Raymarine Axiom 9 with Vespermarine

[Tillsbury]

Originally Posted by moseriw

And especially Raymarine with a lot of bus-systems I know of:

seatalk, seatalk1, seatalkNG.

What the hell... all well known marine device providers use their own incompatible bus systems so we shoiuld be glad if someone (VESPERMARINE) bundles the hell to NMEA0183/NMEA2000.

I am very glad to have the XB-8000 as my primary navigation bus unit.
Once you solved the painful conversion of the Raymarine bussystems to one reliable... XB-8000 is a fire and forget unit.

Ummm, seatalk is nmea0183 and seatalkng is nmea2000, just with better connectors. If you have a problem with different manufacturer’s equipment just buy one of each cable (nmea2000 and seatalkng), cut both in half and wire them together, giving you two conversion cables. It’s not rocket science, nor is it painful. Plug them into the xb8000 for conversion to/from and transmission over wifi, not to mention sending the ais back over nmea2000. So whatever chartplotter you have it’s going to be fine.

I have a similar setup to you, although I’d describe my “primary navigation bus” as being nmea2000, in its seatalkng incarnation. Old instruments convert into this. Newer instruments connect directly, whether raymarine or not. The xb8000 sits at the end and throws everything to Wi-Fi for my computer and iPads.

[Pete7]

Quick simple question, how do you connect a non Raymarine AIS receiver to the STng network? Assume the normal bare wire TX / RX wires are available from the Easy AIS.

Pete

[Tillsbury]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Quick simple question, how do you connect a non Raymarine AIS receiver to the STng network? Assume the normal bare wire TX / RX wires are available from the Easy AIS.

Pete

By tx/rx do you mean you’ve bought an NMEA0183 receiver but have no other 0183 equipment on board? In which case you’ll need to convert to nmea2000 if all your other equipment is modern stuff. Most manufacturers make one. There’s a seatalk to seatalkng one if you already have raymarine cabling, which works well, although it’s not the cheapest as it has multiple connection points and is intended for converting an entire system to seatalkng rather than just one device. Is there any other device on board already that can do the conversion such as an old chartplotter that accepts nmea0183? Where are you sending the ais data? To a MFD?

Of course, correct answer is return the raymarine ais receiver and get an XB8000

[Neptune's Gear]

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

Ummm, seatalk is nmea0183 and seatalkng is nmea2000, just with better connectors. If you have a problem with different manufacturer’s equipment just buy one of each cable (nmea2000 and seatalkng), cut both in half and wire them together, giving you two conversion cables. It’s not rocket science, nor is it painful. Plug them into the xb8000 for conversion to/from and transmission over wifi, not to mention sending the ais back over nmea2000. So whatever chartplotter you have it’s going to be fine.

I have a similar setup to you, although I’d describe my “primary navigation bus” as being nmea2000, in its seatalkng incarnation. Old instruments convert into this. Newer instruments connect directly, whether raymarine or not. The xb8000 sits at the end and throws everything to Wi-Fi for my computer and iPads.

Close, but not quite. Raymarine do some non standard stuff in both the Seatalk (power carried on the bus, not on actual NMEA0183) and Seatalk NG standards. But, as you say, not hard to do the connections. The vesper speaks both NMEA0183 and NMEA2000 and a Seatalk NG cable is available for it...

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

By tx/rx do you mean you’ve bought an NMEA0183 receiver but have no other 0183 equipment on board? In which case you’ll need to convert to nmea2000 if all your other equipment is modern stuff. Most manufacturers make one. There’s a seatalk to seatalkng one if you already have raymarine cabling, which works well, although it’s not the cheapest as it has multiple connection points and is intended for converting an entire system to seatalkng rather than just one device. Is there any other device on board already that can do the conversion such as an old chartplotter that accepts nmea0183? Where are you sending the ais data? To a MFD?

Current Easy AIS receiver connects to a Garmin 555s by connecting wire to wire and has worked well for a decade. There is also a Raymarine (RM) C80 but that is 15 years old and likely to be sold off, replaced with a new RM Element S. The only network on board (RM STng) is the RM Evo 100 wheel pilot back bone which I would like to connect a RM Element S to in due course and then feed the Easy AIS Receiver. Longer term plan will be to add AIS transceiver.

Bare wires aren't a problem but the RM STng network is either white, blue or yellow plugs.

Edit, the Easy AIS output is NMEA 0183.

[Fuss]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

I use the Vesper splitter and have had only one major problem with the Watchmate as a stand alone device over the past two years.....requiring me to return it to where ever the it came from for a replacement and then unable to use it for an entire four month season.

Now... it caused two system crashes today during a four hour cruise. The Vesper Watchmate POS will be sold this fall and the money spent for a Raymarine replacement.

That’s how I intend to solve the problem.

perfect, i agree, it’s a POS.
i’ll give you 200 for it when you deinstalled it all.

[BigAl.NZ]

Originally Posted by Neptune's Gear

I have probably a dozen customers with this exact setup. No issues with the vespers, watchmates or xb8000s.
If its happening only when you transmit on VHF id be looking at an RF issue. Antenna connections, shields connected to neg etc. Vesper support is excellent, and are likely to be able to sort this for you with a bit of effort on your part.

If the issue is antenna issues, Id start by removing the splitter from the setup and seeing if the issue is still there. It could easily still be present after changing the brand of the AIS....

Good luck!

I'm not your customer but I have XB8000 with RM Axiom 9" and I love it. Connected with N2K cable.

[jeffrobbins]

@Kenomac

Have you been in touch with Vesper support (support@vespermarine.com)? At first blush it does sound like it might be some sort of data loop causing the MFD to hang (eg. AIS->MFD->AIS->MFD....)

In any case, if you aren't able to sort it out soon with Vesper tech support, PM me and let me know the ticket number so I can follow-up for you.