NMEA to VHF from GPS thru MaxSea

[geekoutofwater]

Hi All,

I am stuggling with this and after reading quite a few threads I don't think my specifics have been covered. Apologies if they have.

The Setup is:

GPS is an unknown brand connected to PC via USB (COM5).
Maxsea receives NMEA from GPS fine.
VHF is Icom M505 and is connected to PC via RS232 serial (COM1). Pins 2 & 5 i think. NMEA out and -

My problem is:

I can't get positioning on the VHF. Have tried using Maxsea to output to VHF on COM1 by adding an instrument using Boat & AIS with no joy. I can't find any other obvious way to output from Maxsea

I don't think I can tap directly off the GPS as it is one long cable with usb on the end.

I think I'm either barking up the wrong tree trying to output to COM1 or my pin configs are wrong.

Any advice

Thanks

Dave

[Joli]

Your gps is the talker. Simply tap the signal to you VHF and don't bother going through the laptop.

[fairbank56]

Pin 2 of the serial port is RX (data in to computer), you should use pin 3 TX (data out of computer).

Eric

[rdempsey]

Originally Posted by Joli

Your gps is the talker. Simply tap the signal to you VHF and don't bother going through the laptop.

Except his GPS is a USB type. He cant tap into it. He needs Maxsea to forward the output on COM1.

I had similar probs and went with this as primary GPS with the USB as backup:

Garmin OEM GPS 17HVS Sensor, P/N: 010-00242-53 - GPS City

[donradcliffe]

Have you gone into the Data Input-Output settings in Maxsea and told it to output your position on the Com port the VHF is hooked to??

[Pblais]

You also need to set the com port properties to 4800, 8 data bits, one stop bit with no parity. (8, none and 1) are the normal defaults but the data rate is not normally 4800. Some computers and some GPS's will take the data faster but it should work properly at 4800. I'm not sure what rate the Icom will take but the standard is 4800.

The Garmin GPS sensor seems a more solid solution.

Seems to me a poor configuration since the primary purpose of the VHF connection is for a DSC emergency situation. The idea that you need power and a laptop computer connected to a USB GPS to run it just adds to more possible ways the DSC won't really deliver the GPS coordinates as expected. With this device you could split the signal to three devices that listen and then have the USB unit as the backup.

[witzgall]

Dave;

I know that this won't help you, but for others reading, NMEA 2000 solves many of these problems. I just installed a NMEA 2000 network on our boat. Easy as making some connections, running some wires. The GPS talks to the chartplotter, autiopilot to chartplotter, depth is available on chartplotter and Gamin GMI-10 diplay, etc. The long awaited radio I am receiveing in a week or two , a Lowrance LVR-880, will hookup to the network and use the network's GPS. I can even show up to three "Buddy" boats on the chartplotter, if they are using their MMSI (or whatever that is called) radio with GPS attached, and I have their number. Cool, eh?

I was starting from almost scratch, so it was an easy decision.

Chris

[Pblais]

I just installed a NMEA 2000 network on our boat. Easy as making some connections, running some wires.

NMEA 2000 is a real standard based on networking standards. The old NMEA standard was anything but a standard. RS232C never was a fully cooked standard either and is part of why it's so dead now. The main reason of course being speed.

NMEA 2000 suffers only one serious problem. All the big players are not backing it for their top end equipment. Raymarine has their network they made standard. The goal of full interoperability across product lines is about hopeless. The whole marine market is compressing to fewer and fewer players so I'm not sure NMEA 2000 will last as long as NMEA 1983. NMEA isn't a set the world on fire organization. It's funded by the companies in the business and when the big players want their own standard the money for the standards process is too slow.

[sandy daugherty]

Paul;
I've had quite an education on N2K and interoperability at Panbo: The Marine Electronics Weblog and I think the outlook is pretty bright. Ben Ellison has a panel with product from all the major manufacturers talking to each other VERY much better than 0183 could. While several players introduced new product with proprietary connectors and the inevitable 'special unique' codes, there seems to be a general trend to accomodate the standard on physical and logical levels with revisions and upgrades.
It may be too much to hope for, but it seems as though the manufacturers are accepting the fact that customers may want to (gasp) mix and match components!

[geekoutofwater]

Thanks for all your input. Have tried various suggestions and talked more with Maxsea. As far as Maxsea go the phrase "Useful as a choclate teapot" comes to mind. They recommend I spend £200 on the AIS module, which seems to be a bit of overkill for what I want to achieve!

Data in/out settings, port, baud and parity were all as they should be. USB GPS was nigh on impoosible to tap from, mainly because of the small circuit board before the USB plug which I couldn't find an out from.

Anyway, problem solved by spending £60 on another cheap GPS for the sole purpose of supplying the VHF. Another piece of kit to go wrong and cause clutter I hear you say but, also abit of redundancy in a worse case scenario.

Once again thanks for everyones help.

Dave