[CA] Bridging AIS from eS series to NMEA183

[shay]

I have just installed 2 eS series MFDs. I have the one on my fly bridge interfaced to a AIS transceiver via NMEA183. The fly bridge MFD is interfaced to the lower station MFD with both SeatalkNG and SeatalkHS networks. I get AIS Bridged to the Lower helm station eS series MFD. I have the lower station eS series MFD interfaced to a PC. I get Depth, Heading, Speed, GPS and other information passed on to the PC but not the AIS.

Am I doing something wrong?

Would using a NMEA200 connection between the AIS and the upper station eS series MFD help get AIS to the PC?

Also, in the past I have been able to keep a library of routes on my PC and transfer them to RL80C. I can't find any provisions to transfer routes from my PC to the new eS127.

Is using SD cards to transfer routes the only option I have?

Thanks
Shay

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Shay,

Raymarine MFDs are neither designed to repeat AIS data via there NMEA 0183 or SeaTalkng communications interfaced. Should the computer based navigational application support NMEA 2000 communications, then the solution would typically involve disconnecting the AIS receiver / transceiver from the MFD's NMEA 0183 communications interface and instead interfacing the AIS receiver / transceiver to the NMEA 2000 backbone. A NMEA 2000 to USB interface (ex. Actisense NGT-1, etc.) would then be used to not only supply the computer based navigational application with AIS data, but all other supported data available on the SeaTalkng / NMEA 2000 backbone. Should the computer based navigation application not support NMEA 2000 communications and the AIS receiver/transceiver be interfaced to the system via SeaTalkng / NMEA 2000 communications as specified above, then it would be recommended that the NMEA 0183 interface of the MFD and NMEA 0183 output port of the AIS receiver/transceiver be interfaced as separate serial inputs (4800 BAUD and 38400 BAUD respectively) to the computer.

Transfer of waypoint and route data via the MFD's NMEA 0183 communications interface is not supported within MFD's running LightHouse II software such as yours. These MFDs are designed to support waypoint and route transfer with compatible computer based navigational applications via GPX files saved onto a microSD memory card.