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I have a PC interface option on my 2011 Beneteau 40 with Raymarine Instruments including a E90W.

Does it act as a repeater and do I need Raymarine software.

How can take advantage of this option?

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Replies to This Discussion

Chris, good to see you repost your question here as I suggestd. I'll let James know you posted and see if he can help.

Mike

I have the PC interface on my B-40. You need to have a serial to USB interface that was provided with my interface. This hooks up to your computer and the GPS in the C90W will provide NMEA data to your charting program on the computer. You will be able to follow the boat on the chart, display COG, SOG, Range and bearing. you will not be able to share courses with the C90W and the laptop using the PC interface. The data travels only from the C90W to the laptop and not the other way. This one way travel applies to al charting programs, including Raymarine Raytech charting software. Also, this connection is tempermental. I had it working when I first got the boat and set up the interface, then after three weeks it stopped sending the NMEA data to the laptop and I could never get it to work again. Neither Raymarine or Beneteau could figure out why and suggested a technician at my cost to solve the problem.

Instead. I installed a Raymarine High Speed data line, also known as ethernet to my nav. station and the C90W. Now I have full two way communication with the C90W and the laptop. I can initialize courses, plan and send routes to the C90W and from the C90W to the laptop. The radar displays on the laptop as well. It is a repeater in all repsects. All the charts on the C90W display on the laptop when connected. You do need to use RayTech software 6.1 to do this. If interested, let me know and I will provide you with installation instructions. Hope this helps, Bruce

Bruce

Would love to know how you accomplished the two way connection process. .

The one way monitoring is working very well for us but having the ability to receive and transmit with all equipment from the nav desk would be a outstanding addition to our boat.

James

Hi Chris

I have the raymarine pc interface box in our B43.

Raymarine has a new version PC software (http://www.raymarine.com/ProductDetail.aspx?SITE=1&SECTION=2&am...)  named RNS v 6.2 that when hooked up via an ethernet connection to your pc and to a seatalk high speed (hs) network will give you full interaction with all sea talk programs including radar, chartplotter etc. I do not think you can use the pc interface box with v 6.2. We don't use our pc internet box for the reasons Bruce mentioned .

For a repeater I have installed (run) a VGA line off the rear of my E120w to the RGB connector on our wall mounted TV in the salon. This gives us a crystal clear presentation of the e120's screen in the salon  be it radar, wind or split screens etc. We use a small 400w inverter to power the tv while underway. The main drawback to this setup  is it is one way communication ( chartplotter to TV).

If you want two way communications, Bruce Bogdanoff's solution,written in his second paragraph, is an excellent alternative to purchasing Raymarines costly software though I do not know how he has accomplished the necessary interaction. Should you utilize the hs connection on the rear of your chartplotter you must purchase a  hs interface box from Raymarine if you have more than one piece of equipment that utilizes the seatalk "hs" network (like 4kw radar and your pc ethernet line). If the computer is going to be the only equipment into the hs connector input at the rear of your C90 you can:1). run a long ethernet cable from rear of c90 to the nav desk or   2). purchase a coupler to connect two ethernet cables together from rear of c90 to nav desk.

With the release of Raymarines RNS v 6.2 Raymarine has pretty much made our pc interface box's obsolete. I also had problems finding a viable vga db9 to usb connector software that my laptop computer could use with the interface box so I gave up on the Raymarine PC interface box.

Hope this helps

James

Great reply, I would be interested to how you got video out from the widescreen. I see a Seatalk port, data/power port and 2 raymarine HS ports on the back of the widescreen. I do not think so. I connect the radar and the ethernet to the back of the C90W using a Raymarine ethernet crossover coupler. The C90W has to high speed ports, I use one for the laptop and the other for the radar. If I was to use another HS module, then I would need a router, most likely would not buy Raymarine's expensive waterproof router, but a less expensive one and hide it in the cockpit table. The crossover switch can be purchased at West marine. What I did was take a web cheaper price to West and received a marching price. It saved me about $30.00 off a retail.

We have the e120w on our B43. Just checked the Raymarine site and it appears the c90 does not have the vga out line.The E series chartplotters have a VGA line out (both E120 original and  wide series) for monitoring. This method is very cost effective and simple. For E120 original chartploters you need 50ft of high quality VGA line and you are monitoring via your TV, for e120W you must purchase the raymarine adapter cable and 50ft of high quality VGA line. The hardest part of this job is running the cable under the cockpit floor, everything else is simple.

The E120 has only one seatalk HS port so we have to use a HS network box to connect more than two devices .http://www.raymarine.com/ProductDetail.aspx?product=3064

Your suggestion to  use a non Raymarine router is a good suggestion, thank you. Makes sense.

Last but not least I still do not fully understand what you are using as software to display the chartplotter and system info on your laptop. Are you using the Raymarine RNS v6.2 on your laptop? Are you saying that all I need do is run the ethernet line from the HS network to the computer then I will be able to see and  interact with all systems without the Raymarine software? Kinda doubt Raymarine let this slip by (lol)!!! I would think the laptop will have to have Raymarine software to interrogate seatalk language and signals. Is this so?

For now we are sticking with the one-way, chartplotter to Tv monitor but, the two-way RNS v6.2 is on my wish list, unless there is another viable alternative. That new Raymarine software is way better than the old software and it turns your laptop into a vital part of your network versus a chartploter monitor. Raymarine has just dropped the price of the E120w by $1,000.00, maybe they will drop the price of the RNS software soon also.

James

I found the answer. In your 1st letter you mentioned you are using the Raymarine 6.1 on your laptop. Guess that means I will keep the RNS 6.2 on my wish list. Thank for all the good info.

James

Gentlemen:

Thank you for all your thoughtful advice.

This is a project for the spring so I am getting prepared.

I too wanted to use my flat screen TV as a repeater and had my dealer purchase the raymarine adapter cable and 50ft of high quality VGA line but they could not feed it through the wire channels. Could you send along a picture of how you ran the cable under the cockpit floor?

Thanks,

Chris

Chris

Let me try and explain in words first then photo's can follow if needed.My boat is a long way from me presently.

1.)You are going to cut the 50ft VGA wire approximately 2 ft from the end that connects to your TV's RGB port. This is being done so you can get the cable between the cockpit floor and sub flooring.

2. a.) First open the rear starboard locker and clear it out so you can get down into it.Next borrow or purchase an electricians snake, then open the round access panel on the lower port side of your cockpit table.  Once in the area beneath the table there is an opening at the rear of the cockpit table floor between the deck and subfloor. Push the snake into this opening towards the rear of the boat.  Once you have pushed the tip of snake to the rear locker attach the cut end of your VGA line to the snake with a small piece of electrical tape. You don't want to make this thick since the openning is very narrow. Now go to the rear starboard locker and look just above the rudder post for your snake. Pull the snake thru til you have the VGA line. Pull most of the line thru leaving the the topside end hanging out of the table opening. The hard part is now over! You can retract the snake

3. I routed our VGA line down the port side of the boat securing the new line with plastic ties too the main harness til I reached an available conduit on the port side. If your TV is on the port side of the boat run your line via that route. It's easy because you are pulling the cut end of the VGA line. There is great access via the port side, though I have been told the starboard side is an easy route also.

4. Once you have pulled the VGA line to the TV you will have to strip and separate the lines on the two ends of the cut VGA line. Do not worry, there should be 7 color coded lines and one bare line. You can either solder (this is what I did) or crimp this line back together then connect it to your TV RGB connector.

5. Now go back to the cockpit table. You should now have the uncut female end of the VGA line sticking out of the bottom port side of table. Leave it hanging out of the opening.

Take the long part of your Raymarine adapter cable  and push the VGA portion of this cable into the opening where all cables attached to the rear of your chartplotter are routed to the cockpit table. This opening is a screw-off opening with a rubber gasket inside the cap. You may have to modify the rubber gasket in order to get the VGA adapter line thru. DO NOT cut the Raymarine adapter line, it will fit thru the opening, cut the rubber gasket if you must. Attach the other end of the Raymarine adapter line to the rear of the chartplotter.

6. The end is near. Pull the Raymarine adapter cable VGA line out of the lower access opening and connect it to the 50ft VGA line via a female to female adapter ( I am not sure if its female to female or male to male but you will need this adapter to complete the setup). Presto bingo you now have a monitor.

Hope this helps!

James

Great response from James. He describes it very well. Several things you might want to consider. I put the snake through from the starboard aft cockpit locker to the cockpit table. The second person from the cockpit table pulled the snake through and then tied two feeder lines to the snake that I pulled back to me. One for the coax cable and the other for the next line that will need to be fed to the cockpit table. There are two classed in conduit tubes above the steering quadrant,if possible feed the cable through one of these conduit tubes to keep away from the quadrant, if you can't, then plenty of wire ties around the conduit so the coax cable is secured. 

On using your laptop as a repeater, you do need to use RayTech 6.2 software and the interface is identical to the C90W screen. You also need to download their IP address software to assign you computer the IP address that Raymarine uses for their ethernet network.

If you plan on running and ethernet wire from the chart table to the C90W, I would start at the chart table. There are two open conduits that lead to the port side of the boat and accessed through the door in the starboard cockpit locker. One conduit exits high and the other by the centerline of the hull. Each conduit has a feeder line that is tied off at both ends of the conuit. It is a two person pull and tug to get the wire through. I also suggest that you run a second feeder through with the ethernet cord to you can pull back the original feeder line for the next time.

Gentlemen:

Thanks again for your help!

Looking forward to the spring!!

Chris

Hi, My boat is 2011 oceanis 43. I have pc Interface below my map desk. Can i use this system via my Mac notebook? 

Thanks for the help.

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