For all the Furuno sounder users
Hi all,
Just thought I would pop a comment out there for the guys that are running Furuno sounders and in particular those that have a FCV 620, 585, 295 or 1150. Recently I have noticed comments and had quite a few phone calls about linking plotters to Furuno sounders so that a mark can be transferred from the sounder to the GPS.
Some of this information may already be known to you or you are using it, but bear with me so I can give some advice to others that are not aware.
When transferring a mark from a Furuno sounder it uses a NMEA 0183 sentence called TLL (Target Latitude, Longitude). The plotter that needs the mark popped on to it needs to be able to receive TLL. Not all plotters have the ability to read this sentence even some Furuno ones don't do it. So it pays to check if your plotter can do it first.
However for those of you that want to do this but the chart plotter/GPS is unable to recieve TLL and do have a Furuno sounder then all is not lost. You can still join up your GPS and sounder with NMEA wiring to give the sounder GPS data. This will allow you to use the mark function and stick a mark on a position that is of interest to you. The mark will be held in your menu, data, waypoints area where you can view it at any stage. This will mean that you will need to manually put the coordinates into your non TLL reciveing GPS. But hey at least you can mark those fish or lumps and have the coordinates.
Off the top of my head I think most of the Furuno sounders can take 20 waypoints before you have to delete to put new ones in.
I spent some time up with site sponsor All Boat Business today sharing tips and they are ready for the Mandurah Boat Show.
Cheers all and if I bored you because you know all this, then my apologies.
Happy days
Rhyss
whipasswaverunner
Posts: 181
Date Joined: 25/09/09
Good info
Thanks Rhyss,very interesting, I'm still deciding whether to link my new 585 to my Gp7000.
Cheers.
Ashram
Posts: 134
Date Joined: 23/10/09
You can
Go for it, both can do TLL and the 585 power cable has the NMEA built in it and the 7000 has the right cable as a spare in the box.
Cheers
Tim
Posts: 2497
Date Joined: 26/09/06
Do it
Definitely worth doing. Makes it easy to go back to a spot especially one you go over while traveling.
Some of those small lumps can be a pain to find again after you go over them at speed
mrwinta
Posts: 457
Date Joined: 14/01/10
Good advice Rhyss- Thanks. I
Good advice Rhyss- Thanks. I am looking forward to Saturday when i can go and pester ABB at the show to give me a good deal on that very set up!
NEVER PUSH YOUR GRANNY WHEN SHE'S SHAVING
smash
Posts: 434
Date Joined: 01/12/10
pardon my ignorance-but whats
pardon my ignorance-but whats the advantage of linking them as opposed to pushing a button on the plotter usually mounted right next to the sounder?
Frank F
Posts: 481
Date Joined: 17/03/09
I have linked my FCV 1150 to
I have linked my FCV 1150 to my GP 7000, the advantages are when travelling at 20-30knots by the time you see a lump on the sounder and mark it on the gps you would
have passed it by 2-3 hundred meters. Having it linked you can push the mark button on the sounder, which then freezes the screen so you can scroll the cursor to the lump
on the sounder screen hit mark button and it will accruately mark it on the gps.
I do this to when I am travelling to my fishing spot taking a different route each time so I can rack up more spots that I can go back to at a later date.
marble
Posts: 773
Date Joined: 03/09/09
Yeah its a really handy thing
Yeah its a really handy thing to be able to do. Buggered me up when I had to stop one day and erase the 20 marks from the sounder before it would save any more, got it sussed now athough and erase marks from the sounder each day when I`m cleaning the boat. (Also download from the gps to sd card every time as well, not losing hundreds of marks again like I have once before )
PMY 25 Centre Console DF300 Suzuki
gregs510
Posts: 2
Date Joined: 26/01/12
Device to connect Furuno sounder to GPS that doesn't support TLL
Folks,
I have got a device that WILL allow a GPS that doesn't support the TLL NMEA sentence to receive waypoints sent from a Furuno sounder like FCV620, 585 etc that uses TLL.
The GPS just needs to support the WPL sentence.
I can now send waypoints from my FCV620 to my Garmin GPSMAP298 using this device which is based on an "OpenTracker USB" (OTUSB) from Argent Data Systems in the US.
I have developed some custom software for the OTUSB that turns it into a TLL to WPL sentence translator - with it I can just hit the mark button on the FCV620 and the new waypoint appears on the GPSMAP!
The OTUSB is a device that is intended to allow information from a GPS and possibly other equipment like weather stations to be transmitted using a VHF or UHF radio.
I have simply used it a convenient piece of hardware to run my software which turns the OTUSB into a TLL to WPL sentence translator. Its data port is wired betweenthe furuno and GPS, its radio port is just used to connect to the boat's battery.
With this software installed, the OTUSB listens to NMEA messages from the Furuno and passes them through unaltered to the GPS except if it gets a TLL message, which it changes into the corresponding WPL message.
If you are interested in trying it, PM me - I can supply the wiring details and my custom code to upload.
You would need to buy the OpenTracker USB from Argent (see http://www.argentdata.com/products/otusb.html) - about US$40 + shipping - (I have no association with them other than as a customer!), get a serial cable that you would need to cut up to wire between the Furuno, GPS & OTUSB (about $20) and you would also need access to a PC with USB port and cable so you can download my custom software (free - but with no guarantees!) into the OTUSB.
One thing I have discovered using my device is that although the Furuno assigns internal waypoint numbers to the waypoints created with the mark button, it doesn't send the waypoint name/number in the TLL message, just the position. So when converted to a WPL message, this is also missing a waypoint name - but I find that when received by my Garmin, it simply creates a sequential local waypoint number to store the position against. I presume most GPSs would do something similar, but I haven't tested any other than my own GPSMAP298. For my device to be useful (with the current version of software I have developed), the attached GPS would have to be able to accept a WPL message without a waypoint name.
Cheers
Greg
ridge
Posts: 2
Date Joined: 01/04/13
tlll marks
hi greg
i am trying buying a newish rig over here in brisbane. i was going to have a new furuno fcv 295 with a raymarine e95 plotter until i found out you could'nt get marks on to plotter by using the tll sentence. but it does accept the WPL sentence
i would really love to download your software and purchase the necessary hardware
if i could ring you sometime so you could explain a little further would be much appreciated
regards ridge morris ridgway 0418 740 410
Mark Furno
Posts: 3
Date Joined: 12/07/16
Furuno to Lowrance MARK button success!
Hey guys,
I tried the above and got now joy about 2 years ago.
I found this box at Sydney boat show last week at Hunts Marine stand that makes my Furuno button work sweet on my Lowrance. its called MARKFISH. Aussie invention they said. www.mark.fish
Mark button is good to go now!
Life's pretty straight with out the bends.
Tomcat
Posts: 614
Date Joined: 24/02/11
Well done
I must be honest I don't understand one thing you said but it great to see someone come up will something others can use best of luck And I only wish I was that smart
grayzeee
Posts: 2283
Date Joined: 09/07/09
lol. I heartily agree
lol. I heartily agree
If I spent half as long fishing , as I do reading this bloody forum , I'd be twice the fisherman I am.
snappermiles
Posts: 2100
Date Joined: 05/11/10
lol tomcat
i was thinking the same , sounds great though! can you do it from a hds to a furuno 585??
ALL FISHERMEN ARE LIARS EXCEPT YOU AND ME! AND IM NOT SO SURE ABOUT YOU!
Mark Furno
Posts: 3
Date Joined: 12/07/16
Markfish interface
Hey lol tomcat,
the instruction on it works on the 585,587,588,295,1150 to HDS lowrance.
so yeah go for it. Mine is working a sinch.
Mark
Life's pretty straight with out the bends.
gregs510
Posts: 2
Date Joined: 26/01/12
HDS to Furuno 585
Shouldn't be a problem snappermiles provided HDS supports wpl sentence, which I think most gps's do - certainly not a prob from the 585 as it is identical in behaviour to the 620 in this area. If it's possible to connect the HDS's nmea data port to a pc's serial port then you can do a test to be absolutely certain - you run hyper terminal from the pc and type in a wpl sentence to the gps. If the gps registers a waypoint with the position details from the wpl sentence, then all is good.
Justvso folk understand what's going on, the gps and the furuno can exchange information with each other in a format defined by an organization known as the nmea using messages called sentences. There are lots of different types of sentence for exchanging different sorts of info like position, speed, temp, depth, waypoints etc etc. There is a code at the start of each sentence the defines the type of info in the rest of the sentence.
For sending waypoints there is the "WPL" sentence (that's the codevatvthe start) that most GPSs understand and there's also the "TLL" sentence that the furuno use. Problem is that most equipment don't understand every message type and many GPSs don't understand tll . All my device does is convert any tll sentences it hears into the equivalent wpl message - they are almost the same except for how the latitude, longitude and waypoint names are positioned in the message.
By connecting the gps and the furuno together the furuno receives a constant stream of sentences from the gps which includes the current position information which it remembers against the echos shown on the screen. When you hit the mark button to pause the screen and move the cursor to set a waypoint, the furuno uses the rembered position for that echo to create its waypoint and if set up to do so, will also send the waypoint position back to the gps...in a tll sentence which most don't understand!
Furuno could have saved us all the grief by supporting the wpl sentence in addition to the tll and furuno tll formats that are selectable from the menu.....but I guess they want you to use a furuno gps instead so of course they haven't provided the option.
Its not really complicated, it's just made difficult by these two alternate message formats for sending waypoints and the fact most GPSs understand one or other of the formats but not both.
bsir
Posts: 569
Date Joined: 24/04/11
Handy
Thanks Greg510, interesting write up.
ridge
Posts: 2
Date Joined: 01/04/13
trying to contact gregs510
hi
would any one have a contact for gregs510
the post he posted on 22-2-12 he had offered anyone who required this software he developed for TLL marks to be read by a WPL plotter
he said just to contact him and he would send it over
as i said i am trying to contasct him if any one knows him
regards morris 0418 740 410 any time
adamsanta
Posts: 1
Date Joined: 03/12/14
any luck ridge?
any luck ridge?
Twinfisher
Posts: 4
Date Joined: 07/12/14
Connecting a 588 and GP7000
What is required to connect these two units ?
I see Ashrams comment but I don't have any spare cables for the 7000.
Cheers
Tim
Posts: 2497
Date Joined: 26/09/06
Nmea
You need the nmea cable for the 7000. Should be able to get one from any dealer or Taylor marine.
Pretty sure they still stock the different cables. Will be your best option to get one unless someone has one laying around
Twinfisher
Posts: 4
Date Joined: 07/12/14
Connecting a 588 and GP7000
Cheers
Jackfrost80
Posts: 8050
Date Joined: 07/05/12
Three cheers for the inventor
Three cheers for the inventor of Markfish
Officially off the Pies bandwagon
Brock O
Posts: 3164
Date Joined: 11/01/08
Flicked past this a few
Flicked past this a few times...Usually just press save waypoints lol.
My lowrance has NMEA 0183 capabilities...how do I connect between sounder to GPS....lazy question I'm guessing?
biggerfish
Posts: 669
Date Joined: 02/03/09
Get a markfish
Get a markfish
Play hard fish harder
Jackfrost80
Posts: 8050
Date Joined: 07/05/12
You need a Markfish Brocko as
You can to get GPS on your Furuno but to send them to a HDS you need a Markfish Brocko as both units use difference NMEA sentences and it converts them to send accross
Officially off the Pies bandwagon