AdvanSea AIS TR-200 and OpenCPN

[X382-SWE130]

My current fixed GPS, which have worked very well together with openCPN in the past, have decided to go do down the drain. I bought a GU-353 USB GPS puck as a replacer and managed to get it working with openCPN 3.0.2 once, stone dead after. Then I started to read multiple threads on this forum about problems in the interface between openCPN and BU353, and most of the problems seem to be related to USB and virtual COM ports.

After a serious fog experience this summer my thoughts regarding AIS have been upgraded from “interesting” to “want one”. The PC I use in my boat has a serial RS232 com port. I would like to kill two birds with one stone and I am planning to by an “advanSea AIS TR-200” class B transponder, which is supplied with a GPS receiver and equipped with a RS232 PC interface.

Is there any out there with experience of the “advanSea AIS TR-200” and openCPN and no other GPS? Will the combination work? I have read the manual of the AIS back and forth and been in contact with the Swedish importer and they were not sure…

Cheers /// Patrik

[bdbcat]

Patrik...

Welcome aboard.
Do you have the documentation for the proposed AIS-B transponder? We should consider the list of NMEA positioning sentences sent by this unit. OpenPCN works best with RMC message as is main positioning input.

If that's OK, it should work fine.

Dave

[X382-SWE130]

I have got answers from Navimo in France (distributors of advanSea products). So my intention to kill two birds with one stone seems impossible if openCPN requires 4800 baud rate, since the AIS requires 38400 baud.

Happy sailing /// Patrik

è If you want to use GPS data from TR-200, you can use RMC sentence. It is available for positioning.
è You cannot separate baud rate of GPS and AIS. Both are transmitted on the same connection. I strongly advise to keep the default 38400b speed unless you may lose some information from AIS.
è If you want to anyway separate AIS and GPS information to enter GPS at 4800b, then you need to connect another GPS information source such as T.56 Advansea GPS plotter or equivalent.

[nohal]

Patrik...
OpenCPN can happily accept GPS NMEA stream from your AIS receiver at 38400 (if it is transmitted by the AIS receiver, that's why Dave asked for the docs)...
In the toolbox just configure AIS on the AIS tab and select "AIS Port - Shared" on the GPS tab.

Pavel

[X382-SWE130]

Many thanks Pavel,

I guess both the question from Dave and the answer from Navimo was way over my head...

So the key take away is if the AIS transmitts position information in RMC-format then open CPN will accept it independent of the baud rate. Great, then I back on track for killing two birds with one GPS!!!

Thanks /// Patrik

[JesperWe]

The manual doesn't specify what data it transmits, but there is one sample sequence in there which has RMC messages in the stream so it looks OK.

[MAS3]

Also a Dutch supplier tells their customers on its website that indeed this RMC sentence is available.
So you're good with this unit.

[SY-Bodyguard]

Just happen to read this thread. I can confirm that the setup with the Advansea TR-200 is working!
We are sailing for over two years with the TR-200 AND having occasionaly problems with the master GPS (Garmin GPS-152). We also put a GPS stick outside. We were thinking that its sad we were not able to send ownship to OpenCPN. So not aware of the -already existing option- "AIS Port (Shared)" in the GPS-tab of the settings.

Thanks for the hint!

A verry happy OpenCPN user doing real enviromental testing for the last two years onboard Bodyguard.

[stara]

yes I have the same transponder and yes it works perfectly well with OpenCPN. In the transponder configuration software "ProAIS" there is an option to include GPSRMC data in the feed. If I remember correctly by default it's on, but you can also also disable it or to send it only every four seconds.