| Have you ever wanted to directly wire your marine electronics into your computer? Now you can with our new USB Breakout Cable featuring the rock-solid FTDI USB chipset.
This cable is available in two versions - one for interfacing with RS232 devices and one for working with true NMEA RS422 devices.
The product consists of a standard USB connector that plugs into your computer's USB port and a 6 foot cable with bare leads on the end. These bare leads can be connected directly to the input / output leads on your marine electronics device, including chartplotters, AIS receivers and transponders, radios and any other device that has bare lead connections for interfacing with the device.
The RS232 version of the USB Breakout Cable uses a common ground signaling system with leads for signal input and output. This cable is most appropriate for use with marine electronics devices that also have a common ground system for interfacing with other devices. This would include the RS232 interface wires on common ground chartplotters such as the Standard Horizon plotters, Garmin 3000, 400 and 500 series plotters, the SR161 AIS receiver and other true common ground RS232 devices.
Other marine electronics use a true NMEA RS422 system for interfacing with other devices. Typically these devices have a pair of isolated signal wires for input and another isolated pair for output. None of these signal wires are tied to ground and carry different voltages and are also known as differential signal interfaces. Devices that use a true NMEA RS422 signaling system include Raymarine chartplotters and Garmin 4000/5000 series chartplotters. For these types of devices, the NMEA RS422 version of the USB Breakout Cable is the correct cable to use to interface with your computer.
Note that some of the products we sell include interface wiring for both RS232 and NMEA RS422. This includes all of our Class B transponders, the Comar SLR 200 and the AMEC CYPHO-101 and 101G.
 Want to connect Coastal Explorer and the GX2150 AIS Matrix radio together? |
To see an example of how this cable can help simplify an installation, let's look at how you would connect your Standard Horizon Matrix AIS radio to your Windows-based computer and use the AIS data from the Matrix in your Coastal Explorer navigation program. Since the Matrix uses a common ground system for interfacing with other electronics you would start with the RS232 version of the USB Breakout Cable. Then you would simply connect the GREEN common ground wire on the Matrix accessory cable to the BLACK ground wire on the USB Breakout Cable and then connect the BROWN AIS out wire on the Matrix to the YELLOW RXD data in wire on the USB Breakout Cable. For the GX2150 you could instead connect the Matrix GRAY wire to the YELLOW RXD wire on the USB cable however to do this, you also need to change the default baud rate on the GX2150 to 38400 baud. This solution will allow both AIS and DSC sentences to be passed to the USB Cable. See the Matrix documentation for more information. Once you have connected the wires, load the USB drivers in Windows, set up the new virtual com port in Coastal Explorer using 38,400 baud and you now have an AIS data feed for your PC-based navigation system from your Matrix AIS radio.
This is just one example. There are dozens of other scenarios where these cables can simplify the installation process.
Virtual COM Port Drivers Support Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, Server 2003 and Server 2008 Windows XP Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit) Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) Windows XP Embedded Windows CE 4.2, 5.0 and 6.0 Mac OS 8/9, OS-X Linux 2.4 and greater
Features
USB Breakout Cable RS232 Version | USB Breakout Cable RS422 Version | USB-RS232 converter cable provides a USB to RS232 serial interface with customized end connectors. | USB-RS422 converter cable provides a USB to RS422 serial interface with customised end connectors. | Entire USB protocol handled by the electronics in the cable USB. | EIA/TIA-232 and V.28/V.24 communication interface with low power requirements. | EIA/TIA-422 communication interface with low power requirements. | UART interface support for 7 or 8 data bits, 1 or 2 stop bits and odd / even / mark / space / no parity. | FTDIs royalty-free VCP allow for communication as a standard emulated COM port and D2XX direct drivers provide DLL application programming interface. | Visual indication of Tx and Rx traffic via LEDs in the transparent USB connector. | Fully assisted hardware (RTS#/CTS#) or X-On / X-Off software handshaking. | X-On / X-Off software handshaking. | Data transfer rates from 300 baud to 1 Mbaud. | Data transfer rates from 300 baud to 3 Mbaud. | Support for FT232R FTDIChip-ID feature for improved security. | Low USB bandwidth consumption. | UHCI / OHCI / EHCI host controller compatible. | USB 2.0 Full Speed compatible. | -40C to +85C operating temperature range. | Cable length is 1.80m (6 feet). | ESD Protection for RS-232 I/O's 15kV Human Body Model (HBM) 15kV EN61000-4-2 Air Gap Discharge 8kV EN61000-4-2 Contact Discharge | FCC, CE and RoHS compliant. | FCC, CE and RoHS compliant. |
Wiring colors and signal descriptions for RS232 version Color | Name | Type | Description | Connected to marine device | Black | GND | GND | Device ground supply pin. | Common ground wire | Brown | CTS# | Input | Clear to Send Control input / Handshake signal. |
| Red | POWER | Output | Power output not used. |
| Orange | TXD | Output | Transmit Asynchronous Data output. | Data Input signal wire | Yellow | RXD | Input | Receive Asynchronous Data input. | Data Output signal wire | Green | RTS# | Output | Request To Send Control Output / Handshake signal. |
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Wiring colors and signal descriptions for RS422 version Color | Name | Type | Description | Connected to marine device | Black | GND | GND | Device ground supply pin. |
| Brown | CTS+ | Input | Clear to Send Control + (B), Input |
| Red | TXD- | Output | Data (A) Output | RX (A) Input signal wire | Orange | TXD+ | Output | Data + (B) Output | RX (B) Input signal wire | Yellow | RXD+ | Input | Data + (B) Input | TX (B) Output signal wire | Green | RTS+ | Output | Request To Send Control + (B), Output |
| Blue | RTS- | Output | Request To Send Control (A), Output |
| White | RXD- | Input | Data (A) Input | TX (A) Output signal wire | Grey | CTS- | Input | Clear to Send Control input (A), Input |
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Drivers for both products can be downloaded here.
Technical information on the RS232 cable can be found here.
Technical information on the RS422 cable can be found here.
For assistance selecting the correct cable, feel free to contact our sales department. |
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