Help needed please - wiring connectors for GPS to VHF

[hippo]

Hi guys, I am currently refurbishing a small British Hunter yacht in UK and I am hoping that someone can help in this matter of wiring connection between the 2 units below.

Standard Horizon Chartplotter to NorthStar VHF DSC Radio.
As Standard Horizon no longer offer Plotters and North Star don't seem to want to communicate with me, I am at a loss as to how to get the 2 units to communicate for DSC purposes.
Sri, if any electrical guru out there can shine any light of this, I would be very grateful and, one step nearer to getting her in the water after 18 years on the hard.

Many thanks in anticipation.
Glyn (Coconut Creek)

[ullar]

Basically you have to establish NMEA connection between these units. Take a look on documentation of these units and connect NMEA out of your plotter with NMEA in of your radio. Without model numbers I really can't give you more advice.

[hippo]

Hi Ulnar, Apologies for this hiccup
Unit numbers are:

SH Plotter : CP180

Northstar VHF : Explorer 725/705

Manufacturer information as in manuals etc was lost by the previous owner years ago unfortunately.
Hope this helps.

[ullar]

You are in luck, user/installation manuals for both of these systems are easily found on internet. If still in trouble give me a PM with your e-mail so I can send those to you.

[hellosailor]

If the units are a standard NMEA 18x serial connection? You need to identify the two "Data OUT" aka "TX" lines on the radio, and connect them to the "DATA IN" aka "RX" lines on the chartplotter. You may also need to manually set and match the baud rate (speed) and parity on the two units. NMEA 180-183 all are slightly different and if the menus allow you to manually specify the same exact one on both sides, that's more reliable. If the cable is running any distance, a shielded cable with the shield grounded may perform slightly better.

It is quite difficult, perhaps impossible, to damage anything if you get the usual data in/out wiring backwards. And quite common for manuals to refer to "RX/TX" without making it clear if that's as seen from one end or the other--which is how they easily get confused or reversed. FWIW.

[ullar]

In the simplest case, if you just want to get GPS position from your plotter to you VHF, you have to connect:
1. plotters green wire with the green on VHF
2. plotters brown wire with the yellow on VHF

We are talking about so called Power/ACC1 cable on plotter side and GPS/COM cable on VHF side.

As Hellosailor already mentioned, you also have to check that baud rate on plotters Port1 is set to NMEA/4800 using the Advanced Setup>In/Out Connections menu>Port1

As I said, this is the simplest case, there are some more advanced possibilities with your equipment.