[CA] [CA11] Ais connection via raymarine autohelm st 7000

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome back to the Raymarine Forum Antonio,

Unfortunately, your suggestion to interface the AIS receiver / transceiver to any device other than the MFD's NMEA 0183 input port is not valid for the following reasons:
- unlike SeaTalkng / NMEA 2000 communications protocol, SeaTalk communications protocol does not support communications of AIS data.
- Raymarine autopilot course computers featuring a NMEA 0183 communications interface are exclusively designed to support 4800 BAUD data rates. AIS receivers / transceivers supporting NMEA 0183 communications are designed to support 38400 BAUD.
- C-Series Classic MFDs are exclusively designed to support reception of AIS data via the MFD's NMEA 0183 communications interface. The NMEA 2000 and SeaTalk communications interfaces of C-Series Classic MFDs cannot be used to support communications with an AIS receiver / transceiver.

Raymarine has produced not autopilot known as a ST 700. The device which has been referred to as a ST 700 autopilot may actually be a ST7000 autopilot control head. If so, an autopilot course computer has also been installed onboard the vessel and it may be possible to interface the VHF radio's 4800 BAUD NMEA 0183 input leads to the NMEA 0183 output terminals of the autopilot course computer to supply the VHF radio with 4800 BAUD NMEA 0183 GPS data. If the autopilot course computer features two NMEA 0183 output ports, then the port labeled NMEA2 would feature NMEA 0183 GPS sentences.

Alternatively, the 38400 BAUD NMEA 0183 output leads of the VHF radio may be interfaced to an Actisense NDC-4-USB NMEA 0183 Mutiplexer which will be programmed to receive at 38400 BAUD and transmit at 4800 BAUD. The NMEA 0183 input leads of the VHF radio would then be interfaced the NMEA 0183 output terminals of the Actisense NDC-4-USB NMEA 0183 Mutiplexer to supply the VHF radio with 4800 BAUD NMEA 0183 GPS data.