Wiring a lowrace 3300c

Nemo · 03 February 2006, 14:46

I hope some of you Lowrance owners will know the answer to this question.

I have a Lowrance 3300c plotter(USED)

I have tryed to wire it in using the marked power lead and it dont work!

I get a responce of "GPS Module Not Replying" ( or something like that).

Do i need to connect the Permanant power to the battery and the Nmea power via a switch to the battery to get the GPS antenna to work?

In other words

Do i need to wire both the unit to power and the NMEA BUS cicuit?

Hope im not sounding too thick.

But i Dont want to connect it and blow it up!

Many thanks

Nemo.

Ribshop · 03 February 2006, 15:14

It should work with just the main + & - (red and black) wires connected to any 12v dc power source, these wires are usually very slightly larger than any of the nima wires. Nima only needs connecting if you are trying to interface it with your dsc or other nima interment.

Pete7 · 03 February 2006, 15:26

Graham, bring it along on Monday night and we can give you 2 dozen different ways of connecting it up

in the mean time check the connections to the antenna and give them a clean plus squirt of WD 40 or something, also the connections on the back of the unit.

mark-f · 03 February 2006, 16:24

If as I suspect the 3300c uses the LGC2000 gps unit, it is in fact a mini NMEA2000 network between the GPS & the display, in which case you will need to power both the NEMA2000 Bus and the display as follows:-

"to power an NMEA 2000 buss, you will attach both the
NMEA 2000 Power cable and the unit's Power Supply cable to the
boat's battery. To attach the NMEA 2000 Power cable, connect the
red wire to battery's + and black and shield wires to battery's –." here is link to the manual that explains it all.

http://www.lowrance.com/Manuals/File...021_020604.zip

Good Luck..

Mark

Cookee · 03 February 2006, 16:25

There is no such thing as a NMEA power - the NMEA lead is for connecting it to another unit such as the Smartcraft instruments. unless you are connecting it to something else this wire(s) should be ignored.

Sounds more like the GPS antenna isn't sending a signal to the unit - is that unit for an external antenna or does it have one built in?

Nemo · 03 February 2006, 17:00

Chaps

Having read the replys and the instruction manual again it now looks to me that i do have to power the LCG2000 Gps Through the units own Nmea 2000 power lead on the unit.

I will now go home and try again wish me luck!

Any more ideas and views would be most welcome.

Also

Can the charts (Navonics or others) be backed-Up from one memory card to another?

Thanks

Nemo

ashbypower · 03 February 2006, 17:05

The NMEA 2000 is a powered bus the Reciever unit will need its own power source, we discoverd this with our 3500c.
To my knowledge you cannot back up the card

Another tip, Check lowrance web site for software updates we have downloaded 2 updates for our 3500c

Regards Brian

Cookee · 03 February 2006, 17:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by ashbypower

The NMEA 2000 is a powered bus the Reciever unit will need its own power source, we discoverd this with our 3500c.
To my knowledge you cannot back up the card

Another tip, Check lowrance web site for software updates we have downloaded 2 updates for our 3500c

Regards Brian

I stand corrected, my apologies!

ashbypower · 03 February 2006, 17:16

Cookee No need to apologies mate we all live to learn

it's only NMEA 2000 that requires power caught me out till I read the manual. And I should know better I'm and Electronics Engineer

Cheers

Brian

Nemo · 03 February 2006, 17:31

Thanks for all the replys

I have found now some more information on the Lowrance web site link attached ( looks like intersting concept)

You just plug your stuff in and away you go!

http://www.lowrance.com/Manuals/File...172_101005.pdf

Thanks Again!

philip · 03 February 2006, 17:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemo

I have tryed to wire it in using the marked power lead and it dont work!

I get a responce of "GPS Module Not Replying" ( or something like that).

And I did exactly the same thing.

I expected the power supply to the unit to power everything however there are two power feeds

1st - to the unit which you have already connected.
2nd - to the LGC2000 gps unit (as mark-f says). The idea is that the LGC2000 gps unit takes so little power you can have it supplied unswitched (Apart from battery master isolator) then it can keep locked on to satellites and is ready to go when you switch on the plotter.

Page 16 and 18 in the manual

HTH

Cheers

Phil

EDIT: See you've got it all sorted now

mark-f · 03 February 2006, 18:18

hi Cookie,

no probs about the nema, the new nema 2000 is a pain in the butt but the good thing about it is that in the near future it should make things a lot easier as its plug and play, but sufice it to say it took me 3 weeks of plugging an playing to figure it out

but the main thing to remeber is that a nema 2000 network needs power to work, but only one power source, so if you set up a lowrance unit and its 2000 netowk then integrate another nema 2000 device its important that you dont power the bus from that device as well, also if you connect a lowrance unit to an existing bus you dont need to power the bus from the lowrance unit, just plug in the GPS module and the display unit to the existing bus and all units on the bus will share the information from all sensors andbe powered from the existing power source.

Mark

mark-f · 03 February 2006, 18:32

Ok to save any further questions here is a link to a useful guide to what is Nmea 2000 and how to design a network, its written by maretron but is a good guide to how to design a network and the principles behind it. all in all its pretty cool, shame the major manufacturers cant agree on the standards, fyi Smartcraft is verry similar to NMEA 2000 but with enough differences to make it incompatable.

http://www.maretron.com/products/pdf...%20Catalog.pdf

enjoy the reading

Mark