Standard Horizon Matrix AIS VHF radio!

[downeast450]

I made a list of vendors and had some questions I wanted to hear the answers to when my wife and I headed to Boston last weekend for the NE Boat Show. The numbers of sailboats continue to diminish. Hunter was there and I enjoyed staring at their tripod rig? I got some very useful information from riggers.

I did manage to locate Standard Horizon's Matrix AIS VHF radio. If you are adding AIS this looks like the ticket. You get a free spare vhf (your current one) and only need one antenna. It will output to your chart plotter and has a small display of its own. All this for $350.00.

Does anyone have one?

I cornered the icom guy to ask when they were going to release a comparable product and the answer I got was there are no plans for one at this time. He then went on to tell me how difficult it was to get icom to lengthen their hand mic wires and I left scratching my head.

Down

[BarryL]

Hello,

I am also interested in the GX2100 and plan on buying one before my boat gets launched. Anyone want a two year old GX1500 for cheap

One thing to be aware of: it may not be easy to get the AIS data from the radio to your chart plotter. Not that many chartplotters can accept and display AIS data. Some new units can, most older units can't. And if you unit can, it must have a NMEA0183 input that can accept data at 38400 baud.

My chartplotter, a 2007 Lowrance LMS337 C DF, can't display AID data. Anyone want it for a good price . I plan on mounting the radio at the nav station and adding the second station mic at the helm. The second station can display the AIS data, so that will be good enough until I update my chartplotter. I will send the AIS data to a laptop running Seaclear.

[patprice]

Hi
I am in Tasmania and have just bought a GX2100 and it looks the goods. Can get NMEA in from my Garmin hand held.
BUT..what I am trying to do is get NMEA in from a BU-353 button USB GPS. I have cut off the USB plug (???) and four wires appear. Applied 5V to the red and black and the GPS blinks red, seems to be working. However, when I connect the other two wires (NMEA out?) to the GX2100 NMEA in nothing happens.
Can you or anyone help please.

Pat
SV Pendulum

[sailingdog]

That was really unwise. While USB is a serial protocol, it has nothing in common with the older, much slower speed RS-232 and RS-422 protocols that were used by NMEA 0183. A USB device can not be hooked up to anything but a USB port. They do not output NMEA 0183.

I would recommend that you ask before cutting things in the future...it will save you money, grief and aggravation.

Originally Posted by patprice

Hi
I am in Tasmania and have just bought a GX2100 and it looks the goods. Can get NMEA in from my Garmin hand held.
BUT..what I am trying to do is get NMEA in from a BU-353 button USB GPS. I have cut off the USB plug (???) and four wires appear. Applied 5V to the red and black and the GPS blinks red, seems to be working. However, when I connect the other two wires (NMEA out?) to the GX2100 NMEA in nothing happens.
Can you or anyone help please.

Pat
SV Pendulum

[patprice]

OK Thanks Sailingdog and...whoops...
But if I connect my USB GPS to my laptop Maxsea gets NMEA?
Pat

[windward54]

Also keep in mind that the output rate from the AIS unit is at 38,400, and the baud rate for most information is 9800. Unless your chartplotter can accept the higher rates, it won't recognize the AIS signals.

[sailingdog]

Yes, your laptop is getting the data, but it is NOT getting NMEA 0183 data, but a USB serial data stream. The same data can be transmitted via various protocols—SeaTalk, NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000, GarminNET, etc... but the physical wiring and the electrical signalling standards are widely varied between them.

Originally Posted by patprice

OK Thanks Sailingdog and...whoops...
But if I connect my USB GPS to my laptop Maxsea gets NMEA?
Pat

[patprice]

Thanks again sailingdog ......back to the drawing board!!

Pat

[eherlihy]

Hoo boy...

This is at least the 2nd thread on this unit It is a VHF with a built in AIS RECEIVER but not a transmitter. What this means is that you can see the big ships, but they can't see you. Also it uses NEMA 0183HS for communication with other on board electronics, not the newer, easier to work with, but less prevalent (but this will change) NEMA 2000.

Personally, I would rather have an AIS Transceiver (so the big ships can see me) with NEMA 2000 than this unit, but there is nothing wrong with this unit. Just understand its limitations.

Patprice, and anyone else that wants to connect NEMA 0183 devices to a computer, you should look at a NEMA 0183 to USB Gateway (aka Router), or NEMA 0813 to Serial adapter. Either of these should include some form or isolation circuit, as directly connecting the NEMA 0183 to the serial port of your (old) laptop will have lots of errors, and eventually lead to serial port failure.

Actisense: Actisense - Manufacturers of Marine Electronics makes such devices. Their tech support is also occasionally here in these forums.

[sailingdog]

Ed—

You're assuming that the big boys are setup to receive AIS-B signals. Most are probably not, especially considering how much clutter that would add to the displays once a significant number of recreational boaters start using it.

Also, the advice about isolating the NMEA 0183 feed is a good one, but I'd point out that most modern laptops have to use a USB-to-serial adapter, and that it effectively acts as an isolator. Most modern laptops do not have a serial port, since they've effectively been replaced by USB ports. Many don't have a parallel or LPT port either.