Old B&G sensors to SignalK
Dear all,
I recently bought a 40ft ketch (1988) with quite some old sail boat electronics. Most of it are NMEA0183 devices, a SeaTalk Autopilot and some funny looking analog B&G sensors. I would like to start a SignalK project and have already a few ideas for my digital boat concept but right now I'm struggling with my depth sounder and wind vane.
B&G Hornet 4 Anemometer and Hecta depth sounder. I have no idea what kind of standard this is and if it's worth to implement them I to my signalK server. Both of them are working and connected to analog displays in the cockpit
What would you do? Any suggestions?
6 Replies
unless you are handy with electronics i would get a combined depth speed temperature with 0183 output like https://www.svb24.com/en/raymarine-dst800-thru-hull-transducer-analogue.html
windvanes are more expensive so not sure what to recommend there
SVB GmbH
DST800 Thru-Hull Transducer / analogue only 294,95 € | SVB
The DST800 analogue thru-hull transducer measures depth, temperature and speed.
Autonnic has a reasonably priced windvane. Their NMEA 0183 interface is really messed up, though. Their NMEA 2000 output module might be fine, but you can't configure the sensor through it. I have written SensESP integration software for it but didn't get around to publishing it yet. Can do that, of course. And I also am finishing the design of a product that can communicate with it directly.
Thanks for the input.
Actually it is a pity, because the sensors are working fine 😄
Especially the windvane connected to the autopilot would be nice.
I try to do some more research.
Learning some new here. Apparently the wind vane direction is encoded as sin/cos quadrature signal:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f13/b-and-g-analogue-wind-instrument-signal-250920.html
https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/technical-articles/452913422000_sin_encoder.pdf
B&G Analogue Wind Instrument Signal - Cruisers & Sailing Forums
I shot these nice B&G analogue wind indicators on ebay. Can anybody tell me what signal they require? 0-10 V? 4-20 mA? PWM-signal? Something completely different? Originally they are supposed to
Should be quite possible to catch with and ADC and then decode.
I couldn't find info about wind speed within my 5 second attention span, but my guess is that it would be a pulse train which should be easy to capture.
Not sure what the depth signal would be like. Would be interested to know!
I'll give it a try next year to catch the signals with an ADC.
Both windvane and depth sounder work really nice.