I bet you guys could enlighten me to a few questions I have. I have a 1988 Catalina 36 which I'm assuming the Raymarine wind, depth and auto pilot are original. I'm not at the boat (its 5hrs away) and I can't exactly recall the models of those items, however I am pretty sure the AP is the ST4000, and it works fine.
I recently bought a B&G Zeus 3 MFD and am researching how this all going to work. I'd like to keep the AP as it works fine, I'm willing to switch out the windex as the current one seems rather 'sticky', as I often notice my neighbors whirling about while mine seems to be puttzing along, however it does seem to be fairly honest when wind speed increases and overcomes the friction of the tired unit. The depth transducer also seems to work adequately. Can I integrate those older items to work with my new MFD? Would it be better and/or easier to just replace the wind vane and the transducer so everything is current and of the same manufacturer? I don't believe I would need new displays for my depth/speed and wind as that info can be displayed on the new MFD unit, and it can be mirrored on my I Pad and I phones for back up. Or if i want I could add displays late,r once I recover from the aforementioned expenditures. Is the transducer from B&G compatible with the thru hull for the Raymarine transducer or would I need to replace the thru hull as well?
Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated. Thank you.
David Lane
S/V Grace
88' Catalina 36'
Oxnard, Ca
Yes -- you can definitely have all these devices talk to each other, but you'll need to install what is called a "multiplexer" to enable the data from your older instruments (operating on Raymarine's "Seatalk" system) to work with the Zeus. While the Zeus has 1 input for NMEA 0183 data (which is the older data communication protocol, as opposed to NMEA 2000, which is the current data system), the shortcoming of NMEA 0183 is that a device can only "listen" for data from one source. Since you have multiple NMEA 1083 sources (or, in this instance, Seatalk sources), a multiplexer is needed to manage all that, and also to convert the somewhat proprietary Seatalk protocol to NMEA 0183. Here's a link to a brief explanation on this -- www.shipmodul.com/en/multiplexer.html -- and tech editor (now Commodore) Les Troyer had a fairly detailed article on this subject ("Networking 102") in the Technotes section of Mainsheet (Winter 2017 edition). See also "Networking 101" in the Fall 2016 edition, by former tech editor Nick Caballero.
On our boat, we have a Zeus 2 MFD interfaced with our old Raymarine ST4000, as well as the VHF radio and a couple of other older devices, using a multiplexer. A picture of our current system at the helm is in this comment: www.catalina36.org/comment/64926#comment-64926
Another picture, from a few years ago, showing the interconnecting wiring on our boat, located in the area under the cockpit floor above the cover that shields the steering blocks/cables (its a dry area that is nicely hidden away but still accessible) is here: www.catalina36.org/comment/64786#comment-64786
(note that we later replaced the original multiplexer from Brookhouse -- apparently no longer in business -- with a Shipmodul MiniPlex-3Wi multiplexer. www.shipmodul.com/en/index.html ).
If you go down this road, two suggestions: 1) diagram out all the wiring first, and 2) label all the wiring ends. Otherwise its easy to get lost!. You will also need to spend time with the various manuals to figure out what NMEA 0183 sentences are -- and are not -- needed to be exchanged. There are settings on the Zeus to eliminate the NMEA 0183 sentences that are redundent or superflous for the other devices, which will cut down on data chokes at the multiplexer. The Shipmodule multiplexer also really lets you filter out a lot of this, as well as dial in the settings (with the wifi connection we can do all that from a laptop).
Also, make sure the wiring supplying power to all this is sufficiently sized to avoid power drops. We found after our intial installation that the Zeus would sometimes crash and reboot when the ST4000 was operating; upping the cable size cured that.
Matthew Chachère
s/v ¡Que Chévere!
(Formerly 1985 C36 MKI #466 tall rig fin keel M25)
2006 Catalina Morgan 440 #30.
Homeported in eastern Long Island, NY