Vesper Marine AIS

[jeffrobbins]

Good drawing and I think it will work fine.

[sailjumanji]

I am trying to do something similar, regarding getting the SeaTalk data to my chartplotter. I have ST60 depth/speed, ST60 wind, the 6000-series autopilot controller, and an S1 wheel pilot. Each of these are old SeaTalk 1 instruments. I was told by several people to buy a SeaTalk1 to SeaTalkng converter kit (about $100), and that would get it to NMEA2000. Then just a SeaTalkng to DeviceNet Micro C (NMEA 2000) cable to get it to the NMEA2000 backbone/network. The network will hook up to my chartplotter, and therefore get all of the data onto same.

I am curious as to whether the rudder angle makes it into this network. And what other data comes from the autopilot system. I am only at the planning stage now.

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by sailjumanji

I am trying to do something similar, regarding getting the SeaTalk data to my chartplotter. I have ST60 depth/speed, ST60 wind, the 6000-series autopilot controller, and an S1 wheel pilot. Each of these are old SeaTalk 1 instruments. I was told by several people to buy a SeaTalk1 to SeaTalkng converter kit (about $100), and that would get it to NMEA2000. Then just a SeaTalkng to DeviceNet Micro C (NMEA 2000) cable to get it to the NMEA2000 backbone/network. The network will hook up to my chartplotter, and therefore get all of the data onto same.

I am curious as to whether the rudder angle makes it into this network. And what other data comes from the autopilot system. I am only at the planning stage now.

I have an s3G autopilot and seatalk 1 to seatalk ng converter as well as a Vesper XB-8000 and Garmin Nmea2000 sailing instruments.

The seatalk ng to devicenet cables only fit into the spur sockets on the converter, I asked raymarine if I could use their cable to connect to my NMEA2000 backbone by leaving out the terminators on the converter, but they said no (I don't really understand why not), but I followed their advice and spliced a NMEA2000 cable to a raymarine backbone cable; Was not too difficult if you can solder and have heat shrink tubing available. See the discussion on the raymarine fourm:
Seatalk 1 to NMEA 2000 - Raymarine Technical Forum

It works fine, I can see all the raymarine info on the Garmin instruments and vice versa.

BUT there are a few PGNS that are NOT translated by the Vesper XB-8000 yet:

• Rudder angle is visible on the Garmin instruments but is not recognized by the XB-8000, so I don't see it on my computer, or I-Pad.

• Air temperature.

• Barometric pressure.

• Navigation Data from a PC or Tablet is also not converted by the Vesper.

Hopefully Vesper will implement more conversions in the near future.

Cheers,
JM.

[Wannabe-007]

Originally Posted by trantor12020

Here's my wiring diagram for onboard instrument and AIS.

That was a beautiful thing!

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by NahanniV

I have an s3G autopilot and seatalk 1 to seatalk ng converter as well as a Vesper XB-8000 and Garmin Nmea2000 sailing instruments.

The seatalk ng to devicenet cables only fit into the spur sockets on the converter, I asked raymarine if I could use their cable to connect to my NMEA2000 backbone by leaving out the terminators on the converter, but they said no (I don't really understand why not), but I followed their advice and spliced a NMEA2000 cable to a raymarine backbone cable; Was not too difficult if you can solder and have heat shrink tubing available. See the discussion on the raymarine fourm:
Seatalk 1 to NMEA 2000 - Raymarine Technical Forum .

Ok, I thought the SeaTalk ng to DeviceNet Micro C NMEA 2000 adapter cable specifically plugs into the SeaTalk ng converter, and the NMEA 2000 backbone.

[sailjumanji]

So this appears to be the thread for Vesper AIS help. I am in the process of upgrading some electronics. Some things - an ST60 depth/speed, ST60 wind, and an S1 pilot with 6000-series controller - are going to stay. I plan to use a SeaTalk 1 to SeaTalk ng converter, and then an SeaTalk ng adapter to DeviceNet adapter cable to get that data to NMEA 2000. Installing a Zeus2 charplotter and B&G 4G radar. (I know it won't be able to control my S1 autopilot, but I am with that.) I would like to have an AIS transceiver that works well with the B&G plotter. My VHF is also old - not even DSC - and I am ok with replacing that. Some of the Vesper systems have dedicated monitors, and I have no room or need for that. Right now my VHF antenna is at the top of the mast, so I have coax cable running there.

So the question is what model Vesper is recommended, parts required, etc. Ideally I want it to be really easy to identify "targets" on the plotter, and call them. We transit thru some pretty busy shipping lanes. Is there some way to touch the plotter and have the VHF call? Again, I am open on VHF, so whatever has been found to network best. Probably an Icom fan more than others, but not a dealbreaker. And everything doesn't need to be platinum-level.

THANKS in advance for any help in wading thru this. I am already almost at burnout stage just after the chart and radar selection. Good news is this is all prep for a retirement in a year, and heading to the Bahamas.

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by sailjumanji

Ok, I thought the SeaTalk ng to DeviceNet Micro C NMEA 2000 adapter cable specifically plugs into the SeaTalk ng converter, and the NMEA 2000 backbone.

The cable will plug into the NMEA2000 backbone OK, but Raymarine connectors are different for spurs and backbone, the conversion cable only plugs into a Raymarine spur. The converter is a mini backbone with two backbone connectors (supplied with terminators) two spur connectors and a seatalk 1 port. I thought it should work with the Raymarine NG->NMEA2000 cable but raymarine said no and I didn't want to spend $50 bucks on a stupid proprietary RayMarine cable that might not work so I took their advice and spliced the backbone cable.

I would still like to be enlightened on this subject.

Cheers,
JM.

[Sailorman Ed]

Jeff Robins - I have the same older ST60 instruments as sailjumanji. And the St6001 AP ( I think this is the correct #). So if I understand, only the heading will transmit to the XB8000. Do I even care about the AP heading? Seems the GPS would already have figured out my heading and speed. But I would like to get the depth and wind speed send via WIFI from the SB8000 to Open CPN (and iPad). I was under the impression that the XB8000 would act as the multiplexer

if you have an ST60 repeater/multi instrument it has a SeaTalk to 0183 converter built into it.

Does the ST60 Tridata qualify as a "multi instrument"? The boat is "new to me" so I do not yet fully understand all the variations of SeaTalk.

I know to keep the XB8000 at least 2 feet from any compass but how about the AP brain? The flux compass is a good 9 feet away. I have a good location and ready to install now.
thanks,
Ed

[Wannabe-007]

Does the ST60 Tridata qualify as a "multi instrument"?

No.
I had the same question, and spent a while looking into it. Raymarine have a separate device called a 'multi', and thats a multi, but the tridata is just a tridata .

I dunno what you fellas have, but I have a C80 Chartplotter which, as I understand it, will serve the purpose of aggregating the data

After seeing trantor12020's fancy pants wiring diagram, I don't really want to show my picture, but I'll show it anyway...

I haven't thought about any of this for a while, and need to come back to it and work through the details very soon - I'm almost ready to make my buying decision... if only I could sign up to be a test pilot or something . I suspect this thread will be very helpful.
I haven't really thought much about the autohelm (Raymarine ST6002), but I guess I had just assumed that there is 2-way NMEA0183 going on from the plotter, therefore I would expect to be able to control it from a remote device via the XB8000.


I've also just bought an Iridium Go which ads yet another WiFi network on board... probably can't bridge it anywhere, so may not be at all relevant... although it does add another aerial and another GPS into the mix)

[jeffrobbins]

Originally Posted by NahanniV

BUT there are a few PGNS that are NOT translated by the Vesper XB-8000 yet:

• Rudder angle is visible on the Garmin instruments but is not recognized by the XB-8000, so I don't see it on my computer, or I-Pad.

• Air temperature.

• Barometric pressure.

• Navigation Data from a PC or Tablet is also not converted by the Vesper.

Rudder angle, air temp & baro pressure are already on our to-do list. Inverse translations from PC/tablet back to N2K are also on our to-do list.

[jeffrobbins]

Originally Posted by sailjumanji

So this appears to be the thread for Vesper AIS help. I am in the process of upgrading some electronics. Some things - an ST60 depth/speed, ST60 wind, and an S1 pilot with 6000-series controller - are going to stay. I plan to use a SeaTalk 1 to SeaTalk ng converter, and then an SeaTalk ng adapter to DeviceNet adapter cable to get that data to NMEA 2000. Installing a Zeus2 charplotter and B&G 4G radar. (I know it won't be able to control my S1 autopilot, but I am with that.) I would like to have an AIS transceiver that works well with the B&G plotter. My VHF is also old - not even DSC - and I am ok with replacing that. Some of the Vesper systems have dedicated monitors, and I have no room or need for that. Right now my VHF antenna is at the top of the mast, so I have coax cable running there.

So the question is what model Vesper is recommended, parts required, etc. Ideally I want it to be really easy to identify "targets" on the plotter, and call them. We transit thru some pretty busy shipping lanes. Is there some way to touch the plotter and have the VHF call? Again, I am open on VHF, so whatever has been found to network best. Probably an Icom fan more than others, but not a dealbreaker. And everything doesn't need to be platinum-level.

THANKS in advance for any help in wading thru this. I am already almost at burnout stage just after the chart and radar selection. Good news is this is all prep for a retirement in a year, and heading to the Bahamas.

Have a look at the XB-8000. It works well with the B&G plotter. If you want to use your existing VHF antenna at the top of the mast then an SP160 antenna splitter will give excellent performance. For the AIS you won't need anything else as the XB-8000 comes with the GPS antenna, etc. The only thing you won't be able to do that you've listed is touch a target on the chartplotter to call it on your VHF. However, the XB-8000 does have the ability to place DSC calls via Icom radios. It's just that the plotter can't communicate that to the XB-8000. So if you connect your XB-8000 to a current-generation Icom fixed mount VHF it can provide a GPS feed to the radio and initiate DSC calls. But you need something to tell the XB-8000 which target to call, etc. You can do that using mobile apps on your tablet. You touch the target on the tablet and tell it to call. Right now there aren't many apps that can do this but since we introduced a simple mechanism for apps to initiate a call, more apps will be adding it.

[jeffrobbins]

Originally Posted by Sailorman Ed

Jeff Robins - I have the same older ST60 instruments as sailjumanji. And the St6001 AP ( I think this is the correct #). So if I understand, only the heading will transmit to the XB8000. Do I even care about the AP heading? Seems the GPS would already have figured out my heading and speed.

The GPS doesn't know your heading. It knows your course over ground. Heading input to the XB-8000 isn't required and most people don't have it. But if you provide it then your boat's icon on other people's displays will be oriented in the correct direction when you aren't moving (or in a strong current, drifting, etc)

But I would like to get the depth and wind speed send via WIFI from the SB8000 to Open CPN (and iPad). I was under the impression that the XB8000 would act as the multiplexer

The XB-8000 combines all the input sources into its output stream but it doesn't have multiple 0183 inputs. So if you don't care about heading (as above) then connect your instruments to the XB-8000 0183 input and you'll get depth and wind sent via WiFi to your computer and iPad.

Does the ST60 Tridata qualify as a "multi instrument"? The boat is "new to me" so I do not yet fully understand all the variations of SeaTalk.

This was already answered. As far as I know only the instrument called a multi has the Seatalk->0183 converter built in. The tridata is a different instrument and doesn't have this.

I know to keep the XB8000 at least 2 feet from any compass but how about the AP brain? The flux compass is a good 9 feet away. I have a good location and ready to install now.

You should be fine. Compass-safe-distance just means that a compass nearer than the CSD might be affected.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by jeffrobbins

The only thing you won't be able to do that you've listed is touch a target on the chartplotter to call it on your VHF. However, the XB-8000 does have the ability to place DSC calls via Icom radios. It's just that the plotter can't communicate that to the XB-8000. So if you connect your XB-8000 to a current-generation Icom fixed mount VHF it can provide a GPS feed to the radio and initiate DSC calls. But you need something to tell the XB-8000 which target to call, etc. You can do that using mobile apps on your tablet. You touch the target on the tablet and tell it to call. Right now there aren't many apps that can do this but since we introduced a simple mechanism for apps to initiate a call, more apps will be adding it.

Jeff, could I use something like an Icom M506 Class D with NMEA2000 connection (Mfg M506 11) effectively? The user manual for the B&G Zeus2 says you can select a target on the screen, open a menu for that target, and touch to make a DSC call to target. If I have the VHF in the NMEA2000 network with the Zeus2 chartplotter, wouldn't it pick up the command to make the call? Just like the XB-8000 would have otherwise? This would by-pass the XB-8000, I suspect. Or would it cause a problem if the XB-8000 received that same command from the Zeus2? (Because it would be on the same NMEA2000 network)

At this point, I have lots of flexibility as to what to do, as I am open to replace the VHF and add whatever AIS is necessary. But my Seawind 1000 is not a big boat (33 ft cat), and mobile apps and tablets just add clutter (IMHO). And if I do use a tablet, as the B&G has a GoFree Wifi, will the XB-8000 just be redundant as they will both be on the same NMEA2000 system carrying the same data.

Thanks again for your help.

[craigrowell]

I have a couple of xb questions. I am upgrading a 2002 raymarine system. Instruments and autopilot to stay old raynav 300 gps to go. The boat is in Italy. I want to install the xb 8000 as well as a new raymarine A75 mfd. I am concerned that the 10meter antenna cable may be a couple of meters short. I am also concerned about the registration. I am in California and will be traveling to Europe with the new equipment...Advice?

[trantor12020]

Managed to get a returned uniut of Raymarine E85001 interface box from a shop in Lymington, UK. It interface the SeaTalk from SPX-5 Course Computer to the nmea input of XB8000. HDG, DPT, AWA and AWS all working!

WatchMate Android - I see the Alarm features all grey out. Is it supported?

Ken