ICOM MA500TR connection to OPEN CPN

[danrochas]

Hi there. Looking for some help here...

I'm trying to connect the AIS (ICOM MA500TR) to the Laptop (Toughbook CF-19).
On the AIS side (its a OPC-2014 15 pin connector) its clear by the manual that I should use pins 12&13 (NMEA out).
The laptop has a 9 pin serial conector (RS 232). The thing is that the laptop is already receiving the GPS signal on Pins 3-Brown and 5-Yellow(GRD) (from the Furuno GPS).

Is it possible to use another pin to receive data too?

I was considering disconnecting the GPS from laptop and getting all the information (GPS position and AIS targets) straight from the AIS.
Is that the best approach?

Looking for some insight before I start cutting wires.

Thanks

Daniel - NOOMI

[reflectionsv37]

If you only have/want one serial connection to the computer it would be the easiest to just use the GPS and AIS signal from the Icom. Just don't forget to set the baud rate to 38400 in Opencpn for the connection.

If you upload routes/waypoints from OpenCPN to your Furuno GPS, you will lose that function and will have to setup 2 serial connections to the computer by adding another USB to serial connector.

FYI, I use DB9 to USB devices from a company named Digi International. They allow 2,4, 8 up to 16 serial connections with a single USB connection. They are expensive, but you can often find them used on Ebay. They work very well.

[reflectionsv37]

Forgot to mention.

No, there is not another pin on the DB9 connector you can use and you cannot combine 2 signals on one serial port.

[Moo]

A couple more options.

You can add another USB-serial converter.

Or add an external NMEA multiplexer - several companies market them just search the net for "NMEA 0183 multiplexer".

If you can add another serial port either via an RS232 (or RS422) port on the computer or via a USB-serial converter: you can combine all the inputs in O and even multiplex them and send them out to some other equipment via USB/serial or a network connection, wired or wireless.