I got my Raymarine Ray49 DSC VHF radio wired up. The NMEA routing got too complicated for me to keep track of it in my head, so I had to draw a diagram.
[Note: Yes, I mistakenly used the electrical symbol for "battery" or "power source" when I meant "ground", for the yellow wire out of the AIS. I knew what I meant, so leave me alone about it!]
Actually, once I drew the diagram, it was pretty straightforward! Regular readers may recall that I’ve been attempting to get all this data moved hither and yon without resorting to an NMEA multiplexer. See my earlier posts here and here.
The diagram demonstrates the physical infrastructure that…
- Gets GPS coordinates from the chartplotter into the Ray49 (via the autopilot’s built-in SeaTalk-to-NMEA converter)
- Gets DSC messages to the AIS receiver.
- Gets AIS data (plus DSC messages) into my chartplotter.
It all APPEARS to be working, but I was unable to confirm that the Ray49′s NMEA-out datastream is getting to the AIS or the Raymarine C-80. This datastream will contain vessel positions received over DSC (such as from a distress call), which should be displayed on the chartplotter. I didn’t have a source of DSC vessel position transmissions, so I couldn’t test it.
I used those handy-dandy 3M™ Scotchlok™ IDC Butt Connector UR2s. Lots and lots of them.
And because I replaced existing wiring PLUS my early test connections, I ended up with a lot of connector trash, too:
The early tests were revealing, by the way.
It appears that DSC messages can NOT move via NMEA to the autopilot and then into the C-series chartplotter via SeaTalk. This isn’t a huge surprise, but since it would have been the easiest to wire, I tried it first.
Instead, I’m running the Ray49′s NMEA-out signal through the AIS, which is supposed to incorporate that datastream into its own high-speed NMEA datastream. We’ll see if that’s working next weekend, when I’m sure to have some potential DSC signal sources to test with.
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That’s some diagram! Did you recycle all those connectors?
I had to replace the GPS on my C80 system and used the Scotchlok connectors that came with it. Less than 6 months later my C80 became intermitant. I found that one of the Scotchlok connections was not good. Also a Raymarine tech on the help desk told me he did not like the Scotchlok connectors because of this problem. I thought they were a great idea until I had a problem. Hope yours are fine. Thanks for the great information.
Scotchloks work very reliably providing: 1. you are not trying to connect to an oversize wire, 2. you clamp them with a parallel closing pliers, like you find in the fishing equipment aisle, and 3. they are not subjected to any significant strain. I found that I had a bad habit of pulling the insulation past the end of the wire when I cut it, and there wasn’t enough metal in the insulation to get bit by the little blades inside.
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