Splitting NMEA 0183 output from GPS or use NMEA 2000 gateway?

[Nos4r2]

I've got a 2002 Opti 225. It's got a fairly early Smartcraft loom on it with an SC1000 speedo and revcounter, and no speed paddlewheel so the speedo doesn't work.

I'm wiring everything up at the moment. I've currently got an HDS7 gen 2 connected to a Standard Horizon GX1600E using the TX and RX NMEA 0183 cables from the HDS unit.
The HDS7 only has that one NMEA 0183 in/output.

The Smartcraft loom has an NMEA 0183 input on it Can I split the NMEA 0183 signal transmitted from the HDS7 to run the speedo?

Alternatively,I have a NMEA 2000 network set up. Would I be better off putting an NMEA 0183 to 2000 gateway in and running the Smartcraft off that? Would I gain extra functionality (or is it more likely to work!)?

 

[dingbat]

Re: Splitting NMEA 0183 output from GPS or use NMEA 2000 gateway?

I think it is highly unlikey that the HDS supports speed via NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2000. I tried looking it up but the Lowrance website lacks of any techincal documentation for some reason

 

[blackhawk180]

Re: Splitting NMEA 0183 output from GPS or use NMEA 2000 gateway?

First off, the HDS7 will display the GPS speed and will output that data over the NMEA 2000 network to any other NMEA 2k device. That much I'm very sure of since I run that setup myself. The only wires I've connected to the 0183 are for the VHF to receive GPS coordinates (which it does). I have no idea if ALL the data is also transmitted over 0183. The NMEA 2000 is a more robust network system for sure. Are you wanting to display GPS speed on your current speedometer? I doubt that would work if it expects input from a paddle wheel and gets a digital 0183 signal (if it's even sent out over 0183) but I may be wrong. If you play with the HDS, you can display a ton of data most any way you want, including analog.
I agree with dingbat (love the name BTW) about Lowrance technical data online OR in print. I used to be a certified computer network geek and still had trouble making sense of the instructions between the MercMonitor, HDS7 and which (&*#^$ cables I had to buy to connect everything. It IS easy but they sure don't explain it that way.

 

[Nos4r2]

Re: Splitting NMEA 0183 output from GPS or use NMEA 2000 gateway?

First off, the HDS7 will display the GPS speed and will output that data over the NMEA 2000 network to any other NMEA 2k device. That much I'm very sure of since I run that setup myself. The only wires I've connected to the 0183 are for the VHF to receive GPS coordinates (which it does). I have no idea if ALL the data is also transmitted over 0183. The NMEA 2000 is a more robust network system for sure. Are you wanting to display GPS speed on your current speedometer? I doubt that would work if it expects input from a paddle wheel and gets a digital 0183 signal (if it's even sent out over 0183) but I may be wrong. If you play with the HDS, you can display a ton of data most any way you want, including analog.
I agree with dingbat (love the name BTW) about Lowrance technical data online OR in print. I used to be a certified computer network geek and still had trouble making sense of the instructions between the MercMonitor, HDS7 and which (&*#^$ cables I had to buy to connect everything. It IS easy but they sure don't explain it that way.

Cheers
Hopefully the HDS7 will output speed data-I guess I'll have to find that out. Basically, I don't have a paddlewheel and I don't want to install one. A SC1000 speedometer will display GPS speed on the analogue dial via nmea 0183 but you have to enable it in settings. I've got a Standard Horizon GX1600 on the boat which also has a speed repeater on it and is currently linked via nmea 0183 to the HDS7, but as the boat is in the middle of a rebuild it's a bit difficult to find out via that

I've come to the conclusion that I'll try splitting the output to get GPS speed on the SC1000,and if it doesn't work I'll have to put a nmea2000 to 0183 gateway in and do it like that. I'd rather not spend the extra money on it and add complexity to the nice simple nmea2000 network unless I absolutely have to.

 

[Nos4r2]

Re: Splitting NMEA 0183 output from GPS or use NMEA 2000 gateway?

Ok,for anyone else that needs to do it- from intensive research so far. The HDS units will output speed.

You should be able to split the NMEA 0183 output from an HDS unit into 2 to run both Smartcraft and DSC.
In your GPS, enable NMEA output, set the baud rate to 4800, and enable the following sentences RMB, RMC (for the SmartCraft) and GLL (for the VHF).

NMEA data and
Hooking your GPS to the Smartcraft Speedo/Vesselview

are useful references.

 

[jhebert]

Re: Splitting NMEA 0183 output from GPS or use NMEA 2000 gateway?

You can connect two LISTENERS to one TALKER in NMEA-0183. It is no problem to have the TALKER output of the HDS send data to both the RADIO LISTENER and the SMARTCRAFT LISTENER.

On the HDS you can select what NMEA-0183 sentences are to be sent via the TALKER. If you want the boat speed to be sent, you just have to select an NMEA-0183 sentence that includes boat speed. Try the NMEA-0183 sentence RMC.

For details of the data sent in sentence RMC, see

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/nmea.htm#RMC

For guidance in making NMEA-0183 connections, see

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/guideNMEA0183.html

 

[Nos4r2]

Re: Splitting NMEA 0183 output from GPS or use NMEA 2000 gateway?

Pretty much what I said Thanks for the clarification though.

Its worth noting that some VHF radios will display quite a lot of data too-my Standard Horizon does-so it's worth seeing what else you can enable while you're in the NMEA 0183 menu. That's my next bit of manual reading

 

[jhebert]

Re: Splitting NMEA 0183 output from GPS or use NMEA 2000 gateway?

...some VHF radios will display quite a lot of data too...my Standard Horizon does....

Standard Horizon lists what NMEA-0183 sentences its radios can accept as an input in the specifications section. Typically a S-H radio only accepts NMEA-0183 sentences

--GLL
--GGA
--RMC
--GNS
--GSA
--GSV