Garmin Wireless wind vs. Raymarine microtalk gateway?

[Tally Ho]

I currently have a Tac Tic wires wind instrument on my O’Day 322. The transducer displays wind info an a screen at the helm. It works well, but, there is no connectivity in this system. I cannot feed wind info to my CP (Garmin GPSMaps 740 ) or to my ST4000 auto pilot.

I am considering a few options to “upgrade” my wind system:
1) New Garmin Wireless GWind2 transducer. I believe that this device will communicate directly with my Garmin 740. I hope once it is “in the CP”, I can share it with my AP via NMEA0183. But I read a lot of reports of unreliability with the Garmin wireless GWind. Any have any current good or bad reports on the Garmin wireless gwind?

2) Raymarine offers a Microtalk gateway that gets the Tac tic wireless wind data, and puts it on to a SeatalkNG network. My network is generic N2K, but I assume I can connect the gateway to it via an adaptor. My Tac Tic is very reliable, and the Raymarine gateway is about half the cost of the new Garmin transducer. But I cannot find any reviews or testimony about the gateway…Anyone use a Raymarine gateway with their wireless wind transducer?

Any thoughts, experiences or recommendations (hopefully on these 2 options) would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,

Greg

 

[jssailem]

Greg. Not the gateway but I have used the iTC5. It takes analog (NMEA 0183) and puts it on the SeatalkNG network (n2k).

 

[Tally Ho]

Greg. Not the gateway but I have used the iTC5. It takes analog (NMEA 0183) and puts it on the SeatalkNG network (n2k).

Thanks @jssailem.

But I have to get the wind info from the Tac Tic first…the iTC5 may be necessary to get wind data to the older ST4000 AP.

Greg

 

[Ward H]

Actually the iTC5 converts various transducer signals and puts them on the STng. It doesn't convert SeaTalk1/NMEA 0183 to SeaTalkng /NEMA2000.

 

[Marmalade]

Another option, the Garmin 740 has a NMEA0183 input, doesn't it? Get a Tacktick T122 NMEA interface, and you'll get the wireless data into the chart plotter. We use it, get GPS into the microtalk network, and wind data into the chart plotter... works fine for us.

 

[Tally Ho]

Another option, the Garmin 740 has a NMEA0183 input, doesn't it? Get a Tacktick T122 NMEA interface, and you'll get the wireless data into the chart plotter. We use it, get GPS into the microtalk network, and wind data into the chart plotter... works fine for us.

Thanks for that idea @Marmalade. I will read up on the T122 Interface. Yes, my Garmin 740 does have a NMEA 0183 port.
So the T122 can capture the wireless signal from the TackTic wind anemometer and put it onto NMEA 0183? That would be intriguing…except for the price tag…$400 USD!

But certainly worth a look if it can capture the TacTic wireless signal.

Greg

 

[Marmalade]

Thanks for that idea @Marmalade. I will read up on the T122 Interface. Yes, my Garmin 740 does have a NMEA 0183 port.
So the T122 can capture the wireless signal from the TackTic wind anemometer and put it onto NMEA 0183? That would be intriguing…except for the price tag…$400 USD!

But certainly worth a look if it can capture the TacTic wireless signal.

Greg

Ya, works for us just fine. Watch eBay, they come up for a fraction of the cost sometimes. I think I have an extra hull transmitter, but it the NMEA interface. I'll double check thiugh!

 

[Marmalade]

I was wrong... I have a spare! If you want to give it a try, PM me your address and I'll send it to you to give a spin. If it works, we can settle-up later for a very fair price!

 

[Tally Ho]

Does anyone know if this Raymarine i60 wind display can get wireless signal from a TacTic T120 transducer?
I see one bundled with a Raymarine E70150 wind transducer…


It looks like the i60 supports N2K, so that would connect right into my network (with a Raymarine adaptor I imagine).

Greg

 

[Tally Ho]

To end this saga, I want to share the “solution” to my wireless wind connectivity issue.

First, a big thanks to @Marmalade for his suggestion and help with a TacTic T122 wireless interface. He let me use a spare he had, and I tried a couple of times to get it to connect to my Garmin 740s Chartplotter and my Raymarine ST4000+ autopilot.

The T122 has no indicator lights, so it is hard to even know if it powers on. My first attempt at hooking it up the Garmin via NMEA0183 was not successful (don’t know why). I also tried to hook it up to the NMEA In on the AP, but nothing worked.

I was at the boat this afternoon, and decided to give it another try. I first connected ppower and used my DVM to verify power to the unit. Still no power lights on the T122, but I knew there was power to the box.

I put the DVM on the NMEA Out terminals on the T122 and had voltage that danced around (I assume that is good).

I then ran a set of wires to the NMEA0183 wires on the Garmin. I hooked these into the NMEA Out on the T122.

I then checked the Garmin “Wind” display and I had wind info!
If I turn off the TacTic Wind Display, I lose the info on the Garmin, but that is OK.

Then I connected another set of wires from the T122 to the NMEA IN on the AP, and all of a sudden I had Wind on the AP, so I can steer to wind angle.

I am a happy camper! i guess I will need to keep the boat now


Greg

 

[Marmalade]

@Tally Ho really happy to hear it worked-out! Those little NMEA0183 wires are filled with black magic that I don't fully understand either!

I too had success this week, in a related topic. My T122 was hooked to an older Garmin GPSMap at the nav station. I put a NMEA2000 backbone in the boat this weekend to connect the chart plotter at the helm, the chart plotter at the nav station, VHF with AIS Rx, and a XM Weather receiver... and not only did everything talk correctly, but the wind data from the T122/NMEA0183 was pushed-out over the NMEA2000 to my plotter at the helm!