dear blog members, I'm "lost at sea".
I have a 60' fishing boat, whith a garmin chartplotter 4212, radar and fishfinder. It have a servohelm controled by 24v solenoide valves.
I need to install an autopilot, and a gps compass, probably a furuno sc30, (pilothouse is made of steel, and flushgates simply are not reliable in steel boats) desirebly in a nmea 2000 network.
Is it possible this solution?
what autopilot to install?
What display for current heading and rudder angle.
thank you for your help
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This is a tricky area, Eduardo. Garmin, Simrad, and Raymarine all make autopilots that supposedly understand NMEA 2000 messages (though the latter two use their own cable/connector designs, SimNet and SeaTalkNG). If I were you, I'd detail the current system and ask for AP designs from good dealer/installers for all three brands, with specifics about cabling and standard N2K messages used. If you can get everything operating on NMEA 2000, display of heading and rudder angle should be possible in many ways.
Simrads AP24-28 will interface with a N2K network just fine, so will a SC30 compass. since your 4212 is NMEA2000 why not go this route? See your local dealer about specifying the system though, adapters can get tricky and I belive you need the AC12 computer to drive solenoids.
Thank you, ben & john,
I find that comnav 1420 works whith solenoids, and have a 0183 output. And garmin have a 0183 input port. Would it work,or it is not that easy.It would be a cheap solution.
eduardo
A Comnav would work also and they are a great simple pilot with a low falure rate,just not cutting edge as far as the interface and operation. I would still use the sc30 on a NMEA2000 backbone with the 4212 to simplify the 0183 wiring.
John