If-Nmea2k2 Converter?

buckshot

Furuno Super Fan
I have a Raymarine 400g course computer and autopilot system. I also have 2 TZT2 units.
If I use the Furuno If-Nmea2k2 Converter that will allow Nmea 0183 input and output can you tell me what functions/controls will I gain on the Furuno units versus just MNEA0183 outputs straight to the course computer?
Hope I make sense.
Thanks
 
Good afternoon Buckshot,

After a little research I don't think you will gain much by converting N2K to NMEA0183 for connection to the Ray 400G. Please see the list below that include what NMEA0183 sentences the Ray 400G can use as an input.

Ray 400G NMEA0183 Input (Below):
Raymarine 400G NMEA.JPG



TZTL12F/15F NMEA0183 Outputs (Below):
TZTL15F NMEA.JPG


There appears to be (2) sentences the Ray 400G can use that the TZT2 does not output: VWR and VHW: So if this is a sailing vessel and you have Apparent Wind Speed and Apparent Wind Angle available from the N2K bus and the pilot has a wind mode that might be a reason to use a converter. But the IF-NMEA2k2 product does not use VWR for Apparent Wind Speed and Angle, we use MWV and MWD.

VHW is for speed through the water. The IF-NMEA2k2 will convert this, but I don't know how the pilot would use this data?


Kind Regards,
C-Bass
 
My boat is a inboard express sportfish. I also have the St6001 , St60 multi and gyro compass in the Auto pilot system.
Will I get to use the gyro heading compass from the Raymarine in the Furuno? Would it allow me to do radar overlay without the extra gyro compass from Furuno? I think this would be worth the converter install alone.
If I enter a go-to on my Furuno would it send it any info to the Raymarine as a auto pilot heading?
Thanks again for the help.
Lee
 
Good morning Buckshot,

Thank you for your questions.

I am not all that familiar technically with the Raymarine system. Yes, I agree with you that the TZT2 system would benefit greatly with heading. The TZT2 system as you mentioned does need heading for radar overlay, typically we prefer to see heading at 10hz rate. The question you will need to ask Raymarine is how fast their autopilot processor can output NMEA0183 heading? If the Raymarine autopilot computer can only output heading at 1hz then the radar overlay feature may not work at all, if it does it will likely not work very good. The data would only be output to the converter at 1hz, the converter would use that value for 9 other updates before changing the value. So it would likely be very slow to refresh the overlay on the screen.

Not sure about the last question. But if the TZT2 is interfaced correctly to the Raymarine Autopilot as long as the data sentences the autopilot needs to navigate to a waypoint are there it should work fine.
 
I pulled this from the Raymarine manual online, does it help?

Outputs: • NMEA 0183 v2.3 out: Heading (HDM) 10 Hz at 0.1° resolution,
accurate to ±2°
NMEA Heading sentence: $APHDM,XXX.X,M*hh<CR><LF>

and
The heading output is provided as an HDM sentence on NMEA 0183,
updated ten times per second. It is accurate to +/-2° and has a resolution
of 0.1°.
 
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