Question: Seatalk1 to SeatalkNG to Vesper Cortex NMEA2000 port

[antoniofhowe]

Hello!

I am in the process of simplifying my electronics setup on my 2004 Catalina 350 and I have an NMEA2000 related question.

I currently have on order a Vesper (Garmin) Cortex V1 and a Raymarine Seatalk1 to SeatalkNG converter as well as one male and one female SeatalkNG to NMEA2000 cables.

Onboard I have three ST60 instruments (Depth/Wind/Speed) that I would like to get onto the NMEA2000 network that I will connect to via the Cortex WiFi from my iPad Pro for use with the Navionics Boating App and TZ iBoat. In the near future I will also be adding the Furuno 1st watch radar, but that's not really relevant to my question, which is, if I do not have any other NMEA2000 devices to connect to the Cortex other than the Seatalk1 to SeatalkNG converter, do I still need an NMEA backbone or will I be able to plug directly into the Cortex using one of the two cables that I have on order?

Thank you in advance!

Antonio

[smac999]

The stng to st1 adapter becomes the start of the nmea 2000 backbone. It will have 2 blue terminators. The center is seatalk. If the seatalk is powered that leaves you 2 ports for stng or nmea 2000 drops.

Don’t power both the seatalk 1 and stng backbone. The adapter shares power between them. Choose 1 or the other to connect power to

[Kelkara]

The converter is your N2K backbone ... you should have two terminators plugged into the two blue ends, power plugged into one of the white connectors, the cortex plugged into the other, and the seatalk1 network plugged into the yellow one.

[antoniofhowe]

Great! Thank you both for the replies, that was quick

[Tehani]

If you're going to be using Navionics, converting the ST60s to SeatalkNG/N2k won't do you any good. This app only shows GPS and AIS data. Everything seems to indicate that TZ iboat will not present the data of the ST60 either. You should use the full version of Timezero on PC, OpenCPN or qtVlm to see that data.

[svmobert]

Navionics will get heading and depth also if it gets it over Wi-Fi.

The main issue here is that there are 2 conversions in the process.. 1st you are converting ST1 to STNG(NMEA2000), and then the Cortex is converting NMEA2000 to NMEA0183 to put out over Wi-Fi. So you have to look at the conversion tables for both devices and follow the path to see if the data you want will be output on the Wi-Fi network for your iPad/TZiBoat/Navionics/iNavX, etc to display.

There are other converters you can use.. For example, the YDNR-02 from Yacht Devices has ST1, NMEA2000, 2 x NMEA0183, and Wi-Fi all in one and you can control how it converts and routes data between the various inputs and outputs.

I know for a fact that Navionics can get depth, speed, ais, gps from NMEA0183 over Wi-Fi if the sentences are present. I mapped a whole bay with sonar in Navionics boating on a boat with ST60s. That said I was pulling the NMEA0183 data from the E80s 0183 port and sending it out over Wi-Fi with a Raspberry Pi.

Originally Posted by Tehani

If you're going to be using Navionics, converting the ST60s to SeatalkNG/N2k won't do you any good. This app only shows GPS and AIS data. Everything seems to indicate that TZ iboat will not present the data of the ST60 either. You should use the full version of Timezero on PC, OpenCPN or qtVlm to see that data.

[antoniofhowe]

I just wanted to update everyone with how it all turned out. I setup the seatalk1 to seatalkng converter to Vesper Cortex the way that was recommended here in this thread and from my ST60 instruments I have Depth, Speed and Wind speed / direction now broadcasting over wifi to my iPad.

Navionics only seems to take the Depth, but TZ iBoat, and of course the Vesper app, take it all. They're even showing me water temp that my ST60's weren't, but it seems to be stuck at 19F... that's a problem for another day

I also easily setup the Vesper Cortex to connect to my onboard Starlink Wifi, so my iPad and iPhone have internet access as well as NMEA access all at the same time.

Thanks again for the replies, they helped make this project easier!