Need help wiring my Marine Radio to my Chartplotter-gctid381106

[cwiert Seasoned Member Find all posts View Profile Close cwiert]

Hi.So I signed up and got my MMSI# and now I want to wire my radio to my Garmin 441s Chartplotter. But I'm a little confused. My radio only has 2 wires for this purpose. A blue one that has a tag that says, "NMEA +" and a purple one that says, "NMEA -". See pic.My Garmin has lots more wires to choose from. See diagram.I think I'm supposed to use the Blue and Brown ones, but I'm not sure. See other diagram.Anyone know which wires are supposed to go where?THanks,John

[img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/684605=27612-2012-05-13 19.16.47.jpg[/img]

[img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/684605=27613-wiring.jpg[/img]

[img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/684605=27614-wiring2.jpg[/img]Sorry... the diagrams didn't really come out big enough. They can be found here on page 6 and 7. Thanks again for the help.http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/3307_...ctions_EN_.pdf

[Guest Close Guest]

The photos are too small to be legible.

Normally all NMEA 0183 connections have ground, data out, and data in. You will connect the data out from one to the data in on the other.

[Guest Close Guest]

Yes, the Blue and Brown wires. Garmin uses the power ground as the NEMA ground in this instance according to the documentation. You had it right.

[cwiert Seasoned Member Find all posts View Profile Close cwiert]

Nauti Knotts wrote:
Yes, the Blue and Brown wires. Garmin uses the power ground as the NEMA ground in this instance according to the documentation. You had it right.

Thanks. But do I connect the blue to the blue and the Garmin Brown to the Radio Purple?

According to the Garmin diagram, Blue is the "out" and goes to "NMEA Rx/A (+)"

And the Brown is the "in" and connects to the "NMEA Tx/A (+)"

I guess i just don't know what Rx/A and Tx/A are. As my pic shows, the Radio has just has "NMEA +" (blue) and "NMEA -" (purple).

[jmcannonball Seasoned Member Find all posts View Profile Close jmcannonball]

In "radioese", Rx means "Receive" and Tx means "Transmit"

[Go Aweigh2452 Founding Member Find all posts View Profile Close Go Aweigh2452]

If you call up the help line for your radio, or Garmin, either will walk you through the hookup AND send you a schematic that actually is for YOUR radio and Garmin unit.

You may be able to find that online as well but it is so much easier to get them to walk you through it...

[cwiert Seasoned Member Find all posts View Profile Close cwiert]

Go Aweigh2452 wrote:
If you call up the help line for your radio, or Garmin, either will walk you through the hookup AND send you a schematic that actually is for YOUR radio and Garmin unit.

You may be able to find that online as well but it is so much easier to get them to walk you through it...

Thanks. I think that is what I'm going to have to do. Because after all this, I still have no idea what 2 wires to hook up. Lol. I'll give Garmin a call tomorrow.

[JimMc Guru Find all posts View Profile Close JimMc]

Blue from the plotter to your nema +

Black from the plotter to your nema-

[cwiert Seasoned Member Find all posts View Profile Close cwiert]

JimMc wrote:
Blue from the plotter to your nema +

Black from the plotter to your nema-

Ah ha. That actually makes sense. So the brown isn't used at all, since my Garmin dosent receive any info from my radio...it just sends info to the radio.

Thanks for the clarification Jim. I appreciate it.

John

[SomeSailor Guru Find all posts View Profile Close SomeSailor]

cwiert wrote:
Ah ha. That actually makes sense. So the brown isn't used at all, since my Garmin dosent receive any info from my radio...it just sends info to the radio.

Thanks for the clarification Jim. I appreciate it.

John

Not sure on your radio, but you DO want the radio to have the ability to tell the chartplotter that you've initiated a DSC call. Additionally, you want your radio to be able to acknowledge to the chartplotter that it has received one of the many useful DSC features like polling, remote call, position request, etc. (PGN 12808) If there is a boat nearby that is in distress, it will pass that info to the chartplotter on that wire.

I'd connect the Radio's NMEA + (TX) to the Garmin NMEA IN (RX - Brown Wire)

[JimMc Guru Find all posts View Profile Close JimMc]

cwiert wrote:
Hi.So I signed up and got my MMSI# and now I want to wire my radio to my Garmin 441s Chartplotter. But I'm a little confused. My radio only has 2 wires for this purpose. A blue one that has a tag that says, "NMEA +" and a purple one that says, "NMEA -". See pic.My Garmin has lots more wires to choose from. See diagram.I think I'm supposed to use the Blue and Brown ones, but I'm not sure. See other diagram.Anyone know which wires are supposed to go where?THanks,John

http://baylinerownersclub.org/media/....jpg[/img]

http://baylinerownersclub.org/media/....jpg[/img]

http://baylinerownersclub.org/media/....jpg[/img]Sorry... the diagrams didn't really come out big enough. They can be found here on page 6 and 7. Thanks again for the help.http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/3307_...ctions_EN_.pdf

I agree being setup to have the radio input DSC to the plotter is ideal.But John said in his original post he has only two wires from the radio. NMEA+ and NMEA-. He does not mention the brand or model radio. If the radio is original to the boat it is likely a Ray 53. Those did not have any NMEA output. They were strictly NMEA inputs.JohnWhat radio do you have?If his radio had NMEA in and out I would expect different labelling and maybe three or even four cables. NMEA IN +, NMEA OUT + and either a shared return or seperate returns.My Uniden 625 hasNMEA IN + & -NMEA OUT + & -

[cwiert Seasoned Member Find all posts View Profile Close cwiert]

JimMc wrote:
I agree being setup to have the radio input DSC to the plotter is ideal.

But John said in his original post he has only two wires from the radio. NMEA+ and NMEA-. He does not mention the brand or model radio. If the radio is original to the boat it is likely a Ray 53. Those did not have any NMEA output. They were strictly NMEA inputs.

John

What radio do you have?

If his radio had NMEA in and out I would expect different labelling and maybe three or even four cables. NMEA IN +, NMEA OUT + and either a shared return or seperate returns.

My Uniden 625 has

NMEA IN + & -

NMEA OUT + & -

Hi Jim, yes, the radio is the original Ray 53. Sorry I intended to include that info in the OP but apparently I forgot. It only has the 2 NMEA wires...one + and one - . Thanks again for the clarification... I was getting confused again before your last post.

As a side note... I think it was you that mentioned (a few months ago), that the Ray53 had a recall and a some earlier models didn't operate as designed when the distress button was pressed. My serial number falls after those affected by the recall, so at least I am in the clear with respect to that. So that's good news.

John

[JimMc Guru Find all posts View Profile Close JimMc]

John

Thanks for the update. So my original advise stands.

When you update the radio some day you can implement the NMEA out to the plotter.

Yes I had mentioned the recall on the Ray 53s. I am glad yours is outside of those affected.

[SomeSailor Guru Find all posts View Profile Close SomeSailor]

I'd definitely recommend that. If someone in your area hits their DSC, it will plot on your chart plotter. You might ne close enough to assist. It's a very neat feature that everyone should have someday.