Overview

The M7 GX series of GPS transponders may be directly connected to a Garmin Oregon 450. When connected, the Garmin display map will show the location of the vehicle it is in PLUS the location of all other M7 transponders within radio range.  This unique feature allows one to quickly, easily, and inexpensively, make a mobile AVL system for tracking cars, trucks, race cars, construction equipment, or any thing Raveon’s M7 GX transponder may be installed on.

The Garmin Oregon 450 has a built-in interfaces for a “NMEA 0183? devices, which is another way of saying that they can connect to other devices using a serial cable.   The NMEA 0183 is an RS232 serial connection that typically operates at 4800 baud.  It is used to exchange way point and other information between displays, GPS devices, and transponders.

When Raveon’s M7 GX transponder is connected to the Oregon using the NMEA 0183 connection, the M7 transponder can put icons on the screen of the Garmin display.  As the transponder received updated positions from other vehicles, it updates the position of the icons on the Garmin display.

How NMEA 0183 works

Here is how their NMEA 0183 interface works:

NMEA 0183 Cable Connections

NMEA 0183 is a standard communications format for marine electronic equipment. For example, an autopilot can connect to the NMEA interface of a GPS and receive positioning information.  The GPS can exchange information with any device that transmits or receives NMEA 0183 data. See the following diagram for general wiring connections. Read your product’s owner’s manual for specific wiring information.

NMEA 0183 Wiring  (Data cable)

The Garmin Oregon 450 uses the yellow wire to transmit, the white wire to receive and the Black and green wire for ground.

The M7 DB9 Serial Connector

The 9-pin serial I/O connector on the M7 is a female 9-p D-sub miniature connector having the following pins configuration.

Front-view of DB-9 connector on modem (female)

Wiring the DB9

The Oregon’s “Data Cable” must be connected to the M7 transponder.  This connection will allow the M7 to put icons on the screen of the Oregon display, showing the location of other tracked vehicles.  The Raveon M7 GPS transponder uses a 9-pin “DB9? connector to connect to the Oregon.  Solder the Oregon data cable wires onto a DB9 connector and plug the DB9 into the M7 transponder as shown below:

The white wire goes to pin two of the DB9, the yellow wire to pin 3, the black and green wires get twisted together and both go to pin 5, and the red wire goes to pin 9 of the DB9. It is recommended that you keep the fuse on the red wire when setting up the DB9 connector.

Configuring the M7 GX Transponder

Raveon has a designed the M7 GX transponder to work with Garmin Oregon Display or any other NMEA 0183 display that can accept the “$GPWPL” NMEA message.   The $GPWPL is an industry standard message that the Garmin displays and many other GPS displays interpret as a way point command.  The M7 GX outputs this $GPWPL message to put icons on the screen of the Garmin, and to move the icons around on its screen.

To configure the M7 transponder to output the $GPWPL message, set the M7 GX to GPS mode 2.  To do this, put it into the configuration mode by send the +++ into the serial port.  The M7 will respond with an OK.  Type GPS 4 and press enter to put it into GPS 4 mode.  GPS 4 is the mode that causes the M7 GX to output $GPWPL messages whenever it receives a status/position message over the air.

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The M7 GX series of GPS transponders may be directly connected to a Garmin 60C series of hand-held GPSs.  All members of the Garmin 60C family have an RS232 option that is compatible with NMEA 0183 messages.  This allows them to be used with Raveon’s RavTrack series of GPS radio transponders to make a complete GPS tracking system.

When connected to the M7 GPS radio transponder or the Atlas PLPersonal Locator, the Garmin’s map will show the location of all of the the user PLUS the location of all other transponders within radio range.  This unique feature allows one to quickly, easily, and inexpensively, make a portable AVL system for tracking cars, trucks, racecars, construction equipment, or any thing Raveon’s M7 GX or Atlas PL transponder may be installed on.

The Garmin 60C series of hand-held GPSs have built-in interfaces for a “NMEA 0183″ devices, which is another way of saying that they can connect to other devices using a serial cable.   The NMEA 0183 is an RS232 serial connection that typically operates at 4800 baud.  It is used to exchange way-point and other information between displays, GPS devices, and transponders.

When Raveon’s M7 GX transponder is connected to the Garmin display using the NMEA 0183 connection, the GPS radio transponder can put icons on the screen of the Garmin display.  As the transponder receives updated positions from other vehicles, it updates the position of the tracked vehicle icons on the Garmin’s display.

Garmin 60C, 60CS, 60Cx Wiring

From the Garmin technical manual, here is how their NMEA 0183 interface works:

NMEA 0183 Cable Connections

NMEA 0183 is a standard communications format for marine electronic equipment. For example, an autopilot can connect to the NMEA interface on the Garmin 60C and receive positioning information.  The Garmin 60C series can exchange information with any device that transmits or receives NMEA 0183 data.  See the following diagram for general wiring connections. Read yourother product’s owner’s manual for more wiring information.

NMEA 0183 Wiring  (Data cable)

Wiring the Serial Cable

The Garmin’s “Data Cable” must be connected to the M7 GPS transponder (or Atlas OL).  This connection will allow the M7 to put icons on the screen of the Garmin display, showing the location of other tracked vehicles.  The Raveon M7 GPS transponder uses a 9-pin “DB9″ connector to connect to the Garmin.  Solder the Garmin data cable wires onto a DB9 connector and plug the DB9 into the M7 transponder as shown below:

Connect the white wire(serial data from M7 into Garmin) from the Garmin’s Serial Cable goes to pin 2 of the M7’s RS232 DB9 connector.  You do not need to connect the brown wire(serial data from Garmin), so you can trim it off.  Connect the shield braid of the Garmin Serial Cable to pin 5 of the DB9.  The red wire optionally can connect to pin 9 of the Raveon GPS transponder’s DB9 to power the Garmin from the DC source that powers the M7.

If you do not wire your own cable, but instead use Garmin’s RS232 serial cable, you will need to connect the Garmin’s RS232 cable to the M7 GPS transponder using a “NULL Modem” adaptor.

Configuring the Garmin

Set the NMEA communication of the Garmin to 4800 baud.

Configuring the M7 GX Transponder

Raveon has a designed the M7 GX transponder to work with Lowrance Display or any other NMEA 0183 display that can accept the “$GPWPL” NMEA message.   The $GPWPL is an industry standard message that the Lowrance displays and many other GPS displays interpret as a waypoint command.  The M7 GX outputs this $GPWPL message to put icons on the screen of the Lowarance, and to move the icons around on its screen.

To configure the M7 transponder to output the $GPWPL message, set the M7 GX to GPS mode 2.  To do this, put it into the configuration mode by send the +++ into the serial port.  The M7 will respond with an OK.  Type GPS 4 and press enter to put it into GPS 4 mode.  GPS 4 is the mode that causes the M7 GX to output $GPWPL messages whenever it receives a status/position message over the air.

The M7 GX series of GPS transponders may be directly connected to a Lowrance Globalmap 540C or a Globalmap 840C navigation display. When connected, the Lowrance display map will show the location of the vehicle it is in PLUS the location of all other M7 transponders within radio range.  This unique feature allows one to quickly, easily, and inexpensively, make a mobile AVL system for tracking cars, trucks, racecars, construction equipment, or any thing Raveon’s M7 GX transponder may be installed on.

Both the 540C and 840C have built-in interfaces for a “NMEA 0183″ devices, which is another way of saying that they can connect to other devices using a serial cable.   The NMEA 0183 is an RS232 serial connection that typically operates at 4800 baud.  It is used to exchange waypoint and other information between displays, GPS devices, and transponders.

When Raveon’s M7 GX transponder is connected to the Lowarnce diplay using the NMEA 0183 connection, the M7 transponder can put icons on the screen of the Lowrance display.  As the transponder received updated positions from other vehicles, it updates the position of the icons on the Lowrance display.

Lowrance 540C and 840C Wiring

From the Lowranace technical manual, here is how their NMEA 0183 interface works:

NMEA 0183 Cable Connections

NMEA 0183 is a standard communications format for marine electronic equipment. For example, an autopilot can connect to the NMEA interface on the GlobalMap 540c and receive positioning information.  The GlobalMap 540c can exchange information with any device that transmits or receives NMEA 0183 data. See the following diagram for general wiring connections. Read yourother product’s owner’s manual for more wiring information.

NMEA 0183 Wiring  (Data cable)

To exchange NMEA 0183 data, the GlobalMap 540c has one NMEA 0183 version 2.0 communication port. Com port one (Com-1) can be used to receive NMEA format GPS data. The com port can also transmit NMEA format GPS data to another device.  The four wires for the com port are combined with the Power Supply cable and NMEA 2000 Power cable to form the power/data cable (shown earlier). Com-1 uses the yellow wire to transmit, the orange wire to receive and the shield wire for signal ground. Your unit does not use the blue wire.

Wiring the DB9

The Lowrance’s “Data Cable” must be connected to the M7 transponder.  This connection will allow the M7 to put icons on the screen of the Lowrance display, showing the location of other tracked vehicles.  The Raveon M7 GPS transponder uses a 9-pin “DB9″ connector to connect to the Lowrance.  Solder the Lowrance data cable wires onto a DB9 connector and plug the DB9 into the M7 transponder as shown below:

The orange wire goes to pin two of the DB9, the yellow wire to pin 3, and the shield braid of he cable connects to pin 5 of the DB9.  The blue wire is trimmed off.

The extra wires on the Lowrance display called NMEA 2000 power are typically not used in a vehicle installation, and may be wrapped up with electrical tape and tucked away.

Configuring the Lowrance

Set the NMEA communication of the Lowrance to 4800 baud.

Configuring the M7 GX Transponder

Raveon has a designed the M7 GX transponder to work with Lowrance Display or any other NMEA 0183 display that can accept the “$GPWPL” NMEA message.   The $GPWPL is an industry standard message that the Lowrance displays and many other GPS displays interpret as a waypoint command.  The M7 GX outputs this $GPWPL message to put icons on the screen of the Lowarance, and to move the icons around on its screen.

To configure the M7 transponder to output the $GPWPL message, set the M7 GX to GPS mode 2.  To do this, put it into the configuration mode by send the +++ into the serial port.  The M7 will respond with an OK.  Type GPS 4 and press enter to put it into GPS 4 mode.  GPS 4 is the mode that causes the M7 GX to output $GPWPL messages whenever it receives a status/position message over the air.