VX2 AIS connetion options

Greetings!

I am the happy owner of a Furuno setup with two VX2 (RDP-149) units, master in wheelhouse and slave at flybridge. The master VX2 has a Furuno WAAS GPS to dataport 1, dataport 2 is connected to Raymarine Course Computer (S3G) (in and out nmea 4800) and further to a Simrad VHF. Dataport 3 is recieving heading information from the course computer. Dataport4 is not currently in use.

I have installed a AIS reciever, Raymarine AIS250. The AIS will only output AIS sentences at 38400 baud (NMEA 183). My intention was to multiplex NMEA signals to/from coursecomputer via dataport3 and the AIS250 built in 4800<->38400 multiplexer. At first it was looking OK with the coursecomputer, but as soon as the VX2 recieved AIS sentences the VX2 stopped outputting NMEA for the coursecomputer.

An option would be to Connect the AIS reciever to the secondary units dataport2, but I assume it would require it would require the secondary unit to be Powered on (and the flybridge is only used with warm sunny weather).

What options do I have?


Brgds

LHENOR

Data port 2 is the only possible option (on one machine or the other). If you connect to the slave, it will of course would need to be powered on to process and pass the AIS for your system. To wire to the master will require that you remove the items currently on data port 2. It is possible to use a NMEA level converter (RS232 to RS422) or expander on your data 4 to run your items and free up data 2 for the AIS connection. It would be one of two choices; move master data 2 items to data 4 with proper equipment (like Noland XP15 box) or use data 2 of the slave unit.