Raymarine networking options to OpenCPN

[terah]

The boat we are purchasing has the following already onboard:

Raymarine ST60 Depth
Raymarine ST60 Log
Raymarine ST60 Wind
Raymarine ST6001 Autopilot
Raymarine E127 Plotter
Raymarine Digital Radar (exact model unknown)
ICOM M604 VHF

I would ideally like to set up OpenCPN at the nav station but am finding it hard to work out what I need to make this work.

I also have a Vesper XB8000 on my current boat that I would like to put on the new one.

Anyone else have a similar setup?

[CarstenWL]

... you have a SeaTalk Network for the Raymarine products so to connect to OpenCPN get a WiFi Gateway like this: Purchase

Regards,

Carsten

PS: Just looked at the Vesper AIS and it seems you can connect the Vesper (NMEA2000) to your SeaTalk Network with an adapter cable. Than your Vesper AIS should be able to distribute the data over WiFi.

[terah]

Thanks Carsten.

I'm still trying to get my head round the current wiring. Is it likely there is is a Seatalk to Seatalk NG converter/bus and then we have something like:

• ST60 devices --> Seatalk to Seatalk NG --> E127
• Seatalk HS connection from radar to E127
• E127 --> ST6001

And then for what you are suggesting we just get an adapter cable to go from the Seatalk NG bus to the Vesper?

[TheOffice]

Think he means this:

https://www.thegpsstore.com/Raymarin...ale-P3256.aspx

[ssscruz]

I have a Brookhouse iMux, which comes either in a version that accepts RayTalk, or one that accepts NMEA inputs, then broadcasts it in a wifi network. It works quite well with a number of devices including PCs running OpenCPN or Coastal Explorer, or Apple devices running iNavX.

I have used this setup on two boats now (one of each Raytalk and NMEA versions) and really like it.

[meirriba]

I understand your wish to connect the AIS to the Raymarine MFD.
But, can you explain the purpose of connecting the OpenCPN to the network? Is it for using the RM sensors (radar, ais etc.) on the OpenCPN system?

[out42]

I went down the multiplexer route with wifi broadcast capability for my old Raymarine setup.

Feed in the Seatalk data and things like AIS data too, and pretty much let the multiplexer do what it's good at - making sense of all that. Everything then appears on the laptop or iPad or phone or whatever. I haven't solved radar onto the laptop yet but that's this year's task.

Wiring the connections for the multiplexer was easier than I thought but OpenCpn internal setup can be tricky. I got there by trial and error in the end.

Keep bashing away at it.

[terah]

Originally Posted by meirriba

I understand your wish to connect the AIS to the Raymarine MFD.
But, can you explain the purpose of connecting the OpenCPN to the network? Is it for using the RM sensors (radar, ais etc.) on the OpenCPN system?

Yes, this is to have chartplotter and instruments at the nav station. Appreciate radar may not be possible.

[Squanderbucks]

As several have suggested you can use a multiplexer to gather all the data be it Seatalk, NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2000 and make it available to anything else on the "network". OpenCPN typically gets it Nav dat in serial format using NMEA 0183. WIFI like they suggested is possible but depends on what device you are running the OpenCPN on. If a reular laptop with either USB or RS232 Serial data port a 3 wire cable running from the multiplexer to the laptop's serial port such as a DB9 connector or thru a virtual Serial Port through a USB port with a USB to Serial Converter gives you a hard wired solution without working with WIFI.
My boat is setup this way and WIFI is only used for sending position, speed, and depth data to my Ipad that is a backup or something I can carry around if not at the help or keep next to someone when they are not at a helm position. Maybe laying down resting while underway etc. Also, WIFI is left open for other non-essential uses on phones, iPads, etc.

[moseriw]

I think you have the best hardware for it.
the Seatalk NG is basically NMEA 2000 so try to connect it to the XB8000 and check it. If not than you have to convert Seatalk NG to NMEA2000.
The XB converts the NMEA2000 to NMEA083 and the developers are working hard to enable all transmits - like the baro, i.e -. So plas consider to upgrade the XB on short intervals.

[terah]

At the moment the Seatalk to NMEA 2000 adapter from the Seatalk bus to the Vesper seems like the simplest option, with the Vesper then repeating nmea data over wifi.

Haven't worked out exactly what I'll be running OpenCPN on but was thinking a Raspberry PI 3.

Is there any particular advantage of using a hard wired multiplexer to the Pi rather than nmea over wifi from the Vesper?

[terah]

@moseriw

Good point. I'll make sure I upgrade the Vesper before I take it out.

[rom]

I have a similar setup but no seatalk NG, only version 1. My boat came with a small conversion box from raymarine, seatalk1<->nmea0183. I connected two cables from that box to the vespermarine (nmea0183) which in turns bridges the traffic to wifi. Works great with opencpn on my linux PC. Haven't done any update of the XB8000 in 2 years.

If you already have stng near the XB8000 then I suppose a sntg/nmea2000 cable will work fine, provided all nmea0183/ST1 traffic is bridged to the stng network by some of your raymarine equipment.

Note that the E120 will not show AIS from stng, you need to go through nmea0183@~34kbaud for that purpose.

[moseriw]

btw rpi3. Works fine but you should use lxde and lightdm. I made a ocpn 4.8.deb so you could try to use it if you want.

[kcj]

I run ocpn, with vesper 8000, new ray autopilot and legacy ray st60 instruments..

USB cable connects pc to vesper.

Stng to nema2000 spur cable connects vesper to NG backbone.

Ray st>stng adapter connects old instruments to NG backbone

You may have to tweak some ocpn connections settings to i/out as opposed to just in..

I now get ocpn data on my ray instruments. Was pretty straightforward save running the backbone

Good luck