Navman help

[adelaidem]

I can not get my head around Navman Navbus! I have brought the Navman 3100 package, wind, speed, depth and the bonus repeater. Repeater is going to the chart table, rest of the instruments going in companonway. Will i need a Navbus for the repeater?
From what I can read it would be good to link all my instruments so that I can dim all the back lights with a touch of a button, but that is all i can see is useful with a Navbus?? Hmmm and a junction box is that the same as a Navbus oh and NMEA what’s that stand for and do I need one of them as well??? Sorry if I sound dumb but this is technology that Im not use too. Thanks to anyone that can help me here… cheers

 

[adelaidem]

Ok I think I need 2 Navbus junction boxes, 1 for the cockpit instruments and 1 for the repeater to the GPS back to the auto pilot sound good????

 

[capricorn]

OK, let me try.

I installed Navman instruments this winter. I have 3100 Multi (speed and depth), Wind and Repeater in the cockpit and a Navman plotter at the chart table.

Navbus is the proprietary Navman format for exchanging information between the 3100 Series instruments. Also as you say lets you turn the backlighting up/down on all the instruments by just changing one.

NMEA is the industry standard protocol for connecting instruments.

Navbus allows Navman instruments to talk to each other better than NMEA as is supports some data items not supported on NMEA.

Navman Repeater has 3 modes, Navbus, NMEA, Wind.

In navbus mode it can display any 2 items of information put onto the Navbus by another 3100 series instrument.

In wind mode it will display any single piece of information published by the wind instrument.

In NMEA mode it will display any piece of information (well almost any, see the manaul) published on an NMEA bus by any other instrument, Navman or otherwise.

To use it to it's full effect you need to connect both NMEA and Navbus connections to the repeater.

Junction box not necessary, it just makes the wiring simpler, you can achieve the same with a connector strip.

I have my 3100 Repeater in the cockpit and have it in NMEA mode 99% of the time and I've enabled it to display time, SOG, Bearing to Waypoint, Dist to Watpoint, Track and XTE from my GPS which happens to be a Navman plotter but could equally well be any non Navman GPS with an NMEA output.

To my mind this is a better application of the repeater than to use it at the chart table to display depth/log/wind info. Why do you need this at the chart table ? Distance run useful I suppose but not much else. Much more useful to be able to navigate to a GPS waypoint without having to leave the cockpit IMO.

The Log/Depth/Wind instruments can only input output data via Navbus. The Repeater can take data in Navbus format and publish it out as NMEA which is very handy if you have Non Navman instruments that you want to network.

Took us a while to get it all working together but it works superbly once you've got it sorted. Don't give up. Tech support from Navman UK over the phone very good in my experience too if (when!) you get stuck.

 

[capricorn]

Don't think that's necessary.

You don't say what GPS and Autopilot you have. I assume that they are both Non Navman but you intend to interface them using NMEA. In this case I don't see why you need to connect anything to the Navman instruments ubless you're trying to get the autopilot to take inoputs from the wind instrument to steer to a specific wind angle, I don't think this is possible, if it is please let me know 'coz I'd like to do it !

As worst you just need one interface box. As I said before you don't actually need any, they just make the wiring easier, I did mine by connecting all the instruments on either the Navbus or NMEA buses using connector strips.

 

[adelaidem]

i have read i can have bearing and way point on my auto helm st4000 so i can have my repeater on the chart table which i think is handy as u can check on the instruments from down below.
so i understand now i can connect wind,speed,depth to a junction box then to repeater then to furuno gps 32 then back to cock pit to the autohelm. hows that sound? oh maybe i just need to conect the gps strait to the autohelm i dont need to interface it with the navman gear??

 

[adelaidem]

Wow it’s amazing what u can learn in an hour with the help of others.........thank you

 

[capricorn]

Fair enough, if you have another instrument in the cockpit giving you waypoint information, then I can see why having the repeater at your chart table would be the best way to make use of it.


[ QUOTE ]
so i understand now i can connect wind,speed,depth to a junction box then to repeater then to furuno gps 32 then back to cock pit to the autohelm. hows that sound? oh maybe i just need to conect the gps strait to the autohelm i dont need to interface it with the navman gear??

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds fine although as you say I don't see any advantage in involving the Navman kit in the GPS/Autopilot interface. The one thing I've been unable to do is to output Wind data to other instruments in NMEA format, I think this is a limitation of my GPS in terms of the NMEA codes it is able to output, you may have more luck with your Furuno. I have an ST2000 autohelm and I'd really like to be able to steer to a wind angle not just to a bearing or waypoint, I don't think it's possible but I'd love to hear that it is.

As I say the Navman junction box doesn't add any functionality, it's just a connector, the Navbus/NMEA translation is done by the Repeater instrument. That said the junction boxes are cheap in comparison to the money you've spend and it does make the wiring neater.

Good luck and PM me if I can help.

 

[Guest]

I agree with Capricorn.

I have Navman 3100 multi and repeater in the cockpit, and Navman 7100 dsc vhf and Garmin 152 at the chart table.

Navman Multi and Repeater are connected by Navbus, and VHF and gps connected by nmea, using a Navman junction box.

Worked last year with strip connectors.

Would you believe that it took me all last Thursday to get it to work with the navman junction box, only to discover that a boat twenty yards from me, in the Cove, Weymouth, had the same prob, the same day.

RTFM

 

[coca2005]

Good afternoon all, the Navman Junction box (NavBus) is designed to connect Navman instruments together and make life easy,all colour coded cables go into the colour coded position on the bus. The box can be used as a simple junction box i suggest you send me a mail and i will guide through the process of connecting up all your instruments. I can then sit down a decide the best route for to do this. all the best and have a good bank holiday weekend.
Paul David p.david@plastimo.co.uk