Wiring to VHF DSC

[lehighsail]

This week I am going to try and wire my Chartplotter to the VHF to connect the DSC. The plotter is at the helm and the VHF is down by the Nav station. There is a remote iCom mike at the helm.

Can I somehow wire to the remote mike? or do I run the wire down to the base VHF.

What size wire is best? Should I run a cable that has maybe 6 or 8 different color wires in case I need something later on? I would appreciate any specifics on this.

Thanks.

 

[dtalent]

I'm going to be watching this post. I just ran the wire for the remote mic for my Standard Horizon DSC radio and tried connecting to a repeater gauge that displays LON/LAT by my Nav station as it had NMEA out terminals. The radio had a harness to connect to those terminals but I came to find out that the Raymarine electronics dont speak the same language as the radio. I was told to connect to the chartplotter as well as it also has NMEA out terminals. Hopefully speaking the same language as running thos wires was not something i want to do again. I hope you get some good replies.

 

[NYSail]

My remote mic (standard horizon) and chart plotter (standard horizon) are at helm. That is where I connected the radio and works like a charm with position shown on remote and main radio screens. If you have any questions about which wires to connect, call standard horizon.... They have always been very helpful.

Good luck!

 

[Bill Roosa]

communications networks 101
none of the different protocols talk to each other.
NMEA out is not the same as NMEA in, MNEA is a mono directional protocol, out on one box to in on many boxes. All the other protocols are many to many or more typically daisy chained together
Raymarine SeaTalk comes in 3 protocols ST1, ST2, and STng, ST1 and ST2 are the same language but have different plugs. STng is the same thing as NMEA2000 with some extra sentences. NMEA2000 units just ignore sentences they don't understand.
With all that said, I don't think you can wire to the remote mike due to the remote mike using SH language and the radio using NMEA.
If you are running communications wires it is always a good idea to run extra in multiples of 2 (in/out) for future use. Be sure to label them as such for future reference.
The standards folks would tell you that 16 gauge and smaller must be run in a loom/casing to prevent breakage. 16 gauge is fine for comms wiring. bigger wires have more natural capacitance and tend to attenuate the signal. Also a loom with a shield to protect against interference is recommended.

 

[Meriachee]

Having just finished connecting the DSC/AIS from/to the GX2150 and the STng network, (that was a mouthful), the long and short is that STng is nmea 2000 compliant and the GX (and most radios) are nmea 0183 compliant, and they will NOT understand each other.
I used an Actisense NGW-1 protocol converter, specifically an Actisense NGW-1-STNG, which came with the proper spur cable.
Suddenly the RAM displays GPS at the helm too, and the radio stops the infernal beeping every few hours because it hasn't been told where it is.

The Actisense is obviously not the only protocol converter out there, and is maybe not the cheapest. It is, however, the suggestion by Ray, and if you choose a different device, consider first that if there are issues, you'll be calling Ray, and they are much more likely to solve the issue if the boxes inline are things they've seen prior. Networks can be funky, and the way this marine network stuff is going, we're only just starting to see the real fun surface on the water.
cheers
Gary

 

[BigEasy]

Just completed both projects. Unfortunately you can not use the icom remote mike cable to connect DSC feature. I used 14 awg 2 conductor wire to connect my Raymarine C80 plotter to my Icom. 422VHF. Used the NMEA 0183 output on the plotter to connect to the input wire on the back of the Icom. (Red wire with stranded shielding on VHF).

 

[sailingseadragon]

I have an older Icom radio M502A at the navstation (below) and remote mic in the cockpit near the Raymarine C80 chartplotter. The NMEA 0183 in & out connections are on the back of my radio only. I ran a line from the NMEA out on my Raymarine S1G course computer to the radio - time & location are displayed.

It is important to note that the Raymarine instruments we have each have a NMEA out on the back as well as a SeaTalk connection BUT the NMEA out on the instruments does not include the character set ‘RMC,’ ‘GGA,’ ‘GNS’ or ‘GLL’ which you will need for position & time.

Garner

 

[JoeWhite]

I connected my Garmin Handheld GPS to Horizon 2150 GPS input NMEA0183. I had problems communicating with the radio. It turns out that even though the radio only receives the data you must connect both the transmit and receive pins from the GPS. I had to design and develop an interface that takes very little power and runs on 12VDC to make this connection. As far type of wire needed - You can use CAT5 or 4 conductor shielded microphone wire that is 24AGW and stranded copper. If you need info about the interface PM me.

 

[gettinthere]

I'm not clear on the orig question.

I have the SH 2150 vhf with ais receive at the nav station and I have a garmin chartplotter at the helm.

I placed a splicing block near the garmin to pick off the gps signal from the garmin for the vhf to use. Here I also spliced in the vhf ais input wires to display ais on the chartplotter.
At the vhf end of things at the nav station I have another splicing block where I connected those gps and ais wires to the vhf pigtail.
The SH 2150 ram mic is a separate deal with its own wires that run from the vhf base to the ram mic.
Works well.

All of the signals are nmea 0183. SH provides color code conversion charts for making the correct connections to other brands

 

[rpwillia]

... wire my Chartplotter to the VHF to connect DSC. The plotter is at the helm and the VHF is down by the Nav station. There is a remote iCom mike at the helm.

Can I somehow wire to the remote mike? or do I run the wire down to the base VHF. What size wire is best? Should I run a cable that has maybe 6 or 8 different color wires in case I need something later on?

I am assuming you are talking NMEA 0183 and not NMEA 2000. You will need to run 3 wires from the chartplotter (it should have an NMEA 0183 output) down to the radio (it should have an NMEA 0183 input) - in, out and ground. I have a Standard Horizon, but the idea should be the same. You will note on the wiring diagram that the vendors use different colors for their connections.

Also note on my wiring diagram that I only have the Humminbird or the Garmin attached at any one time as you can only have one master talker on an NMEA 0183 connection. :naughty:

The picture of my radio shows what it looks like when it works. I would also recommending (even though you are running the ground back down to the radio from the pedestal, that if you are near your ground bus, I would run a ground wire from there as well. The NMEA 0183 voltage levels are pretty low and just an RCH of ground will make the radio not see the NMEA sentences.

 

[lehighsail]

Went to the boat and looked at all the wires, read all the posts, looked at schematics, NMEA 0183, 2000, RMC, GGA, GNS, GLL, Actisense, ST1, ST2, and STng, conversion codes, and spur cables!!!! I believe I have finally reached my level of incompetence on a DIY project. Going to have a professional come and hook me up and check out all the other electronics while at it. Too important to take a chance on doing it incorrectly. Thanks to all.

 

[Bill Roosa]

lehigh
the radio and chart plotter should have NMEA 0183 ports. run some commo wire (at least 4 wires plus shield) from one to the other. The chart plotter is the "talker" and the radio is the listener for this service. If they both have talker and listener ports the go ahead and connect them both as the radio may have some nice information the chart plotter could potentially use.
the term talker is generic as it could also mean "out", "+", "comm out" .....etc. Seems every unit is labeled differently. The talker is the unit sending information (sentences) and the listener is the one receiving information. I'd recommend a temporary connection until you can confirm that the setup is correct. Don't worry if you get it backward as long as you don't connect any power circuits to the comms circuits. The power should be on a completely different socket BTW