NMEA input to a78 MFD

[charlie98117]

Hi, I'm back. To recap I have a Standard Horizon GX2200 with AIS output via NMEA 0183 at 38,400 baud. I bought the Actisense NMEA-0183 to STNG converter and I'm having problems making the connection. The Lighthouse documentation says I need to set the baud rate to 38,400 at homescreen>Setup>System Settings>NMEA Setup. I have no option for NMEA Setup under System Settings. Does the a78 always communicate at 38,400? Is the system setting somewhere else?

The LEDs on the Actisense say there is signal received from both sides. Am I missing something?

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Charlie,

The MFD's NMEA 0183 port settings have no bearing upon reception of data being received via the MFD's SeaTalkng/NMEA 2000 port. The SeaTalkng/NMEA 2000 port of a Data Master MFD is essentially always in the ON state and as such no configuration settings for the MFD's SeaTalkng port is required or provided. I have the following questions:
- The Actisense makes a few different versions of the NGW-1. Which version of the NGW-1 did you install?
- When installing the NGW-1, did you install a powered and properly terminated SeaTalkng backbone and then interface both the MFD and NGW-1 each as spurs to the backbone?

[charlie98117]

I have the Actisense NGW-1-ISO and added the RAYMARINE
SeaTalk NG to DeviceNet (NMEA2000) Adapter # A06046 to connect the the Seatalk network. I plugged that adapter into an open spur on a # A06064 5-way that is on the existing backbone already running the MFD, i70, autopilot, depth finder, ect.

I've attached pages from each products documentation for your reference. The Actisense documentation talks about NMEA 0183 Device Talker and Listener sides regarding direction of information. I assume I should be connecting to the Talker side since the 0183 device (radio) is talking to the network.

The radio documentation says to connect to a single port MFD I need to set the output on the radio to 38,400 and then all the data is sent over the grey and brown wires. I've highlighted the connection scheme I used.

I appreciate any help you can offer getting this connection to work.

thanks.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Charlie,

As indicated within my prior response, Actisense offers different versions of the NGW-1. If you review the list of NMEA 0183 sentences supported by the NGW-1-ISO, you will find that this list does not include support for any NMEA 0183 AIS sentence identifiers (VDO, VDM, and ALR). NGW-1-ISO-AIS is the NMEA 0183 AIS option. This is a pre-configured version of the standard NGW-1-ISO that enables the conversion of NMEA 0183 AIS data to its equivalent in NMEA 2000. This provides an 'out of the box' solution for quick installation with no configuration required. Please see the list of NMEA 0183 sentences supported by the NGW-1-ISO-AIS to view which AIS conversions the NGW-1-ISO-AIS can perform.

Accordingly, you may want to consider returning the NGW-1-ISO to have it replaced with a NGW-1-ISO-AIS. Alternatively, you may want to consider contacting Actisense Support for instructions and software to reprogram your NGW-1-ISO to perform as a NGW-1-ISO-AIS.

With respect to configuration of the MFD's NMEA 0183 port, you are not connecting the Standard Horizon GX2200 to a MFD's NMEA 0183 port. You have instead interfaced the Standard Horizon GX2200 to a NMEA 0183 to NMEA 2000 data bridging device. Accordingly, the excerpt within your Standard Horizon GX2200's manual does not apply. The instructions provided within the 38400 BAUD Connections page of Section 6.5.2 of the GX2200's manual (see page 21) apply to how the GX2200 would be interfaced to the NGW-1-ISO-AIS.

[charlie98117]

Thank you, I was afraid it was something like that. I will get the Actisense reprogrammed to the AIS version.

I bought the Standard Horizon radio because I thought it had the same functions as the Raymarine version for a couple hundred dollars less but I have now spent more. Lessons learned.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

You're welcome.

[charlie98117]

I uploaded the AIS version firmware to the Actisense device, connected everything up and now see AIS targets all over the chart plotter display.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

You're welcome.