DSC Radio and GPS compatibility?

Discussion in 'Electrical Systems' started by Murray Peterson, Sep 26, 2009.

  1. Murray Peterson
    Joined: Sep 2009
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    Location: Kuttabul, Queensland, Australia

    Murray Peterson Structural Engineer

    It seems different manufacturers can't quite make their products 100% compatible in this area and the sales people always say Yes, Yes, Yes when you ask questions in this area and after you buy the equipment they refer you to their technical staff who tell you the equipment is not compatible.

    My case in point is my GME GX600D VHF DSC transciever and my Northstar Explorer 657 Combination GPS/Sonar/Chartploter unit. It is not until I "conected the wires", it didn't work as claimed, and I was informed that the Northstar unit can only accept DSC data in "Navbus" (Northstar/Navman's own propriety format) format so I can't plot any other vessels on the chartplotter. The Northstar Technician's "helpful suggestion" was to buy a Northstar DSC radio!

    Instead of doing that, does anyone have suggestions for a "Navbus" to NMEA0183 or NMEA2000 converter?
     
  2. pamarine
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    Location: Norfolk, VA

    pamarine Marine Electrician

    From the NavBus Manual:

    In other words, to use a NMEA device with a Northstar Device, the NMEA interface is made at each device seperately and must transmit compatible sentences. Your Chartplotter doesn't transmit or receive and DSC NMEA sentences.

    Hope this Helps.
     
  3. Murray Peterson
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    Location: Kuttabul, Queensland, Australia

    Murray Peterson Structural Engineer

    Navbus - NMEA

    My Chartplotter transmits NMEA to my DSC Radio but the Chartplotter dose not receive the NMEA from my radio. The Northstar Explorer 657 Chartplotter only plots data on the chart that it can receive in Navbus format. (Contrary to the claims of some salesmen.)
     
  4. pamarine
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    pamarine Marine Electrician

    Right, your chartplotter transmits your GPS position to your radio for hte DSC function on the Radio. This is done via sentence GPA.

    The Explorer 657 has the follow NMEA 0183 Capabilities:

     
  5. Murray Peterson
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    Location: Kuttabul, Queensland, Australia

    Murray Peterson Structural Engineer

    That is correct. The silly thing about it in my opinion is that it does receive NMEA data from the Northstar remote GPS receiver, and the fuel flow sensor (this probably confused the salesmen) but not from a DSC Radio.
     
  6. pamarine
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    pamarine Marine Electrician

    again, as it should.

    For under 1K US you aren't really going to find a lot of extras when it comes to functionality unless you go with a Garmin.
     
  7. Murray Peterson
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    Location: Kuttabul, Queensland, Australia

    Murray Peterson Structural Engineer

    I have thought that way - the Northstar has the hardware and evidently the software coded elseware in the PIC-Micro it runs on (or equivalent). Why not one more line of software to be able to accept NMEA data form a radio? The cost in production would be negledgeable.

    More importantly, they should be required to state that this chartplotter will not accept data from a DSC Radio in NMEA format.
     
  8. Murray Peterson
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    Location: Kuttabul, Queensland, Australia

    Murray Peterson Structural Engineer

    Thanks for you comments - really appreciated. One more question - Can you provide me with the specifications of Navbus. Northstar/Navman won't supply the specifications. NMEA0183 is well published but I can't find specifications for Navbus. If I have the specifications I may be able to program a PIC-Micro to do the translation.
     
  9. pamarine
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    pamarine Marine Electrician

    They do in the specifications for the Unit they list all the NMEA sentences that it can use.

    Unfortunately you ran in to the #1 problem in the marine electronics industry, uneducated (or lazy) salespeople.
     

  10. pamarine
    Joined: Sep 2009
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    Location: Norfolk, VA

    pamarine Marine Electrician

    Unfortunately NavBus is a proprietary protocol for Northstar. Unlike similar systems from Raymarine, Garmin, Lowrance, and Furuno, it does not seem to be based on or compliant with any industry standard protocols.
     
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