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April 11, 2021 12:09 am
My new to me Carver Voyager 450 came with a full Raymarine install including Ray240 VHFs and a AIS250 receiver. All works well, but I’d like to go to a AIS transceiver, update the VHFs and add remote monitoring. The Cortex M1 seems to check all the boxes except it doesn’t have a temperature sensor. No problem, I thought. I’ll just add a Yacht Devices N2K temperature sensor.
Maybe not, as page 13 in the manual states:
“The Gateway supports a range of wind, depth, speed, heading, temperature, barometric pressure and autopilot PGNs.”
Unfortunately when I looked at the list of PGNs the Cortex receives, 130312 (temperature) isn’t listed and Vesper’s webpage on their remote vessel monitoring is slim on details (“Monitor even more by connecting to your NMEA 2000 network.”). If we can’t remotely monitor temperature, Cortex’s monitoring is a non-starter for us and I’ll have to use a floathub to boatcommand module.
Has anyone successfully used a N2K sensor with the Cortex remote monitor?
I also had a question about it's translating capability. From the manual, it’s clear that it translates specific PGNs to NMEA0183 (and WiFi?) and transmits AIS targets over both NMEA busses. However, it’s not clear what it does with received NMEA0183 data. I assume it is transmitted on the WiFi network, but is it translated to the N2K bus?
Thanks a bunch!
April 13, 2021 6:32 pm
Hi @NewfD90. If you're the person who marked your post [SOLVED], that's great. Otherwise, I could help a bit. The thing I know is that Vesper's list of translated N2K PGNs is fairly small and aimed at navigation because until Cortex it was mainly being used in nav apps. But with Cortex now doing off boat monitoring, I'm sure they'll add more PGNs. Right now, though, they're busy with all sorts of Cortex update 1.5 features I've trying to keep up with in the comments to this entry:
https://panbo.com/vesper-cortex-update-boat-networks-squashing-bugs-more/
Topic starter
April 13, 2021 7:28 pm
Thanks Ben. I talked with Vesper and they confirmed my findings. They said they'd add my request to their list.
If I have to buy a separate box to monitor everything, it doesn't make sense to spend up for the Cortex. So it looks like it's going to be an Em-Trak B953 and FloatHub for me. Guess we'll live with the Ray240s (which work fine) for now. Em-Trak is nice in that it has an integrated GPS antenna. My radar arch is quite full and I don't know how painful it will be to add another antenna up there (GPS, Sirius, 48" open array HD Radar and TracVision).
April 14, 2021 8:49 am
@newfd90 Well, I'm a big FloatHub, but it works exceptionally well with a Vesper XB8000 because, despite the limitations, Vesper multiplexes more N2K info into its 0183HS (and WiFi) output than any other AIS transponder I know of:
https://panbo.com/floathub-2020-lte-cellular-web-widgets-more/
Also, Cortex VHF/AIS functionality can't really be compared to any other system as it is right now, and the roadmap is amazing... even without the monitoring.
Topic starter
April 14, 2021 4:54 pm
@ben-ellison Yep, a FloatHub is a given. Looks like a great product for a very reasonable cost.
I really like the M1 (and it's roadmap), but having a hard time justifying 2x the cost (4x if I get the VHFs). Especially when our current VHFs work fine and all I really need is to upgrade our AIS receiver to a transceiver.
Thanks for the info,
Chance
