Actisense Seff Contained Nmea 2000

[BReceski]

I presently have a nmea 2000 back bone on my boat. Electronics guy installed it when I put in radar and scx 20. I have a TZTouch 3 16. I looked at it the other day and there is only a resistor on one end. It has 3 t's coming off of it. The end T where I thought there would be another resistor has one cable coming out the bottom ,which I think goes to the SCX20 and the other I think is power. I will have to trace everything to make sure. The other two t's I think are the TZTouch 3 and the radar. Why would there not be a resistor on the one end? I am adding an auto pilot and want to use the Actisense seff contained network. Much neater and less space. Figured I would supply power and hook in my TZTouch 3, Radar, SCX 20, and the auto pilot. Will this work? Again not sure why no resistor on the one end.
Thanks.

 

[jp498]

The only reason not to have a resistor on one end is to extend the network to another location (where the is T(s) and resistor there)
As long as all your NMEA2000 drops are in one area, the Actisense SBN products are awesome. A2K-4WD 4-way-drop can be added if you have some other instruments a short distance away (such as overhead) or need more ports. I think the SBN are a big improvement over assembling small NMEA2000 networks; far fewer pieces to lose or get damaged over time, and much more compact.

 

[BReceski]

JP,
So All I should need to do is hook the drops which are all in the same area up to the Actisense. Provide power to the actisense. I bought the one with the 8 drops to just make sure. I am still unsure why there is no resistor on the one end. I will have to trace those ends and see what is going on. Thanks for your help.

 

[jp498]

It's literally as simple as buying the 4 or 8 port SBN, connecting to 12-ish volts, and plugging in the instruments.

As a minor help, I have found that it's hard to screw on the wires if you screw down the SBN flat to the surface. A zip tie holder screwed down, then zip tie the SBN to that keeps it about 1/8" off the surface and easier to deal with.