Upgrading Simrad equipped boats with Raymarine plotters:

When buying my boat, A Hanse 350 from 2008, it had a professionally installed Raymarine E90W plotter added to the standard Hanse Simrad equipment.  Interfacing was done using an AT10 Simrad NMEA0183 converter that moved all data back and forth to the Raymarine.

However I experienced a lot of problems, with depth sensor data and wind data going on- and off-line all the time, and regular seatalk alerts.

I studied both Simnet and SeatalkNG and concluded they both use in fact NMEA2000, so they should work directly interconnected, but funny as it is nobody sells the interconnecting cables as both brands have their own connector standards. 

So I decided to be bold and cut spur cables from both companies in two and connected the two halves using Scotch 3M solderless wire connectors.  They both have four wires, colors are as good as matching (white goes to yellow, all others identical).

(At first I thought it would be a good idea not to connect the 12V leads as this could result into ground loops, but the Raymarine only starts using its SeatalkNG port from the moment it detects 12V on it.)

Same with my Raymarine remote keyboard (that used old Seatalk going via a hub to a SeatalkNG connector) inside the cabin at the extra VGA screen.  I got rid of all adaptors and transistions.  I cut off the Raymarine connector and wired it to a Simnet pigtail with the 3M clamps and connected it to the close by Simnet bus.  Previously I also had a second Raymarine network across the boat just for this keyboard.  No longer needed.

As my Airmar DST800V depth sensor died long time ago, I managed to connect a cheap one found on Ebay, made for Raymarine.  Similarly, I cut off the excess wire (never good in a CAN bus drop lead) and mounted the standard NMEA2000 connector as used on the Simrad adapter cable, using cheap industrial NMEA2000 standard 4 pole industrial screwtype connectors that can be bought at Reichelt.de  The so-called “raymarine Seatalk” device worked flawlessly on the Simnet.

So don’t be afraid of mixing brands.  It only needs a cable cutter, the easy to use 3M solderless wire connectors and some common sense to connect the different wires.  NMEA2000 is a great standard, neglect brand names and just interconnect.

Pedro M.J. WYNS ON7WP-C5WP-AA9HX

SV “Blauwvoet”, a 2008 Hanse 350

p/a Mechelsesteenweg 14, B-2220 Heist-op-den-Berg

pedro.wyns@gmail.com