Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

[brooksville_rebel]

Could you some help in getting these hooked up. Between the two manuals somewhat confusing to me. Between the two manuals they do not use the same labels so not sure of what goes with what. The Garmin has alot more wires and the Uni 6 so hard to believe only two wires according to the Uni manual, but I have no clue.

According to the way I read the Uni manual all that needs to be hooked up for the DSC is the UNI bare to Garmin ground and UNI green wire to the Garmin Blue.

UNI manual wire labels
Orange NMEA out (-)
Black Ext. Speaker (-) GND
Green GPS Data IN (+)
Red External Speaker (+)
Bare wire Ground
Yellow NMEA OUT (+)

Garmin 441S manual wire labels
Red Power
Black (Power and NMEA 0183)
Blue NMEA 0183 port 1 TX (out)
Brown NMEA NMEA 0183 port 1 rx (in)
Grey NMEA 0183 port 2 rx (out)
Violet NMEA 0183 port 2 rx (in)
Green CaNet L if (applicable)
White CaNet H if (applcable)
Orange Accessory on
Yellow Alarm low

Thanks
Mark

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

Yea, I have the manuals for both units at my summer place, so won't be there until the weekend. I'll take a look then and see if I can make sense of it.

My Garmin is the GPSMAP 536S, but I'm thinking the wiring is the same . . .

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

I found an online manual for the Uniden 380 and it has different wire I/O than what you show.

Is yours the same as page 29 here:
http://www.uniden.com/content/ebiz/uniden/resources/ownersmanuals/UM380om.pdf

You want the NMEA inputs.

 

[brooksville_rebel]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

I found an online manual for the Uniden 380 and it has different wire I/O than what you show.

Is yours the same as page 29 here:
http://www.uniden.com/content/ebiz/uniden/resources/ownersmanuals/UM380om.pdf

You want the NMEA inputs.

Hey Bruceb58
Yea thats it and this one is different than the manual that came with mine. ON page 3 the picture on the Getting Started is different too. Date on the online one looks to be 2007 so think my manual is a updated one. Maybe ? I will have to check at the boat tomorrow to see what color wires are hanging out and see if there is a brown one. My manual doesn't list a brown one in the picture of the back of it but down in the listing of GPS Manuf it shows a brown one for the Portable Garmin's tho my in fixed.

Thanks Ted appreciate it.

Mark

 

[jhebert]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

Interconnecting NMEA-0183 devices is made simpler by following the method described in

Guide to NMEA-0183 Interconnections
continuousWave: Whaler: Reference: NMEA-0183 Interconnection Guide

If you have conflicting information about the signal names and wire colors for a particular device, you must contact the manufacturer of the device and resolve the conflict.

 

[brooksville_rebel]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

Interconnecting NMEA-0183 devices is made simpler by following the method described in

Guide to NMEA-0183 Interconnections
continuousWave: Whaler: Reference: NMEA-0183 Interconnection Guide

If you have conflicting information about the signal names and wire colors for a particular device, you must contact the manufacturer of the device and resolve the conflict.

Thanks for the link tho I felt like I was reading a nuke power plant wiring. Once back and have manuals in front of me might be easier still to comprehend. So if I should happen to cross up a wire or two am I toasting my radio or GPS or just won't work properly ? If its A then guess I will be on the phone with one of them , if its B then I will give it a shot on my own.

Thanks
Mark

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

Its not as complicated as his link makes it(not surprising). Sometimes, less words are better than more.

Just need to properly identify the outputs of your GPS and the inputs to your radio...nothing more.

Hebert likes to yell at me when I say just GPS. LOL

 

[jhebert]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

Thanks for the link tho I felt like I was reading a nuke power plant wiring....

"I find it interesting that we complain when a new technology requires an hour or two of study. Some people complain if only fifteen minutes of study are required. Yet we do not complain about the huge learning periods required to master the things we have grown up with, such as learning to swim, skate, or ride a bike. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, the fundamentals of education, take years to master. Should we complain about these? No, they are appropriate to the task. When new items are appropriately complex, it is reasonable that they require time and effort to master. Our complaints should be directed toward technologies and services that are unnecessarily complicated, confusing, and without apparent structure."

Donald Norman, "Living with Complexity," p.31

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

"I find it interesting that we complain when a new technology requires an hour or two of study. Some people complain if only fifteen minutes of study are required. Yet we do not complain about the huge learning periods required to master the things we have grown up with, such as learning to swim, skate, or ride a bike. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, the fundamentals of education, take years to master. Should we complain about these? No, they are appropriate to the task. When new items are appropriately complex, it is reasonable that they require time and effort to master. Our complaints should be directed toward technologies and services that are unnecessarily complicated, confusing, and without apparent structure."

Donald Norman, "Living with Complexity," p.31

I rest my case.

 

[jhebert]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

I rest my case.

You have not made much of a case, but since you are serving as your own jury, you probably think you will get a favorable verdict.

The fundamental problem here is you are trying to turn a discussion about a wiring interface into a discussion about the people participating in the discussion. This is always a losing proposition. If you had any real advice to offer about interconnecting NMEA-0183 devices, you should have presented that information instead of trying to change the topic to discuss individual participants. That is always a losing strategy.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

I already posted a link to a manual that describes the I/O of the GPS in concise terms. You posted something that was excessively wordy and confused the OP and then lectured him in post #8.

 

[jhebert]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

I already posted a link to a manual that describes the I/O of the GPS in concise terms. You posted something that was excessively wordy and confused the OP and then lectured him in post #8.

You seem to have now changed the topic of discussion into a review of my advice. You should start a new thread if you wish to post your personal views about my method of interconnection.

My comments (in post #8) are not a lecture. The OP observed that understanding the interconnection process seemed complicated. You have not presented any argument that asserts that interconnection of serial data devices is inherently simple or uncomplicated. The existence of this thread is perfect proof of my assertion--what you call a "lecture". If the interconnection of NMEA-0183 devices was inherently simple, uncomplicated, and able to be learned without any effort, then this entire thread would not exist.

As a corollary, I would suggest that you must be lecturing the OP because he has even asked for help by your assertion that the process is so simple that my explanation is not needed.

By the way, you cannot connect to the GPS because the GPS is about 12,500 miles over your head.

I present my explanation of how to connect devices whenever anyone asks for help interconnecting devices. If you plan to follow me around and introduce your opinion about my method into every thread it is mentioned, you are going to be very busy in the future.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

I posted in post #3 before you even got here. Not sure how I am following you around. Seems quite the opposite actually.

The connections are simple. He just needs confirmation of the correct color on each device and that is all he was asking. I found a manual online that had different colors that what he found and he is going to confirm with his manual.

And yes, he is connecting to his GPS. No further lecture needed.

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

opcorn:

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

opcorn:

I agree

Wait for the OP to get back to get the colors straight with his manual and then he will be done in a couple of minutes.

This is simple stuff.

 

[NYBo]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

It may help to visualize what you are trying to accomplish: You want to have your latitude and longitude sent from your GPS receiver to your radio so they can be transmitted by the radio in case of emergency. You use the NMEA 0183 interface for this transfer. So NMEA 0183 output from the GPS receiver goes to the NMEA input on the radio. Make sure to observe the + and - designations (+ to +, - to -), and you've go the wires correct. The default communications settings are usually the same for the GPS receiver and radio, so it should now work with no further fiddling.

That's for a simple one-way communication. Your equipment also appears to support data transfer in the other direction. This should allow GPS data transmitted by others via radio to be displayed on your GPS receiver's screen. The concept is the same. Therefore, it appears that the connections should be as follows:

Radio to GPS receiver
Green to Blue
Yellow to Brown
Orange to Black

 

[jhebert]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

This is simple stuff.

An Admiral in the United States Coast Guard recently announced that 90-percent of the DSC emergency calls they have received did not have any position information, most likely because the radio did not have any connection to a GNSS receiver to provide a position. This is another good example of the general difficulty boaters are having making these connections. The USCG wrote to NMEA asking them to try to help in making the interconnection process simpler. To suggest that the process is simple and needs no explanation seems to contradict this thread, the hundreds like it that are posted, and the experience of the Coast Guard.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

You mean this notice that was over 2 years ago?:
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/marcomms/dsc/04_11_dsc.pdf

Instructions should be provided in the radio and GPS operators manual.

Even the CG calls it a GPS.


USCG Safety Alert Concerning DSC-equipped VHFs - Practical Sailor Article

The Coast Guard recently issued a safety alert, warning that mariners were endangering their lives and those of their crew by having a DSC-capable VHF that lacks identifying information. According to the notice, about 90 percent of VHF DSC distress alerts received by the Coast Guard do not contain position information

The steps involved in properly setting up DSC-capable electronics—obtaining an MMSI, entering it into the device, and interfacing it with a GPS—are fairly simple.

I agree they should make the color coding more standard between all the brands of radios. They should probably just make a standard connector that you can plug into each other.

 

[jhebert]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

You mean this notice that was over 2 years ago?:
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/marcomms/dsc/04_11_dsc.pdf

Yes, that is the announcement.

You mean this notice that was over 2 years ago?:
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/marcomms/dsc/04_11_dsc.pdf
Even the CG calls it a GPS.

No, they don't. Here is a quote from the announcement you have pointed to:

"Interconnect your radio to a GPS receiver..."

The device the USCG is talking about is a receiver, a GPS receiver. They do not call the device "the GPS". That is because "the GPS" is 12,500 miles overhead and consists of about 30 satellites. You cannot run wires to them. You connect to a receiver.

I agree [manufacturers] should make the color coding more standard between all the brands of radios. They should probably just make a standard connector that you can plug into each other.

The color coding would be helpful. However, there is no conformity on the signals. Some are differential, some are single-ended. The manufacturers need to provide the signals in a consistent method. NMEA-0183 currently specifies differential signals, but many many devices are provided with only single-ended signals. This further complicates the interconnection of devices.

As for a standard connector, I have already solved that problem, along with the single-ended to differential interface problem, with my system of universal NMEA_0183 interface using a five-pin connector. See

continuousWave: Whaler: Reference: Universal NMEA-0183 Interface

The above describes a consistent connector and wiring method that allows interconnection of NMEA-0183 devices with any combination of differential or single-eneded signals.

In order for "a standard connector" as you suggest to be able to allow devices to plug into each other, the connector would have to be a gender-less connector, or two connectors would be needed. The notion of using a genderless connector that could mate with itself is interesting, and I have looked into that solution, but I have not found any off-the-shelf connectors that would be useful. The more practical approach is to use a single connector and have a backplane or motherboard which the device connectors plug-in. That is the approach I used in my system.

If a separate connector is used for the TALKER and LISTENER circuits, then you would need one set of connectors for each interface. As many devices have two NMEA-0183 interfaces, this would require four connectors.

In my opinion the best approach is to have a connector at the device end of the cable, so you can easily remove the device, and to just have a pigtail of wires at the other end, which are interconnected as necessary. In that way, you could remove the radio or GPS receiver without having to disturb the interconnection to other devices. If you had to break up all the device-to-device connections, there is always a chance that when reconnected an error could be made.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Uniden U380 / Garmin 441s DSC hookup

ugh...I should have known better. :facepalm:

sorry guys!