nmea / electronics upgrade advice!

[adamv]

Hi, bought a '84 sailboat recently. It has a mixture of electronic equipment from different eras (see below). I live on an island near a ferry terminal and with a lot of boat traffic so thinking of AIS. Im mainly coastal cruising. The chartplotter supports AIS but is an old cp180i (nmea0183). The depth sounder is st40 (seatalk1) and the autopilot is seatalk ng. The radio is a very old pre dsc one.
My first thought was to get a radio that supports AIS receive and nmea wifi gateway and use an ipad (ignore connections for depth / auto pilot,.. but maybe there are advantages to networking these?). Of course other options would be to get an AIS transceiver, perhaps St1 to NMEA0183 (for the depth sounder) and then NMEA0183 to NMEA2000 and then a gateway. When you add up all those converters, splitters it adds up to a lot. Is it better to keep it simple and just have a DSC radio + AIS transp with splitter + a gateway + ipad all on nmea2k? I.e. ditch the charplotter altogether?
There's so many combinations and options im trying to avoid pitfalls or massive wastes of time, money and energy!
Any advice as to the setup you would choose given my needs and current kit would be most welcome, thanks!

 

[jssailem]

Adam, Sailing the Salish Sea these past 7 years, I have found value in having the Vesper AIS XB8000 unit on board. It is a transponder. Sends out and receives AIS signals. You know where the BC Ferries are and they know where you are.

The unit has the ability to be a gateway for up to 5 devices. It accepts SeatalkNG input and shares it with iOS hardware via the wifi connection.

I have radio and radar independent. No chart plotter. Use a laptop with navigation software (OpenCPN). It uses wifi through the gateway to get the data for AIS, GPS, and depth data for display.

Lots of ways to approach the issue.

 

[dlochner]

While patching together devices from different eras and manufacturers can be done, I think it is wiser to simplify the network cabling and eliminate the 0183 devices, sticking to NMEA 2000. Recognize too, that there is a new networking standard that will be hitting the market soon, OneNet which is an IP based protocol similar to the protocol that is used on the internet.

To make these decisions, begin with identifying the devices you want/need. Then pick the Chartplotter/Radar unit you want. This will be the core of your system. Then as time and budget allow bring the other devices onto the same network. NMEA 2000 is and OneNet will be simple plug and play systems.

Most devices, are now NMEA 2000 compatible and brand doesn't really matter. However radar and sonar use protocols that are proprietary, you must use a Raymarine CP with a Raymarine Radar, etc. That is why it is the most important part of the system.

AIS is most valuable in the transmit mode, it allows you to be seen by the big boys. This is more important than you seeing where the big boys are. Same with radar reflectors, they are more important than radar because it allows others to see you more clearly.

When I upgraded my electronics a few years ago, I started this way, replaced the chart plotter, and added a B&G Plotter, 4g Radar, and Vesper xb8000 AIS. A few years later, the autopilot controls and instruments were replaced. This was a more budget friendly solution that dumping $10K at one time.

Many people are relying on tablets for their primary navigation system. At first glance this seems like an affordable option, however, it is not without a few significant limitations. First is power consumption. A charting program will drain the battery quickly. My iPad will only run about 3 hours on one charge. Second is screen clarity, it is often difficult to see the screen clearly in bright daylight. This always happens at the time you are most interested in what is on the screen. Related to this is heat. Tablets left in the sun will overheat and shut down, always at an inopportune time. Finally, water resistance, the tablet will live in a wet environment, water and tablets don't mix well.

I do use an iPad as an an auxiliary navigation tool. The program I use is Aquamaps which has a few nice features to supplement my B&G Zeus3s.

Take your time and plan. Think about the kind of sailing and cruising you will be doing and match your system to your plans. You may need less than you think or maybe more.

 

[Tally Ho]

My good old boat had a decent Chart plotter (Garmin GPS740), but no AIS and a really old VHF radio that needed to be replaced.

The CP supported N2K, but there was no network.

I bought a new VHF with AIS receiver (B&G V50). But it doesn’t have GPS.

I put the VHF and CP on a small N2K backbone and now the AIS info is displayed on my CP and the VHF gets the GPS coordinates for Distress from the CP.

You could probably buy a 7” Chartplotter and an AIS-receiving VHF with DSC for $1,000or less.

If you want full AIS (TX and RX), the Vesper unit adds another $800 or so.

Greg

 

[MFD]

My boat (~2009) came with all RayMarine and a C120 chart plotter, radar, all integrated and with NMEA0183. Guages are ~ST60 so probably one generation after original poster. The one prior owner also installed a Garmin chart plotter below at the nav station with is NMEA2000 so I had somewhat of a mixed system right out the gate.

From there I installed an AIS700 system (with a switch for 'Iranian oil tanker mode') along with radio updates, as well as WiFi.

The Garmin chart plotter below has both NMEA0183 and NMEA2000 busses so I was able to tie everything together. In some ways it is less than ideal, and perhaps a bit Frankenstein but it all works just fine.

I also would recommend installing a WiFi transponder (or next piece of electronics you buy, see if it does both and you can bridge them?) but myself prefer not to rely on that for primary navigation. I run OpenCaptain off the laptops as needed via the WiFi as well as some other stuff.

I would recommend keeping the original chart plotter in place and working. Laptops/Tablets are great, but availability at the right place, during bad weather, when you really need it, is still critically important? Things like visibility in heavy sunshine, the ability to have a few thousand gallons of seawater pile over it, etc.

You can do this all incrementally - the key piece being seeing if the next piece of equipment you buys supports both NMEA0183 and NMEA2000? Now that I think about it (I have it documented but can't recall right now) - it might be the VHF that does the bridging for me.