T-ROY wrote in news:T-ROY.2k0k38
@news.boatbanter.com:

GOT IT WORKING!!!! Thanks Larry for taking the time and write a reply.
This is what I did wrong. I did not ground the shield wire that is
wrapped around the Icom lead in and out. I don't know why I was not
thinking of that earlier. Garmin, in its manual, shows that in the
diagram. I think Icom could mention that in the manual to ground the
shield wire or if they do put it bold lettering for people like me who
rather fish than do electrical work.



Ding! All they need is a little shove to get them over the side of the
dock....(c;

Glad you got it going. MAKE A COMPLETE SYSTEM DRAWING OF YOUR ENTIRE
ELECTRONICS SUITE IMMEDIATELY! You'll NEVER remember how it's hooked up
next year when it quits. DETAILED DRAWING WITH LOTS OF NOTES!

I went aboard a boat not long ago and couldn't even figure out what
breaker went to what. No labels, no drawings, no notes, no
nothing.....stupid, stupid, STUPID!

Label the WIRES. Label the Connections. When you label the wires,
devise a short code for the label telling you the wire's DESTINATION
like:

243GNoutNS-------------------------------------------243GNoutH

Wire number 243 on the master drawing going to NS Nav Station from the
Helm. GNout means Garmin NMEA output. Once it goes through that little
hole, it might have well as gone to Mars! Tracing it out next year
really SUCKS!

You're standing staring into the wireway where it comes out to the Nav
Station. "Which wire is the NMEA output of the Garmin
Plotter/GPS/Sounder?", you ask noone special. "Ah, there it is,
243GNoutH goes up to the Garmin at the Helm." I didn't even need to pull
out the drawing to see which wire number it is. I can tell that wire
from 84RSoutH, the Raymarine Seatalk out from the Helm, real easy....at
sea, at night, in the waves, hanging on for dear life.

I'm also a real LED whore. If you put a 10 cent LED in series with a 1K
resistor across all data lines, you can tell IF there's data or IF it's
dead or locked to a 1 or 0. Blue LEDs are the NMEA Master Output
Network. Red LEDs are DC power (+12V). Green LEDs are Seatalk. Yellow
LEDs are each instrument's data output (B&G Network NMEA data is all
daisy chained so there's a yellow LED between each unit.)

See all the blinky lights? It's working. Oh, oh, no blinky lights from
the XXXX, but everything else is blinky. No wonder XXXX isn't showing up
on The Cap'n. I can open the cabinet in the dark and just look at the
box and see it. Too easy....ten cents. The box at the Nav Station hangs
under the panel so I don't have to open it...(c; I'm lazy.