Old Chartplotter Turned into GPS...?

[Jack Eboat]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

Dear OP.

Chartplotters come GPS equipped, they simply will not plot without GPS capability and an appropriate GPS antenna.

All you have to do is attach the GPS antenna that the vendor provided you. You need do nothing else but connect it to a power source.

As you don't seem to understand these most basic facts, I'd suggest you hire a competent marine electrician to do this for you.

Hmmm....finally somebody who know what he is talking about... the gps antenna has coax cable (right) the plotter has not coax connection on the back of the plotter. There is only date cable coming out so what youre saying is that coax/antenna should get connected to NMEA cable (soldered) directly? I would really appreciate your reply no matter how it may seem!

[Tempest245]

You need to find someone who knows what they are doing. I looked at the manual for your unit and it made me dizzy.

You have a 7 pin connector that goes in to your unit and 7 loose wires at the other end
(color coded) The manual tells you what each does. So you need a terminal block to land those wires and to also land the power supply and the ground.

It looks like the 210/220 use a GBR 21 garmin receiver. Pin 4 (brown wire) is the receiver.
However there's language in the manual that says that the 205 only receives 0183 sentences and not the RTCM format of the GBR 21. my guess is that you need to find a GPS receiver that sends 0183 sentences ...

But, I am not an electrician or a tech person. So I would probably call Garmin.
They are usually pretty helpful.

[Ex-Calif]

GPS Antenna - An antenna that receives a satellite signal
GPS - A device that processes the satellite into lat/long coordinates
Chart Plotter - A device that displays (graphically) the lat long coordinates
NMEA183 - A communication protocol between electronic devices


You have a Garmin 205 Chart Plotter - See my image attached.
you do not have a GPS or GPS antenna.

The 205 will take NMEA183 input - You need a GPS and GPS antenna that can produce NMEA183 output.

This GPS will send Lat/Long, speed or other data to teh plotter depending on it's capabilities.

GPS antenna is coax, NMEA183 is usually just a wire.

If the seller told you that you do not need a separate GPS he misled you.

[smac999]

it appears the map205 does not have a coax gps plug. only the 210 and 220. so the anteana he gave you will not work. you need a nmea 183 antenna.

page III at the bottom
http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/130_OwnersManual.pdf

on page 63 it doesn't mention this difference in units. and just tells you to install the gps ant to the connector. bad manual.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by smac999

it appears the map205 does not have a coax gps plug. only the 210 and 220. so the anteana he gave you will not work. you need a nmea 183 antenna.

page III at the bottom
http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/130_OwnersManual.pdf

on page 63 it doesn't mention this difference in units. and just tells you to install the gps ant to the connector. bad manual.

Wow!

NMEA is not antenna - It is a data protocol.

That unit has no GPS inside it so it does not need and cannot accept an antenna.

It needs a complete separate GPS that can send NMEA data out of itself. The NMEA data can be wired to the G205 and receive this data

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

It needs a complete separate GPS that can send NMEA data out of itself. The NMEA data can be wired to the G205 and receive this data

Exactly!

Jack Eboat, what you have bought is NOT a GPS. It is ONLY a plotter. In essence, all you have is a screen that has the ability to display a GPS signal, but does not have any way on its own to get that GPS signal. You must have a separate GPS unit to connect to this plotter that you have bought, before it becomes useful.

If you can return this device, then that is what I think you should do. Then buy yourself a complete GPS/chartplotter unit (which will almost certainly cost you more). Either that or you are going to have to buy a GPS device that will output an NMEA stream, as Ex-Calif has said.

Good luck.