Standard Horizon gx2100 with AIS

[mikeandrebecca]

Thanks Eric. I'll check that.

Mike

[pas63]

I posted a write-up on this VHF under product reviews. All in all I think it's a decent radio for the price, but as usualy in the boat world, it falls short in some area requiring a lot of added effort.

The main problem is that in order for this thing to receive GPS from a chart plotter, and then send AIS back to the chart plotter you need 2 NMEA ports. Raymarine in particular (my E-80) only have 1 NMEA port. This means you need to get a NMEA bridge to allow what is in essence bi-directional traffic. The problem lies in the fact that the coasties apparently stated that AIS has to operate at 38,400 baud. This is great, but for what ever reason, the GX2100 has to operate at 4800. I never could get a clear answer out of the tech from Standard other than "don't blame us, we didn't write the regulations".

[jackiepitts]

We purchased a GX2100 and plan to hook it up to one of these little Garmin GPS18X hockey pucks at a cost of $67.00.
It will not connect directly to the radio but if you put the wires off the radio in the correct pin holes on the puck adapter it should work according to some friends that have the same set up.....keeping our fingers crossed.

[BambooSailor]

The problem lies in the fact that the coasties apparently stated that AIS has to operate at 38,400 baud. This is great, but for what ever reason, the GX2100 has to operate at 4800.

I do not think this is correct. At least my GX2100 outputs AIS sentences at required 38400 bd. It receives GPS sentences at 4800 bd. You do not need anything more than that for GPS sentences.

I used this radio on my recent delivery from Trinidad to Golfito, I used GPS to feed the radio and radio to feed my PC and it worked flawlessly, even remote mic at helm. I used it several times to call ships directly by name, which I would not be able to do without it (I did not use DSC).

[fairbank56]

Originally Posted by BambooSailor

I do not think this is correct. At least my GX2100 outputs AIS sentences at required 38400 bd. It receives GPS sentences at 4800 bd. You do not need anything more than that for GPS sentences.

That's the problem. If your charplotter only has one NMEA port, you can only set it to one speed. If 38,400, then you can get AIS on your chartplotter but can't send position info to your VHF for DSC operation. If 4800, you can do DSC but not get AIS to your chartplotter.

Eric

[jackiepitts]

Originally Posted by fairbank56

That's the problem. If your charplotter only has one NMEA port, you can only set it to one speed. If 38,400, then you can get AIS on your chartplotter but can't send position info to your VHF for DSC operation. If 4800, you can do DSC but not get AIS to your chartplotter.

Eric

What a pain! I knew there was more than one reason we decided to go with the old stand alone approach to electronics. yikes

[Angel Louise]

We put our GPS in from a handheld Garmin. We input to the Raymarine using the high speed in NMEA.... Raymarine just had one port that could configure to either High or Low speed when we did ours back in January.

Ed

[richardhula]

Originally Posted by fairbank56

That's the problem. If your charplotter only has one NMEA port, you can only set it to one speed. If 38,400, then you can get AIS on your chartplotter but can't send position info to your VHF for DSC operation. If 4800, you can do DSC but not get AIS to your chartplotter.

Eric

That's not necessarily a problem, many AIS receivers (NASA to name just one) offer a GPS input connection at 4800 baud. They then multiplex this feed with AIS & squirt out combined NMEA at normal AIS 38400 baud. You can still use same GPS to simultaneously feed VHF for example.

If you buy AIS transponder it will have its own built in GPS (an approval requirement I believe) so you get combined output at 38400 baud from those too without any extra connections.

[fairbank56]

Originally Posted by richardhula

That's not necessarily a problem

We are talking about interfacing the GX2100 to a GPS chartplotter with ONE NMEA port. The GX2100 needs 4800 speed for the position input for DSC operation but outputs 38,400 AIS data to the same chartplotter. That IS the problem for this setup.

many AIS receivers (NASA to name just one) offer a GPS input connection at 4800 baud. They then multiplex this feed with AIS & squirt out combined NMEA at normal AIS 38400 baud. You can still use same GPS to simultaneously feed VHF for example.

So, if the GPS charplotter with it's ONE NMEA port is set to 4800 for input to this AIS receiver, how is the 38,400 AIS output going to be useful for showing AIS data on the GPS chartplotter whose ONE NMEA port is set to 4800???

Eric

[richardhula]

Originally Posted by fairbank56

So, if the GPS charplotter with it's ONE NMEA port is set to 4800 for input to this AIS receiver, how is the 38,400 AIS output going to be useful for showing AIS data on the GPS chartplotter whose ONE NMEA port is set to 4800???
Eric

Yes apologies for not reading the thread fully, however just click on image for simple answer.



You can connect the GX2100 DSC output @ 4800 baud + AIS output @ 38400 baud + the separate GPS output @ 4800 baud & have a single feed @ 38400 baud to the chartplotters one NMEA input port.

The GPS output can also be connected to the SR GX2100 to provide that with position info for DSC.

All this & you still have a spare port on the multiplexer to add in another NMEA source & output it to the chartplotter.

[fairbank56]

Well, that's another $200 investment but it's still not going to help pas63 with his Raymarine E-80 with ONE NMEA port. This is the same port that is used to send position data to the VHF for DSC AND receive AIS data from the VHF each at different speeds. I assume he is using a Raymarine seatalk GPS for GPS data to the E-80 via the seatalk port. It does look like he could use the Brookhouse model designed for the Raymarine chartplotters. Diagrams for integration of Raymarine C E series

Eric

[richardhula]

It is bad policy to feed GPS data through a chartplotter in order to feed another device for obvious reasons. A GPS receiver with NMEA 0183 output is a talker so several listen devices can be connected to it. This is how GPS data from a single source should be distributed.

In the scenario we have been discussing, this would mean that NMEA out from the single connector on the E series is not needed. For the record it will still output any NMEA it is set to send but obviously @ 38400 baud, meaning it may still be used for this purpose with equipment that can work at the higher speed.

Now if pas63 is using a Raymarine GPS mushroom to feed his E series MFD & if (as is quite likely) its set to send out data in Seatalk format, we have a slight problem.

Two solutions:

1) Set Raymarine mushroom to output NMEA 0183 (its configurable to allow this) which simplifies things no end. We then have a GPS source which we can connect to several devices including feeding the E series MFD through the the mpxr mentioned above to restore its position data, as well as the GX2100 for DSC & AIS display.

2) Buy the Raymarine Seatalk/NMEA converter (he may have one already) & extract the GPS data in NMEA 0183 format from the Seatalk bus for distribution as required. As well as probably costing money I think this solution less elegant than the first though.

BTW I don't like the Brookhouse/Raymarine hook up - there are too many flaws & limitations as they point out themselves. Just their basic multiplexer with speed conversion would be fine.

[phantomracer]

Have the brookhouse multiplexer. works awesome. pretty flexible. was able to incorporate the existing Seatalk system, NMEA and NMEA HS and everything talks with each other.

They have the best customer support. knew nothing about NMEA before..they walked me through everything, setting up the seatalk (autopilot, tridata), gps plotter (HDS8 Lowrance), AIS/VHF (GX2100 standard horizon), fluxgate compass.

One note - the SH GX2100 AIS output is too low to work with the brookhouse mux. easily fixed though with a pull up resistor - I had to do it. works great now!

[GeoPowers]

Originally Posted by s/v 'Faith'

-snip-

Maybe the good folks at Standard Horizon will come up with a GX 2200 that will have the GPS receiver onboard (internal antenna thank you, with option for external in case anyone is listening...).

Four years later it seems your wish is coming true!

Standard Horizon announces the new GX2200 Matrix AIS/GPS, now with integrated GPS - Professional Mariner - Web Bulletin 2013

Frank