

"NMEA 0183 Cable Connections
NMEA is a standard communications format for marine electronic equipment. For example, an autopilot can connect to the NMEA inter-face on the GlobalMap 3500C and receive positioning information. The GlobalMap 3500C can exchange information with any device that transmits or receives NMEA 0183 data.
See the following diagram for general wiring connections. Read your other product’s owner’s manual for more wiring information.
NMEA Wiring
(Data cable)
To exchange NMEA 0183, the GlobalMap 3500C has one NMEA 0183 version 2.0 communication port. Com port one (Com-1) can be used to receive NMEA format GPS data. The com port can also transmit NMEA format GPS data to another device.
The four wires for the com port are combined with the Power Supply
cable and NMEA-2000 Power cable to form the power/data cable (shown earlier). Com-1 uses the yellow wire to transmit, the orange wire to receive and the shield wire for signal ground. Your unit does not use the blue wire.
Com-1 wiring to receive NMEA position information from some other GPS receiver
(sorry it wont put up the diagram !!)
Com-1 wiring to transmit NMEA position information
to another NMEA-compatible device.

So go back to the lovely people at LIBS and show them the manual !!

Yes it has NMEA 2000 and I hope it does get implemented and more gear available ... but 0183 does work on Lowrance.

 

[roycharles]

Re: Lowrance 3500C .... NMEA out ...

Thanks SBC
Can you tell me how to connect to a PC and how to view the sentences.?
Do I need a special connection cable?
My system is further complicated as the NMEA data is first sent to a Stowe Dataline black box and then re-transmitted to the Autohelm which picks up the wind instrument data OK but not the GPS data.
If I can view the sentences transmitted I may be able to trace the problem.

 

[Guest]

Re: Lowrance 3500C .... NMEA out ...

Best is to use a program such as Seaclear or another Charting program .... some will say use Hyperterminal ... UGH !!

Download Seaclear from www.sping.com ....... and install. Then once GPS input port is set ... see the strings in the data comms menu.

The connections to PC etc. are detailed in the manual downloadable from www.lowrance.com ....

The PC connection is sorted via Pete's NMEA page ...

http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter/index.html and reference to Lowrance manual.

I would go into greater detail - but I'm actually working at moment !!!

I would also suggest that you join the Yahoo GPS Nav group - and someone there will help as well ...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/

 

[tinley]

Re: Lowrance 3500C .... NMEA out ...

The Stowe Dataline output is not fully compatible with NMEA, it is just based on NMEA. You can get fully compatible NMEA by connecting our NMEA Databox. You can also connect the GPS directly to the NMEA Databox and bypass the existing Databox with the GPS data. This interface also allows the connection of a PC via a USB connector. Have a look at the website or email me for more details.