Nexus NX2 system displaying 0 wind speed and angle

[Dave 11]

I meant to thank you for providing the manual above, so thanks!

I had a wireless NX2 system which I changed to wired earlier this year, haven't managed to hook it up yet to see if it works, and if the reprogramming of the server was successful.  Hard to find support for this gear I found.

If you strike problems with your testing I've still got the old wireless head, welcome to it if it's of any use.

Cheers,

Dave

[ballystick 79]

Thanks Dave,

it is probably a trip to nowhere trying to keep the system going as something else will fail! What was surprising was the coating of dust and dirt on the unit, a total black-out especially with it being at the top of the mast and inside a fairly sealed unit, it is a wired unit. Maybe there is some ionisation that attracts the dust?? It cleaned up well though.

[Dave 11]

Yep it sure looks mint in your photos, well done on the clean up.  The dust looked reminiscent of electrical bearing type stuff but you're far more technical than me!  I've got a wee fella with a bucket of crap that visits all the nooks and crannies of my boat and sprays it liberally around, industrious soul is he...

[ballystick 79]

I connected the unit up and used a fan to spin the impellor. Seemed to respond to speed and direction but unsure of the quality of the signal. Periodically there is a packet of pulses that come through, one is direction and the other speed. Still a bit of playing to be done.

[kiwi_jon 27]

What you are looking at is rs485 serial datagrams at a 9600 baud rate that contain wind speed and direction information. It is the protocol that Nexus use on the NEXUS/instrument data bus. 

The original NX2 wind transducers like the one I have just replaced connect to the wind port on the server and data encoding is done in the server whereas with yours and my new transducer the data is encoded and packaged in the head unit and the cable connects directly to the NEXUS/instrument bus.

When I pulled my old transducer apart the front bearing was totally flogged out and rusted solid. The shaft was well worn and there was rusty residue throughout the unit and on the electronics.

Unfortunately my new transducer doesn't work either. I think I have cable damage inside the mast so the rig is now ready to whip out next week. The riggers are going to replace my rod rigging and 32 year old rigging screws at the same time as I do the electrical work on the mast.

Replacing my wind gear has turned into an expensive excercise.

[Island Time 1,313]

Might be a good time to update it. $2600 for a B&G wireless (mast unit, rest is wired) Triton 2 depth/speed/wind pack. Comes with masthead unit, receiver, Triton 2 display, N2k starter kit, DST (depth speed temp) thru hull. 

[Sudden5869 19]

10 hours ago, Island Time said:

Might be a good time to update it. $2600 for a B&G wireless (mast unit, rest is wired) Triton 2 depth/speed/wind pack. Comes with masthead unit, receiver, Triton 2 display, N2k starter kit, DST (depth speed temp) thru hull. 

@ballystick Oliver Sudden was having ongoing troubles with our Nexus wind, then depth.... ran without instruments for nearly a year.
IT supplied a B&G system, and it's great.  Super easy to read. Plenty of information / display options.  

[ballystick 79]

Yes, the inevitable system replacement is on the cards. I like the pricing of the B&G these days and it seems that the quality and reliability has been retained with the budget range.

[Dave 11]

Has anyone got experience with the NX starter system with the WSI box and no server?  I've gone with a wired wind transducer but didn't get the brief on where to attach the cable.  The WSI box is full so I'm assuming it goes directly to the back of the instrument itself, can anyone clarify please?

Thanks

[Gappy 9]

11 hours ago, Dave said:

Has anyone got experience with the NX starter system with the WSI box and no server?  I've gone with a wired wind transducer but didn't get the brief on where to attach the cable.  The WSI box is full so I'm assuming it goes directly to the back of the instrument itself, can anyone clarify please?

Thanks

You can't plug a wired wind into a standard wsi box as its always looking for a wireless masthead unit signal  the only way is to get the wsi reprogrammed so the wireless wind is turned off the mast cable is then wired into the network port piggyback colour for colour  

[Dave 11]

You Sir, are a legend.  Thanks for that, my WSI box has been reprogrammed so I'll hook it all up and see what happens.  Be nice to turn that ornament on the top of my mast into something a bit more useful.

Final old Nexus question: Is there any way to output the data to a laptop?  I'd like to have a play with OpenCPN tactics and build some polars.  The interwebs would suggest not...

Cheers and thanks again.

[kiwi_jon 27]

57 minutes ago, Gappy said:

You can't plug a wired wind into a standard wsi box as its always looking for a wireless masthead unit signal  the only way is to get the wsi reprogrammed so the wireless wind is turned off the mast cable is then wired into the network port piggyback colour for colour  

It is going to depend on the mast transducer. If it is an original Nexus NX2 wired wind transducer then it is going to require a server to encode the pulse outputs. If it is a Garmin wired wind transducer then, yes, it connects directly to the NEXUS/instrument bus. I am not sure what color coding Garmin use in their cable. I have a short adapter cable that converts the Garmin Gwind cable to Nexus mast cable.

[kiwi_jon 27]

1 hour ago, Gappy said:

You can't plug a wired wind into a standard wsi box as its always looking for a wireless masthead unit signal  the only way is to get the wsi reprogrammed so the wireless wind is turned off the mast cable is then wired into the network port piggyback colour for colour  

It is going to depend on the mast transducer. If it is an original Nexus NX2 wired wind transducer then it is going to require a server to encode the pulse outputs. If it is a Garmin wired wind transducer then, yes, it connects directly to the NEXUS/instrument bus. I am not sure what color coding Garmin use in their cable. I have a short adapter cable that converts the Garmin Gwind cable to Nexus mast cable.

Edit: just found the specs for the Garmin mast cable. It's the same colors as the Nexus mast cable.

[Dave 11]

That's grand thanks.  It's definitely not NX2 so hopefully it should all work...

Cheers

[Gappy 9]

21 hours ago, kiwi_jon said:

It is going to depend on the mast transducer. If it is an original Nexus NX2 wired wind transducer then it is going to require a server to encode the pulse outputs. If it is a Garmin wired wind transducer then, yes, it connects directly to the NEXUS/instrument bus. I am not sure what color coding Garmin use in their cable. I have a short adapter cable that converts the Garmin Gwind cable to Nexus mast cable.

Edit: just found the specs for the Garmin mast cable. It's the same colors as the Nexus mast cable.

It doesn't matter with NX both the old and new masthead units work but either way you need to reprogrammed the wsi box.

Like wise if you plugged a wireless wind into NX2 server the server had to be programmed to look for the wsi box.