Has anyone added an NMEA2000 backbone to their Hunter 386? I'm looking to go from the helm station to the breaker panel / radio / nav station and am looking for the best cable route. Thanks in advance!
Looking to add NMEA2000 to Hunter 386 - cabling routing?
- Thread starter dtrask
- Start date
Funny you should mention that..... I have been looking at doing the same on my H280.
I am thinking the trunk/backbone will originate under the mast and go port side. On the port side the trunk/backbone will tee and run bow to stern adding tees and drops to pick up equipment.
Under the mast I will pick up power, VHF, and wind. Midship bow I will pick up depth, speed and maybe fresh water. Midship aft engine monitoring. Cockpit GPS, Compass and instrumentation.
I have attached the drawing I am playing with.
Have you shopped for the cabling and connectors?
I am thinking the trunk/backbone will originate under the mast and go port side. On the port side the trunk/backbone will tee and run bow to stern adding tees and drops to pick up equipment.
Under the mast I will pick up power, VHF, and wind. Midship bow I will pick up depth, speed and maybe fresh water. Midship aft engine monitoring. Cockpit GPS, Compass and instrumentation.
I have attached the drawing I am playing with.
Have you shopped for the cabling and connectors?
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On my H41AC (possibly similar to your 386), the DC panel and nav station are on the starboard side. From inside the starboard swim platform lazarette, I can see a conduit that runs forward just under the level of the rub rail. It extends nearly all the way to the nav station. Using this conduit and a "fish tape" I was able to pull a SeaTalkNG backbone cable through from the nav station to the starboard swim platform lazarette. I was able to run another SeaTalkNG backbone cable from that lazarette up to the helm station along the path used by all of the other wiring to the helm station.
These two backbone cables are connected with a coupler in the lazarette giving me a SeaTalkNG backbone from the helm station to the nav station and I'm able to connect everything up that I need. The existing SeaTalk1 network is coupled to the SeaTalkNG network using a converter located behind the DC panel and the SeaTalkNG network is powered by that converter.
These two backbone cables are connected with a coupler in the lazarette giving me a SeaTalkNG backbone from the helm station to the nav station and I'm able to connect everything up that I need. The existing SeaTalk1 network is coupled to the SeaTalkNG network using a converter located behind the DC panel and the SeaTalkNG network is powered by that converter.
@Crusty Ol Salt I've been looking at the Ancor products as my initial research shows they may have a better build quality than the Garmin. However, I do have an older existing SeaTalk1 network so @dkinzer idea is intriguing.
I did that a few years ago on my 380 which must be similar. I went from the steering pedestal down with all the other wires into the space above the aft stateroom berth. From there I fished it between the headliner and deck to the aft port stateroom locker. I put a 5-way splitter in that locker for the course computer, heading sensor, and rudder position indicator. Then I continued aft from that locker into the lazarette beside the holding tank. There's a 2" corrugated conduit with extra pull cords which runs under the deck all the way forward from the lazarette to the navigation station on the port side. I installed another 5-way splitter in the nav station to feed power to the backbone and to connect my nav station chart plotter and AIS transmitter, stereo, etc.. I didn't need to go forward any further forward at that time.
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I added an additional seatalk 1 block to give me an additional seatalk connection point. Put this right next to the 2 original blocks. Then put the seatalk 1 to seatalkng/nmea2000 converter behind my radio panel. Have an external gps, raspberry pi, and ais receiver connected. Works great.