Getting seatalk 1 to talk to nmea 2000

[ElGapitan]

Hi, I am about to invest in a New mfd, but have some concerns about compability.
If I buy a BandG Vulcan7 fs, Will it be able to connect with my older Raymarine St series instruments, and my Sailsteer Ap?
Will it be able to follow routes set in the plotter?

[ka4wja]

ElGapitan,
There are others here on CF with first hand experience with B&G and "Sailsteer", such as Dockhead....and I will let them handle the B&G end of things....
But, I have lots of experience with Raymarine, SeaTalk, etc...so, while you wait for them...

Originally Posted by ElGapitan

Hi, I am about to invest in a New mfd, but have some concerns about compability.
If I buy a BandG Vulcan7 fs, Will it be able to connect with my older Raymarine St series instruments, and my Sailsteer Ap?
Will it be able to follow routes set in the plotter?

What you need is a SeaTalk to SeaTalkNG converter (~ $100)...assuming that you have NMEA2000 already and/or wish your new B&G MFD and B&G autopilot to connect with NMEA2000...

You can get the Raymarine ST series instrument data (wind speed and direction, boat speed, depth, etc.) which is now traveling on SeaTalk ("seatalk 1")....use a SeaTalk to SeaTalkNG converter, which outputs SeaTalkNG/NMEA2000, and connect that into your NMEA2000 network...
(you may need to cut a connector off and/or use an adapter cable, as I believe SeaTalkNG uses a different connector than most NMEA2000 networks....Raymarine having brought out SeaTalkNG before NMEA got around to standardizing the NMEA2000 connections!)

And, you should have all your older Raymarine ST series instrument data available to your new B&G MFD...



Now, as to whether your B&G "sailsteer" autopilot will follow routes you've programmed into your new B&G MFD???
I assume it would, but again that's a question for the B&G guys to answer!

{Although, I've never understood why anyone would actually do that!!! I do see it asked often...
Guess, I'm just too old fashioned!
I like to set my course myself, and then just have the autopilot steer that course....if I miscalculate my set/drift, etc. then I will correct along the way...
Oh, but I also use paper charts as primary and Navionics Platinum as back-up....so, yeah, I am old fashioned! }


Hope this helps!

fair winds...

John

[so34chi]

When I purchased my B&G Zeus2-12 20 months ago, the Raymarine ST-60 package was still aboard and working as it always had. I acquired the Raymarine SeaTalk-1 to SeaTalk-ng and the adapter cable for the latter to NMEA2K. The data flowed reasonably well from the ST-60s to the Zeus2, but, last season, the depth indication on the Zeus2 was intermittent.

The Zeus2-12 stopped accepting incoming data because of outgoing transmit errors (illogical, but so it was). I don't know if the depth indication intermittency was related. Navico replaced the Zeus2-12 under warranty and now all is well.

From the middle of last summer to now, I've replaced my entire Raymarine instrument package with B&G Tritons, 4G radar, a Zeus2-7, and a Simrad AC-12 autopilot. We haven't been out sailing yet, with the system fully functional, due to obscenely cold weather.

The Vulcan feature set has its limitations. We considered installing one at each helm, to supplement one Triton, and moving the Zeus2-12 from under the aft end of the cockpit table to the nav station. Instead, we left it alone, installed two Tritons per helm, and acquired the Zeus2-7 for the nav station.

[ElGapitan]

Thank you for your replies, I totally agree that the paper maps are the Main way of navigating, it is Just nice to have the option.

As of considering new instruments from BandG that would be swell, but that would require a slightly bigger budget.

I found that I have indicated a wrong AP, I have an ST 1 from Raymarine, It seems this one has an NMEA 0183 port which is unused, maybe i can use this for connection?

Sorry for the spelling and formulations as english is not my language.

Eivind

[aluijten]

Originally Posted by ElGapitan

Hi, I am about to invest in a New mfd, but have some concerns about compability.
If I buy a BandG Vulcan7 fs, Will it be able to connect with my older Raymarine St series instruments, and my Sailsteer Ap?
Will it be able to follow routes set in the plotter?

You may consider one of the versions of this converter:

ShipModul Marine Electronics

These are quite clever boxes that also allow you to manipulate messages to some extend and apply filtering as well.

[sailjumanji]

I have b&g Zeus2 mfd and radar, but my autopilot is raymarine s1 and other instruments are st60. All of the seatalk data is converted to nmea 2000 via the converter from raymarine. So the zeus2 gets and displays all data and is available for sailsteer. However you cannot control your ap thru the zeus2. You will have to use the raymarine control head to do that. Which I prefer anyway.

[ka4wja]

Eivind,
No worries about the English, you're doing great!

About autopilot...
No, you will not be able to get the old Raymarine AP to follow routes from the B&G MFD...you will need to use the Raymarine AP control...

Originally Posted by ElGapitan

I found that I have indicated a wrong AP, I have an ST 1 from Raymarine, It seems this one has an NMEA 0183 port which is unused, maybe i can use this for connection?


Eivind

Hope this helps.

John

[sailjumanji]

If you have other st60 instruments - like wind, depth or paddle wheel - get the raymarine seatalk to seatalkng converter to get that data to your Zeus2. It converts seatalk data to nmea 2000. It will do the same for your s1 autopilot data. So one clean connection of the nmea backbone to the Zeus.

There is no reason to take a separate nmea0183 wiring route for your autopilot. To put it clearly, there is no way to control your s1 pilot with the zeus2. Think of it as the zeus2 not talking in the same language as the autopilot.

[sailjumanji]

Another way to put it. B&g talks two way to anything b&g. It can accept data from other instruments if coming thru either nmea 183 or 2000 connections. Regarding sending commands to those other instruments, consider that the zeus2 speaks b&g which raymarine does not understand.

[ElGapitan]

Nicely put :-)

[dietervoegeli]

Attention, Vulcan does not transmit or receive NMEA0183, NMEA 2000 only.
Are you sure the pilot model is ST1?
Older models only accept the NAV mode when using the entry via NMEA 0183 There was a time that there was no GPS with Seatalk, so maybe the only way to make this connection for the pilot (to follow the route with the NAV command in te pilot control) is via NMEA0183.
To use the pilot with the wind direction, it uses the Seatalk.

[sailjumanji]

OK, I have to correct one thing I said. I have a Zeus2, and my wind, depth and paddle wheel instruments are all Raymarine st60's. My autopilot is a Raymarine Smartpilot st6002. These instruments are Daisy chained together using the standard seatalk cables. Then that is connected to a seatalk to seatalkng converter that is connected to the nmea 2000 backbone. (The Zeus2, broadband radar, compass/gps, icom vhf, and Vesper ais are all on that nmea 2000 network).

OK, to the point. All of the seatalk instrument data makes it to the zeus2 via the converter and then the nmea network. In general, it is one-directional data flow. Except what I have found is that the autopilot can see the GPS waypoints and the GPS routes from the Zeus2. In that one respect it is two way. Regarding controlling the autopilot, the zeus2 cannot do that. The AP page displays like none is connected.

That said, I don't see the draw in having the Zeus control the AP. You have to switch displays on the Zeus each time you want to make a course correction. I like just tapping the AP control head for that, and being able to see the chart and GPS course steered at same time. Plus if the Zeus craps out, I still have a working AP. On long cruises the AP is a critical item. I am even carrying a full replacement on this cruise. No one wants to hand steer.

Finally my zeus2 has worked well but every few days to week will shut down and restart on its own. B&g tech told me to do a soft restart, which I did. Did not fix it. Next is hard restart but I need a chip to save waypoints and have latest software updates onboard. Didn't bring that to Bahamas. So I put up with the occasional restart until we get home.

[ElGapitan]

Thank you for your replies, so If i get this right I need a seatalk to seatalk ng converter, then I connect.this directly into.the Vulcan 7 fs? Do I need a converter to the nmea 2000? Or will I be able to connect this directly into the Vulcan?
I am still looking for the best solution, but the Vulcan looks like a reasonable mfd for my use like an instep from No plotter/sonar, my budget is lowered quite a bit since we had an unfortunate grounding costing aprox 20 K last year.

Eivind

[sailjumanji]

You will need to put together a nmea 2000 network. The backbone will have a T that connects to to the mfd via a spur cable. A backbone cable will run to the converter. The converter is treaded like a T as well. Seatalkng is nmea2000 language, so it's already converted. Do some searches on the internet to see how nmea 2000 systems are assembled. I think maretron had some good examples on their website.

[sailjumanji]

What's the difference between Vulcan and zeus2 anyway?