NMEA 0183 to NMEA 2000?

[Norman_E]

At the boat show I asked on various stands how I might keep my old VDO instrument set up (which I like) going for as long as possible, only replacing instruments that fail.

The best answer I had was that since all my VDO instruments are NMEA 0183, and there are known issues with connection between different makes of NMEA 0183 instruments, the solution is probably to install an NMEA 2000 cable "spine" and add Nmea 0183 to 2000 converters for any "talker" where the display has failed, so that a new 2000 display can be added.

Ultimately an all NMEA 2000 would result as old instruments were replaced, without the expense of changing the whole lot at once.

Has anyone set up and used such a hybrid system, if so with what result?

 

[davidej]

I installed a garmin radar and chartplotter for a friend and integrated his old system into it.

This particular plotter had a 0183 and a 2000 input so it was just a case of the new gear going into the 2000 input and the old gear into the 0183. worked absolutely fine.

Presumably if he replaces any of the old gear he can just plug the replacements into the 2000 backbone.

 

[Norman_E]

My system is fairly complex, with a log/depth instrument and chartplotter at the chart table and wind instruments plus multifunction displays at each helm. In addition there are NMEA connections from GPS antenna to chart plotter, and from that to the VHF, and from the fluxgate compass to the autopilot and from that to the VDO system, though quite how I have not figured out, but the connection must exist because the autopilot can steer the boat to the wind as well as to compass course. I think that whilst NMEA 0183 is used to connect transducers to the respective instruments the multifunctions are connected via a proprietary bus, to get round the issue that NMEA 0183 only allows one talker.

The multifunction displays look like this, and if anyone has a spare one please let me know as one of mine has a failing LCD.