STB
Guru
A friend is having some trouble with the integration of his Raymarine E120 (Classic) and Simad NSE12 via a DeviceNet-type NMEA 2000 bus.
The Raymarine is tied directly to his radar and autopilot. The simrad is tied directly to his sounder. The Raymarine is tied to the NMEA 2000 network via its Seatalk2 interface. The Simrad is tied to the NMEA 2000 network via its Simnet interface. The NMEA 2000 bus is properly terminated. Originally, the source of GPS data was a Raymarine RS120 GPS receiver attached to a NMEA 0183 port on the Raymarine.
Reportedly, things worked fine for years with depth data and engine monitoring data making their way from the NMEA 2000 bus into the Raymarine and with gps data being relayed by the Raymarine from its NMEA 0183 port out its Seatalk2 port to the Simrad. Although engine data likely was also available on the Simrad, this was never done, so never proven.
The initial problem was that GPS positioning data would periodically disappear, and the availability seemed to be om a rapidly downward trend. He purchased a new, old stock RS120 from eBay and I put it in for him, exactly replacing the original. It reportedly worked well for a while, until it, too, became unstable and on a downward trend.
At this point I found the RS120 to be very hot and moved it to a cooler, more ventilated section of the console. That may have fixed the problem with that gps receiver. Time will tell.
Using an appropriate converter cable, I also put a Raymarine RS150 NMEA 2000 GPS onto the NMEA 2000 bus and selected it as the source for positioning data on the Simrad.
Here is where things got crazy. It showed up as a source, but then grayed out and showed no data. In debugging it, I realized that it worked as long as the Raymarine wasn't connected to the NMEA 2000 bus. Further experimentation showed that it worked, even when the araymarine was connected, except after the Raymarine did some initalization of some kind. It worked during reboots and while searching for NMEA 2000 devices, got example.
I would have thought that the Seatalk2 port was messing up the
NMEA 2000 network, except that depth and engine data was still moving onto the Raymarine from the NMEA 2000 bus via the Seatalk2 connection and onto the Simrad via the Somnet connection, and GPS data was still moving from the RS120 (even though it wasn't selected, I could see the data in debug.
Things are working fine now with Seatalk2<-->NMEA-2000 disconnected, with the limitation that depth and engines can't be monitored on the Raymarine. Each unit now had its own GPS receiver.
I don't have any sort of mental model for why things didn't work fully integrated. I know Seatalk2 isn't considered to be full NEMA 2000 capable, that it was designed to allow the use of engine monitoring and certain other NMEA 2000 devices, only, not the full set. But I always understood that to mean that it could handle a limited number of PGNs. I don't understand how it is messaging up the NMEA 2000 GPS, nebermond without messing up other NMEA 2000 devices.
Anyone have any ideas?
Thabks!
-Greg
The Raymarine is tied directly to his radar and autopilot. The simrad is tied directly to his sounder. The Raymarine is tied to the NMEA 2000 network via its Seatalk2 interface. The Simrad is tied to the NMEA 2000 network via its Simnet interface. The NMEA 2000 bus is properly terminated. Originally, the source of GPS data was a Raymarine RS120 GPS receiver attached to a NMEA 0183 port on the Raymarine.
Reportedly, things worked fine for years with depth data and engine monitoring data making their way from the NMEA 2000 bus into the Raymarine and with gps data being relayed by the Raymarine from its NMEA 0183 port out its Seatalk2 port to the Simrad. Although engine data likely was also available on the Simrad, this was never done, so never proven.
The initial problem was that GPS positioning data would periodically disappear, and the availability seemed to be om a rapidly downward trend. He purchased a new, old stock RS120 from eBay and I put it in for him, exactly replacing the original. It reportedly worked well for a while, until it, too, became unstable and on a downward trend.
At this point I found the RS120 to be very hot and moved it to a cooler, more ventilated section of the console. That may have fixed the problem with that gps receiver. Time will tell.
Using an appropriate converter cable, I also put a Raymarine RS150 NMEA 2000 GPS onto the NMEA 2000 bus and selected it as the source for positioning data on the Simrad.
Here is where things got crazy. It showed up as a source, but then grayed out and showed no data. In debugging it, I realized that it worked as long as the Raymarine wasn't connected to the NMEA 2000 bus. Further experimentation showed that it worked, even when the araymarine was connected, except after the Raymarine did some initalization of some kind. It worked during reboots and while searching for NMEA 2000 devices, got example.
I would have thought that the Seatalk2 port was messing up the
NMEA 2000 network, except that depth and engine data was still moving onto the Raymarine from the NMEA 2000 bus via the Seatalk2 connection and onto the Simrad via the Somnet connection, and GPS data was still moving from the RS120 (even though it wasn't selected, I could see the data in debug.
Things are working fine now with Seatalk2<-->NMEA-2000 disconnected, with the limitation that depth and engines can't be monitored on the Raymarine. Each unit now had its own GPS receiver.
I don't have any sort of mental model for why things didn't work fully integrated. I know Seatalk2 isn't considered to be full NEMA 2000 capable, that it was designed to allow the use of engine monitoring and certain other NMEA 2000 devices, only, not the full set. But I always understood that to mean that it could handle a limited number of PGNs. I don't understand how it is messaging up the NMEA 2000 GPS, nebermond without messing up other NMEA 2000 devices.
Anyone have any ideas?
Thabks!
-Greg
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