In the top left of the photo above, note the STng tee with the incoming blue-striped backbone cable. Thus I learned that thereвЂ™s an alternative to the backbone splicing method, easier though not any more pretty. I know this issue well because I built Have Another DayвЂ™s first NMEA 2000 network using SeaTalk NG cabling and since then have converted most of it to standard N2K DeviceNet cabling. One end of Have Another DayвЂ™s NMEA 2000 network is adapted from SeaTalk NG to DeviceNet Also, IвЂ™d say that Raymarine offering these adapters validates the fact that STng is truly N2K with a different cabling scheme.

This never seemed like a good solution, so IвЂ™m very happy to (finally) see Raymarine offer these adapters. In fact, on their own forum, Raymarine suggests chopping off one end of STng backbone and standard N2K cables and then splicing the two together. ItвЂ™s always been a mystery to me that Raymarine didnвЂ™t offer an STng backbone to N2K plug adapter even though the spur adaptor was available when SeaTalk NG launched in 2007. IвЂ™d love to provide you links to RayвЂ™s web pages for these adapters, IвЂ™m guessing they will appear in the adapter cable section of the SeaTalk NG page soon. Backbone cables wonвЂ™t fit in spur sockets and nor will spur cables fit in backbone sockets. Sockets on STng devices and tee connectors have blue and white locking collars to indicate the cable type. The backbone cables have a blue stripe and blue ends on the connectors while the spur cables have a white stripe and white connector. In a departure from NMEA 2000 standard cabling, SeaTalk NG uses separate backbone and spur cables. Good news! Raymarine now offers cables that adapt STng backbone to male (Raymarine Part number A80674) and female (A80675) N2K connectors. But, until very recently, Raymarine has not offered an adapter to convert the blue-striped SeaTalk NG (STng) backbone cables, only the white-striped spur cables. ItвЂ™s compatible with NMEA 2000вЂ™s standard DeviceNet cabling through the use of adapters.

RaymarineвЂ™s SeaTalk NG is RaymarineвЂ™s proprietary version of NMEA 2000 cabling. A sample SeaTalk NG network with both ends adapted to NMEA 2000 DeviceNet via the new adapters

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