Please note that this older post has now been updated for our latest GPS150 smart antenna.
With Spring just a few days away and thoughts turning to the new sailing season, we have noticed an above average increase in requests for our GPS150 smart GPS antenna. On further investigation, it would appear that many of these units are being used as replacements for old Raymarine Raystar 120 and 125 GPS antennas.
Although not Seatalk compatible, the GPS150 is a very good and cost effective replacement as all older Raymarine chart plotters/MFDs have a 2 wire NMEA0183 input which the GPS150 can connect to. Your Boat’s Position, course and speed over the ground plus all of the Satellite signal and position information is provided by the GPS150 and performance will actually be better than your old Raystar, as the GPS150 features the very latest GPS receiver technology.
Supplied with the same standard 1″ x 14TPI threaded mount that the Raystar had, you can simply unscrew the old unit and screw on the GPS150. It comes with an integral 10m Power and Data cable and will work from a 12v or 24v supply.
Connection is very easy, simply connect the GPS150 Red wire to the Boat’s Positive Supply, the Black wire to the Boat’s Negative Supply, the Yellow Wire to the +ve NMEA Input of the Raymarine plotter and the Green wire to the -ve NMEA Input of the Raymarine plotter.
For other applications for the GPS150 click https://digitalyacht.net/gps150-dualnav-sensor-six-great-applications-afloat/
To buy online and for further information click here.
willthe gps 105 work with a Raymarine RL70c pathfinder plus my raystar 120 is shot
Hi Roger, Yes our GPS105 will work with the Raymarine RL70c as long as you have a spare NMEA 0183 input. If you have the NMEA cable that fits in the back of the RL70c then you can connect the GPS here or if you have another NMEA input in the Raymarine system. You might want to go for our new GPS150 which is GPS+GLONASS and will be shipping towards the end of this month.
I have an older Raytheon RL70c at the helm, for radar, and it also displays my chartplotter data via SeaTalk from my older RC520, which is mounted in the cabin at the nav station. My original gps antenna is shot. Will the Digital Yacht GPS 105 or 150 work? Will the antenna wire have to be run below to the RC520, or can I hook it into the RL70c and have it sent the antenna date to the RC520 thru the existing SeaTalk cables?
Hi Ted, yes you can connect our GPS150 in to the NMEA 0183 input of your RL70c and then this data will be converted to Seatalk and be passed around the network to the RC520 and any other devices that can read and use the GPS data.
I have a failed Raystar 120 which connects to a working Raymarine SL70RC Plus. The failed 120 connects to the seatalk connection on the Plotter via junction box which ties in the power. Green wire from the old 120 is not used in the present configuration. Will the Digital Yacht 150 work, connecting just yellow NMEA on the DY150 to Yellow NMEA on the Seatalk?
The GPS150 cannot be connected to the SeaTalk network wiring. You will need to connect the GPS150 NMEA0183 output (Yellow+ and Green-) to an NMEA0183 input on the Raymarine system.
There is an NMEA input on the rear of the SL70RC that could be used or perhaps you have an NMEA input on a TriData or Multi Instrument or even the autopilot control box, but you will need to look through the manuals and work out the best input to use confirming that it definitely will accept the GPS sentences.
Paul (Digital Yacht)
Hi, my Ray M.125 GPS sensor failed last month and I have replaced with your GPS 150. The cost savings and multi-functional abilities of the GPS 150 was and are impressive. I was able to route the GPS 150 into the 0183 input in my Ray M. Auto Pilot computer module. While the GPS data is happily restored on my E-80 MFD and VHF, I am not displaying any GPS detail in the GPS menu page on my E-80 MFD, Also the boat speed display on my ST60 Tri-data display is not reading correctly which appears to me as perhaps some interference between the NEMA imput from the GPS 150 and Ray’s Seatalk. I have placed a EMC supression ferrule on the GPS 150 cable. Any advice on these 2 issues? Thank you. Bob
Hi Bob, I suspect that the reason the GPS satellite and signal strength details are not coming up, is because your Autopilot Course Computer does not accept the NMEA0183 GSA and GSV messages that include this data. Might be better to connect the GPS150 to one of the NMEA0183 ports on the E80 MFD, which reads a lot more different NMEA0183 data including the GSA and GSV messages. As for the boat speed reading on the ST60 Tri-Data being affected by the GPS150, I think this is highly unlikely. I have never heard of the low frequency pulses generated by the paddle wheel boatspeed transducer being affected by NMEA 0183 data.
What exactly are you seeing on the boat speed read out and what happens to this reading if you temporarily power down the GPS150 ?
Hello. Il have a raymarine c80 and i need a new antenna. Can i use the gps 150. Regards Flemming
Hi Flemming, yes our GPS150 can connect to the NMEA0183 input of the C80 (two wire connection) and this data will be converted in to SeaTalk data for the rest of the system as well.
Guillermo says: June 30, 2015
My Raymarine RS 125 does not work and will replace your GPS
150 teams that I have are: E 80 classic, smart pilot S2G AST, DSM 300G sonar and autopilot. GPS 150 is compatible with these items?
As I proceed to the installation?
Hi Guillermo,
Yes our GPS150 will work with this Raymarine system. You should be able to connect it to the NMEA0183 Input on the E80 or the NMEA Input on the Autopilot.
Best regards
PAUL
Hi. When doing that do I need to unplug the seatalk wire from the back of the c80 mfd?
Hi Erlan,
The SeaTalk wire to the back of the C80 will have all of the SeaTalk data on it, not just the GPS data, so I would not disconnect this cable. However, I would make sure that the Raystar GPS is disconnected from the SeaTalk bus, as even if it is not getting a position fix, it may send status messages on to the SeaTalk bus, which might conflict and confuse the C80 MFD.
Best regards
PAUL
Hi My C80 has a 5 pin nmea input/output plug – will your unit plug right in or do I somehow have to figure out which 2 pins are going to marry up with the yellow and green wires
Hi Chris,
The GPS150 comes with a 10m cable that has bare wires on the end, which you would normally wire in to the data cable of whatever equipment you were connecting it to.
For the Raymarine C80, the NMEA cable that you need is Part Number R08004.
I know these are no longer made, but it is possible that some distributors and dealers still have spare cables. I will email you with details of the Raymarine distributor in your country.
Best regards
PAUL
Hello,
I purchased your 150 last season for my charter boat, following failure of the old 120 receiver. The unit I have is an RC520 differential. There are great inaccuracies at low speed now. I rely heavily on that unit for trolling speed, and that number is all over the place. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Daniel,
In the System Setup menu on the RC520 there is a GPS SOG/COG Filter option and you probably want to make set this to HIGH. Early GPS systems had to cope with the Selective Availability (SA) function that added a 100m random regrading of the signal, so they filtered/damped/averaged the raw data to stop the ship jumping around on the plotter screen. Play with this setting and see if it improves things, before we try changing the GPS150 operating mode.