Raymarine E80 and Raytech via wireless

[Pizzazz]

Dears,

Let me share with you a recent upgrade to the my old E80. I managed to interface a tablet running Raytech Navigator to my E80 via a wireless connection. The tablet is running Windows 10 (any recent tablet will do). The trick is to setup a hosted network on the tablet, then use a wireless router to connect the wired network from the E80 to the hosted network on the tablet.

A couple of problems that I ran into: the network cable from the E80 to the router needs to be shielded on all three sides (left, right, bottom) of the connector that goes into the E80. Either that or use the Raymarine cable. It is a pity that Raymarine this this shielding trick only to force people to buy their cable but we can live with that. Next, Raymarine says the Navigator is not supported on Windows 10... it actually works but you need to experiment with the settings on the sofware depending on the capabilities of the tablet graphics card. Definitely disable Microsoft Open GL as few tablets support it.

The software is a little clunky but allows an amazing amount of customization of the display (similar to OpenCPN) and has the benefit of sharing radar on the tablet wirelessly. Furthermore, the charts are downloaded from the E80 and cached on the tablet which allows for much more fluid experience vs. the current Raymarine Lighthouse software. The Raytech software is costly but at the same time once you have a working license code you can use it to enable the software on as many computers as you wish. Read between the lines.

For me, the biggest benefit is to be able to display the radar on a second screen that is much more portable and easy to position anywhere on the boat.

Enjoy,
S/V Pizzazz

[grahamdouglass]

I am using networked E80s on my flybridge and in my cabin so my network portal at the back of the monitor is used. Can you use a spliter to gain an extra port or is it more complicated than that?

[Beausoleil]

Originally Posted by grahamdouglass

I am using networked E80s on my flybridge and in my cabin so my network portal at the back of the monitor is used. Can you use a spliter to gain an extra port or is it more complicated than that?

Are these E80 Classics, or newer eSeries touchscreens? And are you networking them via SeaTalkHS/Raynet (ethernet) or SeaTalkNG? I'm not sure what you mean by "network portal at the back of the monitor". Do you have an external display monitor?

Are you trying to use Raytech software on a laptop/tablet? They've been trying to ditch that for years now. It's only supported up through Windows 7...

[Pizzazz]

As mentioned, Raytech runs perfectly OK on tablets incl. Windows 10. It is not supported but it runs and is stable.

Graham, I believe has two E80s connected together. In order to get a free port you need to add a switch. Any switch will do, no need to use Raymarine.

The key point of this post/exercise is to connect a tablet running Raytech wireless to the E80. That works too but it is more difficult to setup.

[Beausoleil]

Originally Posted by Pizzazz

As mentioned, Raytech runs perfectly OK on tablets incl. Windows 10. It is not supported but it runs and is stable.

Graham, I believe has two E80s connected together. In order to get a free port you need to add a switch. Any switch will do, no need to use Raymarine.

The key point of this post/exercise is to connect a tablet running Raytech wireless to the E80. That works too but it is more difficult to setup.

Graham could use a standard consumer router with a built-in switch like Pizazz did in his setup. Depending on how knowledgeable he is about networking, he could set up two WiFi nets - one as a "guest" network connected to a VLAN which only has access to the router's WAN port (which in turn could be connected to a client AP (like a Ubiquiti Bullet or MicroTik Groove with a high-gain dual-band antenna for public internet access), and the other tied to a private VLAN to which the E80's are connected.

Graham didn't mention if he has radar tied in. If not, then his E80's are connected via Raymarine's SeaTalkHS coupler - which is basically just a crossover connector, since the ethernet chipsets used in the Classics does not support autosensing of MDI/MDI-X that modern ethernet does (it's just a fancy notation for determining which wire pair is xmit vs receive). Just replace the coupler with the WiFi router mentioned above If he has radar, then the two E80s and the radar all connect to a central ethernet switch, and all he needs to do is connect a WiFi router to it.

Many routers are 12Vdc, so they can be either directly wired to the boat's DC system, or via a DC-DC converter that outputs a solid 12V regardless of the boat's voltage.

The real problem with the ethernet port on the E80 Classic (and the E120 Classic, which I'd upgraded a couple of years ago to an e125) is that you have to be careful using a standard, non-shielded ethernet cable. Since Raymarine's proprietary waterproof port does not have the normal notch for the tab of an RJ45 jack to lock into, you need to support the cable right up to the back of the E80.

The shielded connector used by the E80 Classic doesn't really present a problem, as it's not tied into any of the 8 conductors (all 8 are used for 100BASE-TX ethernet, which is what SeaTalkHS is based on). The shield is the 9th conductor - if you're connecting it to a non-Raymarine switch, it still works. Likewise with using a non-Raymarine cable. Where you run into problems is the the non-classic e-Series and the eS-Series, which use the proprietary RayNet connector. You'd need to use a Raynet cable and replace one of the connectors with a normal RJ-45, or use a special Raynet-RJ-45 adapter cable.

[garester]

Originally Posted by Pizzazz

Dears,

Let me share with you a recent upgrade to the my old E80. I managed to interface a tablet running Raytech Navigator to my E80 via a wireless connection. The tablet is running Windows 10 (any recent tablet will do). The trick is to setup a hosted network on the tablet, then use a wireless router to connect the wired network from the E80 to the hosted network on the tablet.

A couple of problems that I ran into: the network cable from the E80 to the router needs to be shielded on all three sides (left, right, bottom) of the connector that goes into the E80. Either that or use the Raymarine cable. It is a pity that Raymarine this this shielding trick only to force people to buy their cable but we can live with that. Next, Raymarine says the Navigator is not supported on Windows 10... it actually works but you need to experiment with the settings on the sofware depending on the capabilities of the tablet graphics card. Definitely disable Microsoft Open GL as few tablets support it.

The software is a little clunky but allows an amazing amount of customization of the display (similar to OpenCPN) and has the benefit of sharing radar on the tablet wirelessly. Furthermore, the charts are downloaded from the E80 and cached on the tablet which allows for much more fluid experience vs. the current Raymarine Lighthouse software. The Raytech software is costly but at the same time once you have a working license code you can use it to enable the software on as many computers as you wish. Read between the lines.

For me, the biggest benefit is to be able to display the radar on a second screen that is much more portable and easy to position anywhere on the boat.

Enjoy,
S/V Pizzazz

DUUUUUDE! You totally rock! You're my hero! I know it may seem simple to you, but those are some mad skills you've got! Thank you!
I've been curious about doing this exact thing, but figured it would be hard to search for. Apparently not.
I feel like I should ask questions, but it seems they've already been explained. I know this is an old post, but I'm dealing with old equipment.
I hope to see this up soon and see if I can get it to work. Thanks again for the very informative post!
Gary