Raystar 120+ Replacing with Evermore GPS compatible

[RogerRat]

Hi, I know this has been done to death lately but a friend of mine just acquired an Evemore compatible.
from eBay, it is the correct version.

It would appear that it's not possible to cut the wire on the original Raymarine GPS mushroom and then replace the connections on a 'compatible' replacement.

Or is this not true? Has anyone done this connection?

The old one works on Seatalk I was informed but the new one has to be connected on the 'nmea' interface. The colours of the wires as described in the accompanying data sheet are certainly different from those present in the Raystar multi core cable.

Is there a simple way round this or will have to re route a new cable back to the RL-80 gps unit and connect at the base?

Any input welcome. :encouragement:

RR

 

[Bertramdriver]

Yes, did it last summer on our rl80 when our 125 was lost on a rough ride back to port.
In theory you could use the existing cable but the resistance of the cable is probably different and every new connection is a potential failure point. I did a completely new run which helped me sort out a few other issues.
The evermore NMEA connection is not difficult, just two wires from the bundle in the cable (forget which colours but they're in the instructions) which I spliced onto the back of the NMEA plug I had and got from eBay for £5
I then put the output from the rl80 into the autopilot directly via the bare wire connectors
All works perfectly with response times much faster than my old 125. Whole job took less than an hour.
I would recommend the a Evermore to anyone

Nb you can easily pull through the new cable by attaching the end of the new one to the cut end of the redundant cable and pulling it through the cable duct. Just needs a bit of patience

 

[RogerRat]

Yes, did it last summer on our rl80 when our 125 was lost on a rough ride back to port.
In theory you could use the existing cable but the resistance of the cable is probably different and every new connection is a potential failure point. I did a completely new run which helped me sort out a few other issues.
The evermore NMEA connection is not difficult, just two wires from the bundle in the cable (forget which colours but they're in the instructions) which I spliced onto the back of the NMEA plug I had and got from eBay for £5
I then put the output from the rl80 into the autopilot directly via the bare wire connectors
All works perfectly with response times much faster than my old 125. Whole job took less than an hour.
I would recommend the a Evermore to anyone

Nb you can easily pull through the new cable by attaching the end of the new one to the cut end of the redundant cable and pulling it through the cable duct. Just needs a bit of patience

Thanks for that, I thought this would be the best way to go and having the old lead there as a puller will help for sure.

RR

 

[sailorman]

Hi, I know this has been done to death lately but a friend of mine just acquired an Evemore compatible.
from eBay, it is the correct version.

It would appear that it's not possible to cut the wire on the original Raymarine GPS mushroom and then replace the connections on a 'compatible' replacement.

Or is this not true? Has anyone done this connection?

The old one works on Seatalk I was informed but the new one has to be connected on the 'nmea' interface. The colours of the wires as described in the accompanying data sheet are certainly different from those present in the Raystar multi core cable.

Is there a simple way round this or will have to re route a new cable back to the RL-80 gps unit and connect at the base?

Any input welcome. :encouragement:

RR

check the int battery in the 120, it might be like Homers beer - Duff

 

[oldgit]

OG merely cut the lead coming from the Raymarine chart plotter where it was dead simple to get at on my boat.
This was about 10 feet or so away from plotter.
Fitted new Evergreen aerial and ran its lead to join with existing Raymarine wires.
Worked out which went where.Soldered and all worked first time.

 

[RogerRat]

Fitted new Evergreen aerial and ran its lead to join with existing Raymarine wires.
Worked out which went where.Soldered and all worked first time.

Ah Ha. How did you work out which went where please?

The guy that supplied the 'Evermore' said that it had to be connected via 'nmea' whereas the Raystar is connected via 'Seatalk'...
Does this make sense to you?

RR

 

[sailorman]

Ah Ha. How did you work out which went where please?

The guy that supplied the 'Evermore' said that it had to be connected via 'nmea' whereas the Raystar is connected via 'Seatalk'...
Does this make sense to you?

RR

Raymarine autopilots take nmea direct via the black box computer

 

[oldgit]

Ah Ha. How did you work out which went where please?

The guy that supplied the 'Evermore' said that it had to be connected via 'nmea' whereas the Raystar is connected via 'Seatalk'...
Does this make sense to you?

RR

When I ordered the evergreen from Ebay queried this and they sold me exactly the model we needed.
Had on board a RL70CR PLUS with hsb2
From dim and distant memory there where only three wires ( GPS wiring) that actually did anything from the Raymarine loom.
Red +
Yellow signal
Screen. -
There were other colours.
Powered up plotter and did check with multimeter that these were actually correct.
When Evergreen arrived it had details of its own colour codes and think it merely a case of getting Pos and Neg correct which only left the wire carrying signal.
You can get a voltage swing on your multimeter if you touch the probe on the signal wire from GPS when it is powered up.
Raymarine wiring diagrams are available online.
The old failed GPS in my case was a Raystar 120LP.

 

[RogerRat]

When I ordered the evergreen from Ebay queried this and they sold me exactly the model we needed.
Had on board a RL70CR PLUS with hsb2
From dim and distant memory there where only three wires ( GPS wiring) that actually did anything from the Raymarine loom.
Red +
Yellow signal
Screen. -
There were other colours.
Powered up plotter and did check with multimeter that these were actually correct.
When Evergreen arrived it had details of its own colour codes and think it merely a case of getting Pos and Neg correct which only left the wire carrying signal.
You can get a voltage swing on your multimeter if you touch the probe on the signal wire from GPS when it is powered up.
Raymarine wiring diagrams are available online.
The old ailed GPS in my case was a Raystar 112LP.

Many thanks, will look into this with a multimeter.

RR

 

[oldgit]

Many thanks, will look into this with a multimeter.

RR

If memory serves ....you need it on 12v DC range and it cycles between 3 or 4 ish volts.
Used this method to find nmea signal on obsqure cheapo chinese receiver supplying Gps signal on my Icom vhf radio.

 

[DavidJ]

When I ordered the evergreen from Ebay queried this and they sold me exactly the model we needed.
Had on board a RL70CR PLUS with hsb2
From dim and distant memory there where only three wires ( GPS wiring) that actually did anything from the Raymarine loom.
Red +
Yellow signal
Screen. -
There were other colours.
Powered up plotter and did check with multimeter that these were actually correct.
When Evergreen arrived it had details of its own colour codes and think it merely a case of getting Pos and Neg correct which only left the wire carrying signal.
You can get a voltage swing on your multimeter if you touch the probe on the signal wire from GPS when it is powered up.
Raymarine wiring diagrams are available online.
The old failed GPS in my case was a Raystar 120LP.

Just out of interest did you have to switch your RL70 to run from an NMEA signal? If so did the Raymarine "speedo" still record SOG which I thought ran from Seatalk and could not be changed.

 

[Bertramdriver]

Just out of interest did you have to switch your RL70 to run from an NMEA signal? If so did the Raymarine "speedo" still record SOG which I thought ran from Seatalk and could not be changed.

Yes the output on the plotter still indicates SOG with an NMEA input. I mix NMEA and seatalk inputs and outputs via my s3 autopilot without any problems. The only failure I had was from my ST50 Depth which froze and the paralysed my entire system. Now each system is isolated and run separately.