Instrument Data flow consultation request

[J35M8]

Happy New Year,

TIME MACHINE is a J/35 used primarily for racing... short course (W/L) and distance (Port Huron to Mac, TYC Mills Trophy Race). We are well instrumented.

I have decided to switch over from the Ockamsoft package to OpenCPN as the primary user interface. The goal is to usually sail with the full system (PC and OCKAMs & GPS), but also to be able to just hop aboard and run with just OCKAMs & GPS.

Your consultation and advice is requested for the following questions:
1) Best connection between PC (OPENCPN) and the Garmin for waypoint/route/track uploading and downloading?
2) Best connection between PC (OPENCPN) and autopilot?
3) I will be adding an AIS transponder, so best connection to PC (OPENCPN)?

Attached is a schematic of the current setup.

Any ideas or suggestion and gratefully accepted!

[Hakan]

J35.....
If all three 1, 2, 3 has USB connections you haven't asked so I assume all being serial RS232.
You need three serial to USB converters. I use one dual serial to USB and after some time they have updated the drivers to fit also Win10. (Earlier I had to hack the registry to avoid the same ID description for both ports)
Connect them one in a time to OCPN to find out what USB port belongs to each.
There are a lot in OCPN wiki. Here's a start: GPS Setup | Official OpenCPN Homepage and Connections | Official OpenCPN Homepage
1)
Connect to your port B via a serial-USB. Normally baud rate 4800. I suppose you'll get the GPS signal to OCPN this way so set priority to 1. Garmin can sometimes be tricky but just try to export WP and routes.
2)
If your AP has its own compass and a serial connection it would be straight forward to output nav-data from OCPN once connected via a USB converter. Set the OCPN connection to output. (Depending on WP type you may get a compass signal on input but that's not at all crucial for AP functionality.) Normally baud rate 4800. (If your AP needs external compass you have to get one - another task.)
3)
If your AIS has a USB connection use that. If it's serial RS232 use a serial-USB converter. Normal baud rate is 38400. Most probably you'll a GPS signal also here. Set priority to 2.

All this can be done in a variety of ways. Read your gadgets manual and OCPN wiki, try yourself and if specific questions this forum has a lot of experiences.
Good luck
Håkan

[rgleason]

Robert,
Hakan is very experienced and a good advisor. In fact he helped to figure out how to connect a Garmin Chartplotter with Barnakiel
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ip-177080.html

Ockam is great software, giving you all kinds of ways to look at your data, and while Tactics is getting better and better, are you sure it offers what you need at this point? If so, ..great, but I'd keep Ockam in the wings for a little while.

Also, your experience with Ockam will be invaluable to Thomas in improving Tactics.
IMHO the Dashboard Instruments need some work.

[J35M8]

Håkan,

Thanks for the reply. As you could probably tell from the schematic, I already have a lot of experience with instrumentation. In fact, I worked with OCKAM on the creation of their Dewiggler product which can help skippers eliminate most of the tack-to-tack true wind direction offset. I am very satisfied with the OCKAMs for generating calibrated numbers for TWS, TWA, TWD, Current Direction, Current Speed, Boatspeed, Polar performance, etc.... Where OpenCPN comes in is with the 'situational awareness' of where we are on the course, where we want to go and how the conditions are changing so that we go 'the right way'.

As Rick G. pointed out, you were a key helper in getting Barnakiel get up and running with Garmin communications over IP. I am hoping that this will be the solution that I am looking for when tying together the GARMIN and OCPN. I will read through and implement the lessons learned from that thread.

I have been helping out Rick and the other editors with the new DokuWiKi version of the manuals, which has involved reading every word on every page. It's quite a lot to absorb, but I think I have a good understanding of various bits that could be put together to make things work.

I hope that I can continue to consult with you as I run into problems or consider tradeoffs. CHEERS!

[rgleason]

I have seen explanations about Dewiggler, and admired it. Great to hear that you helped.. I have referred to their pages to understand terms and concepts. Also some of their "wally" aides. -Are those good tools too? Thomas is quite adept at developing sailing tools "Tactics" as I am sure you have noticed!!

In fact, I worked with OCKAM on the creation of their Dewiggler product which can help skippers eliminate most of the tack-to-tack true wind direction offset. I am very satisfied with the OCKAMs for generating calibrated numbers for TWS, TWA, TWD, Current Direction, Current Speed, Boatspeed, Polar performance, etc.... Where OpenCPN comes in is with the 'situational awareness'

And thanks for your help with the the Owiki!

[J35M8]

R.

The concept of WALLYING is well explained in the OCKAM documentation. The way that they are using it is correct. One of the latest concept that they have worked on it called BET (Break Even Tacking), which helps to answer the age old question..... should we tack on each of these shifts or are they too short or too small to be worth it. If you are not tacking on the shifts, you should be doing the WALLY!

You are welcome for the help with the DoKuWiKi. I look forward to seeing it in action!