Yes back again. That is, Debbie is back down in the lazzeretti this time working on our WatchMate XB-8000smartAIS Transponder with WiFi and NMEA 2000 Gateway. I can fit in there but all scrunched up but Debbie has some room to spare😀 Also Debbie is putting the fuses in so our solar panels can go live. We do that in the dark so no live panels.
December 2019 - Currently in Paradise Village Marina in Banderas Bay Mexico (by Puerto Vallarta)
The best place for us to place the WatchMate XB-8000 smartAIS Transponder with WiFi and NMEA 2000 Gateway was under the nav station.
I am putting some 3M4000 UV Marine Adhesive on the corners of the AIS unit and set on top of the ICOM 802 SSB box and taped it in place temporarily.
We tried to guess what we would need to install the system when we bought the WatchMate XB-8000 smartAIS Transponder in San Diego while we were house sitting. We purchased this all from Downwind Marine.
We ordered a VHF x8 cable 25 feet long to go from the antenna splitter to the WatchMate XB-8000 smartAIS Transponder .
We ordered it through Defender Marine and it arrived here in Mexico, Paradise Village Marina no problem. Actually, Brad on s\v DarBay ordered it for us. It did cost 1\3 more or a bit more than that but we did get it along with a couple of solder-on connectors.
Debbie down under putting in the fuses.
We did not have a lot of choice as to where we installed the splitter.
The antenna cable coming from the mast is on the left and that's as far as it goes. The VHF cable to the VHF radio has no more slack either. We had to add an extension cable to VHF cable to the radio so we could get the splitter to where we could see the trouble shooting light.
We purchased a new 25' x8 cable from Defender Marine with Brad and Darlene on s\v DarBay who did the purchasing work. It was shipped here to Paradise Village Marina and cost at least a third more but we got it. We also got two Shakespeare VHF solder-on ends and Brad helped me with soldering them on. This cable runs from the splitter to the WatchMate XB-8000.
Debbie is wiring up the power to the AIS / VHF / FM
Antenna Splitter (SP160).
The splitter power needs to be on or the WatchMate XB-8000 could get damaged. So we are wiring them together. The Splitter and the WatchMate XB-8000 will come on together or go off together. For a fuse we used a 2 amp blade fuse (recommended). The VHF radio will run whether the splitter is on or off.
And later running the awg #16 extension wires to the WatchMate XB-8000 we had to hook up to power wires. The others are for the external alarm and the on\off switch for the alarm and other extras..
Now we have a working AIS transmitting out our position. Another nice safety item. This also has a nice anchor alarm which uses miniscule battery power and can be left on all the time we are at anchor. No tablet to worry about running out of battery etc. Also it has an external alarm which we can put, say, in the state room where it will surely wake us up. We will get another external alarm but they only had one when we purchased this.
We have our WatchMate XB-8000 smartAIS Transponder with WiFi and NMEA 2000 Gateway installed and working.
The green light is atroubleshooting light. All green like now means it is working greatt!
Before we had to switch the Standard Horizon Matrix GX 2150 from it's Standard Horizon Q7000619A External GPS 50 Channel Smart Antenna to our Garmin GPSMAP 942 chart plotter by changing setting on the radio when we wanted AIS receiving on the plotter. We would only need to do it once while on passage but it still was one more thing we had to remember to do. We still need to secure all the wiring but we have it done. Also we still need to connect the alarm and alarm switch. But it is working now for AIS transmit and receive!
On our chart plotter. We are at the dock in Paradise Village Marina.
quiparodno_Sioux Falls Wayne Wolf https://wakelet.com/wake/1c4DePTVInRETgO9Lb4hg
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