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13-09-2009, 06:18
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#16
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Hayes, VA
Boat: Gozzard 36
Posts: 8,700
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Globalsat has a new Bluetooth BT-368 GPS. Fits in the palm of your hand 40 x 70 x 9 mm in size. Made primarily for the Bluetooth smart phone crowd but could be cool aboard. Pretty cheap too at about $60. They also have a USB dongle too. It has no user interface so you need to tie the signal to software on a Bluetooth enabled device. The new SiRF star III chipset is doing some nice stuff. It's been designed for doing urban street navigation so the receivers are pretty robust making them even better aboard.
I am going more toward wireless instrumentation. I also see using handheld devices more instead of repeaters that are hard wired. The Bluetooth multiplexer looks very nice. TackTick does this with all their wireless instruments but they don't use Bluetooth as it uses to much power. It's about the same price though. Their NMEA unit is hard wired as are the through hull transducers. Everything integrates itself automatically via wireless LAN and the displays and wind transducer are solar powered. The LAN was set up to conserve power. The wind instrument can run basically forever with no outside power. They all integrate the available data to display some complex things like true wind speed and true direction. Getting rid of the wires is so much nicer. The money you save on installation right now makes up for the increased price and the portability is a bonus.
__________________
Paul Blais
s/v Bright Eyes Gozzard 36
37 15.7 N 76 28.9 W
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13-09-2009, 09:35
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#17
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֍֎֍֎֍֎֍֎֍֎
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 15,136
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"The new SiRF star III chipset "
I thought that was already about 5 years old, and a generation IV chipset with much lower power consumption, and still slightly higher sensitivity, had been out for over a year now?
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13-09-2009, 12:56
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#18
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Hayes, VA
Boat: Gozzard 36
Posts: 8,700
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No products, the III products are only about 3 months old. The new IV is lower powered but what they are doing is using predictive logic on the ephemerids to cut lock time. In a smart phone driving downtown locks are very difficult. Guess who can buy any phone they want? Inside a car is the same problem going in and out of shadows. III shuts down to save power where IV does not totally shut down but goes into a suspend mode so it can jump out faster. That is the "new lower power feature". On the water you couldn't lose lock unless the US Navy blasts you with an EM pulse (been there it lasted about 1/2 day and whacked the wind instrument too).
The whole point of IV really has little to do with anything you might need on the water, but of course smart phones now could be a great hand held nav tool. III already does a shutdown if you lose blue tooth lock for 10 seconds. If you shut down the device you don't need to worry you forgot the GPS receiver because it does so already. It just has no way to go back on on it's own. That is what they want for cell phones.
The IV is pretty darn small. You could line up 6 chips across a US dime. and probably fit almost 2 dozen on the surface of a dime. They expect to sell them for cameras and cell phones and they could be pretty much standard in a couple years built into anything. Lowjack for your fridge.
__________________
Paul Blais
s/v Bright Eyes Gozzard 36
37 15.7 N 76 28.9 W
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13-09-2009, 14:30
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#19
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: between the devil and the deep blue sea
Boat: a sailing boat
Posts: 20,420
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Like what makes you think Ray is NMEA ???
I believe you need the SeaTalk-Nmea box (from Ray).
b.
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13-09-2009, 15:30
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#21
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: SF Bay Area, CA, USA
Boat: Privilege 39
Posts: 664
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Quote:
Originally Posted by barnakiel
Like what makes you think Ray is NMEA ???
I believe you need the SeaTalk-Nmea box (from Ray).
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Which bit are you replying about? You may or may not need one, many Raymarine devices support NMEA0183 out of the box. Including the ST-series instruments (though output only), which was the original topic of this thread... Unfortunately it has drifted in several different directions.
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14-09-2009, 05:39
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#22
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: between the devil and the deep blue sea
Boat: a sailing boat
Posts: 20,420
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As per Beausoleil expl - ST60 no NMEA, box required. Newer ST60+ NMEA.
From the box as per earlier posts. Some problems may be expected as the Ray interface box is problematic for the PC when it is not the only talker on the system (like if you have your Ray instruments and say an AIS box from another company). Getting things in via different COMs is not all that great either given Windows problems with re-establishimg COM/ USB things on re-start or re-connecting.
It is all very simple to cable but then sometimes gives trouble to get it all work.
b.
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14-09-2009, 08:08
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#23
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: SF Bay Area, CA, USA
Boat: Privilege 39
Posts: 664
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Quote:
Originally Posted by barnakiel
As per Beausoleil expl - ST60 no NMEA, box required. Newer ST60+ NMEA.
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*sigh* Again, ST60 does have NMEA output on some instruments. Why do people continue to insist it does not? Here, go to page 8 of this ST60 (NOT ST60+) manual: http://www.raymarine.com/SubmittedFi...81039_4www.pdf
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14-09-2009, 09:19
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#24
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: where my little boat is ;-) now Philippines
Boat: Catamaran Schionning Wilderness 1320, built myself
Posts: 475
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for 9 years I had my PC (with build-in RS232) directly connected to my Raymarine (then Autohelm) Autopilot, to the NMEA_in and NMEA_out connectors and never had a problem. No mux, no special Raymarine hardware, PC Navprogram directly controling the autopilot. Today I use openCPN, freeware and displays ENC (free for US) and CM93/2 and BSB raster charts.
Read this site with tons of information and further links how to do it
Peter Bennett's GPS and NMEA Site
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14-09-2009, 10:51
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#25
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: SF Bay
Boat: Catalina C-42
Posts: 168
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blubaju
for 9 years I had my PC (with build-in RS232) directly connected to my Raymarine (then Autohelm) Autopilot, to the NMEA_in and NMEA_out connectors and never had a problem. No mux, no special Raymarine hardware, PC Navprogram directly controling the autopilot. Today I use openCPN, freeware and displays ENC (free for US) and CM93/2 and BSB raster charts.
Read this site with tons of information and further links how to do it
Peter Bennett's GPS and NMEA Site
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Same here. Then, one day, I decided I wanted speed, depth, wind speed & direction data on the laptop (which lives in the nav station). The additional data is nice when making my hourly log entries. I have ST50 instruments which do not have NMEA out so I bought the E85001 NMEA interface and all was good. Not life & death, but nice.
Then, along comes AIS, and I decide I want AIS on the laptop (at the Nav station) and on the chartplotter at the helm. AIS data runs a 38400 baud while NMEA 018x runs at 4800. The Brookhouse mux provided the data speed conversion functionality. The Brookhouse mux also replaced the E85001. While I was at it, the mux also made it possible to supply NMEA position data to the DSC capable VHF, and to the SCS Pactor modem for automatic position reports whe using the SSB on Winlink or Sailmail.
I agree, for basic position data and direct computer control of the autopilot nothing additional is needed. But if you want more data displayed on the laptop and elsewhere, then your system has to grow. That is my story & I am sticking to it! And don't even ask what it was like trying to get a laptop, a Standard Horizon chartplotter, a Garmin chartplotter, a ST7000 autopilot, and ST50 instruments all to play nice with each other. Plug & Play? I think not.
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14-09-2009, 11:09
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#26
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Hayes, VA
Boat: Gozzard 36
Posts: 8,700
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Raymarine auto pilot course computers have had NMEA IN for years. My 1991 ST7000 does.
__________________
Paul Blais
s/v Bright Eyes Gozzard 36
37 15.7 N 76 28.9 W
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14-09-2009, 11:32
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#27
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: SF Bay
Boat: Catalina C-42
Posts: 168
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Correct, the ST7000 with 300 Course computer has NMEA in and out.
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14-09-2009, 11:58
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#28
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: between the devil and the deep blue sea
Boat: a sailing boat
Posts: 20,420
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Scotte is correct. The instruments I used - ST60 - were probably some earlier make. (ST depth and ST60 speed - but not the multi - just two separate units).
b.
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14-09-2009, 17:21
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#29
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: where my little boat is ;-) now Philippines
Boat: Catamaran Schionning Wilderness 1320, built myself
Posts: 475
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AIS:
AIS (receiver only) is NMEA out only @ higher speed. NMEA - out signals can be split, in my case, for redundancy my E120 and my PC are connected.
Now what to do with all those NMEA signals in the PC?
I am NOT opposing multiplexers like Brookhouse and others, I am technician, this is not religion for me, but sometimes it can be done without. A good hardware multiplexer has the advantage of electrically separating your PC from your navigation electronics through optocopplers, if you spend the money, go for a good one, your SSB will like it too!
AIS, DSC, GPS-mouse and NMEA coming in the PC and (historically grown) Raytech RNS, FUGAWI, Navpack, openCPN and some other programs want all this data too, same time, I bought Franson GPSGate, a software multiplexer. Worth the money (40$), muxes several inputs to as many virtual or real COMports as you like, including your browser, Google Earth, Visual Passage Planer etc.
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14-09-2009, 17:22
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#30
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Corpus Christi Texas
Boat: boatless atm
Posts: 762
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Very interesting.
I consider my self pretty computer savy, having built many systems, and do my own network management, built web pages, handled a pretty nice web site, etc, but most of what I have read is a bit above me for now. Not sure what half the stuff your talking about is.. but I guess its like anything else, reading it is one thing, doing it, another.
I thank all that have contributed to this discussion, and if someone has a better, newer, greater idea, please post it as well.
Bob
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