Simrad IS12 and Vulcan interconnections

[Plevier]

I'm trying to help someone with changes to instrumentation on a boat they have just bought. At present it has the Hanse 2006 standard fit of Simrad IS12 instruments, a Simrad plotter and a Simrad VHF with DSC.
He wants to fit a Vulcan plotter and an AIS receiver (yes he wants just a receiver).
AIUI the Vulcan N2K will connect to the IS12 Simnet just with an adapter cable.
If he gets an N2K AIS - maybe Garmin 300? - that can presumably connect in with a tee, or is there one that will daisy chain?
It leaves one problem of providing the VHF with a low baud rate 0183 GPS signal.
I wondered if any of the AIS units is able to get the GPS from the plotter over N2K and re-output it for the VHF?
Alternatively what's the simplest way of converting the signal from the N2K net, or would it be easiest just to give the VHF its own GPS dongle? Can anyone suggest a suitable basic 12V one please?
Thanks for ideas.

 

[PaulRainbow]

I'm trying to help someone with changes to instrumentation on a boat they have just bought. At present it has the Hanse 2006 standard fit of Simrad IS12 instruments, a Simrad plotter and a Simrad VHF with DSC.
He wants to fit a Vulcan plotter and an AIS receiver (yes he wants just a receiver).
AIUI the Vulcan N2K will connect to the IS12 Simnet just with an adapter cable.
If he gets an N2K AIS - maybe Garmin 300? - that can presumably connect in with a tee, or is there one that will daisy chain?
It leaves one problem of providing the VHF with a low baud rate 0183 GPS signal.
I wondered if any of the AIS units is able to get the GPS from the plotter over N2K and re-output it for the VHF?
Alternatively what's the simplest way of converting the signal from the N2K net, or would it be easiest just to give the VHF its own GPS dongle? Can anyone suggest a suitable basic 12V one please?
Thanks for ideas.

He could use something like an Actisense NGW-1 to convert N2K to 0183 or fit a separate GPS receiver. The GPS option is a little cheaper and would be my choice between the two anyway. Ebay would be a good place to look, perhaps an Evermore ?

 

[pagoda]

He could use something like an Actisense NGW-1 to convert N2K to 0183 or fit a separate GPS receiver. The GPS option is a little cheaper and would be my choice between the two anyway. Ebay would be a good place to look, perhaps an Evermore ?

I had a similar issue - Old Simrad CX44 plotter - no way of upgrade to accept AIS. Went for a Vulcan9 and N2K. The vulcan end is happy with N2K input, so I used Actisense to convert NASA AIS at 38.4K NMEA0183 to N2K - into backbone - works fine. I decided on a stand alone NMEA0183 4800 source for the radio -powered from the same supply as the radio. DSC can work with all the main boat instruments dead. I used a venerable Garmin GPS35 HVS receiver - 2nd hand Ebay £15 - it's happy with 12V power. Many more modern GPS mice work at 5V or even 3.3V, so might need a DC converter? (some often default to 9600baud so might need tweaking for the 4800 required by the radio))
I might have been able to feed the radio with position from the Vulcan by buying another converter N2K>NMEA0183 but the standalone route was more attractive.

 

[Plevier]

Unanimity! Thank you.
The Actisense description says " The advanced configuration software provided makes it easy to select the data conversions required for both directions."
Does that mean that as well as feeding NMEA AIS into the Vulcan N2K plotter, it could output the GPS signal from the plotter to the DSC radio - at low rate - or would it need two to do both jobs? In which case a 2nd GPS is a more attractive solution.

Edit - got the answer, it's no. "It is possible to connect an NMEA Listener to the NGW-1 Talker port and a different NMEA Talker to the NGW-1 Listener port. Note that both NMEA 0183 devices connected to the NGW-1’s NMEA 0183 port must have the same baud rate set."

 

[PaulRainbow]

Unanimity! Thank you.
The Actisense description says " The advanced configuration software provided makes it easy to select the data conversions required for both directions."
Does that mean that as well as feeding NMEA AIS into the Vulcan N2K plotter, it could output the GPS signal from the plotter to the DSC radio - at low rate - or would it need two to do both jobs? In which case a 2nd GPS is a more attractive solution.

Edit - got the answer, it's no. "It is possible to connect an NMEA Listener to the NGW-1 Talker port and a different NMEA Talker to the NGW-1 Listener port. Note that both NMEA 0183 devices connected to the NGW-1’s NMEA 0183 port must have the same baud rate set."

My suggestion was to fit the N2K AIS you mentioned, then connect the NGW-1 to N2K and let it convert to 0183 for the VHF. You would only need to buy the AIS and NGW-1.

Pagoda was talking about fitting an 0183 AIS ( i suspect he already had the NASA) and converting that to N2K with the NGW-1, no problem there the AIS will work n the Vulcan. But that still leaves the VHF, which is where the stand alone GPS comes in. Nothing wrong with this method, if you already had a 0183 AIS and changed the plotter to a Vulcan that has no 0183 ports. But, if you had no AIS you would have to buy the AIS, NGW-1 and a standalone GPS.

If you bought a N2K AIS you only have to buy the NGW-1 or the GPS. If you go with N2K AIS it keeps the whole nav system as a separate entity, whilst the VHF with its own GPS is also a separate entity and can be used fully without the need to have the whole nav system powered up.

If you went with the NGW-1, to get 0183 from the N2K network for the VHF, you will possibly get better networking between the AIS and VHF, in as much as it should (in theory) allow you to call an AIS target using DSC from the AIS target display on the Vulcan, for instance. I've never connected this exact system, so can't say for sure if it would work exactly as it should, with regard this.

 

[Plevier]

Thanks Paul, v helpful. I realised that the two solutions worked in opposite directions so to speak, but a unanimous recommendation for the NGW-1, and confirmation that I was on the right lines, just needing the most appropriate hardware.