Sunday, February 3, 2008

Info on Installing Nexus Wireless Wind Transducer




In September 2007 I replaced my failed Nexus(Silva) wind transducer with the wireless model. The wireless transducer has two fins and a solar cell that powers a transmitter that sends data to the WSI box mounted below decks. No wires are required in the mast. The transducer bracket mounting holes match the old mounting bracket holes too. COMNAV, the importer of NEXUS, only sells the wireless wind transducer as part of an expensive bundle. To bypass this the transducer and the required WSI interface box (Nexus Nr. 22928 for the kit) was purchased from Marine Electronic SA,41 rue Louis-de-Savoie, CH-1110 Morges Switzerland.




There were some not so obvious tricks to the installation.


You need to have NEXUS NX2 server in order to have the current depth transducer. This is needed to be compatible with the WSI box also.


You will need several NEXUS Nr. 22121 4 pole pin plugs to actually connect the transducers to the WSI box. I had to buy them from a local COMNAV dealer in FL for a excessive $40 a piece.


The NEXUS depth and speed transducers must connect to the WSI box, not the NX2 server. This is because the WSI box is the master for those transducers. I left the transducers connected to the NX2 server but could not get them to work. Contacting NEXUS fixed that.




To get a good signal from the mast mounted transducer the WSI box has to be mounted parallel to the center line of the boat. Not knowing where the antenna was in the WSI box I mounted it on a piece of plexiglass.




Below are calibration ( setup ) data used. The wind transducer auto calibrates.




CALIBRATION DATA
SPEED
C10 RETURN
C11 UNITS KTS
C12 CAL 1.25
C13 DAMPING d2



DEPTH
C20 RETURN
C21 UNIT FT
C22 00 ADJ _01.3 Transdcuer offset below surface
C23 TEMP UNIT F
C24 TEMP CAL 0
C25 Hpa INH Atmospheric pressure unit INH= inches



NAVIGATION
C30 RETURN
C31 PAGE ATO PAGE ATO automatically display nav page/gps is on
C32 00 OCA 0 no off course alarm set
C33 00.0 VAR -5.85 deg 48 min W 0.8 minus is west, underline is east
C34 AUTO DEV start auto deviation process
C35 AUTO CHK start auto deviation check
C36 AUTO CLR clear auto deviation memory
C37 000 ADJ 0 compass transducer miss-alignment
C38 OFF SEC ON position in degrees, minutes, seconds
C39 PILOT SEA MID steer pilot damping
C40 OFF MAG ON all headings and bearings magnetic
C41 DAMPING d2




WIND
C50 RETURN
C51 PAGE ATO PAGE ATO automatically display nav page/gps is on
C52 OFF TWA OFF On displays true wind
C53 UNITS KTS
C54 CAL 1.7 (1.7 for twin fin transducer )
C55 000 adj 0 Mast top misalignment ( A Fault )
C56 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C57 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C58 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C59 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C60 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C61 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C62 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C63 Wind Cal value N/A for wireless xducer- it has built in cal table
C64 WIA WIA
C65 DAMPING SEA d2
C66
C67 WSA 0 Wind speed alarm in meters always, no feet allowed



NETWORK & NMEA CALIBRATION
Enter Calibration/Set, press Page until C70 is displayed
C70 RETURN
C71 ENTRY BEEP ON
C72 d0 SEA d2
C73 OFF BSP OFF FOR USE WITH NEXUS LOG
C74 OFF DEP OFF FOR USE WITH NEXUS DEPTH
C75 OFF COMP OFF FOR USE WITH NEXUS COMPASS
C76 OFF WIND OFF FOR USE WITH NEXUS WIND SENSOR
C77 NMEA SENTENCES OUT FROM SERVER
TO
C92
C93 d4 NME NMEA OUT DAMPING COMPASS HEADING & SPEED ONLY
C94 OFF SOG OFF FOR NX2 SPEED SENSOR
C95 OFF COG OFF FOR NX2 COMPASS SENSOR
C96 REF BSP REF BSP For use of log transducer for BSP wind functions