Furuno FCV585 NMEA Connections

[Sea Mistress]

Finally saved the necessary funds to purchase a Furuno FCV-585 and 600w transom mount tranny. Though I would hang out and get the bigger screen and ability to hook up a 1kw transducer if required later on.

I am a bit confused with the NMEA connectivity trying to hook up my old Garmin 128 gps and Icom M304 Vhf radio while at it.

I have worked out that RD is receive data and TD is transmit data so this is what I have done:-

NMEA signal out of Garmin GPS
Positive - Garmin (nmea out) blue wire to both Furuno RD-A yellow and Icom (nmea in +) yellow

Negative With no other Garmin (nmea out) I have just connected both Furuno RD-A green and Icom (nmea in -) green
to the common negative terminal block (same as neg power for all devices) but this doesn’t seem correct to me.

NMEA signal in to Garmin GPS – Don’t know whether I will ever use this
Positive - Garmin (nmea in) brown wire to Furuno TD-A white

Negative again just Furuno TD-A blue to the common negative terminal block.

One other query with the furuno is the bare wire that is part of the wiring harness – does this connect to negative power (earth) also?..


Transom mount Transducer

I am reasonably happy with the position of the transducer, height wise (not yet water tested) but cannot get it parallel to the bottom of the hull with or without the supplied shim. Has anyone sanded down the plastic shim or used anything else to fix this?.
I read not to turn on the sounder with transducer out of water, but can you disconnect the transducer cable and turn it on safely ?

Sorry for all the in depth questions, but hoping someone can shed some light on this.

Cheers

[Bonus]

Sea mistress, To fix up the angle of the shim I use a 4 " grinder with a metal cutting disc. Mark the change of angle on the shim and place it in a vice. Make sure you cut away the flat side as the other side has pieces sticking out to locate the shim.
Russ

[Sea Mistress]

Thanks Bonus, I will manicure it with a grinder....;D

Thanks Craig.

[on-one]

Hi Craig, I fitted some furuno stuff recently and spoke to the guy at furuno australia a few times who was really helpful, he said the bare wire is an earth and is meant to surpress interference but said it usually creates more problems than it fixes, and suggested just cutting it off or if you're nervous about cutting just leave it unconected

[Sea Mistress]

Gidday No-one, Thanks very much for that tip. I might give furuno a call about the nmea connections too but this time of year may be hard to get in contact with them.

[on-one]

Hi, I've found the links I saved to a few sites when I was looking for information (before I gave up and rang furuno) hope this helps

http://www.shipmodul.com/en/connections.html
http://reel-time.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42406

[Sea Mistress]

Hi No-one,

Checked out the sites from your links thanks and I think i have found what i need to do,... can someone help with this statement

Do not connect the B terminal to the power ground but feed a ground wire to the instrument and connect it there to the instrument ground.

Not sure on this one for a fibreglass boat.

[fsh00]

Have a look in this forum on page 7 (electronics guru needed) might be some help. Have a manual for GPS if needed can email.
Pete.

[Sea Mistress]

Thanks fsh00, the gps is now talking to the sounder - connections were correct, just had to change the baud rate to 4800.

Cheers Craig.

[Splash]

fsh00 - where is page 7?

SPLash

[Sea Mistress]

Splash,

Go back to page 7 on this section (electronics) i.e the most recent posts are on page 1.

[Searaider 2]

Bump .####