Raymarine Smartpilot / Garmin GPSMAP Compatibility

[bluenoser613]

Originally Posted by bluenoser613

An added benefit of wiring to the control unit is that there is also a NMEA output on the X-5, which of course I wired to the input on the Garmin 420. The 420 supports the input of wind and depth sentences. So far no data from the X-5 to the Garmin 420 is displaying. I suspect there may be some configuration on the X-5 needed to output the sentences. I will continue to investigate.

Well this a disappointment. The Raymarine X-5 only sends two sentences, heading and rudder angle. Too bad. It would have been great to get the instrument data on the chart plotter.

[george123]

The NMEA ouput on the spx5 will output the Fluxgate heading data. You should look at the Garmin to see if you have the option to display that heading data on your unit. I have done this on Garmin 740 system and 4208 system. When you set the Garmin to display the heading this will lock your chart to the fluxgate compass heading on the display.
You may notice that when you are dead in the water i.e. at the dock your chart will shift around because you have no GPS heading data to orient the chart but when you feed the output from the spx5 NMEA to the Garmin input the heading data from the fluxgate will orient the chart.

Hope this helps
George

[bluenoser613]

George, that's awesome. I will test that out.

Regards,
Brent