DSC Garmin540 and Icom 504 HELP

[MTIDAHO]

I have installed several older Garmins and Icom radios so my buddies had the DSC function available to them...
On my own new boat....I am having troubles getting the ICOM 504 to recognize the Garmin 540 for the purposes of a "position report". The Icom recquires me to push the Enter button for every singe digit of the lat and long and UTC time before sending a position report. after 6 months of communicating with Icom and Garmin techies I am no closer to solving this problem..

I can reply to individual position requests with a single push of the Enter button and Bam" off goes my position....I have lat and long displayed ...time etc...I can recieve the position reports of others but am unable to send my position with the single push of the enter button....

anybody run into this before and do you have a solution or suggestions
thanks
mtidaho

[Team Ruby]

Set it up to acknowledge the position request received from another vessel automatically. Refer to page 48 in your owner's manual. In the manual mode you do have to follow the steps you described. If you're worried about giving your position away, remember that the people requesting your position are people you gave your MMSI number to, so they're not strangers.

[MTIDAHO]

I failed to explain the problem so that it could be understood.

THe issue is: When I try to send a "position Report" to all my buddies so that they can find me....with this ICOM at least...the sequence of events is:::Menu>DSC menu>Rotate dial to "Postion Report"> push enter>select address>push enter> OK at this point it should be asking me to hit the enter button to send my lat and long to my selected friends....

it does not do that....instead...the lat and long appears on the Icom display and I have to manually confirm EVERY digit in the lat and long and the time as well before I can hit the enter button to send the info to all those folks I want to come join me...
Page 34 of the manual says..."when a GPS Receiver is connected, steps 4 and 5 do not appear...go to step 6...

Well my GPS receiver is connected...or I would not have lat and long and date and time appearing on my Icom display...and if it were not connected I would not be able to receive "position reports" from my buddies as I now can....and I can reply to a position request with one push of the enter button....the problem only exists when I try to send a position report that was not requested...

the ICOM folks say the problem is with Garmin's garbling of the NMEA sentences...
The Garmin folks say their sentences are fine...

neither of these outfits can afford each other's equipment so that they could hook it up and see how it really works...

hope that is a clearer explanation
thank you for your efforts to help

[Team Ruby]

Let's see if this helps, the following was copied from the Icom manual. it sounds like you can skip right past the data input steps. This is also on page 34. This allows you to skip steps 4 and 5 and go directly to step 6, transmitting the position information.

Regardless of a GPS receiver (NMEA0183 ver. 2.0 or
3.01) connection, the current position/time information
appears in steps

r and t. If the information is not necessary
to be changed, push [DIAL•ENTER] or [16•9]

several times to skip the data input steps.

Push

[DIAL•ENTER] to transmit the position report call.

• If Channel 70 is busy, the transceiver stands by until the channel
becomes clear.

u

After the position report call has been transmitted, the following
indication is displayed.

i

Push [CLR] to return to the previous indication before entering
the DSC menu.

• Even if

[CLR] hasn’t been pushed, the display automatically

returns to the previous indication after 2 sec. of inactivity.

[MTIDAHO]

Yes!!! that is correct..."if the data appears correct" push the button several times....about 22 times to be exact!!! then you can push the button once more to send your "postion report".... I have installed several radios and gps units so that the DSC funciton was available for my friends....this is the first one that required me to push the Enter button to affirm every digit of data before sending the report.

I have actually sent the Garmin back to the factory...and I think that is where the Icom is headed next....unless someone on this site can help me....

I have worn on the manual reading it...and probably worn out my welcome at Garmin and ICOM....but I have done enough of these to know that the current method of affirming each digit of data is not how this unit is supposed to work...

Hell, what is going to happen when I need to send a DSC emergency location? will I have to push the button 22 times also?

thanks so much for your help...

[bluewaterpirate]

http://bluewaterpirate.phanfare.com/...ageID=31027543

[Team Ruby]

Tom, another great video. MTIDAHO's problem is a little different though. He is sending his position to another vessel, not asking for a position request. I read the manual on his radio, it says one thing but MT is actually seeing something else. His radio won't send the position displayed. It is forcing him to key in his position and I believe the time before he reaches the step where he can transmit. Do you have anything in your video archive on sending a position report?

[bluewaterpirate]

and his NMEA connections are correct the positional/utc info is an automatic input from the garmin to the 540. Sounds like his NMEA connectivity is not connected correctly.

Question.

On the display of your 504 are you seeing your current GPS positional data and a utc time?

[fairbank56]

Originally Posted by bluewaterpirate

Question.

On the display of your 504 are you seeing your current GPS positional data and a utc time?

I think he already indicated that he is;

"Well my GPS receiver is connected...or I would not have lat and long and date and time appearing on my Icom display..."

Eric

[Team Ruby]

Yes, he knows it's wired up correctly because the Garmin provided lat and long is displaying on the Icom. The owners manual tells him to push the Dial * Enter or the 16 * 9 button several times and it is supposed to skip right to the step that allows him to send his position, but his radio won't do it. It is forcing him to either key in the information or hit the buttons I think he said 22 times to get to the step that transmits the information. I've done a couple of Icom installs with DSC but I have never tried the send position function, only the position request information, which has worked as it was supposed to. Neither of the ones I installed were the same model referred to here.

[fairbank56]

Apparently, it depends on which firmware version you have. They tell you two different things in different manuals. Here's the instructions from two different manuals. The first one is dated 2006, the second one says 2003-2008.

Eric

[bluewaterpirate]

I have two ICOM 504's one connected to a Garmin 545 and the other to a Garmin 2206. Both ICOM units display the same characteristics you've observed when trying to send a position report (i.e. GPS positional being correctly displayed on the ICOM screen .... indicates goor NMEA connectivity).

I know my installs work because of exchanged position data with other boats in the past when they're requested it.

I did some more testing. I have a Raymarine E-80 on site so I disconnected my Garmin 545 and connected the E-80 to my ICOM 504. Went thru the procedure for initiating a position report and observed the same characteristics on my ICOM 504 as when connected to my Garmin 545.

I'm in the process of doing one more test ... I have a third radio on my Whaler a SH Phantom 1000 so I'm going to connect it to my Garmin 545 and see what happens.

Sorry I didn't thoroughly read you original post .... I had a geriatric moment. Get bact to you later.

[bluewaterpirate]

OK .....

Got my SH Phantom 1000 connected to NMEA output. It by passes the manual entry portion of the pos/time enrty and goes right to the send entry.

I got onto another boat that has a Furuno NAVNET 2 install with ICOM 604 and ICOM 504. Both revert to the manual entry even though connected to a NMEA input. I exchanged a position request initiated by two other boats today ... the pos/time data was automatically included in my reply.

Sounds like ICOM has some issues or the units are working correctly. Wonder if there is a firmware update?

[MTIDAHO]

Captain Tom, thank you.....for your efforts...I took off a couple of days to go fishing so my apologies for being late with a response..

first you apparently are experiencing the same problem I have...that is:::: that you have to manually CONFIRM each digit of the lat and long and the time before you can send the Postion Report as directed in Step 6 of the DSC operation portion of the ICOM manual.

let me try to explain a few other symptoms perhaps that will help us to find a solution..

I have got to believe the connections are all correct...because when I receive an unasked for position report from a friend....the alarm goes off in the Icom..the Icom display shows my buddy's lat and long and time....my Garmin shows that I received a position report from him...it shows a flagged dsc postion on the Garmin chart and in the Garmin DSC directory with all of the pertinent and correct data.

I can reply to a position request without having to manually confirm each digit of the lat and long and the 24 hour time clock....by just pushing the enter button once...not 22 or 23 times..

so I know that the correct data is going back and forth at certain times....always....there is never a change....so we are not talking about loose connections..these are all soldered and covered with adhesive filled shrink tube..

the same reports and the same results keep yielding the same problem... WHen I try to tell my friends where I am with a "position report">>>>>I have to manually confirm every digit of the lat and long and the time.... I am not entering that information into the ICOM...it is all ready there....on the ICOM display from my Garmin. It sounds like your ICOM is working the same way as mine....thank you very much for all you efforts....

The garmin soft ware version is 5.20 the Garmin NMEA version is3.01.....not sure what else to tell you....this certainly is an irritation but my biggest concern is what is going to happen when I need to use the DSC emergency....am I going to be hitting the enter button 22 times before I can finally send off my position......

your video display showed exactly how I receive a postion report from another boat...good job on that.

thanks to all of you for your continuing help....I only have about a week left fishing here in Mexico and then I am going be in Idaho without my radio and gps....if we can get this solved before then...I will probably remove the radio and take it directly to ICOM in Washington state.

thanks for your help....

[MTIDAHO]

BlueWater Pirate, you have nailed it.....it has got to be a problem in the ICOM radios....I assume, with some humor, that there are more fisherman are sending out "position requests" then there are fisherman voluntarily sending out un-asked-for "position reports"... That is probably why nobody else is complaining about this issue...

And I do not know how you update the firmware on an ICOM radio....send it back to the factory?
thanks