Marine GPS to Laptop Connection

You need the seatalk interface. Output will be NMEA 0183 which any software on the computer can listen to. Raymarine uses a proprietary standard that communicates directly only with other Raymarine instruments.

Thanks for the reply; what does that mean? It will not communicate because it is Raymarine? Or will Seatalk communicate, is there an after market cable available and the chart software is there free stuff on the internet? As yoiu can see I'm entirly novice at this.

It means exactly what I said. You need the interface. Follow this Link

Raymarine does not support NMEA 0183 I/O. The interface will convert their propriatary sentences to industry standard (NMEA 0183) sentences that all other equipment can understand.

Raymarine wants all instuments to be connected to their bus (the call it seatalk).

However they recognize that mariners will need to connect to non-Raymarine stuff and have provided this black box I/O card for that purpose.

NMEA 0183 standard specifies that only one instrument on a data bus can be a talker while the others may only listen.

The typical application is a position device (talker) sending data to an autopilot (listener).

The sentence structure is very carefully structured so that all NMEA devices (except Raymarine) can communicate with each other.

I use this interface to allow my Autohelm 2000 autopilot to steer based upon NMEA waypoint data sent to it (through this black box) from a Northstar LORAN C. But this would apply to GPS integrated chaqrtplotters, PC software, thousands of devices (except those made by Raymarine of course).

Autohelm was bought out by Raymarine 15 years ago.

I went a different direction on this. I downloaded Fugawi ENC and a bunch of electronic raster charts to my notebook. I then purchased a small Garmin GPS. I was blown away by how versatile and easy this setup was. I used my existing GPS and chart-plotter as backup but completed my primary navigation using my notebook and Garmin. I spent two days running a grid pattern towing a magnetometer and could easily keep the vessel within 10-30 feet XTE. The garmin packs a punch, I fired it up and acquired satellites within seconds while sitting in an office with a concrete ceiling and steel roof. During the two days my Raymarine lost fix about three times but there was never an interruption with the Garmin.

Thanks for your input.