NMEA and Sea Talk

[ian38_39]

Hi All,

I recently chopped off the old gps antenna from my boat as it had rotted through and the wire had broken.
I was at the Birmingham boat show when a wonderful idea hit me, if it is going to cost me £100 plus to replace the antenna why not address the issue of a chartplotter on the flybridge at the same time.

Impulse buy saw me walking out with a Standard Horizon CP180i plotter with built in antenna so the question is, how do I connect this through the system?

Downstairs there is a Raytheon RL9 radar, An ST5000 auto pilot and a raymarine GPS, all Sea talk but also having NMEA inputs.
The new plotter has an NMEA output so my thoughts were to link the OUtput into one of the other bits.

Will the other bits take any notice?
Will teh other bits share the information through sea talk so that I only need 1 NMEA connection?
If I only need 1 then what do I connect it to, GPS, Radar or Auto pilot?

All assistance appreciated.

Ian

 

[jfm]

you can take the nmea out from the new plotter and feed it into the Raymarine gear, but if there are any other items already talking NMEA to the same NMEA-in on any other item (Raymarine or not) you'll need a multiplexer to stop the overtalking. to avoid need for multiplexer, find an unused NMEA-in (see #3 below)

If you do this

1. yes they'll take notice
2. yes they will share on seatalk so you only need to connect the new plotter to ONE of the raymarine units not all of them
3. Doesn't matter - choose one with no other NMEA-in being used, as above

 

[ian38_39]

Thank you JFM
Was hoping that would be the case.
Next question, does anyone know what the NMEA input plug is for any of the above st5000, gps, rl9 radar, are they 4 5 or 6 pin?
Can obviously look at the back when I get to the boat but it is 200 miles away and I would love to have the bits ready when I get there

Ian

 

[Nick_H]

You may be able to download manuals from the manufacturer web site, which should show that detail

 

[jfm]

yup the ray website has a section with manuals for discontinued models

You normally dont connect to a pin cos the ray plugs are bespoke. You need a ray flying lead that plugs into the Ray unit, then you splice your nmea connections to the loose wire

 

[ian38_39]

Thanks for that, I suppose the logical connection is the GPS unit as it is closest to where the chartplotter will sit, from what I can gleen the NMEA input will be in the power lead so may already have the connections I need, only problem is I can't remember the model number for the unit on the boat so can't find out what colour wires I need in advance.

Ian

 

[BlueChip]

[ QUOTE ]
Thank you JFM
Was hoping that would be the case.
Next question, does anyone know what the NMEA input plug is for any of the above st5000, gps, rl9 radar, are they 4 5 or 6 pin?
Can obviously look at the back when I get to the boat but it is 200 miles away and I would love to have the bits ready when I get there

Ian

[/ QUOTE ]

RL9 comes with a proprietary plug with fly lead for NMEA, the ST5000 uses a proprietary plug but you can use crimp female micro spade connectors just as well as they fit the pins a treat