Seatalk network trouble

[Quinn McCarthy]

Last year our knotmeter went belly up. All of the instruments are on a seatalk network. We also have a Garmin chart plotter not networked in. We decided to buy a raymarine ST60+ graphics display and use the speed from the chart plotter for the graphics display. When I called Garmin tech support they said as long as everything is nmea compliant it should be no problem. The graphics display works for the intruments on the seatalk network but is not reading speed and heading from the nmea connection from the chart plotter. Has anybody had any luck doing this? Also by removing the old knotmeter we lost the race timer we had. Is there another instrument that can the configured into the network as a race timer?

I hate wearing a watch and like watching the countdown as we aproached the line.

Thanks

Quinn

[Jeff Bonvallet]

I have my garmin GPS networked into my Nexus instruments. The GPS has an output setting that is switchable from "Garmin" to "NEMA". It must be set to NEMA in order to communicate with the network, and the default setting is Garmin, which allows it to communicate with a PC. I'm not sure if this is a Garmin wide setup, but worth checking out.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Thanks Jeff.

I will check that out.

[Tim Bosma]

as far as I can tell, the only Raymarine ST60 Plus instrument with a race timers is the Speed.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Jeff,

That did it. Thanks for the help. Are you happy with the GPS speed? I am thinking it has to be morer reliable than the paddle wheel. Especially if you sail in an area that has a good current. Do you have the ability to display speed in .01? Or just .1?

Tim,

We misread the functionality on the unit we have. We thought it did race clock but it just repeats a race clock on the network. Doh Oh well.

Thanks

Quinn

[Tim Bosma]

Quinn,
for a while when we were lacking an operational speed unit, we contemplated getting a digital kitchen timer to stick on the cabin bulkhead.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Tim,

That is a great idea. Thanks.

Quinn

[Quinn McCarthy]

Just an update.

After we got the chart plotter and St60 instrument talking we lost true wind, VMG, speed, aveage speed, max speed, and mile log. We are getting SOG, heading and psition. So I talked to Raymarine tech support. They said that if what is coming from the chart plotter is SOG and not speed you loose all that functionality. There solution to the problem......... Buy a st-60 knot meter. I was ready to cuff the guy. There is nowhere in the 2 manuals that tell you that. We never saw that on the web site either. Garmin tech support confirmed it is SOG.

Quinn

[Gregg]

Quinn,

There is a difference in SOG and Speed (thru the water) when used in those other items for calculations. (you may already know all of this) Depending on your GPS, you may be able to fool the Seatalk network by outputting the SOG with a different NMEA string of characters. I have been working with a different instrument suite and have had some challenges with NMEA sentences - and found that all the various data points have a 3 character group of letters before the data.

So if you can get your GPS to output your SOG with the characters that represent Speed - then you would get your calculations back. (not the race timer of course, if only it were that easy) Not sure what type of chartplotter you are using - but I was working with a Northstar and it had a few options for which sentences to output. Something you might look into if you have the time and interest.

I think the cheapest/easiest solution for the timer is a cheap digital kitchen timer to the masthead. I have a tacktick compass with my boat (came with it) and love the display it has. Well I broke the mount this year on the mast and have found it is quite expensive to replace. I will get one eventually - but about $10 at your local store will do.

Good luck,

Gregg
t'kela
390

[dave]

Masthead????

Am I missing something here?

[Quinn McCarthy]

Greg,

I had found a web site called brookhouseonline.com They make a unit called a multiplexer. They said between that and the Raymarine seatalk to MNEA converter I would be good to go. They are $320.00 together. Another $40.00 and I could by the new st60 knot meter. Or for $200.00 ish I can get the ST-40 speed. Have you figured out a way to manipulate the data string?

Thanks

Quinn