FA50 compatibility with Ocean Signal Alarm box

[northcaptain]

I have a working FA-50 integrated with the Navnet network and everything is performing as expected. Recently i purchased personnal AIS beacon to be worn inside the spinlock deckvest and send an AIS SART message (!VMD) if someone falls in the water. Clever design.

The Mob1 works very well i have tested it (test function not falling overboard) and the message is picked up by the FA50 and carried to the MFD8 and also Nobeltec. To be certain to get notified if someone falls at night, Ocean signal makes an Alarm box which is designed to be connected to the FA50 using NMEA0183-HS at 38400 bauds
:https://oceansignal.com/products/ais-alarm/

I purchased the Alarm Box and there is almost no configuration, it sat between the FA50 and whatever further use of the NMEA0183-HS ais information user you want. In my case its an OpenCPN computer fed by the Alarm Box (the AIS Alarm box has a receive and send function)

The only thing is that altough AIS sentences propagate correctly, the AIS Alarm Box make no alarm, i think it is not working as expected but prior to exchange it, i'd like to know if any fellow boater or Furuno support company has installed one ?

thanks

 

[Johnny Electron]

It is cool how it monitors the 0183 string for functionality. I have no experience with it but don't see why it wouldn't work for you as you plan.

 

[northcaptain]

Hi Johny i got another Alarm box and it didn't output an alarm altough i got position of a target on the Navnet and on Nobeltec. I wonder if it might be the FA50 version ? I will involve Ocean Signal support but its quite sure someone on this planet has succeeded in installing one of these.

The sart test message appears in the FA-50 message log. I will try to capture the exact NMEA message.

My FA50 is version 0550233-01.05 has there been a newer version since ?

 

[Johnny Electron]

Factory units from May 2017 on were shipped with 2.01 software, so you must have an older unit older that sold before that. I see no change with the NMEA string for the newer software. The software update relates to an EU requirement for IEC62287-1 Ed 3 for the MMSI range. The newer software is more restrictive and may require the main board to be replaced during the update process. It is not something that can be done by an end user and would have to be sent in. The upgrade look unnecessary and possibly expensive for you.