Yakker and ICOM MA-500TR

[Wayne hoath]

I recently received my Yakker NMEA to WiFi bridge and have been trying to get this to work with my MA-500TR AIS transponder. So far without luck. Has anyone managed to get one of these to work specifically with the MA-500TR? I’ve got the yakkers Rx terminal wired to to pin 8 and following advise from Steve who sells them connected pin 7 to the GND terminal. When I look at the NMEA viewer on the yakker I see sentences but it is all garbage?

[AedanC]

Is the baud rate both devices the same, usually 38,400?

[Wayne hoath]

Originally Posted by AedanC

Is the baud rate both devices the same, usually 38,400?

Yep both set to 38400

[AedanC]

Is the Yakker input differential (+ and - signals) or single ended (one signal wire and you use ground for the other)? If differential try swapping + and -. If single ended this could do damage.

[Wayne hoath]

Originally Posted by AedanC

Is the Yakker input differential (+ and - signals) or single ended (one signal wire and you use ground for the other)? If differential try swapping + and -. If single ended this could do damage.

It is single ended. Even so I did try switching over the + and - It didn’t fix anything and luckily didn’t break anything either. I’ve message Steve who makes and supplies these but he is in Australia so it generally takes a while to get a response. I’m king of out of ideas.

[AedanC]

I’m out of ideas too now. Time to get an oscilloscope out.......

[tpkas]

I notice from the Icom specs that NMEA output ports 1 and 2 are 4800bps and 38400bps respectively yet NMEA output port 2 is different at 38000bps. I think the yakker uses 38400 or 4800 bps so just check you're not using NMEA port 2 to send data to the Yakker.


I've used a yakker for some time using both 4800 and 38400bps inputs and found it an excellent product.



Brian

[Wayne hoath]

Originally Posted by tpkas

I notice from the Icom specs that NMEA output ports 1 and 2 are 4800bps and 38400bps respectively yet NMEA output port 2 is different at 38000bps. I think the yakker uses 38400 or 4800 bps so just check you're not using NMEA port 2 to send data to the Yakker.


I've used a yakker for some time using both 4800 and 38400bps inputs and found it an excellent product.



Brian

Thanks. I’ve made sure that the baude rate is set to 38400 on both the icom and the yakker. You can adjust the baude rate for NMEA out 1 and 3; 2 is set to 38400 and can’t be adjusted. I know that the ais is being output on pins 7 & 8 since I have ais overlay on my radar screen? Which is the frustrating thing. I want the yakker to overlay this to the chart plotter via WiFi.

[belizesailor]

Have you discussed with YakBitz? Excellent support in my experience.