NMEA200 passing wind to old B&G ACP 2 autopilot

[John29]

I'm upgrading my old B&G Hydra2000 to Zeus3s and all NMEA2000 instruments (Triton2 speed, depth, wired wind). I'd like to keep old ACP 2 autopilot but have been advised I can not get N2K wind into it. I have old NMEA0183 compass directly wired and ok so I can steer to compass but not to wind. Has anyone managed to keep ACP and feed N2K wind sentences into it without going thru Hydra processor (I've replaced Hydra with Zeus3 as faulty) or do I have to upgrade to NAC? Thanks

[Sailmonkey]

I don’t see why you couldn’t use any variety of the N2K to 0183 translators to feed any data into the course computer. Especially if the unit has previously accepted 0183 wind sentences.

[Joh.Ghurt]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

I don’t see why you couldn’t use any variety of the N2K to 0183 translators to feed any data into the course computer. Especially if the unit has previously accepted 0183 wind sentences.

Many reasons, one of them could be that the old autopilot doesn't process the standard wind data sentences but only some proprietary crap. That's so popular with those nautical electronic geniuses. Another could be that the autopilot doesn't process NMEA input at all.

You'd be lucky to find in the old manual the NMEA sentences the autopilot understands, then you can start looking whether they contain wind-data in any way current devices are producing.

NB: A quick search on the internet indicates that this isn't a trivial problem.

[Sailmonkey]

I retract my previous post after doing a little more research.

It appears that the ACP doesn’t play well with others.

https://forums.sailinganarchy.com/in...mea-183-input/

[Sailmonkey]

Although the manual does give some hope that the control head is able to accept 0183 input.

Sentences are listed on page 1-9 and 1-10

http://www.chicagomarineelectronics....tionmanual.pdf

[Redline452]

I’m amazed, 4 helpful replies and no one has made a f**t joke about the “passing wind” in the subject line. This place is getting classy!

Oops

[RigBig]

A wise man breaks wind and is gone.

[John29]

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions and I checked these. Maybe I've been wrong in assuming when sailing to wind the ACP is making decisions based on wind data. As I can not get wind data into the ACP and none of the suggestions achieves this, does anyone know if the ACP is using wind data or if the Hydra processor is taking the wind data, doing all calculations and the simply sending wing change corrections to the ACP as compass bearing changes? And if so, is this how most autopilots work when sailing to wind (some other system manages the wind to compass bearing change) and does Zeus3 work this way?

[Tehani]

Originally Posted by John29

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions and I checked these. Maybe I've been wrong in assuming when sailing to wind the ACP is making decisions based on wind data. As I can not get wind data into the ACP and none of the suggestions achieves this, does anyone know if the ACP is using wind data or if the Hydra processor is taking the wind data, doing all calculations and the simply sending wing change corrections to the ACP as compass bearing changes? And if so, is this how most autopilots work when sailing to wind (some other system manages the wind to compass bearing change) and does Zeus3 work this way?

The ACP pilot has separate fluxgate input, and it is not NMEA0183. That pilot only accepts GPS and navigation information (RMB, XTE) on its NMEA0183 input.
If you still have the NMEA FFD, you can use it to convert the NMEA0183 wind data into Fastnet bus information that is connected to the pilot.
You will also need a gateway to pass wind and other information from NMEA2000 to NMEA0183.

[Farbrook]

Originally Posted by John29

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions and I checked these. Maybe I've been wrong in assuming when sailing to wind the ACP is making decisions based on wind data. As I can not get wind data into the ACP and none of the suggestions achieves this, does anyone know if the ACP is using wind data or if the Hydra processor is taking the wind data, doing all calculations and the simply sending wing change corrections to the ACP as compass bearing changes? And if so, is this how most autopilots work when sailing to wind (some other system manages the wind to compass bearing change) and does Zeus3 work this way?

Hi John.
Did you get anywhere with this? I'm facing similar issues with a B&G NETWORK Pilot controlling an ACP2.

In my opinion getting a limited amount of sentences from B&G NETWORK to N2K is easy enough, but N2K to B&G NETWORK is very limited and isn't possible with wind data (I'm pretty sure the ACP will need wind angle at least to operate in VANE mode).

It would be interesting to know how far you got.

Cheers Simon

[Sos]

I also have a Network system and Zeus3 plotter so interested to see if this is possible.
I am sure the Network system had the option of steering to a wind vane?
Is this another option, maybe using a different wind vane?