NMEA2000 and seatalk 1, interfacing project

[Chiara’s slave]

My boat has legacy raymarine ST40i speed and depth instruments mounted above the hatchway, an ST2000 autopilot as a stand alone, and a newly installed N2K network consisting so far of a GPSMap1222+ and a GNX20 from Garmin. It also has a Raymarine mn100 wireless wind pack, more of that later.
My no.1 plan is to use a Raymarine seatalk to seatalk NG converter kit, a NG to devicenet adapter, and connect it as part of my N2K backbone.
Alternative plans would involve quark electronics interface boxes. I’m less keen on that as I already have a wi fi network, and ActiveCaptain. If it did come to this, I might not need N2K out of the box, I could use NMEA0183, in theory.
so, has anyone tried this, either way, any pitfalls, etc. also, would power be transferred, is one power supply for the whole network correct, as I assume it is. Assumption being the mother of all screw ups of course. Don’t be shy to tell me I’m an idiot, and should replace the ST40 set. The mn100 wind will be for sale here shortly, to be replaced with Garmin wireless. Clearly, I’d sell the ST 40s if that was the best way forwards. The boat is coming out of the water in about a month, so I could even replace skin fittings.

 

[Daverw]

Had you thought about keeping wind set and adding N2k interface to it, we have this and it works well, could save a few £s

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Had you thought about keeping wind set and adding N2k interface to it, we have this and it works well, could save a few £s

I had thought of that yes. However, the cost of the raynet to n2k interface is greater than the likely trade in cost of the wind instruments.
Plus, how many interfaces do you want running on your boat? K.I.S.S. comes into play here.

 

[Daverw]

for us the £250 was good value as we had wireless depth/speed as well as wind and it just plugs into the backbone and sits there working. For us everything else is N2k anyway.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

100% sense for you. I have 3 systems which is clearly rubbish

 

[dolabriform]

I've got seatalk wind and auto-pilot hooked up to N2K with the E22158 Adaptor kit.
It's worked really well, before swapping to a NMEA2000 triducer I had the speed and depth being converted as well.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I've got seatalk wind and auto-pilot hooked up to N2K with the E22158 Adaptor kit.
It's worked really well, before swapping to a NMEA2000 triducer I had the speed and depth being converted as well.

Do you know if your E22158 is powered in addition to your N2K network, or if just one is powered?

 

[dolabriform]

Do you know if your E22158 is powered in addition to your N2K network, or if just one is powered?

I can't remember how I have it powered. I might be at the boat this weekend, in which case I'll check and post here

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I can't remember how I have it powered. I might be at the boat this weekend, in which case I'll check and post here

Thats very kind of you. I suppose I can just leave it powered from the NMEA backbone, and if the seatalk stuff doesnt power up, connect it later, but it’s nice to know what to expect.

 

[dolabriform]

Thats very kind of you. I suppose I can just leave it powered from the NMEA backbone, and if the seatalk stuff doesnt power up, connect it later, but it’s nice to know what to expect.

Sorry, I didn't get a chance to check, but I'll be onboard next weekend.
I seem to remember that Seatalk needs to be powered though.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

No probs, this isn’t a ‘this week’, or even this month project. I’m also now trying a different approach, and have bought an Airmar P39 transom mount triducer on ebay, nmea2000 but cheap as its got no plug. My boat’s backside is quite well suited to that. I may well still pursue the seatalk interface, I’ll see how well this works.

 

[kwb78]

The E22158 can be powered via the NMEA2000 bus, as it sits on the backbone. It will provide power to Seatalk 1 instruments. Alternatively, you could power the NMEA2000 bus via the E22158 from Seatalk 1, which would save you a dedicated spur connector for power. That’s how we have it wired and it works fine.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Thanks for that, exactly what I needed to know. Just got the wind instruments to go then, but that should be straightforward. I can link a Garmin wireless transducer to my plotter, and probably add a GMI 20 display. We might try craning the mast at CCYC, that’ll give them something to think about.