I recently purchased a Standard Horizon GX2400 VHF which has an AIS transceiver that I would like to connect to my existing Raymarine C80. The VHF has connections for both NMEA 2000 connector or NMEA 0183 6-wire cable set. All other electronics are NMEA 0183 or SeaTalk. I'm looking for suggestions as to how to connect the new VHF to the chartplotter. From what I am able to discern, there are 2 cables connected to the S1G Raymarine Smart Pilot under the aft cabin in the prop shaft tunnel NMEA Out + and - connections . I assume one of them goes to the NMEA 183 connector on the back of the C80 and the other goes to the previous ICOM VHF to provide GPS data for the DSC function.
Option A would be to connect the NMEA 0183 wires on the new VHF to the NMEA Out and NMEA In connections on the Smart Pilot.
Option B would be to run a new NMEA 2000 network to the helm and convert it to NMEA 0183 before connecting the the C80 with something like the Actisense gateway. This has some benefits as the C80 is getting old and will likely need to be replaced in a few years. But I am not sure what specifically I need to buy or whether this approach works. And if I connect the VHF directly to the C80 via this approach, there does not seem to be any remaining NMEA connection of the S1G Smart Pilot. Is it necesary?
Any comments or suggestions are appreciated.
Connecting AIS receiver to Raymarine C80
Moderator: KenKrawford
Connecting AIS receiver to Raymarine C80
Gary & Janet
The Best of Times (Hull #422)
The Best of Times (Hull #422)
Re: Connecting AIS receiver to Raymarine C80
Since no one responded with any comments or suggestions, I thought I would respond with what I wound up doing.
I finally went with a modified Option A approach. I decided not to run a NMEA 2000 cable to the helm at this time as I would have to buy another $300 adapter to convert it over to NMEA 0183 before hooking up to the C80. I found I had to modify how I intended to connect the NMEA 0183 circuit between the C80 and the GX2400. Apparently the GX2400 needs to be hardwired to the C80 rather than going through the S1G Smart Pilot as it was previously wired. The AIS circuit has to run at 38400 baud and either the Smart Pilot NMEA port can not be set to 38400 baud or I don't know how to do it.
First, I disconnected all the NMEA wires on the Smart Pilot, and confirmed the chartplotter and all other electronics still worked normally. That convinced me that there was no data being transmitted on the NMEA network other the the GPS signal being sent to the old VHF radio to support the DSC function. All of the electronics on our boat functioned entirely on the SeaTalk network. I then pulled a new 4-conductor cable from the VHF to the Smart Pilot under the aft cabin using the existing 2-conductor cable. I connected 2 of the wires to the NMEA out +/- connectors on the Smart Pilot to the NMEA IN +/- on the GX2400 to provide the VHF with the GPS location for the DSC function. I then connected the other 2-conductors from the NMEA OUT +/- on the GX2400 directly to the exsiting 2-conductor NMEA 0183 cable going to the C80. After setting the baud rate for the NMEA port on the C80 to 38400 baud for the AIS signal, it worked properly. I also had to set the baud rate on the GPS input signal to the GX2400 to 4800 baud as that is the rate that the Smart Pilot NMEA port was running. All is good.
In the future when the chartplotter dies, I should be able to use the 4-conductor cable I just put in to pull a new NMEA 2000 backbone from the GX2400 to a new chart plotter at the helm. I suspect there will be no NMEA connections to the Smart Pilot. I will have to add an adapter of some sort bewteen a new chartplotter and the rest of the SeaTalk network to get information from the wind and depth transducers and the auto pilot. But that is for another day, hopefully a long time into the future.
I finally went with a modified Option A approach. I decided not to run a NMEA 2000 cable to the helm at this time as I would have to buy another $300 adapter to convert it over to NMEA 0183 before hooking up to the C80. I found I had to modify how I intended to connect the NMEA 0183 circuit between the C80 and the GX2400. Apparently the GX2400 needs to be hardwired to the C80 rather than going through the S1G Smart Pilot as it was previously wired. The AIS circuit has to run at 38400 baud and either the Smart Pilot NMEA port can not be set to 38400 baud or I don't know how to do it.
First, I disconnected all the NMEA wires on the Smart Pilot, and confirmed the chartplotter and all other electronics still worked normally. That convinced me that there was no data being transmitted on the NMEA network other the the GPS signal being sent to the old VHF radio to support the DSC function. All of the electronics on our boat functioned entirely on the SeaTalk network. I then pulled a new 4-conductor cable from the VHF to the Smart Pilot under the aft cabin using the existing 2-conductor cable. I connected 2 of the wires to the NMEA out +/- connectors on the Smart Pilot to the NMEA IN +/- on the GX2400 to provide the VHF with the GPS location for the DSC function. I then connected the other 2-conductors from the NMEA OUT +/- on the GX2400 directly to the exsiting 2-conductor NMEA 0183 cable going to the C80. After setting the baud rate for the NMEA port on the C80 to 38400 baud for the AIS signal, it worked properly. I also had to set the baud rate on the GPS input signal to the GX2400 to 4800 baud as that is the rate that the Smart Pilot NMEA port was running. All is good.
In the future when the chartplotter dies, I should be able to use the 4-conductor cable I just put in to pull a new NMEA 2000 backbone from the GX2400 to a new chart plotter at the helm. I suspect there will be no NMEA connections to the Smart Pilot. I will have to add an adapter of some sort bewteen a new chartplotter and the rest of the SeaTalk network to get information from the wind and depth transducers and the auto pilot. But that is for another day, hopefully a long time into the future.
Gary & Janet
The Best of Times (Hull #422)
The Best of Times (Hull #422)