AIS Problem

[davidgrove]

On 10/10 I am delivering a boat for an owner from the Galapagos to Nuku Hiva. TOf course, today the owner reported that his AIS started acting up. I am trying to shore side trouble shoot this for now.

Here is the description of the problem from his email:

"I am having an issue with the Raymarine E-120 and E-80 Classic chartplotters displaying AIS information. The AIS icon on the displays are X-ed out and indicate "No AIS". The AIS transponder is a Nauticast product and it's troubleshooting LEDs indicate it is receiving power and has no faults. (Yellow fault light comes on when powered up, but goes out after a minute so maybe that's just a light check.) I also have a Watchmate 650 AIS receiver tied in to the Nauticast transponder acting only as a remote display (although it has a receiver also and I can route the antenna to it to have it so operate, that doesn't appear necessary since the Nauticast transponder is obviously receiving and relaying the data to the Watchmate display). So the issue appears to be with the chartplotters displaying the information, not with the other components. (I have always used the Watchmate to display AIS data and receive alarms, rarely using the Raymarine chartplotters,so don't know how long this has been going on). I do know there was no problem with the Raymarine displays some time ago, as I observed data and ship's positions being displayed on the chartplotters in the past.

I have messed around with the chartplotter's setup menus with no success, but maybe I'm missing something. Have not done a "set factory default's" yet, as I don't want to unless really necessary."

End email.

Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated.

David

[barnakiel]

Bad connections perhaps?

b.

[SailFastTri]

It could be a wiring issue How is the signal getting to the MFD?

[ReneJK]

NMEA bus baud rate settings correct ?
have both plotters been updated with latest f/w ? (later f/w versions have AIS fixes)
how is teh AIS connected to the plotters ? (0183 or N2K/STng ?)

[smac999]

the x on the raymarine means the ais collision alarm is turned off. it's never going to "see" or "commincate" with an AIS. and give an alarm for loss of comms. it just collects and shows data. which is may or may not get.

if you are not getting targets. either you have the layer turned off, the plotter getting data byt is set to wrong speed, or the plotter is not getting the data

[ReneJK]

Originally Posted by smac999

the x on the raymarine means the ais collision alarm is turned off. it's never going to "see" or "commincate" with an AIS. and give an alarm for loss of comms. it just collects and shows data. which is may or may not get.

are you sure ? , I always have the 'X' as I have the audible alarms turned off but it communicates fine with the XB-8000 and shows targets if the layer is turned on

[barnakiel]

Now that you said it aloud, I too remember that a greyed out X was when we switched AIS layer OFF in the menu of our Ray plotter. When the AIS receiver was OFF, the AIS icon in the top tab I think was red (?) and read different.

Go into menu see if someone simply toggled AIS overlay to OFF maybe.

b.

[Snore]

My guess is bad connection. Since it is all Ray they should all be speaking SeaTalk or SeaTalkNg- so baud rate should not be an issue.

[sarcasm font] Clearly something the delivery captain did. [/sarcasm font]

[barnakiel]

You think it is a Seatalk AIS?

I think I remember our screens (older C models) used nmea ais data.

Cheers,
b.

[ReneJK]

Since OP has a Nauticat transponder I doubt its Seatalk connected ?
manual speaks about NMEA0183 and the 115K baudrate

[Snore]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

You think it is a Seatalk AIS?

I think I remember our screens (older C models) used nmea ais data.

Cheers,
b.

My bad—- misread, thought it was a Ray receiver. Yes it is NMEA.

[davidgrove]

Thank you all for your replies. I have relayed them via SSB-email and awaiting a further reply.

David

[barnakiel]

115 sounds high. If problem does not get solved, I have seen most AIS nmea connections working at 38.4

Perhaps the Ray is fine but the AIS box fell back on a default of 115 and needs re-setting to 38.4?

Cheers,
b.

[Pizzazz]

The E80 will display AIS data only through the NMEA 0183 serial port at 4800, 9600 or 38400 baud.

First, test that you are receiving data on the serial port (System Diagnostics menu). Next, look for the AIS format data (starts with a !). If you do not see that but the port works, you have a problem with the AIS device. The cross on the menu is for the alarm setting.