NMEA - Garmin to Standard Horizon

[Tedj101]

I suspect that I have the answer to this because the directions from SH are quite good, but I want to be sure. SH shows that the NMEA connections from a Garmin 198c to the SH Quest go blue to blue (SH NMEA + in and Garmin NMEA + out) and SH green (NMEA - in) to Garmin black (ground).

I guess what's bothering me here is that the only black wire coming out of the Garmin is the power ground wire which runs to the negative side of my power bus. Since that is a very large wire (and is necessary to supply power to the Garmin), I am not about to attach it to anything but the ground side of the power bus which is where it is. Consequently, it appears that I should attach the green NMEA - wire to the ground side of the power bus too. While that is the implication of the diagram in the SH manual, I guess I find it a bit odd that there would be a separate ground wire for the NMEA in circuit given that the SH is already grounded through the black side of its power cable.

Should I overcome my paranoia and simply put the green wire on the negative side of the power bus or am I missing something here?

Many thanks,
TED

[CaptWill]

Yes Ted, that should work fine. While I haven't connected Garmins to SH, I have interfaced various FloScan 9000's, RayMarine, Magellan, and Sitex, equipment, and sometimes this is what is you do. The manufacturers haven't standardized on this, and seem to want to make it difficult to interconnect other brands of equipment.

[Tedj101]

CaptWill - 7/5/2005 7:06 AM

Yes Ted, that should work fine. While I haven't connected Garmins to SH, I have interfaced various FloScan 9000's, RayMarine, Magellan, and Sitex, equipment, and sometimes this is what is you do. The manufacturers haven't standardized on this, and seem to want to make it difficult to interconnect other brands of equipment.

Thanks, Will, I'll give it a try as soon as I can get back to the boat -- gotta work right now!

By the way, I'm just a smigeon up the coast from you in Wilmington...

TED