maxsea10 cannot fined the GPS

[alex seal]

hi
my maxsea10 cannot fined the GPS on my laptop
can you give me a good advice on this one, please.
alex

[hellosailor]

Alex, if you are using a GPS with a USB adapter? Forget about it. Make sure you are using a real serial port, unless your Maxsea specifically says it can work with a specific GPS on a USB gizmo.

If you are using a serial port? Make sure the port and GPS are both set to 4800-N-8-1 and the GPS is in NMEA/NMEA mode, not a proprietary communications mode. Then look at something like http://www.ncc.up.pt/gpsman/ GPSMAN to see if other software can find the GPS, if you are still ahving problems.

[NavMan006]

I have a GPS receiver from GlobalSat model BT338, connecting to my laptop with Bluetooth, it's working fine i can see the data on my laptop using with it using "Offshore Navigator" there is no problem I can see the data ant it ok, when I try it with the MaxSea 10 I gat a error massage saying the com port being used by other program with wasn't the case, I have a on my laptop a internal Bluetooth so try to connect by using a an external USB Bluetooth and with that I mange to connect finely the GPS to my MaxSea 10.
Any idea why it is not working with the internal Bluetooth?

[jstevens]

Alex,
If the input from Hellosailor did not solve your problem, you probably need some input from someone familiar with Maxsea, which I am not.
Assuming you have the GPS connected either to your laptop's DB9 COM port (if it has one) to a USB port via a COM/USB adapter, I suggest using the HyperTerminal software (under Accessories/Communication) to verify the GPS connection before trouble shooting with the chart plotting application. The HyperTerminal is easy to setup for the COM port the GPS is connected to using the parameters spec'd by Hellosailor. Then you should see the raw NMEA data flowing on the screen. If not there is some problem with the GPS or port setup or your cable. If you do see the NMEA data in the HyperTerminal you know you have a good connection and the problem must be in the Maxsea setup for that port.

NavMan006,
I have no experience with either Bluetooth or Maxsea so i can't offer much in the way of help. I have experienced poorly behaving applications that grab exclusive use of a device or port, then don't release it cleanly when the program terminates. Have you done a clean restart of your PC then started Maxsea before any other program that might try to use that port?

John

[Wanderlust]

Hi Alex,

I use a Garmin serial GPS into Bluechart via a USB converter cable. The first cable I tried would not recognise the GPS, but I persevered and bought another one and that worked. I hear the compatibility issue is quite common with USB converters.


Steve

[hellosailor]

"the MaxSea 10 I gat a error massage saying the com port being used by other program with wasn't the case,"


But that does mean the software is looking at the OS and asking about the COM port, and being told by the OS that the COM port is in use, right or wrong.


"I have a on my laptop a internal Bluetooth "


OK. Putting these together...MaxSea may be looking for an old style (DOS and Win3.x/9x) COM port which *must* MUST *M*U*S*T be locating at COM1 through COM4, and in the old style often that means COM1 or COM2 only because COM3 and COM4 share some settings which can cause conflicts.


I don't know MaxSea but that's a common problem, when applications were not written for WindowsNT (XP and Windows2000 are also versions of NT) they have COM port problems with the new toys, like Bluetooth and USB, which re-assign things and create virtual COM ports and high numbered ports.


Check your MaxSea docs, they may specify COM1-COM4 only, in which case you may never get the bluetooth to work with them unless you can force it to COM1-COM4 in you computer setup. Sometimes this can be done in Windows, other times it needs to be done in the BIOS settings of your computer. If this sounds like GeekSpeak...it is, but a local geek should be able to make that change for you in fifteen minutes or less. (And verify that it works or not.)

[Quijote]

Hi,
I have Maxsea 10 and it doesn't seem to have a problem finding com ports. I just got an Edgeport/4 serial to USB adapter. After installing the Edgeport, Maxsea was able to see the Com ports that were assigned to the Edgeport (com 6, 6, 8 and 9). As previously mentioned, you may need a local geek to help you get the ports, baud rates, etc. sorted out.

BTW, Maxsea is a totally awesome piece of software! I am a convert from Fugawi, but Maxsea is so much easier to use and reads just about everything in the way of charts including the C-Map disks. I could go on and on....

regards,
richard black
S/V Saeta
Sceptre 41

[Talbot]

Comm Port problems are common, and I have just had a long saga with mine. for mine, my GPS on a USB line came in on Comm 3, while the serial port was on Comm 1. These both share the same IRQ and that is the cause of the problem. If you go into Device manager, and look at comm ports, you can select each one that is in use and check which IRQ that is being called up. (select properties). Check tha the port settings are sufficiently fast for the incoming message, and then check the resources used (where the IRQ will be listed) If this is where the conflict is happening (GPS likes to snaffle the whole IRQ) you can force it to change.
On the same page that the resources are listed, there will also be a box selected which calls for automatic assignment or similar words. (this is different in different versions of windows naturally). If you de-select this, you will be asked to make a selection of manual frequency , select the first one and then re-start the computer. These are listed normally to enable you to force the port to use comm 1 through to 4 . select one that is not being used by anything else (for me this was comm2, but I also had to disable the IR output as well)

[Jon D]

On a related issue last weekend was out and after sitting at anchor for a few days booted up the PC to head home. When it booted I was getting very strange behavior like the mouse pointer jumping all over the screen .

After about a half hour of trying to trouble shoot figured out the culprit was the NEMA feed. I got my navigation program to boot after a bit and it did not find GPS for the first time ever. Seems like COM1 was gone.

I disconnected the COM port and rebooted and all my problems were gone.

Seems like Windows XP decided the activity on COM1 [NEMA] was a mouse and was over-ridding everything else. Live and learn

[Quijote]

Hi Jon,
I just had a similar event happen. When I hooked up my Edgeport/4, I set the baud rates pretty high because I had been using high rates with my connection to the Pactor Modem. Anyway, I no sooner plugged in the USB connection when the mouse started jumping all over the place and I couldn't select anything. After about 5 minutes of head scratching, I unhooked the NMEA cable and the cursor was back to normal.
After I rebooted, I was able to plug the cables back in again, but the NMEA data wasn't coming through right. When I looked at it on Hyperterminal, it was gibberish at which point I got it - when it wants 4800 baud, it really means it! After resetting the port to 4800, the data came through clear as crystal.
This stuff is very fussy. Once you have it right, it seems easy, but until then.....
Richard
S/V Saeta
Sceptre 41

[Joli]

Alex,

Go to the Utility Tab and pull up Data Input/Output section and make the com what you want. Our puter does not have a serieal so we run all through a USB port. Make your USB a virtual serial port. I am sure there are many puter savvy folks here that can tell you how to do that. I had to futz around with it a bit also.

Max sea is great, we bought it for the routing module and also dump all our other ship data into it through a Shipmodul. wind, angles, speed, depth, cool stuff.

Good luck