Networking a95 to non-Raymarine A/P

[TKP62]

Hello,

A friend just purchased a new a95 and I will be installing it for him as I have quite a bit of experience with ST, STng and a/e series plotters on my own boat. He has ST60 instruments and we will be installing the ST1-to-STng converter so they will communicate. Unfortunately, he has a ComNav autopilot (older) with NMEA0183 networking. If he purchases the Actisense NGW-1-STNG converter, will the a95 have full functionality with autopilot control, or can we expect only to share heading info to the a95 and BTW data to the autopilot for tracking to a waypoint?

Alternately, without the Actisense unit, will the heading info be successfully shared with the a95 if we only connect the ComNav NMEA output to Port 1 input of the a95 (which would allow Heading Up, Relative Motion on the plotter)? He has no radar so that is not a concern.

Thanks,

Tim

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Tim,

Q1. If he purchases the Actisense NGW-1-STNG converter, will the a95 have full functionality with autopilot control, or can we expect only to share heading info to the a95 and BTW data to the autopilot for tracking to a waypoint?
A1. The MFD's autopilot control features are designed to function exclusively with compatible Raymarine autopilots which have been interfaced to the system via their respective SeaTalk or SeaTalkng communications interface. As you have suggested, expect only to share heading info to the a95 and BTW data to the autopilot for tracking to a waypoint or following a route.

Q2. Alternately, without the Actisense unit, will the heading info be successfully shared with the a95 if we only connect the ComNav NMEA output to Port 1 input of the a95 (which would allow Heading Up, Relative Motion on the plotter)? He has no radar so that is not a concern.
A1. Should the autopilot support NMEA 0183 v2.1 or higher communications protocol, then it indeed may alternatively be interfaced to the corresponding NMEA 0183 leads of the MFD Power/NMEA 0183/Video Input Cable.

[schoonertao]

I recently installed a Raymarine a95 mfd in my sailboat which also has a Comnav Commander P2 autopilot. I have the mfd hooked up to accept my vhs radio's ais signal at the mfd port 1 input set at 38400 baud but the autopilot output requires a baud rate of 4800. Because the manual specifies that the baud rate of the input and output at port 1 must be the same, can I connect the ais output to port 2 at 38400 baud reserving port 1 for the comnav autopilot at 4800 baud or is it preferable to connect the autopilot to the mfd using the Raymarine connection kit #E70196?

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum

The E70196 VHF NMEA 0183 to STng Converter Kit is not designed to perform as a full SeaTalkng to NMEA 0183 data bridge and as such, is not applicable to interfacing an autopilot supporting 4800 BAUD NMEA 0183 communications. Should a device require 4800 BAUD NMEA 0183 data from the Raymarine system, then the device should either be
- interfaced to the MFD's Port 1 and the MFD's port 1 should be configured to "NMEA 4800"
- interfaced to a NMEA 0183 to SeaTalkng/NMEA 2000 data bridge (ex. Actisense NGW-1-STNG, etc.) which is in turn interfaced as a spur to a powered and properly terminated SeaTalkng backbone to which the MFD has also been interfaced as a spur.

The advantage of the latter solution is that it would not only support supplying GPS data to the VHF radio / AIS receiver, but would also support supplying the MFD and any other SeaTalkng/NMEA 2000 spur device supporting AIS features to have access to AIS data.

[schoonertao]

The boat in question is a 41' Alden classic schooner equipped with a Nexus F/DX instrumentation system, Standard Horizon GX2200 VHF GPS/AIS transceiver and a Comnav Commander P2 autopilot in addition to the newly acquired Raymarine a95 MFD. Am I correct in understanding that it's possible to interface all these devices using a Seatalking backbone with an Actisense data bridge for each item (aside from the MFD)?

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

schoonertao,

While we regularly address questions concerning Standard Horizon VHF radio / AIS receiver product and can specify that
- they have 38400 BAUD NMEA 0183 interface to support reception of GPS data from the MFD and
- transmission of AIS messaging to the MFD and
- may be interfaced to the STng backbone via a NGW-1-AIS,
it is recommended that you the documentation and/or the manufacturer of the other third party products be contacted to verify that they support 4800 BAUD NMEA 0183 v3.01 or higher communications protocol. If so, then an Actisense NGW-1-STNG may be used to interface these devices to the SeaTalkng backbone.

[cappy208]

hello all:

I have a A-98 chartplotter to be installed. I have a Comnav 1420 AP When looking at removal of current plotter I noticed it has power AND two data connections to AP. How can I determine if the A 98 is compatible with AP? The list of sentences is long. But if I can get some to be usable would be awesome.



Nema 0183
here is list:
1. RMB + RMC 2. RMB + RMA 3. APB 4. APA 5. XTE + BOD 6. XTE + HSC 7. VBW 8. VHW 9. VTG

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

cappy208,

The NMEA 0183 sentences listed below are supported by the a95 MFD. Should the Comnav 1420 AP support NMEA 0183 v2.1 or higher communications protocol (recommend consulting the autopilot's documentation or contacting the autopilot's manufacturer), then the MFD may be interfaced to the autopilot as follows:
- Connect the MFD's NMEA 0183 OUT+ lead (yellow) the third party autopilot course computer's NMEA 0183 IN+ lead/terminal
- Connect the MFD's NMEA 0183 OUT- lead (brown) the third party autopilot course computer's NMEA 0183 IN- lead/terminal

Should the autopilot transmit NMEA 0183 RSD (rudder angle) and HDG, HDM, or HDT (heading) sentences, then additionally:
- Connect the MFD's NMEA 0183 IN+ lead (white) the third party autopilot course computer's NMEA 0183 OUT+ lead/terminal
- Connect the MFD's NMEA 0183 IN- lead (green) the third party autopilot course computer's NMEA 0183 OUT- lead/terminal

[cappy208]

Thanks! Had time to go down and hook up the plotter to the autopilot. It's awesome to be able to use the plotter in conjunction with the autopilot. This makes the raymarine look even more impressive. Unfortunately my comnav only transmits HDG. But that works as well.


Compatibility, Good looks, screen size, Ray name. Thanks. John

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

You're welcome.