Quote:
Originally Posted by evm1024
I power my primary gps off 4 breakers using diodes for isolation. It you power on any of these the gps powers up.
1) vhf radio
2) chart plotter
3) auto pilot
4) Sailing instruments
I should note that the sailing instruments includes a Brookhouse nmea 0183 mux. This allows the gps to go to a computer too.
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As a follow on:
So if you only power up the VHF you will also power the GPS. This way your gps coordinates are displayed on the vhf display and the vhf
dsc distress has a gps position to
work with.
If you only power up the chart plotter the gps also powers up and now the chart plotter has all the gps sentences to
work with.
If you only power up the auto pilot the
autopilot "could" steer by gps. But I never give the AP that power so for me it is moot. But who knows, some day.
If you power up only the sailing instruments (wind, speed depth) the gps powers up and the nmea mux as well. You are then able to hook up a
laptop and get
OpenCPN running with the gps.
THe GPS comes from a Standard Horizons CP180
chartplotter which can be connected to the GPS and thus get a very small (7") chart plotter display and the ability to control the gps. The CP180 is the only device that has been wired to send nmea signals to the gps.
The idea was that the gps would be on for any instrument group that needed it. This allows making a very
low power setup when conserving. Or full power with everything on. And no thought required to turn on the gps or the specific device that powers the gps.
Here is a link to the SH Smart
antenna. (section 2.3.0) I cannot say what the
current version is but this works great. There are versions available for less than $100.
https://www.milltechmarine.com/custo...ers_Manual.pdf
I should add that my
AIS transponder has a separate GPS. It can be made to supply gps position to the other instruments with a little work. Just some backup.