Man this sounds exactly like my experience with KVH. I had them replace
the $4.50 Radio Shack battery three times for
$65 a pop. They finally replace the "brain" the last time I complained,
but I'll bet the thing goes out in three or four months.
When I asked about the GPS, I was told I had to have a NMEA
concentrator,
but the previous owner of the boat had a GPS hooked in without one so I
know its possible.
I was going to add a wind sensor, but now think I'll just replace the whole mess with NEXUS. I'll give it one more try just because I'm a gluton for punishment...but hat's it.
If I get lucky, I'll let you know. Several other respondents implied that I might be able to make it work if I can get my GPS to SEND data. I also notice the 1.5 vs 2.0, so if that's the issue, it probably won't work. Anyway, I will try one more time.
BTW, I have a Sailcomp as well. Not luck with that at all.
Bee
John Heaney wrote:
> I don't know anything about a "Quadro", but for over a year I've
> been attempting to get my below-deck Garmin GPS chartplotter to "talk"
> to my KVH Sailcomp digital compass. No success yet, despite
> considerable time communicating with both KVH and Garmin by e-mail.
>
> Supposedly, the mast mounted display for my KVH compass is
> designed to also act as a repeater for certain information transmitted
> by the GPS. This would be an absolutely great feature if I could get
> it to work and was a major factor in my decision to buy a KVH Sailcomp
> over its competition. With the push of single button, the compass
> display is supposed to change and show the course ("bearing") and
> distance to the next waypoint. Assuming you've taken the time to
> enter all of your local racing buoys into your GPS as waypoints, it
> would then be very easy to find the next mark, estimate your laylines
> and jibing angles, etc. without having to send someone below deck or
> deal with all the problems of using a small, easily damaged handheld
> GPS.
>
> The problem seems to be that for the last 6 or seven years Garmin
> and all other manufacturers of GPS's use version 2.0 or higher of a
> communication protocol known as NMEA 183. KVH is still using version
> 1.5. The precise "sentence" that the KVH Sailcomp needs to receive
> from the GPS to function properly is not transmitted by version 2.0
> (although the same information is available from other sentences).
> KVH has been most uncooperative in helping to find a solution and
> apparently has no interest in updating their software to accommodate
> newer GPS's. Instead, KVH wants to place the blame on Garmin. Garmin
> is trying to figure out a way to get their units to be compatible with
> older NMEA devices, but no solution yet.
> I hope this is of help to you. If you have any more luck with
> KVH than I, please let me know.
> JOHN HEANEY
> SPIRIT
> Southern California Fleet Captain
>
> "J. Bee Bednar" wrote:
>
>> Has anyone out there successfully hooked a GPS to their KVH Quadro?
>>
>> If so, what did you do and how did you do it?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Bee
>> Sea Bee
>>
>> --
>> * J. Bee Bednar *
>> * Advanced Data Solutions *
>> * bednarb@AdvancedDataSolutions.com *
>>
>>
>
Received on Mon Nov 5 19:21:11 2001