OKAY, I want to wire my Laptop PC, Garmin 48 GPS, Navico/Simrad WP300CX and a 12 volt supply for the GPS all together. CAN this be done? Has anyone done it? Is it going to take a Rocket Scientist to do it?
Old question re=visited.
- Thread starter Steve Dion
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Jon Bastien
I was with you...
...right up 'til you got to the Navico. I'm pretty sure that Garmin produces a cable for the 48 that will allow you to connect to 12v power and the laptop; Whether or not that cable can also handle an extra connection to the Navico is uncertain. It seems to me that it would have at least ONE lead to another instrument, if the GPS is marketed as being compliant with an interface standard. Alternatively, does the laptop have a second serial port to which you can connect the Navico? Then the GPS talks to the Laptop, and the laptop talks to the Autopilot using the GPS' input... (I've never tried to connect any of these devices together- These are just my best educated guesses. YMMV.) --Jon Bastien h25 'Adagio'
...right up 'til you got to the Navico. I'm pretty sure that Garmin produces a cable for the 48 that will allow you to connect to 12v power and the laptop; Whether or not that cable can also handle an extra connection to the Navico is uncertain. It seems to me that it would have at least ONE lead to another instrument, if the GPS is marketed as being compliant with an interface standard. Alternatively, does the laptop have a second serial port to which you can connect the Navico? Then the GPS talks to the Laptop, and the laptop talks to the Autopilot using the GPS' input... (I've never tried to connect any of these devices together- These are just my best educated guesses. YMMV.) --Jon Bastien h25 'Adagio'
Jon, are you a rocket scientist?
Jon: The key here is that there are cables to go DC, PC and GPS but not the autopilot, or DC, GPS and Autopilot. The real problem is having a PC and GPS both on-line at the same time.
Jon: The key here is that there are cables to go DC, PC and GPS but not the autopilot, or DC, GPS and Autopilot. The real problem is having a PC and GPS both on-line at the same time.
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Jon Bastien
Not a rocket scientist- a computer programmer...
So the choices are DC-GPS-AP [XOR] DC-GPS-PC. I figured it was something like that. The significant question in the back of my mind, goes something like this- If all the little doo-dads on board are talking to each other (via an NMEA interface, or similar), How do you hook up more than two devices to each other? I'm sure there are folks out there with the GPS, AP, laptop, depth sounder, knot log, LORAN, bilge pump, Coffee maker, wind generator, VHF, anchor winches, microwaves, and DC monitors all wired together and talking to each other. Unless there's a hub of some sort, then all but two of the devices (the ends of the chain) MUST be able to communicate with at least two devices each... (to visualize- The above chain would be abbreviated as: GPS-AP-PC-DS-KL-LR-BP-CM-WG-VHF-AW-MW-DC. The only devices that are connected to ONLY one other device are the DC Monitor and the GPS- Everything else must talk to two devices (e.g., Depth Sounder is talking to both KnotLog and Laptop).) I'd bet there's a hub of some sort available that will solve your problem; If that weren't the case, ANY broken link in the chain of devices would create a catastrophic failure of the entire system (eg., cat V net cabling versus coaxial cable). Anyone else care to weigh in on this? Now, as long as I don't plumb the bilge pump output to the coffee maker input, I'll be okay ;o) --Jon Bastien H25 'Adagio' (Far too small to have that many gadgets!) ...Geez, I gotta quit posting here at the END of a 12-hour night shift...
So the choices are DC-GPS-AP [XOR] DC-GPS-PC. I figured it was something like that. The significant question in the back of my mind, goes something like this- If all the little doo-dads on board are talking to each other (via an NMEA interface, or similar), How do you hook up more than two devices to each other? I'm sure there are folks out there with the GPS, AP, laptop, depth sounder, knot log, LORAN, bilge pump, Coffee maker, wind generator, VHF, anchor winches, microwaves, and DC monitors all wired together and talking to each other. Unless there's a hub of some sort, then all but two of the devices (the ends of the chain) MUST be able to communicate with at least two devices each... (to visualize- The above chain would be abbreviated as: GPS-AP-PC-DS-KL-LR-BP-CM-WG-VHF-AW-MW-DC. The only devices that are connected to ONLY one other device are the DC Monitor and the GPS- Everything else must talk to two devices (e.g., Depth Sounder is talking to both KnotLog and Laptop).) I'd bet there's a hub of some sort available that will solve your problem; If that weren't the case, ANY broken link in the chain of devices would create a catastrophic failure of the entire system (eg., cat V net cabling versus coaxial cable). Anyone else care to weigh in on this? Now, as long as I don't plumb the bilge pump output to the coffee maker input, I'll be okay ;o) --Jon Bastien H25 'Adagio' (Far too small to have that many gadgets!) ...Geez, I gotta quit posting here at the END of a 12-hour night shift...
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Jon Bastien
Wow, that was clear as mud...
What the last post was supposed to boil down to was this- Excluding a hub specifically designed for the purpose, at least one of your devices is likely to be able to communicate simultaneously with two of the others. As long as the GPS is on one end of the chain, and the dual-capable device is in the middle, all of your devices should be able to communicate. Again, I really don't know enough about 'networking' all of your boat toys together, but I am interested in hearing how this turns out! --Jon Bastien h25 'Adagio'
What the last post was supposed to boil down to was this- Excluding a hub specifically designed for the purpose, at least one of your devices is likely to be able to communicate simultaneously with two of the others. As long as the GPS is on one end of the chain, and the dual-capable device is in the middle, all of your devices should be able to communicate. Again, I really don't know enough about 'networking' all of your boat toys together, but I am interested in hearing how this turns out! --Jon Bastien h25 'Adagio'
JB, what kinda systems do you program?
Jon: What type of systems do you program? Just curious because that is what we do too. We are dedicated to IBM AS/400 (www.sdcsoftware.com) FYI.
Jon: What type of systems do you program? Just curious because that is what we do too. We are dedicated to IBM AS/400 (www.sdcsoftware.com) FYI.
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Miles
Spaghetti wire...
Hi Steve, Garmin makes a plug that has 12 volt power leads and NMEA in/out wires. It's around $30. I took the NMEA out from my Garmin 12 and hooked it onto a 9 pin serial connector and pluged into my laptop. Everything worked great. Then just for fun I attached another pair of wires to the Garmin NMEA out and ran them to the NMEA in on my ST4000. Both the 'top and the autopilot were getting data at the same time. You're really not supposed to connect one device directly to two others but it worked fine. There are also little black box repeaters you can get that take NMEA and spit it. I'm sure you could get data from the GPS to both the laptop and autopilot. Since NMEA is directional the other two would "listen" to the GPS but couldn't talk back unless you hooked their NMEA outs back to the Garmins NMEA in which might get to be a real mess of wire! If you're using the 'top for charting you could probably just hook the GPS to it and then go from the laptop to the autopilot so you can upload routes, etc. The autopilot probably doesn't have much to "say" to the other two, it could just be a "slave" whch would make things easier. I'd say your best bet is to get the Garmin plug (I ordered from their website), a 9 pin connector, some wire, and most importantly the pin out diagrams and have fun!
Hi Steve, Garmin makes a plug that has 12 volt power leads and NMEA in/out wires. It's around $30. I took the NMEA out from my Garmin 12 and hooked it onto a 9 pin serial connector and pluged into my laptop. Everything worked great. Then just for fun I attached another pair of wires to the Garmin NMEA out and ran them to the NMEA in on my ST4000. Both the 'top and the autopilot were getting data at the same time. You're really not supposed to connect one device directly to two others but it worked fine. There are also little black box repeaters you can get that take NMEA and spit it. I'm sure you could get data from the GPS to both the laptop and autopilot. Since NMEA is directional the other two would "listen" to the GPS but couldn't talk back unless you hooked their NMEA outs back to the Garmins NMEA in which might get to be a real mess of wire! If you're using the 'top for charting you could probably just hook the GPS to it and then go from the laptop to the autopilot so you can upload routes, etc. The autopilot probably doesn't have much to "say" to the other two, it could just be a "slave" whch would make things easier. I'd say your best bet is to get the Garmin plug (I ordered from their website), a 9 pin connector, some wire, and most importantly the pin out diagrams and have fun!
C
Carl and Juliana Dupre
We're Trying To Do This Too......
...and here is what we have found so far. We have a Garmin 48 that we want to feed a signal to both a PC and a DSC-capable VHF. Purchased the Garmin power / signal cable which gives us a set of power, ground, and NMEA bare wires. The power wire has an in-line fuse and is wired into the DC panel. This all connects to the G48, and you now have a powered G48 with NMEA and ground wires hanging out there ready to hook up to whatever. Now the problem that we all seem to share; one set of NMEA wires and two (or more) places to send the signal. I called Garmin, and they said that the G48 as-is should be able to send a signal to as many as 3 separate devices without additional amplification or signal enhancement. Garmin's technical support was real helpful up to this point, but when I asked about the nitty-gritty details of actually connecting the wires they got flustered. They said that "ordinary connection techniques", crimping and soldering, should work just fine. My first thought was to buy a 3-way crimp connector; one G48 signal output wire into the 3-way connector and two wires coming out; one to the PC serial port connnector (bare wire serial port connector came with my PC Nav software),the other wire to be connected to the NMEA wire in the VHF cable. Sounds good, but.....the NMEA wires are all 24AWG, and I can't find any crimp connectors smaller than 18-22AWG. I have talked this up at Radio Shack, West Marine and anyone else who will talk to me to no definitive result. Anyone out there know the whereabouts of 24AWG crimp connectors? Other possibilties. WM catalog has a variety of screw-type connector bases, which don't strike me as being any better than a well-done twist-and-solder. "Cap'n Jacks High Tech Toys for Boaters" (did the guest forum a few months ago) catalog offers several very sophisticated signal splitter / amplifier devices that will definitley do the job, but at a cost of about $150 or more. If you are trying to send the G48 NMEA signal to more than 3 devices this is probably what you really need, but it seems a bit much for what we are trying to do. Right now I think that I am just going to try the simple approach. Take the G48 output wire and the two destination wires, twist them all together, solder them real well, and cover with heat-shrink. If it doesn't work I should get obvious signal degradation, in which case I will probably spend the $150 for the "official" signal amplifier / splitter. We haven't done it yet; still pondering. We would dearly love to hear any other experience out there, as well as thoughts on our current simple twist-and-solder approach. Carl and Juliana Dupre H340 s/v 'Syzygy'
...and here is what we have found so far. We have a Garmin 48 that we want to feed a signal to both a PC and a DSC-capable VHF. Purchased the Garmin power / signal cable which gives us a set of power, ground, and NMEA bare wires. The power wire has an in-line fuse and is wired into the DC panel. This all connects to the G48, and you now have a powered G48 with NMEA and ground wires hanging out there ready to hook up to whatever. Now the problem that we all seem to share; one set of NMEA wires and two (or more) places to send the signal. I called Garmin, and they said that the G48 as-is should be able to send a signal to as many as 3 separate devices without additional amplification or signal enhancement. Garmin's technical support was real helpful up to this point, but when I asked about the nitty-gritty details of actually connecting the wires they got flustered. They said that "ordinary connection techniques", crimping and soldering, should work just fine. My first thought was to buy a 3-way crimp connector; one G48 signal output wire into the 3-way connector and two wires coming out; one to the PC serial port connnector (bare wire serial port connector came with my PC Nav software),the other wire to be connected to the NMEA wire in the VHF cable. Sounds good, but.....the NMEA wires are all 24AWG, and I can't find any crimp connectors smaller than 18-22AWG. I have talked this up at Radio Shack, West Marine and anyone else who will talk to me to no definitive result. Anyone out there know the whereabouts of 24AWG crimp connectors? Other possibilties. WM catalog has a variety of screw-type connector bases, which don't strike me as being any better than a well-done twist-and-solder. "Cap'n Jacks High Tech Toys for Boaters" (did the guest forum a few months ago) catalog offers several very sophisticated signal splitter / amplifier devices that will definitley do the job, but at a cost of about $150 or more. If you are trying to send the G48 NMEA signal to more than 3 devices this is probably what you really need, but it seems a bit much for what we are trying to do. Right now I think that I am just going to try the simple approach. Take the G48 output wire and the two destination wires, twist them all together, solder them real well, and cover with heat-shrink. If it doesn't work I should get obvious signal degradation, in which case I will probably spend the $150 for the "official" signal amplifier / splitter. We haven't done it yet; still pondering. We would dearly love to hear any other experience out there, as well as thoughts on our current simple twist-and-solder approach. Carl and Juliana Dupre H340 s/v 'Syzygy'
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Miles
Twist and solder...
would work, maybe with some shrink tubing over it. If you want to get fancy you could get two small buss bars and make the connections there. I've had good luck with getting the signal to two devices at the same time but it's still one way (ie the two listeners aren't talking to anything).
would work, maybe with some shrink tubing over it. If you want to get fancy you could get two small buss bars and make the connections there. I've had good luck with getting the signal to two devices at the same time but it's still one way (ie the two listeners aren't talking to anything).
B
Bryce
been there done that
Its not really that difficult. I have the Capn nav software running on my Dell laptop interfaced to my Garmin 215 GPS and ST6000 autopilot on my H410. The NEMA out connection on the GPS goes to the receive data on the serial port at the PC and the NEMA in connection on the autopilot goes to the transmit data on the PC serial port. That's the simplist solution. Its three wires, Transmit, Receive and Ground. I've added a NEMA multiplexor and run the GPS NEMA out to one input of the mulitplexor and the NEMA out from the autopilot to a second input. Since the NEMA out on the ST6000 has all the remaining info available on the seatalk buss of the autohelm instruments, my PC displays all the data the seatalk buss makes available, i.e. wind, speed in water water temp and the like. Works great and its only a 4 wire connection. You can't reliably connect the NEMA in from both the GPS and autopilot to the same serial output line from the PC. The PC won't drive both. Rather than add another piece of electronics to do this, I just installed a separate serial cable, from the PC to the GPS NEMA in. Then when I download route info and the like to the GPS, I just switch cables. Guess you could add a switch to select which device to talk to. If you don't use a NEMA multiplexor be sure to get an optical isolated serial cable for your PC. If you don't you run the risk of smokin your PC if there any lightning activity in the area. Most manufactures have cable assemblies available to help interface to the PC. Hope this helps. Bryce S/V Spellbinder H410
Its not really that difficult. I have the Capn nav software running on my Dell laptop interfaced to my Garmin 215 GPS and ST6000 autopilot on my H410. The NEMA out connection on the GPS goes to the receive data on the serial port at the PC and the NEMA in connection on the autopilot goes to the transmit data on the PC serial port. That's the simplist solution. Its three wires, Transmit, Receive and Ground. I've added a NEMA multiplexor and run the GPS NEMA out to one input of the mulitplexor and the NEMA out from the autopilot to a second input. Since the NEMA out on the ST6000 has all the remaining info available on the seatalk buss of the autohelm instruments, my PC displays all the data the seatalk buss makes available, i.e. wind, speed in water water temp and the like. Works great and its only a 4 wire connection. You can't reliably connect the NEMA in from both the GPS and autopilot to the same serial output line from the PC. The PC won't drive both. Rather than add another piece of electronics to do this, I just installed a separate serial cable, from the PC to the GPS NEMA in. Then when I download route info and the like to the GPS, I just switch cables. Guess you could add a switch to select which device to talk to. If you don't use a NEMA multiplexor be sure to get an optical isolated serial cable for your PC. If you don't you run the risk of smokin your PC if there any lightning activity in the area. Most manufactures have cable assemblies available to help interface to the PC. Hope this helps. Bryce S/V Spellbinder H410
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bill walton
easy way
a combination of methods already listed. Get a small marine terminal strip and mount near the GPS. I guess you have a weather proof spot somewhere near the unit? run the NMEA out and signal ground on the GPS to a pair of terminals on the strip. Run a pair from the data in on the DB9 serial cable to those terminals. You can also run a pair from a VHF to those terminals to get the data as well. Run the data out from the serial connector to the NMEA in on the A/P either directly or via the terminal strip. The GPS should easily provide enough signal strength to get the data to those two units unless the distance is extreme. I let the computer drive the A/P on our boat. If you want to upload routes to the GPS and have it drive the boat you'll need another connection. http://www.sea-tech.com/ web site has a diagram for this that as I recall uses a Garmin GPS.
a combination of methods already listed. Get a small marine terminal strip and mount near the GPS. I guess you have a weather proof spot somewhere near the unit? run the NMEA out and signal ground on the GPS to a pair of terminals on the strip. Run a pair from the data in on the DB9 serial cable to those terminals. You can also run a pair from a VHF to those terminals to get the data as well. Run the data out from the serial connector to the NMEA in on the A/P either directly or via the terminal strip. The GPS should easily provide enough signal strength to get the data to those two units unless the distance is extreme. I let the computer drive the A/P on our boat. If you want to upload routes to the GPS and have it drive the boat you'll need another connection. http://www.sea-tech.com/ web site has a diagram for this that as I recall uses a Garmin GPS.
E
Eric Lorgus
Solderless Terminals (Crimp Connectors)
My company, Great Valley Industries (GVI) sells these. Unfortunately, we, too, don't go smaller for 3-way & 4-way connectors than 22 gauge. However, for ring and spade tongue terminals, we do carry nylon insulated terminals for 26-24 gauge wire. We also sell heat-shrink terminals for wire sizes 22 to 10 gauge, both ring tongue and spade tongue, as well as .250 fully insulated quick connects. These terminals have heat shrink already applied to the barrel end of the terminal. We're a wholesale distributor, but if anyone needs just a few of these, you can call our customer service department at 1-800-722-8100, and mention my name and this thread. We'll fix you up. Eric Lorgus
My company, Great Valley Industries (GVI) sells these. Unfortunately, we, too, don't go smaller for 3-way & 4-way connectors than 22 gauge. However, for ring and spade tongue terminals, we do carry nylon insulated terminals for 26-24 gauge wire. We also sell heat-shrink terminals for wire sizes 22 to 10 gauge, both ring tongue and spade tongue, as well as .250 fully insulated quick connects. These terminals have heat shrink already applied to the barrel end of the terminal. We're a wholesale distributor, but if anyone needs just a few of these, you can call our customer service department at 1-800-722-8100, and mention my name and this thread. We'll fix you up. Eric Lorgus
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