NMEA 0183 Connection in Hunter 50

[SEMPERAVANTI41]

Does anyone know what is connected to the NMEA 0183 terminals on the Raymarine X30 autopilot in my 2011 Hunter 50? When I disconnected the connector all systems (GPS, depth, etc) worked fine. My paddle wheel for speed is kaput so I can't tell if anything changed. Also my VHF was still getting a GPS signal. The wires seem to go up towards the inside chartplotter and VHF. The GPS antenna is connceted to the network via STNG.

 

[JamesG161]

Which MultiFunctionDisplay [MFD] or chart plotter model do you have?
On my Raymarine a98 MFD, there is a Maintenance display that shows what is working on your SeaTalkng network.

My VHF has a separate GPS antenna, but a VHF is typically NMEA 0183.

I thought my Speed Paddle wheel was kaput too. It just needed cleaning and alignment.
Jim...

PS: My Autopilot gets 3 signals, Rudder position, MFD given GPS, and Flux Compass.

 

[artboas]

Does anyone know what is connected to the NMEA 0183 terminals on the Raymarine X30 autopilot in my 2011 Hunter 50? When I disconnected the connector all systems (GPS, depth, etc) worked fine. My paddle wheel for speed is kaput so I can't tell if anything changed. Also my VHF was still getting a GPS signal. The wires seem to go up towards the inside chartplotter and VHF. The GPS antenna is connceted to the network via STNG.

 

[artboas]

Well, if it's 0183, it is the vhf. The smart controller remote is on ST1, so that can't be it.
Nothing else on the boat runs on 0183
Has there been an instrument upgrade? Maybe it's legacy wiring.

 

[Pearson 39-II]

Your X30 's terminals include +/- for NMEA input [with an Up arrow icon marking] and +/- for NMEA output [with a Down arrow icon marking] . Were the wires you disconnected from it to the input or output or both? Cannot quite tell from your photo.

 

[Pearson 39-II]

OK, the only NMEA sentences your SmartPilot X30 can output are Heading [HDG] and Rudder Angle [RSA], neither of which are of any interest to your VHF radio, or even accepted as input sentences. They would be accepted and displayed by any number of instrument systems, like the chart plotter you mentioned and which Jim asked you to identify.

Your Smartpilot accepts 16 NMEA sentences as inputs, none of which can be output by a VHF radio that I know of. A typical modern VHF will NMEA output DSC and DSE identifying and locating itself, but your Smartpilot does not accept those sentences.

Some NMEA sentence data, like lat/lon , date, and time would just be for display on your Smartpilot control head - ST6002 , is it? But the really interesting ones, like RMB, contain navigation information that your autopilot can put to use in Track Mode, like cross track error, bearing to waypoint, and distance to waypoint. In Track mode your Smartpilot will drive the boat along a navigational route, waypoint to waypoint, considering Cross track error.

Possibly also of interest is the NMEA sentence MWV with wind speed and direction. If you place your Smartpilot into Wind Vane mode and give it wind direction data it will steer the boat at a set apparent or true wind angle to keep the boat moving even in wind shifts. More to follow...

 

[Pearson 39-II]

To continue: You've not told us yet directly about your chartplotter but you have said your GPS sensor inputs its position and speed data to a network via SeaTalk ng. That likely means your chart plotter is on that network so as to get GPS data and of course your Smartpilot is on that network if only to communicate with its ST6002, ST70, or other Raymarine Autopilot control head. That means when your chart plotter is set up to navigate a route any waypoint and cross-track data needed by the Smartpilot for Track Mode steering is already available to it via SeaTalk - so no need to get it via NMEA 0183. You could wire it that way, but why?
That suggests the NMEA Wind data of use to your Smartpilot for Wind Vane mode has not been connected via SeaTalk. Do you have some legacy wind machine like a B&G Network Wind unit, that has an NMEA 0183 output but not a SeaTalk output?