Lower Total Cost Of Ownership due to less cabling to be purchased and installedĪctisense offers a complete NMEA 2000 Network Solution, consisting of: Higher Total Cost Of Ownership due to longer more expensive cable runs, cable running labor, network configuration labour Plug & Play technology, one bus Cable, standardized connectors Of connectors depending on Device Manufacturer

More complex to set-up, one-to-one cabling necessary, different types Very fast (250kbps / 50 x times faster than NMEA 0183)

On larger vessels using NMEA 2000 cabling can save as much as 150kg weight and 3 weeks cable running labor, due to the central backbone topology.Ĭonnects only Navigation and Communication DevicesĬonnects NavCom, as well as engine data and Tank Level Sensor Devices This is an older standard, but is still widely used, especially on commercial IMO SOLAS vessels.Īs is immediately obvious from above diagrams, NMEA 0183 uses significantly more cabling to connect all devices. Older Marine Electronic Devices commonly have NMEA 0183 interfaces. Mid-Feed=2 backbone segments totally 100m Maximum Voltage Drop per Backbone recommended for higher backbone lengths and/or high LEN Maximum Number of NMEA 2000 Devices per NetworkĮquivalent Network Load for all devices (LEN) per Backbone Segment In addition, NMEA 2000 networks should be designed adhering to below rules. All the required NMEA 2000 network parts can be supplied by Actisense via Lambda Marine.īackbone maximum cable length (terminator-to-terminator) Additional cable lengths can be used between any of the connectors to extend the length of the network, whilst ensuring that the NMEA 2000 rules for cable lengths are adhered to, see below “Table 1 - NMEA 2000 Cable Length Rules”. T-Pieces are needed to connect each device to the network.

2 x NMEA 2000 Devices (such as the Actisense EMU-1 and/or any other NMEA 2000 certified device from various manufacturers such as Radars, Chartplotters, GPS etc.).

2 x T-Pieces (one per connected device).

2 x Terminating Resistors (to terminate the network on both ends of the backbone).

1 x Power-T (to insert network power, should be fused).

In addition, a correctly functioning network will require at the minimum the following components:

Instrument drop: The length of drop cable that connects an NMEA 2000 device to the backboneĪn example of a full NMEA 2000 network is shown below.Īll NMEA 2000 networks require a 12V DC (or 13.8VDC) supply.

T-pieces: are connected along the network for NMEA devices to plug in to using a drop cable.

Backbone: The main trunk of cable that runs through the boat to form the network, either with one end-fed power point (1 segment) or one mid-fed power insertion point (2 segments).

As shown in figure 1 above, NMEA 2000 networks consist of:

Nmea 2000 network diagram