c-80 , added electronic compass

flapbreaker · Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 12:43 am Post subject: c-80 , added electronic compass

I installed a Raymarine st-40 electronic compass in the boat today. I tied it into the seatalk bus. Now my maps are correctly orientated ALL the time. Smile

Just thought I'd post my success with this unit. Raymarine acts like you need to buy their 600.00 fast heading sensor but if you don't need MRPAA tracking then the 200.00 or so for the st-40 is much cheaper. Thumbs Up

SeaSpray · Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:00 pm Post subject:

How did you connect to the Seatalk? I have the C80 system and want the GPS to the VHF for the DSC. Is Seatalk the same as NMEA?
Steve

flapbreaker · Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:22 pm Post subject:

Seatalk is Raymarine's proprietary "language" and NMEA is more of a common standard "language". The C-80 has a Seatalk port and a NMEA port.

The GPS to VHF connection is through the NMEA connection.

THe st-40 compass uses seatalk. Since there is only one seatalk port on the back of the c-80 and it was used for the GPS receiver I had to buy their junction box (mainly because it also adds 12v power to the bus for the st-40's display) and connect all like colored cables on the power bar inside this little junction box. It was really quite easy. Hope this made any sense.

SeaSpray · Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 1:23 am Post subject:

I was able to look at my system and found that my gps wires go from the puck to a connection with 2 other cables. One goes to the back of the C80 display and the other goes to a seatalk plug into the back of the autopilot.

I am thinking I can just tie in another set of wires to go from this connection the the VHF. Somewhere others were talking about how many connections you could make to one NMEA output from the gps. I think I will give this a try for the DSC. Anyone see any problems here?

Thanks,
Steve