Hey folks,
I am wondering if anyone had been successful at networking an older B&G system (Hercules 690 processor) to a newer chartplotter using NEMA 0183. Spent a few hours with this yesterday to no avail. The B&G equipment appears to be original. The new chartplotter is a Lawrence Elite 7 Ti (seems to be a fairly nice unit). Trying to connect the two for Wind, Depth, Boat Speed to Chartplotter and GPS info to B&G system.
Thanks!
I have a Hydra 330 processor and B&G Vulcan plotter (similar to the Lowrance, I think). I am told that I need an “Actisense” connector to convert the B&G output to NMEA 0183. It might also provide a NMEA 2000 output, which would be more use for the plotter, and anything else you might later add. So far, I haven’t got it up and running, though I hope to sort it next season, when I have had a faulty Hydra 2000 display fixed. My boat is four countries and three days’ journey away, so I wont have any answers soon. There is a B&G NMEA 2000 connector, but it apparently won’t work with any earlier processor than the Hydra 2000.
I think I am ready to throw in the towel and buy an Actisense. I think that the B&G probably talks some proprietary or intermediate version of NEMA 0183. Apparently the Actisense is good at recognizing and translating pretty much all “flavors” of 0183 to NEMA 2000 and back.
I have a similar problem so I was also thinking about installing a Nmea 2000/0183 interface. I looked at the specs of the Actisense and of the Yacht Devices units and they seem the same except for price. The Actisense unit cost ~$200 wereas the Yacht Devices costs ~$150. Does anyone have experience with either of these interfaces?