And think about the number of hours solving a difficult problem could take-ouch! Even if you can find one, think about what his or her charge rate is likely to be. Good luck with that in most of the places we voyage to. And if the problem is intermittent, as it very likely will be, then the trouble shooting is going to be ten times more difficult.īut not to worry, all you need is a “NMEA-certified electronics technician”. No, all you can do is check every single connector and terminator until you find the bad one. I’m an electronics and computer technician by trade and I can tell you that network problems can be some of the most frustrating and time consuming problems to troubleshoot because there is no easy way to logically zero in on the failure point. And all it takes is one of those connectors to fail and it’s lights out. There are yards of cable with dozens of connectors snaking all over your boat and routed through inaccessible and damp places.
Follow this link to find the closest CET to your homeport.
#Simrad nmea 2000 network professional
If cleaning and reseating connectors or terminators cannot solve a problem, then by all means seek the professional help of an NMEA-certified electronics technician. The problem, however, could be as simple as a missing/damaged terminator or loose/dirty connectors. This is because if there is a short or open in the trunk or drop lines it can affect the entire network, downgrading overall performance or even taking down the network. So how likely is it that this will happen? Let me quote from the ON article (emphasis mine).īecause cabling problems are especially troubling for bus or linear topology networks such as NMEA 2000, the cabling should be checked first if any malfunctions start to manifest. That’s going to be fun! As a famous ocean racing skipper was heard to say after nearly running aground on Cape Sable in the fog, “only your laundry knows for sure”. Murphy will make absolutely certain that all of this happens just as you are making an approach to a tricky harbour crawling with traffic…in the fog. The speedo/log, depth sounder, and wind instruments stop working.The autopilot stops working because it has no input from the compass.The multi function display in the cockpit that displays radar and AIS information goes black.There is no read out from the fluxgate compass.All of the devices that require a GPS position, including the plotter, stop working.What does that mean for a fully NMEA 2000 boat? And therein lies the problem that I have not seen one commentator mention: If there is a significant problem with the NMEA 2000 backbone, every piece of gear on the boat dependant on it stops working. You see, the thing is that many devices use the NMEA backbone not only to communicate with other devices, but to communicate with their own sensors. You knew there was a “but” coming, right? Most every techy type in the marine journalism community has been waxing eloquent about how cool this is. For those of you who are not aware, NMEA is a standard backbone cabling system that allows you to connect every piece of electronic gear on your boat together, regardless of what company manufactured each piece. That would be my only caution here - I would investigate to make sure that what you want to do with the autopilot is actually possible - will it accept certain NMEA 0183 sentences, and what are those sentences? Compare that with the PGNs that the GO7 would send on NMEA 2000 and ensure those would flow the right way, correctly, and that the NGW-1 can convert them appropriately.I was just reading an article on the NMEA 2000 marine network standard over at the excellent Ocean Navigator blog. Simrad also sells various gateways and such too, but I have found the NGW-1 to be far more configurable and controllable, especially when mixing vendor types. In addition to the NGW-1, you would also need to create a small NMEA 2000 network which would include two terminators (one at each end), a backbone, and two tees or drop cables - one to the NGW-1 and one to the Simrad GO7. Not only would it connect the two, but you can program it to do various things to the data going back and forth, in the event that your Raymarine ST-series pilot needs more specific data, or something converted, etc. You would need a 2000 to 0183 device of some sorts - there are a ton to choose from, but the one I've seen the most for single purpose use is the Actisense NGW-1.
NMEA 01 are not electrically the same, and you cannot splice a 0183 device into a 2000 cable, or vise versa. The GO7 has only a NMEA 2000 port, so you're sort of constrained there.
0 kommentar(er)
