[TG] Connecting instrument displays / transducer selection

[jetx]

As part of a full electronics upgrade, I plan to install two i60 wind and three i70s displays (in addition to Axiom and Quantum2). I believe the i60's (and the older i70) have two SeaTalkNG connections and can be daisy-chained from one to another. Is that still correct? It looks like the newer i70s displays have only a single SeaTalkNG plug, so daisy-chaining isn't possible, and each i70s will require its own spur cable connected to the N2K backbone, is that right?

Is there any plan to offer the i60 and i70s with standard devicenet connectors instead of SeaTalkNG (like the Axiom units), or will they remain SeaTalkNG going forward? Assuming they are still SeaTalkNG, what is the correct adapter cable to connect an i70s to a devicenet (backbone) tee? A06045?

Finally, I'd like to have separate transducers for depth and speed (rather than a triducer). Does Rayamarine offer "smart" versions that connect directly to the N2K network, or do I have to go with the older style analog transducers and a converter? If so, which ones?

[Tom - Raymarine - Moderator]

Hello jetx,

Quote: I believe the i60's (and the older i70) have two SeaTalkNG connections and can be daisy-chained from one to another. Is that still correct? It looks like the newer i70s displays have only a single SeaTalkNG plug, so daisy-chaining isn't possible, and each i70s will require its own spur cable connected to the N2K backbone, is that right?

The NMEA2000 specification used to allow daisy-chaining of instruments as long as there were no more than 3 instruments in a chain and as long as the total chain length didn't exceed 5m (from memory), but newer versions of the spec prohibit daisy-chaining because so many network reliability problems resulted from chains that didn't respect these limits. All new instruments will have a single connector only.

Quote:Is there any plan to offer the i60 and i70s with standard devicenet connectors instead of SeaTalkNG (like the Axiom units), or will they remain SeaTalkNG going forward? Assuming they are still SeaTalkNG, what is the correct adapter cable to connect an i70s to a devicenet (backbone) tee? A06045?

We did 'experiment' with Devicenet on the Axiom range and AIS700, but we've decided in the long run to stick with STNG. I know it's far from ideal having two different connector types in a system (or 3, if your engine uses Deutsch) but in the long run we believe that STNG is better: smaller connectors on cables so they're easier to run, and vastly clearer for installation in troubleshooting through the different connectors for backbones and spurs and colour-coded connectors and cables. Certainly from a technical support point of view STNG is brilliant. Here in Australia, almost all Raymarine systems use fully STNG cabling rather than Devicenet.
A06045 or A06075 (400mm or 1m) are the adaptors to connect Devicenet products into an STNG network, but to connect an STNG product to a Devicenet network it would be either A06045/A06075 or A06078/A06076 depending on whether you needed Devicenet F or M (the latter two parts are a 100mm and 1m Devicenet M.) You can see the range of adaptors at http://www.raymarine.com/view/?id=5536.

Quote:Finally, I'd like to have separate transducers for depth and speed (rather than a triducer). Does Rayamarine offer "smart" versions that connect directly to the N2K network, or do I have to go with the older style analog transducers and a converter? If so, which ones?

If you were going to use i50/i60 displays you'd get analogue transducers connected directly to the displays, because i50 cannot calibrate NMEA2000/smart transducers. If you were getting i70 instruments then you could use either analogue (connected to the ITC5 that you'd use for Wind data) or NMEA2000 depth/speed, but I'd still use analogue. Analogue transducers may have come along first but for this purpose they're not inferior:

• lower cost
• more possibilities for diagnosis in the event of a problem
• a problem is likely to affect only depth or speed, not both
  

The NMEA2000 DST800 triducer is A22111, which requires i70 to calibrate.
Finally, on depth data: if you are getting an MFD as part of the refit, I wouldn't fit an instrument depth transducer at all but a 'fishfinder' transducer connected to the MFD. This will be a more reliable solution (higher transmit power, cleverer signal-processing software) which will also have the benefit of showing you what ground you're anchoring over, for a very similar price. On an Axiom MFD a CPT-S transducer would be a good choice for a yacht.

Regards,
Tom