[CA] [[CA11] Axiom MFD with Camino-108 AIS

[Tenedos]

I am upgrading my Raymarine electronics, and I have successfully installed the Axiom 9. I already had an Amec Camino-108S AIS transceiver and I am trying to integrate it with the Axiom.

I setup an seatalkng backbone, on one end I have the E22158 Seatalkng <-> seatalk 1 converter. Axiom is connected to E22158 via an NMEA 2000 to seatalk cable. At the other end of the backbone (separated by a 9m backbone cable) I have the A06064 5-way seatalkng connector. Camino-108S is connected to A06064 via an NMEA 2000 to seatalkng cable. setalkng network is powered from A06064.

E22158 is not connected to seatalk1 (ST50 instrument set and ST4000+ autopilot) just yet as I am trying to get the AIS working set up first.

AIS is working but it seems to be intermittent, ships are identified but they start flashing/blinking pretty soon afterwards. This happens for all AIS targets (tens of them) so it clearly is not about a target moving out of range or disappearing.

Rebooting the Axiom brings the targets back but the same problem happens again soon afterwards. I can connect to Camino-108S from the USB with my computer and see the AIS targets are active and new position records are received regularly.

I am a bit puzzled on why this happens and how to proceed. I am running v3.8.97 on the Axiom. Any suggestions on how to fix it or troubleshoot it further?

P.S. On a side note, I want to make sure I powered setalkng properly. Power cable has three connections. Positive and negative are obvious but I wasn't sure about the third one. I presume it is ground. Since I don't have a separate DC ground on my boat, I connected it to negative wire as well. Is that correct?

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Tenedos,

Q1. AIS is working but it seems to be intermittent, ships are identified but they start flashing/blinking pretty soon afterwards.
A1. Please refer to the AIS Target Symbols section of Chapter 8.4: Target tracking of the LightHouse 3.8 Advanced Operation Instructions. The flashing red AIS target symbol is indicative of target which has been deemed to be dangerous. Please refer to the Dangerous Targets and AIS Settings sections of this same chapter to properly configure your MFD's responses to received AIS target data..

Q2. On a side note, I want to make sure I powered setalkng properly. Power cable has three connections. Positive and negative are obvious but I wasn't sure about the third one. I presume it is ground. Since I don't have a separate DC ground on my boat, I connected it to negative wire as well. Is that correct?
A2. Please click here to view a FAQ addressing this subject.

[Tenedos]

Thank you Chuck. According to manual, what I see is "Uncertain"(Dashed outline), they are also flashing in my scenario (switching between solid green to dashed gray and back). To be clear these are way out of danger zone and are not marked as dangerous, they are not red.

What exactly is "Uncertain" and when is a target marked as one?Here is a screenshot of blinking, while it is grayed out. This switches to green and this grayed out state continuously. AIS target locations are updated so I don't know what the actual impact is or what this blinking indicates.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Tenedos,

IMO states that a broken line around the target symbol should be rendered if a collision avoidance computation cannot be performed. This condition may occur if heading or COG is not included within the received AIS data or if there is some uncertainty with regard to the position and COG of one's vessel. I recommend that you examine the data for each AIS target via the MFD's AIS target list when this condition is observed. It is also recommended that you examine the GPS Status dialog to determine whether the MFD is reporting that it has acquired a GPS position FIX and that its HDOP is relatively low. A properly functioning GPS receiver, GPS antenna, or GPS sensor which has been afforded an unobstructed view of the skies overhead will typically yield a HDOP of 1.0 or less. Also, should you find information differing from that which has been specified within this response, then please attach a screen snapshot of the MFD's AIS Target List and additionally attach a screen snapshot of the MFD's Chart application which has been configured to display the Infobox alongside the AIS target. Please additionally attach a screen snapshot of the MFD's GPS status dialog.

[Tenedos]

Chuck, please see two screenshots attached.

I am also attaching an image on how the targets look on the chartplotter. As you can see this is happening for all targets and something is off.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Tenedos,

Interestingly, your vessel is not shown within the screen snapshot. Please comment on this point ... i.e. where is your vessel relative to all of these targets?

[Tenedos]

I am running these tests from my slip in the marina. The target I captured in my previous screenshot was about 8 miles away from the boat. That's what the Google earth screenshot shows.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Tenedos,

Are AIS targets which are more closely located to your vessel displayed with this same uncertain designation (dotted outline)?

[Tenedos]

Hi Chuck, yes. All targets (whether they are close or not) are displayed in the same uncertain designation (dotted outlined, switches back and forth between gray and green forever).

Here is a though: Could this be related to presence of E22158? I have an E22158 that connects my old ST50 instruments to Seatalk NG backbone. There is also an ST4000+ autopilot on seatalk 1 bus. Heading information comes from seatalk 1 via E22158.

Let me know what things I can try to isolate the problem. It seems to me that this is a bug that results in from the combination of a couple of things. I am happy to try different combinations and eliminate possibilities.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Tenedos,

Please note that we have not previously received any reports of this symptom with systems using Raymarine or other third party AIS receivers. This is the first report of a customer using the subject AIS receiver. It is highly unlikely that the SeaTalk to SeaTalkng Converter would be responsible for the reported issue. That said, next step in fault islolation which I would recommend is to unplug all devices from the backbone except for the MFD, GPS sensor (if any), and the third party AIS device.

Should the problem persist when running the stripped down system, then it would be recommended that a NMEA 2000 data log be created. To do so, the file within the attached compressed folder would be extracted to the root level directory of a microSD memory card. After the problem has been reproduced, the microSD memory card containing this file should be inserted into the MFD's memory card reader and the system should be operated for at least six minutes. The resulting NMEA 2000 log file should then be attached to this thread to permit it to be included within a problem report to be logged on this subject.