On Jul 4, 9:30 pm, joseph wrote:
On Jun 29, 3:57 pm, GeoffSchultz
wrote:





I have a RayMarine SeaTalk based RayStar 120 GPS antenna which is a
piece of crap. On almost a daily basis it will lose position fix and
the requires power cycling to have it re-aquire a fix. According to
some marine electronics people that I've talked to, this was a known
problem with some of the units and is what prompted them to come out
with the RayStar 125 antenna. Since this is already the 2nd RayMarine
GPS antenna that I've purchased, I don't want to give them any more
money!

What I want to do is to mount another GPS antenna and have it feed
NMEA GPS data to the NMEA input of my RayMarina ST6001 control head.
I think that the ST6001 will convert the NMEA data into SeaTalk
sentances. The C80 chartplotter should see position data from 2
sources via SeaTalk and when the RayStar 120 antenna goes offline, I
should have no loss of position.

An alternative is to feed the NMEA data from the antenna directly to
the C80, but that involves pulling a cable to a very difficult
location.

1) Does the above solution sound like it will work? And suggestions
regarding it?

2) Any suggestions on an NMEA GPS antenna?

3) I've been looking at the Garmin GPS17 (http://www.gme.net.au/garmin/
gps17n_specifications.php) antenna and I think that it would do the
job. Any comments on this?

Thanks, Geoff (who just arrived in Deltaville, VA)

Geoff, The simplest solution is to replace the 120 with a 125. They
are the 120 replacement since the known issues with the 120. I have
not seen any failures to date with the 125 except the delicate cable
but if you make sure the cable is not damaged during installation you
should have no problem. The Garmin 17 can be connected to your
autopilot at the course computer NMEA connection. It will not directly
interface with the Seatalk connections. You will not have GPS on your
plotter from the Garmin antenna unless you connect the Garmin to the
NMEA cable on the back of your plotter as I understand it. You might
want to give Raymarine a call to verify that. Glad to hear you are
back in the States. Enjoy Deltaville. Chuck and Susan, SV Sea Trek- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Hi Chuck,

Nice to hear from you. I've ordered the Garmin antenna and will
experiment with it.

I used to work for Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) in the engineering
department for Fault Tolerant systems where we designed systems that
had 99.999% uptime. There were no single points of failure and
everything was at least 2x redundant. To me the Garmin NMEA antenna
looks like the best solution as I can feed NMEA GPS data to my
redundant RayMarine C-80 and Northstar 3100i chartplotters. That
might sound excessive, but I've had lots of single unit failures, and
I've even had one time when both units were down. You'll note that I
even went with different vendors in case one of them had a software
problem which rendered the unit unusable. Based upon where I
typically cruise, calling tech support and just shipping the unit in
isn't a viable option. Based upon my background, I tend to worry
about things that most people don't.

-- Geoff

GeoffSchultz wrote in
oups.com:

but I've had lots of single unit failures, and
I've even had one time when both units were down.

See? We told ya not to switch the battery switch with the alternators
running....(c;

Larry
--
While in Mexico, I didn't have to press 1 for Spanish.
While in Iran, I didn't have to press 1 for Farsi, either!
It just isn't fair.

You'll note that I
even went with different vendors in case one of them had a software
problem which rendered the unit unusable. Based upon where I
typically cruise, calling tech support and just shipping the unit in
isn't a viable option. Based upon my background, I tend to worry
about things that most people don't.

Well, how will you deal with updating the firmware on them? When you mix
and match you run afoul of update problems. Most need to use their vendor
brand of chartplotter to load updates, often via an SD/MMC/CF flash card.

I've got a Lowrance LGC-2000 hooked up to my Raymarine E-80. This in
addition to the Raymarine 125 that connected via SeaTalk. The Lowrance unit
is connected to the SeaTalk2 bus (aka NMEA 2000 with different connectors).
The E-80 gives priority to the Seatalk2 bus over SeaTalk, which is in turn
given priority over NMEA-0183 devices. I've had a few glitches now and then
with the 125 on SeaTalk.

I've also got some Lowrance fuel flow sensors on the NMEA-2000 bus. Trouble
is I don't have a Lowrance chartplotter to let me load up the newest
firmware on them. So I have to either borrow someone else's (or buy one) or
pull them out of the fuel lines and send them back to the factory (or to
someone else's chartplotter). So don't forget to factor the updating issues
when going with different vendors.

-Bill Kearney

"Bill Kearney" wkearney-99@hot-mail-com wrote in
:

You'll note that I
even went with different vendors in case one of them had a software
problem which rendered the unit unusable. Based upon where I
typically cruise, calling tech support and just shipping the unit in
isn't a viable option. Based upon my background, I tend to worry
about things that most people don't.

Well, how will you deal with updating the firmware on them? When you
mix and match you run afoul of update problems. Most need to use
their vendor brand of chartplotter to load updates, often via an
SD/MMC/CF flash card.

You update them individually. No issues. With RayMarine you copy the new
software onto a CF card and insert it. It updates. With the NorthStar
they provide the media.

All of the SeaTalk devices require sending them back to RayMarine for
updates. I do send my course computer in about every year to get the
latest updates. That has helped with some issues.

-- Geoff