NMEA 2000 GPS Receiver

[ctva]

I have, over the winter, installed a basic N2K network in the boat to serve new B&G instruments. Currently I have aperfectly good SH 300 chartplotter with it's own NMEA 0183 in/out which is stand alone and also serves the Icom DSC VHF.

What I would like to do is get a GPS receiver which ideally outputs both NMEA 0183 and N2K to connect to both the B&G instrumentsa nd if possible feed the VHF. Can anyone advise on this and what (cheap) products are available?

Many thanks

Chris

 

[adwuk]

The products that are available aren't cheap, at least for what you want to do. Commercial products available are NMEA2000 GPS (take your pick from many) at around £150-200 and Actisense NGW-1 2000-0183 gateway cable which is approx £120-150. That is why I ended up making something which does almost exactly what you have described for just over £100.

 

[ctva]

The products that are available aren't cheap, at least for what you want to do. Commercial products available are NMEA2000 GPS (take your pick from many) at around £150-200 and Actisense NGW-1 2000-0183 gateway cable which is approx £120-150. That is why I ended up making something which does almost exactly what you have described for just over £100.

So what did you make?

 

[adwuk]

I made a black box unit (based on a Teensy board) which:
- connects to the NMEA 2000 network for power and receive and transmit NMEA 2000 data
- has a bluetooth module which can be used to connect by a laptop or raspberry pi for receive and transmit of NMEA 0183 data
- translates NMEA 2000 data to 0183 data for key metrics like wind, speed, log, depth, heading, rate of turn, AIS (class A & B positions and static data)
- has a GPS receiver with remote antenna, an air pressure built in and transmits data to both 0183 and 2000 connections
- allows uploading of waypoints and routes from OpenCPN which are then received by the NMEA 2000 chart plotter
- calculates DTW, BTW and XTE for the last route/waypoint loaded and transmits that to the NMEA 2000 network

More details here: http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?451672-Yet-another-electronic-gadget

To change it to provide what you need would be a case of replacing the bluetooth module for a hardwired RS232/422 connection that goes into your chart plotter - or keep the bluetooth and use the last remaining serial interface on the Teensy to provide a hardwired 0183 connection.

 

[bitbaltic]

Have a look at the specs of the Simrad AT10 universal converter. This is a small, black box solution which converts N2K to 0183 and vice versa. It doesn't handle every sentence/PGN in the world but I am pretty sure it will get the GPS from your plotter into your B&G instruments, especially as the instruments are Navico as well. It would save you buying alternative GPS sources. The AT10 gets its power from the N2k network and has simmet terminals, so you may need a Simmet to micro-c cable for it, but as I say B&G is also a Navico brand so they might use the same connector, not sure.

It costs about 90 quid. Try Cactus.

 

[adwuk]

If all you need is the translation from 0183 to 2000 and back (and no GPS) then the NGW1 from Actisense is probably the best route. It has a pretty comprehensive set of translations, which you can enable and disable with the aid of a PC.

 

[bitbaltic]

If all you need is the translation from 0183 to 2000 and back (and no GPS) then the NGW1 from Actisense is probably the best route. It has a pretty comprehensive set of translations, which you can enable and disable with the aid of a PC.

If all he wants is the GPS sentences into N2k then it is just a more expensive solution. As his instruments are N2K anyway, he will only ever want to output any other sentences, not input them, which the simrad box will do perfectly well.

 

[adwuk]

Not going to argue as I don't have direct experience of the Simrad box, but you may want to look at a write up - the translations from 0183 to 2000 don't appear to be that comprehensive, to the point that some 2000 devices don't recognise a GPS as being available. The point I was making was that the Actisense device appears to cover all the necessary translations - albeit at a higher cost. Here is the write up: http://www.panbo.com/archives/2008/05/simrad_at10_handy_but_limited.html - perhaps Simrad have improved the device firmware since 2008. Who knows...

 

[bitbaltic]

Not arguing either, but I've never had an issue with it translating NMEA from an old Garmin128 into my N2k system. I did read the Panbo review before buying, and the AT10 has been a reliable interface between my 0183 and N2k networks for two seasons now, so I can't complain at all. Perhaps the firmware has been updated since. As I mentioned, because the OP has Navico instruments I think it will probably work ok for him.

 

[ctva]

Thanks both, going a bit over my head in places. What I'm thinking, as I have a Raymarine mushroom GPS antenna is, can I use the Actisense NGW1-STNG to attach it to the N2K network so the B&G instruments will be able to show GPS info and at the same time, use the original 0183 signal to give the position data to my Icom M505?

Or do I need something different to take the feed from the Raymarine mushroom to use on the network??

This is all very confusing....

 

[bitbaltic]

Thanks both, going a bit over my head in places. What I'm thinking, as I have a Raymarine mushroom GPS antenna is, can I use the Actisense NGW1-STNG to attach it to the N2K network so the B&G instruments will be able to show GPS info and at the same time, use the original 0183 signal to give the position data to my Icom M505?

Or do I need something different to take the feed from the Raymarine mushroom to use on the network??

This is all very confusing....

Well, the NGW1-STNG is going to come with Raymarine connectors on the N2K side (0183 side is just going to be bare wires), so I'm not sure why you'd want that. Your B&G instruments have a micro-C socket. The Seatalk end of the NGW1-STNG is a different 'plug' so you'd end up needing a seatalkNG to micro-c adapter for no reason at all. The fact that the GPS mushroom is Raymarine isn't relevant to the type of N2K connector you need. Are you sure the raymarine mushroom is an all-in-one unit (ie contains an integral GPS), not just an antenna, and outputs standard 0183? If so, check if the standard NGW-1 has a micro-C connector, and get that.

As normal with an NMEA 0183 network, whatever is providing the GPS data to your N2K instruments (via whatever converter box) can go on providing data to multiple other 0183 listners including the Icom. The N2K interface just becomes another listner. Keep the max number of 0183 listners down to about five and you'll be okay.

Cheers