NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

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)

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

GeoffSchultz wrote in
ups.com:

I have a RayMarine SeaTalk based RayStar 120 GPS antenna which is a
piece of crap.

Shhh....take the 4 screws out of the Raymarine 2KW radome, pull off the top
and let me know how corroded all those pot metal parts look....another PoS.

Larry
--
While in Mexico, I didn't have to press 1 for Spanish.

It just isn't fair.

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

Larry wrote:
GeoffSchultz wrote in
ups.com:

I have a RayMarine SeaTalk based RayStar 120 GPS antenna which is a
piece of crap.

Shhh....take the 4 screws out of the Raymarine 2KW radome, pull off the top
and let me know how corroded all those pot metal parts look....another PoS.

Larry

That is a damn lie! And one that I am tired of hearing.

Link to this group some photographs of properly installed Raymarine
scanners found in the condition you describe and I'll kiss your ass
publicly in the venue of your choice. And pay my own way there.

I reserve the right to verify the details of the installation and length
of service. That is because you have not established any credentials
for accuracy or truthfulness on this topic.

The ones that you cleverly "improved" by plugging vents and drains and
otherwise deviating from the mounting instructions do not qualify for
this offer.

It is possible to get a radar into the condition you describe. It is
not a matter of routine on properly installed Raymarine radars. There
are better radars on the market but the Raymarine is not a bad radar.

Think it over Larry, you are tarnishing yourself in the eyes of any
knowledgeable persons.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

On Jul 1, 11:09 pm, Larry wrote:
GeoffSchultz wrote roups.com:

I have a RayMarine SeaTalk based RayStar 120 GPS antenna which is a
piece of crap.

Shhh....take the 4 screws out of the Raymarine 2KW radome, pull off the top
and let me know how corroded all those pot metal parts look....another PoS.

Larry

I pulled the cover off of my radome earlier this year and there wasn't
a spec of rust and it's spent years down in the very humid western
Caribbean. So I have no idea why you keep harping on this.

Now, instead of taking this down a rat hole, does anyone have
suggestions for a marine grade NMEA GPS antenna?

-- Geoff

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

Jack Erbes wrote in
:

Larry wrote:
GeoffSchultz wrote in
ups.com:

I have a RayMarine SeaTalk based RayStar 120 GPS antenna which is a
piece of crap.

Shhh....take the 4 screws out of the Raymarine 2KW radome, pull off
the top and let me know how corroded all those pot metal parts
look....another PoS.

Larry

That is a damn lie! And one that I am tired of hearing.

Link to this group some photographs of properly installed Raymarine
scanners found in the condition you describe and I'll kiss your ass
publicly in the venue of your choice. And pay my own way there.

I reserve the right to verify the details of the installation and
length of service. That is because you have not established any
credentials for accuracy or truthfulness on this topic.

The ones that you cleverly "improved" by plugging vents and drains and
otherwise deviating from the mounting instructions do not qualify for
this offer.

It is possible to get a radar into the condition you describe. It is
not a matter of routine on properly installed Raymarine radars. There
are better radars on the market but the Raymarine is not a bad radar.

Think it over Larry, you are tarnishing yourself in the eyes of any
knowledgeable persons.

Jack


Geez, Jack. The whole inside of this PoS is made of pot metal! It rains
in there from the OPEN DOME DRAIN rubber tit in the bottom. It's not
pressurized or sealed in any way. We've been through several 2KW domes.
It's a pain in the ass hauling it up and down everytime it craps out.
The chinzy-assed compression contacts the wires slide under are totally
exposing the INSIDE of the pot metal box, which turns to a white powder
in a year, dropping down on the exposed horizontally-mounted circuit
board. The maggie power drops after the rain inside has rusted the
maggie's laminated core causing eddy currents in the core. As the
magnetism drops in the cavities, power out drops, of course.

Where do you live in Utah? We live in Charleston, SC, on the OCEAN where
sea breezes waft in and rust any exposed pot metal parts all to hell!

The dome is only held together by 4 little screws, not a proper
compression weather seal. The O-ring doesn't make good contact with the
cheap plastic dome, in spite of the little plastic tits that provide a
cursory alignment until you get the screws tight. The whole top to
bottom "seal" is a joke. It matters not with that rubber tit drain in
the bottom of it breathing that wet sea air in and out every 24 hours
causing it to condense on the INSIDE of the dome every night. Even the
cheap printed circuit board antenna gets corroded over time. It stays
wet until the sun boils it off in the morning.

Someone at Raymarine needs to buy an Icom AT-130 antenna tuner and look
closely at its cheap plastic SEALED UP case. There's on screwed down to
the top of Lionheart's aft cabin roof right next to the mizzen deck step.
I did take the ****ty little board connector off it and solder the
control cable wires properly to the PC board INSIDE the sealed case of
the tuner, eliminating the control cable rot from the seawater washing
over the whole thing. Those cheap plastic stuffing tubes do a great job
of keeping the water out of the tuner, even with all the direct splashing
the radar dome isn't subjected to up 40' on the forward side of the
mizzen. The inside of the 5-year-old AT-130 tuner looks like the day I
installed it....clean, uncorroded, with shiny surfaces and unscathed by
going to sea OUTSIDE in the weather....as it should be.

Too bad that radar dome isn't properly SEALED, too, and made out of
something besides pot metal zinc that corrodes like the one on the shaft
underwater.

A young(er) friend of mine, a fellow ham, took the last one down and put
up the 3rd replacement. He's a service engineer with Scientific Research
Corp, a Navy submarine electronics contractor and former nuclear sub
electronics type. I won't repeat what he did when he took the top off
the Raymarine PoS to unwire the crappy board clips so he could dismount
it. There's ladies reading this newsgroup and it wouldn't be right...(c;

You can posture and scream all you want. It's a piece of pot metal crap!



Larry
--
While in Mexico, I didn't have to press 1 for Spanish.

It just isn't fair.

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

GeoffSchultz wrote:
On Jul 1, 11:09 pm, Larry wrote:
GeoffSchultz wrote roups.com:

I have a RayMarine SeaTalk based RayStar 120 GPS antenna which is a
piece of crap.
Shhh....take the 4 screws out of the Raymarine 2KW radome, pull off the top
and let me know how corroded all those pot metal parts look....another PoS.

Larry

I pulled the cover off of my radome earlier this year and there wasn't
a spec of rust and it's spent years down in the very humid western
Caribbean. So I have no idea why you keep harping on this.

Now, instead of taking this down a rat hole, does anyone have
suggestions for a marine grade NMEA GPS antenna


My son runs the Electric shop for a yacht manufacturer. He tells me
that the problem with the 120's was a combination of a software issue
and they also had problem with internal condensation.

They are best described as prone to failure because of the condensation
issue.

The company he works for has replaced all the 120's they sold with the
Raystar 125.

The Raystar 125 is both NMEA and SeaTalk compatible whereas with the 120
you had to buy a model that was one or the other.

Thanks for your input on the condition of the interior or your Raymarine
radome. My son sees the interior of about 100 or so a year, some them
up to 6 or 8 years old, that are not having any problems with corrosion
either.

Jack

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

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

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

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

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

On Jun 29, 4:57 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)

I got the Garmin GPS 17-HVS today and installed it. As it turned out,
I had to use a NMEA input on my G3 course computer as the 6001 control
head doesn't support lat/long NMEA sentences. It worked just fine and
I when I simulated a failure of the RayStar 120 by disconnecting it,
everything kept working as expected without any Postion Fix Lost
errors. I really don't know which data source (SeaTalk or NMEA) was
being used by the C-80 chartplotter, but there were no problems.

-- Geoff

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

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.

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

On Jul 5, 6:24 pm, GeoffSchultz wrote:

I got the Garmin GPS 17-HVS today and installed it. As it turned out,
I had to use a NMEA input on my G3 course computer as the 6001 control
head doesn't support lat/long NMEA sentences. It worked just fine and
I when I simulated a failure of the RayStar 120 by disconnecting it,
everything kept working as expected without any Postion Fix Lost
errors. I really don't know which data source (SeaTalk or NMEA) was
being used by the C-80 chartplotter, but there were no problems.

-- Geoff

I did some more testing today and found that it didn't quite work the
way that I thought it did based upon yesterday's single test. Most of
the time I get a Fix Lost error on the C80 and then about 10 seconds
later it resumes using the NMEA position data. Some times it failed
over without any errors. The problem with this is that when you're
navigating to a route, it stops navigating and you have to restart and
advance to the correct waypoint.

The other issue that I see is that the RayStar 120 can take a LONG
time to obtain a position fix and the C80 seems to give priority to
the SeaTalk position data over the NMEA data, despite that fact that
the RayStar hasn't obtained a fix yet. The Garmin 17 obtains a fix
within seconds.

I decided to disconnect the RayStar 120 and just have it as a warm
spare that can be connected in a few minutes if the Garmin 17 fails.
Not ideal, but it works much better than old system.

-- Geoff

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

Glad to hear you worked it out. Since I am a certified Raymarine tech
we have no Raymarine products on the boat. But if you get your hands
on a 125 at the right price you might just replace the 120. should be
no problems then. Garmin is always my favorite but they have not made
their plotters AIS compatible and don't know when they will. So we may
have to go with something else when we upgrade our equipment. Haven't
seen you update us on 7knots as to where you are. Chuck and Susan

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

The recent Garmin plotters support AIS.


"joseph" wrote in message ups.com...
Garmin is always my favorite but they have not made
their plotters AIS compatible and don't know when they will.

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

On Jun 29, 4:57 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

I have had problems with my RayMarine GPS antenna in the past. I found
the cause to be the wire connections from the antenna, where it goes
into that little plastic box with the terminal bracket, that connects
it to your display. I found that simply cutting back the wire and
reinstalling it brought my signals back. What I finally did was strip
the terminal bracket out of the box and soldered the wires together.
That seems to have solved the problem for about four years now
(fingers crossed).

John

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

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

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

"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

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

Jack Erbes wrote:

Thanks for your input on the condition of the interior or your
Raymarine radome. My son sees the interior of about 100 or so a
year, some them up to 6 or 8 years old, that are not having any
problems with corrosion either.

Jack

I may have missed an earlier discussion re Furuno and this problem. What is
the consensus on 2kw Furuno radomes and their weatherproof qualities?


--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare

NMEA GPS Antenna Suggestion
 

"Armond Perretta" wrote in
:

Jack Erbes wrote:

Thanks for your input on the condition of the interior or your
Raymarine radome. My son sees the interior of about 100 or so a
year, some them up to 6 or 8 years old, that are not having any
problems with corrosion either.

Jack

I may have missed an earlier discussion re Furuno and this problem.
What is the consensus on 2kw Furuno radomes and their weatherproof
qualities?



All that you missed was another one of Larry's repetitive rants about
RayMarine domes having pot metal in them and a bunch of other people
(myself included) stating that we've never seen the problems that he claims
to see.


-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org