New user looking for advice

[RussH]

Hi,

I recently inherited a Navnet system on a boat I recently purchased. It has an MFD12 display at the interior helm, another MFD12 at the fly bridge and also an MFD8 in the stern cabin. Seems to be a great system and all working well. Although the depth sounder seems to stop working after about 10 minutes post switch on. But that’s not my query. Yet.

The MFD12 on the fly bridge is a little large for my tastes and I am replacing it with an MFD8 that I have acquired. Should be no problem just a one for one swop.

I would like to utilise the now spare MFD12 in the interior helm position alongside the existing one. My query is how do I do this? Can I split the Cat5 data cable going to the MFD8 and then connect it to the MFD12 as well.

Any advice gratefully received.

 

[Johnny Electron]

You can't "Split" network cables. You can have a hub that allows them to all talk together. Being that you already have three units, you should already have a hub101 on the system. You would just connect the new MFD into that hub. As far as the network is concerned, location of the unit wouldn't matter.

 

[RussH]

Thanks for the reply.
Thought that might be the case. I’ve located the hub but all the outlets appear to be in use?

 

[RussH]

You can't "Split" network cables. You can have a hub that allows them to all talk together. Being that you already have three units, you should already have a hub101 on the system. You would just connect the new MFD into that hub. As far as the network is concerned, location of the unit wouldn't matter.

Johnny,

Is there any way I can add extra ports to the hub given they are all appear in use?

Alternatively if I used a splitter on say the lead to the cabin MFD but only use one of the MFDs off the same network cable at a time. Would that work at all?

Thanks for your assistance on this.

 

[Magnetron]

Johnny,

Is there any way I can add extra ports to the hub given they are all appear in use?

Alternatively if I used a splitter on say the lead to the cabin MFD but only use one of the MFDs off the same network cable at a time. Would that work at all?

Thanks for your assistance on this.

Get another unmanaged switch such as a HUB101, Netgear 5-Port GS305, or TP-Link TL-SG105 5 Port Gigabit switch. Take an uplink ethernet cable and patch it from the last port of the first hub into the first port of the next hub, you can have up to three switches daisy-chained this way (as long as you aren't using more than one ethernet port on any given MFD).

Hope this helps, :sail

- Maggy

 

[RussH]

Johnny,

Is there any way I can add extra ports to the hub given they are all appear in use?

Alternatively if I used a splitter on say the lead to the cabin MFD but only use one of the MFDs off the same network cable at a time. Would that work at all?

Thanks for your assistance on this.

Get another unmanaged switch such as a HUB101, Netgear 5-Port GS305, or TP-Link TL-SG105 5 Port Gigabit switch. Take an uplink ethernet cable and patch it from the last port of the first hub into the first port of the next hub, you can have up to three switches daisy-chained this way (as long as you aren't using more than one ethernet port on any given MFD).

Hope this helps, :sail

- Maggy

Thank you Maggy. I'll give this a go.

 

[RussH]

Johnny,

Is there any way I can add extra ports to the hub given they are all appear in use?

Alternatively if I used a splitter on say the lead to the cabin MFD but only use one of the MFDs off the same network cable at a time. Would that work at all?

Thanks for your assistance on this.

Get another unmanaged switch such as a HUB101, Netgear 5-Port GS305, or TP-Link TL-SG105 5 Port Gigabit switch. Take an uplink ethernet cable and patch it from the last port of the first hub into the first port of the next hub, you can have up to three switches daisy-chained this way (as long as you aren't using more than one ethernet port on any given MFD).

Hope this helps, :sail

- Maggy

Just one more thing. I see that the Netgear 5-Port GS305, or TP-Link TL-SG105 5 Port Gigabit switch use a 5v power supply. I only have 12v dc supply. How do I overcome this or are there suitable 12v dc supplied switches available to do the job?

Thanks again.

 

[Johnny Electron]

Netgear and TPLink both have built in 16v regulators so normally a user cuts off the wall adaptor and wires 12v directly into the hub. Looking at your photo of your existing hub disturbed me. None of those network cables appear to be shielded and definitely none have needed metal connectors. When you expand your network, you might also consider changing cables to something that is shielded properly because noise can really mess up your day with unshielded network cables.

 

[RussH]

Netgear and TPLink both have built in 16v regulators so normally a user cuts off the wall adaptor and wires 12v directly into the hub. Looking at your photo of your existing hub disturbed me. None of those network cables appear to be shielded and definitely none have needed metal connectors. When you expand your network, you might also consider changing cables to something that is shielded properly because noise can really mess up your day with unshielded network cables.

Thank you. I’ll check out those cables too. Certainly the blue one next to the red is shielded but I’ll check the others as well.