getting GPS position on lowrance link 5 VHF radio

[mangomick]

Hi
My marine vhf radio shat itself so i bought a new Lowrance link 5 VHF marine radio which has the capability for the GPS position to come up on the screen. My sounder is a Raymarine dragonfly which is obviously not compatible but I have a Lowrance LGC-12w GPS receiver which was off my old LMS 240 sounder /GPS combo..
Now if I splice the wires into the LGC-12w GPS receiver or get a cable connection that will fit the jack on the radio and the LGC-12w gps receiver will it allow the radio to show my GPS position or is their a lot more involved in getting the Lowrance link 5 vhf radio to show the GPS position?
Cheers
Mangomick

[scottar]

I have found some evidence that the LGC12W antennas do put out NMEA-0183 as well as other proprietary data. The issues you will face will be working out the wiring, whether or not the antenna actually puts out the required sentences for the Link-5 and whether or not the surplus data will have any adverse effects. It is going to take a bit of specialist knowledge and access to the right equipment and a bit of time to sit down and nut this out.

[mangomick]

I have found some evidence that the LGC12W antennas do put out NMEA-0183 as well as other proprietary data. The issues you will face will be working out the wiring, whether or not the antenna actually puts out the required sentences for the Link-5 and whether or not the surplus data will have any adverse effects. It is going to take a bit of specialist knowledge and access to the right equipment and a bit of time to sit down and nut this out.

Thanks for the reply scottar. Seems like it is going to be more trouble than it is worth just to get a GPS position on the radio. Don't really want to bastardise the LGC-12w if it may not work as the old LMS-240 sounder/GPS combo is still useful enough to go in the old tinnie that I use for flogging around the harbour and creeks.

[scottar]

No worries. Unless you are going to go the whole hog and get your MROCP, apply for a MMSI and program it in, it really doesn't achieve much anyway. You could always use the NMEA out of the LMS240 but would be painful swapping it between boats.

[Rip it up]

I have done the exact same setup as you.
Older Lowrance GPS unit to a new link 5 VHF with DSC.

As it's been mentioned above, the radio can accept the NMEA code. But it's not an easy process. I spent a fair bit of time getting it all connected. I did go the whole hug and did the radio course to make it all official.

So basically I have a MMSI code logged to the boat registration number. It links the boat, epirb, radio and owner. Pretty cool really.

The nmea connection used the NMEA 0183 connection. However the colours of the wires do not match the latest HDS models etc. I had to scour the old lowrance owners manual and match the comm port wires to the colours on the link 5. Once I connected it, it worked perfectly.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

[mangomick]

I have done the exact same setup as you.
Older Lowrance GPS unit to a new link 5 VHF with DSC.

As it's been mentioned above, the radio can accept the NMEA code. But it's not an easy process. I spent a fair bit of time getting it all connected. I did go the whole hug and did the radio course to make it all official.

So basically I have a MMSI code logged to the boat registration number. It links the boat, epirb, radio and owner. Pretty cool really.

The nmea connection used the NMEA 0183 connection. However the colours of the wires do not match the latest HDS models etc. I had to scour the old lowrance owners manual and match the comm port wires to the colours on the link 5. Once I connected it, it worked perfectly.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

Hi Damo

Did you use the short connection lead that comes with the Link 5 ? The one that has a connection on one end and 6 coloured wires and a bare wire on the other end. If you did, did you splice the wires into the wires exiting a LGC-12w GPS receiver or did your old model Lowrance have a different GPS receiver.
I'm not using an older Lowrance sounder /GPS . I'm using a Raymarine Dragonfly as my GPS/sounder which isn't compatible with the Link 5 radio and was wondering if it was possible to just hook-up the radio to the LGC-12w GPS receiver to see if it would send the position to the radio.
So, on the connection that comes with the radio I have, a green and a yellow wire both marked NMEA in+ and a black and an orange wire both marked NMEA out -neg.
From what we can find out the connector on the LGC-12w is 1, ground. 2, XMT GPS. 3, Power (RV) and 4 REC GPS.
If you spliced your radio into a Lowrance LGC-12 w GPS receiver,you wouldn't happen to know what colours went where by any chance would you.
As scottar said," unless I'm going to go to all the trouble of getting a MMSI number it is all rather pointless", but my curiosity has got the better of me and i see all this as black magic voodoo stuff that I have trouble getting my head around. They reckon curiosity killed the cat but I'd hate to find out my curiosity killed a brand new radio while I'm playing around with stuff i have no idea about. :-)
Cheers
Mick

[Rip it up]

To put your mind at ease, the NMEA wires are only single wires anyway. So no harm if it's hooked up wrong.
I had about 6 goes to get my old nmea connection to work.

I connected the GPS puck into the heasunit like normal. Then a nmea 4 wire connection out the back of the head unit. And connected directly to the link 5 unit.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

[Rip it up]

I'll get you the colours I used when I return home.

The garmin should be able to send out a NMEA 0183 message or the newer nmea 2000. Check your manual.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

[mangomick]

I'll get you the colours I used when I return home.

The garmin should be able to send out a NMEA 0183 message or the newer nmea 2000. Check your manual.


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

Cheers Mate

[Rip it up]

I did manage to get into my boat today and check out your wiring diagram. But I have cover all the terminal joins with a large glue heat shrink and could not determine which one went where.

I'll be rewiring my dash
During the week for a new gauge setup so I'll open it up when I have all the tools out.

Have you been able to get it working?


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

[mangomick]

I did manage to get into my boat today and check out your wiring diagram. But I have cover all the terminal joins with a large glue heat shrink and could not determine which one went where.

I'll be rewiring my dash
During the week for a new gauge setup so I'll open it up when I have all the tools out.

Have you been able to get it working?


Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

Hi Damo

Haven't tried yet. Thought i'd hold off to see how your wires on your GPS receiver (puck) matched up. Mate if you don't need to open it up don't worry about stripping off all your heat shrink. I'll have a fiddle with mine one of these days when I'm bored and see what i come up with. At this stage it isn't really a must have but i was just curious if the radio would get the signal straight from the "puck" or whether the signal had to go through some of the "smarts" in the actual Sounder before it sent it back out to the radio. Thanks for the advise though. Much appreciated.
Cheers
mick

[Rip it up]

I can confirm that I need to have the puck connected to my sounder first. Then from sounder to the VHF.




Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

[mangomick]

I can confirm that I need to have the puck connected to my sounder first. Then from sounder to the VHF.




Damo's dodgy boat building repair centre.

Thanks Damo. thats the info i was after. i wasn't sure if the LGC-12w receiver (puck) had the smarts in it to send the data straight to the Link 5 radio or whether it would have to go to the sounder get converted by smarts that was held in the sounder electronics and then sent on to the radio or even if the Link 5 had the smarts included in it's electronics to convert the data from the GPS receiver to an actual position.
So what I thought may have worked wont without actually putting the old sounder/GPS combo back in as well.
Cheers
Mick