Can MFD12 display DTS from triducer?

[gordwedman]

Thanks Greg, once again. I am learning a lot and I'm sure others are as well.
I have a Raymarine ST7000+, 400G computer and below decks Type 2 hydraulic drive unit. All pretty expensive to duplicate in a new system so that option is out. I suppose I might be able to just replace the 400G computer with one that had an N2K input but that is probably going to be 1 or 2K$ so also not really worth doing just to simplify the connections. Of course I did not recall that the MFD12 could asign different data streams to the Data 2 and 3 NMEA outputs so thanks for that so I see that using the PG700 would not really be an issue. I don't know if it is really worth buying to just simplify the wiring though. It might actually be harder to run a wire from the MFD data terminal strip in my engine room to my 400G than to run a NMEA0183 connection from the PG500R as the PG500R was going to be mounted closer to the 400G. I was going to power the PG500R from the same terminal strip connection that powers the MFD. With the circuit breaker ON the PG500R would be powered but I could have the MFD switched off. Since I am going to buy a N2K compatible AIS class B transponder/display I am thinking I will most likely have the MFD switched on so that I can see the AIS output so I am going to have to deal with power useage somehow. Maybe I will only use the dedicated AIS display. Could have the MFD in sleep mode most of the time. I recently crewed on a 13 day offshore passage and I was a bit surprised at how much power we used.

My orginal thought in all of this was to just add the Smart DTS transducer so that I could view depth on the MFD. After the passage I mention above I came to conclude that an analog/digital wind display was a handy thing to have, especially at night, so I started looking at the masthead transducer. When I discovered that you needed the display to convert the analog signal to a digital one that the MFD could display it seemed like a small step to add a dedicated display for DTS. Pricing all these bits separately turned out to be more expensive that buying a packaged system from Defender. Simpler to buy everything from one vendor as well. So I am going to have dedicated displays for wind and DTS. This should make calibration easy?
Now I just need to rip out all my old Standard Horizon instruments (except the depth sounder) and install the Furuno stuff. Not looking forward to working at the top of my mast :think
cheers
Gordon

 

[CarinaPDX]

I'm not entirely certain I understand your current design. Are you buying a new masthead sensor? If so, which one? Which models of displays are you thinking of? Some displays can calibrate the sensor and some just make the calculation internally so you have to check. As Mark previously posted, you can buy the USB i/f and use your pc to calibrate - you only need to do it once. I wouldn't consider the ability to calibrate an absolute requirement. Most important is to have a set of displays that fit your needs.

Greg

 

[gordwedman]

FI50DSW
FI50 Depth/Speed/Wind Package
Furuno doesn't have that many options. I assume the two display heads will allow calibration/setting of offsets.

 

[CarinaPDX]

The wind sensor in the package is analog, not N2K, so has no internal calibration. The F501 corrects the wind data before putting it out on the N2K bus, assuming that you have entered calibrations, so there's no problem with different displays having different info (corrected vs uncorrected). The analog sensor provides basic wind speed/direction from mechanical wind cups/feather; the 200WX is another thing altogether. It is solid state, much more accurate, and provides weather info (pressure, temperature, humidity) as well as GPS and stabilized heading (for the MFD ARPA and north-up features as well as others). Apparently you already have the GPS, and your autopilot should be able to output heading, so the extra cost may be difficult to justify - no argument there.

I can't be certain from reading the manual but it appears that the FI503 does not access the DST sensor calibration. However it solves the problem in a different way: the calibration data entered into the FI503 is apparently shared with all other FI50 instruments. Whether the MFD also can receive that now, or in a future firmware release, I don't know, but it wouldn't be difficult to reenter the calibration data. The corrected data would not be available on the bus, though, so devices using bus data (e.g. autopilot, AIS) will be working with uncorrected DST data.I don't see this as a big deal, just not ideal.

 

[gordwedman]

About the only thing I would like to be "calibrated" is the depth sounder. Surely you can offset the reading to take into account the depth of your keel or set it to show actuall water depth? If wind speed/direction and STW are a bit off I am not going to worry about that. I have to wonder how you can get a stabilized heading from something swinging wildly back and forth 60 feet above the water? Must have some amazing algorithims built in. :think

 

[arisatx]

Gord:

I noticed you have a V40. Are you a member of the Valiant Owners Yahoo Group? I posted the N2K network on our V42 there in the files section (can't get the full image to paste directly into this post below)