Electronics Help!

[TunaTeaser1]

I decided to post this in the Carolinas section just because I think more people read this....Any help is much appreciated because I'm not to great with this kind of stuff.

My dad has recently bought a garmin 4208 and also and Icom IC-M604 for the boat. Currently, both units are completely separate from each other. Now I know they can be linked most usefully to transmit our position through dsc.

I don't really know what else both these units are capable of when paired together? What's it gonna cost to link them? Can I do it myself?

Any help appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[jfishnc]

Alex,

I'm doing the same thing with mine. It's just a NMEA connection between the Icom 604 and the Garmin. I messed up the connector from ICOM so I have ordered another. You probably just got the connector for the Nmea cable with the ICOM (no premade cable on the 604) When I get my connector I'm going to have Howard at Marine Electronics of the Outer Banks solder it to a 6 wire NMEA cable and I'll reconnect it to the Garmin. I'm hoping to find out what they are capable of. Hopefully will be able to send and receive Position requests from friends when we get on a hot bite.

Jeff

[Prodigal Son]

As to the what will it cost, it is just a 6 wire (max...not sure what gets used in your situation) connection, so if you have the pigtails on both units, or can obtain the connector for both units, it is just a matter of making the connections between the correct colored pairs (which didn't necessarily mean green to green, black to black, etc. when I did it on a friend's boat) with solder and liquid electrical tape. Free.

If you get Howard to do it, unless he just really doesn't like me, he seems to charge a ton for little stuff. He wanted $40 for the knobs that hold my fishfinder onto it's base. Even better, I went in two weeks later with screen troubles and he wanted more to replace a screen on my Furuno than the entire unit cost me (from him, 2 years earlier.) Blew me away. Got a strangle hold on the Furuno market though, and I do like that stuff...

[TunaTeaser1]

Cool I figured that's about all it was....is it difficult to set up once connected? Will I be prompted on the garmin or will I have to go an mess with the settings...How do you add in other people's position requests? guess I'll go play with it and just see what happens. Thanks for the help so far

[Capt Rick Hiott]

I had a buddy help me with mine,,,Nothing to it. Just read the directions that come with each unit............

[blueh20pc]

It's easy Alex, just some crimping and connectors. Make sure to have both manuals around. A bus bar from radio shack or griffin marine in wanchese would help. I can come down and give guidance on the weekends if you gimme a shout. 252-2075912

You will have to program other folk's MMSI numbers into both the radio and garmin, but it's not terribly hard.

[Capt Rick Hiott]

I have the Icom 504 with the Garmin 168,,,All I had to do is solder two wires from each unit to a RCA connector and plug them together.........I think I changed a setting on the Garmin unit,,,Its been a long time.

When it comes to wires on a boat,,,I ALWAYS solder!

[Prodigal Son]

Originally Posted by Capt Rick Hiott

When it comes to wires on a boat,,,I ALWAYS solder!

I don't, but I do always think to myself "I should be soldering this". Does that count?

[TunaTeaser1]

Yeah I looked at the wires that came with the radio today but couldn't find the manual. I figure my dad has it with the rest of them somewhere. I also looked at the gps and it looks very easy to plug in other mmsi numbers. No just need to connect them I guess.

[Capt Rick Hiott]

Ha-Ha-Ha,,,,,,,come on Ryan.................