Seatalkng Power Connection

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum mswanicke,

Unlike the ACU-200, ACU-300, and ACU-400, the ACU-100 cannot be used to power a SeaTalkng backbone. When using a ACU-100, a SeaTalkng Power Cable must be interfaced to a switched 12VDC power circuit. The SeaTalkng Power Cable will then be connected to a spur socket within the backbone at the approximate midpoint of the backbone's LEN load.

It is considered a best practice to power a SeaTalkng/NMEA 2000 backbone from a dedicated switched 12VDC power circuit rather than an ACU as,
- the SeaTalkng power output of the ACU-200, ACU-300, and ACU-400 may not be sufficient to supply power to SeaTalkng/NMEA 2000 backbones featuring large numbers of SeaTalkng/NMEA2000 devices. As it is quite common for systems to grow in size, and corresponding SeaTalkng/NMEA 2000 power demand, problems related to insufficient backbone power resulting from system expansion may be avoided by powering the SeaTalkng/NMEA 2000 backbone from a dedicated switched 12VDC power circuit.
- power savings may be obtained by shutting down unneeded equipment while permitting other parts of the system to utilized.
- use of dedicated power circuits may provide a degree of system functionality in the event of a catastrophic failure of one or more system components.

Depending upon the size of the system and one's concept of operation for the system, some systems will more power circuits than others.

Please click here to view a FAQ addressing this subject.