Vespermarine Watchmate AIS Transponder

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by nigel1

Must be a way of getting the NMEA data string from the Watchmate GPS to the radio.

simple . . . The 850 (As will the new color one) has a 'nmea out' port.

[nigel1]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

simple . . . The 850 (As will the new color one) has a 'nmea out' port.

But is it outputting at 4800, I can only see the one output port on the 850, which no doubt is set to 38000 for AIS output, unless I'm missing something really obvious

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by nigel1

But is it outputting at 4800, I can only see the one output port on the 850, which no doubt is set to 38000 for AIS output, unless I'm missing something really obvious

Can't you change the VHF baud rate? You should be able to take the gps from either the e80 or the watchmate NEMA output.

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by xymotic

Can't you change the VHF baud rate? You should be able to take the gps from either the e80 or the watchmate NEMA output.

Many VHF radios (well, at least two that I have used) *only* accept GPS input at 4800 bit/sec.

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

Many VHF radios (well, at least two that I have used) *only* accept GPS input at 4800 bit/sec.

Well, if that's the case the OP is stuck, you're going to need another port, a NEMA 2000 radio, a radio with a changable baud rate, or a multiplexer.

Any of those options is going to cost $1-200

[nigel1]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

Many VHF radios (well, at least two that I have used) *only* accept GPS input at 4800 bit/sec.

I'm sure Paul is correct, both my Furuno VHF and Simrad will only accept NMEA at 4800.
In my case I think the simplest solution is to run a second NMEA cable from my Furuno GPS 150 (just a simple standalone GPS receiver), to the Simrad radio to provide position info for the VHF, and then the rest of my Nav instruments can connect to the Watchmate, inputted at 4800, and then through the watchmate multiplexer to output at 38400 to the Raymarine E80.

[nigel1]

Originally Posted by downunder

The new Vespar Watchmate about to be released uses a colour screen I believe.


http://www.vespermarine.com.au/marin...e-vision.html/

This one has wifi etc and may be the one you are looking for Nigel 1.

The WatchMate Vision AIS Transponder includes built-in WiFi, NMEA 2000/0183, GPS receiver and GPS antenna.

Could be the answer, according to the E80 manual, there is a Seatalk25/NMEA2000 port (I know there is), and on the Vespermarine aussie site which details the Watchmate Vision, it states NMEA 2000 compatible, but with the disclaimer
NMEA 2000® certification pending. This device has not been approved by the Federal Communications Commission. This device, is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased until approval of the FCC has been obtained.

I've sent them an email asking if possible to connect to the E80 via the Seatalk2/NMEA 2000 port, if that is possible, then it looks dead easy to hook up

[svlamorocha]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

simple . . . The 850 (As will the new color one) has a 'nmea out' port.

Here is my 1c worth.. I thought I was very smart when I helped someone "feed" their (HF) radio with GPS signal from the Vesper thing by changing the Vesper´s baud rate to 4800.. Unfortunately that turns the NMEA OUT signal from the Vesper unusuable to overlay AIS on a chartplotter, which requires 38000 baud..I was not that smart then!
So in summary, my experience is that you can tweak the Vesper to use it as a 4800-baud GPS feed to a radio, but this means you will only have AIS display on the Vesper itself, as opposed to also having 38000-baud AIS overlay on the chartplotter.

C

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by nigel1

Could be the answer, according to the E80 manual, there is a Seatalk25/NMEA2000 port (I know there is), and on the Vespermarine aussie site which details the Watchmate Vision, it states NMEA 2000 compatible, but with the disclaimer
NMEA 2000® certification pending. This device has not been approved by the Federal Communications Commission. This device, is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased until approval of the FCC has been obtained.

I've sent them an email asking if possible to connect to the E80 via the Seatalk2/NMEA 2000 port, if that is possible, then it looks dead easy to hook up

But don't forget it's not a point to point connection, you need to power the NEMA 2000 network and terminate both ends. So it's still very simple but I've seen a lot of guys get thrown by that. And even if you use 1' drop cables it can be quite a lot of cable with power, three T's two terminators and a backbone cable. That cabling will also cost at least $50 but you'll likely need a raymarine adapter too. If you're super tight on space a multiplexor might still be a better option.

[witzgall]

Don,

Could you elaborate on how you did this?

Chris

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Take down those panels and parallel the existing GPS to the two radios.

BTW, I saved a lot of time, trouble, and wire by paralleling my Garmin 128 GPS antenna to both the Watchmate and GPS. Both came with active antennas, powered by 5vdc across the coax. Both companies recommended against it to cover their butts, but it worked fine and I kept the Watchmate antenna as a spare.

[downunder]

Originally Posted by nigel1

Thanks for the info everyone.
The present DSC radio cannot output NMEA, its only a listener, so if I give it a dedicated feed from a GPS then that problem is sorted, and the rest of the hook up should be easy. Must be a way of getting the NMEA data string from the Watchmate GPS to the radio. Worth waiting for the new model to go on sale. Like the idea of being able to turn off the chart plotter when its not really needed

Talk to the designer at Vesper by email. Apparently he is a cruiser and very approachable.

[jeffrobbins]

The info here is essentially correct with respect to the WatchMate's. There is one 0183 output port and one 0183 input port. They are independent and can run at different speeds. But when you set the output port to 4800 baud you continue to get GPS and DSC data but not AIS since that requires the higher baud rate to keep up.

Three options I can think of:

1. Set the WatchMate-850's 0183 output to 38400 baud and use a multiplexor like the Brookhouse that breaks out the AIS data into a 38400 baud stream and the GPS data into a separate 4800 baud stream.

2. Connect a dedicated GPS receiver to the VHF only and use the WatchMate to feed the plotter at 38400 baud. If you don't need all the other features of the multiplexor then this is an inexpensive and easy solution. This also allows the WatchMate to be your plotter's GPS which is a nice redundancy. Personally, I'd probably go this route since it's inexpensive and low power consumption. We used to have an inexpensive GPS receiver that was very well suited to this, but unfortunately we discontinued it. You might still find one through Defender though. (our model number was GP422)

3. Use a WatchMate Vision with NMEA-2000. This allows you to set the 0183 port to 4800 baud and feed the DSC radio directly while sending GPS and AIS data to the plotter over NMEA-2000. This also gives you a WiFi feed. This might be overkill for your needs, but very cool (if I may say so myself)...

Regarding availability of the WiFi models... WatchMate Vision has received USCG approval but is not yet shipping. It will be shipping world-wide in about a month or so. The black box XB-8000 (with NMEA 0183/2000, USB and WiFi) is now shipping to customers outside the USA and shipments to USA are expected to start in the next week or two.

Nigel, I see your email to me too. I will follow-up with you there as well.

[nigel1]

Cheers Jeff, nice customer service.
Think option 2 is the way to go, I have a Furuno GPS 150 which has 3 NMEA 183 data ports. This is the backup GPS, which has one port conected to the back up GPS. Should be no problem to connect a second port to the primary VHF, so that solves the problem of the GPS feed.
Looking into the NMEA 2000 option, that is more cost, and more cabling, plus another power supply.
Many thanks
Nigel

[myocean]

What about the ICOM MA-500TR?
I just realized, that some of the advantages of the WatchMate listed in the "Head to Head" comparison on the VesperMarine Website are not true!
The ICOM can as well give collision warnings and can work in receive only mode. The ICOMs mean power consumption is even not 18W as said.
Has anybody experience with the ICOM device?

[jeffrobbins]

The head-to-head is not intended to mislead or post false info. It's the best info we've got and we welcome updates from users.

I can't find where the head-to-head says the Icom doesn't have collision warnings but the Icom has a CPA/TCPA alarm only. We were unable to find a way to suppress these alarms for ordinary circumstances, such as when passing a stationary target. We also could not find a way to set a standard guard alarm.

The Icom has only a single CPA/TCPA alarm setting and does not support multiple settings (we call those profiles) which the user can switch between.

When we put together the head-to-head we were unable to find a way to put the Icom into "silent mode" and noted it had been complained about on other forums. The manual doesn't talk about it at all. So if this is something the Icom can do, let me know and I'll update the head-to-head.

I believe the power consumption figure came from an earlier Icom spec sheet, but I see now that the manual indicates 8.4W and so we've corrected that figure. That is still about 2.8 times the power consumption of a WatchMate-850.

If anyone else has any update, please let me know so we can ensure the page is correct.