Matsutec AIS to Opencpn connection help

[reflectionsv37]

Glad to hear you have a working unit! And you should also be pleased that you, did in fact, have everything setup correctly!

Good luck with the refund!

[sailor1924]

Originally Posted by reflectionsv37

Glad to hear you have a working unit! And you should also be pleased that you, did in fact, have everything setup correctly!

Good luck with the refund!

Thank you for the good wishes and for the advice to use a serial port to USB connector. The USB is how I've gotten it to work on the new unit, and, the only certain way I've been able to identify source feed. My next IT project/attempt is to network the multiple laptops, phones, and tablets using a wifi router.

The seller has agreed to pay for shipping, still trying to figure out hot receive it. I want a Paypal refund and they want to pay through Payoneer. Any advice on Payoneer?

[sailor1924]

I have received a refund of the Postage to China. Closure has been achieved.
I feel compelled to say that Matsutec US stood up and acted responsibly when the language difficulties were overcome.

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by sailor1924

I have received a refund of the Postage to China. Closure has been achieved.
I feel compelled to say that Matsutec US stood up and acted responsibly when the language difficulties were overcome.

Not sure what the legalities are for tansmitting with a non-fcc approved device is in the US... the Matsutec devices are NOT FCC approved.

[sailor1924]

I have received a refund of the Postage to China. Closure has been achieved.
I feel compelled to say that Matsutec US stood up and acted responsibly when the language difficulties were overcome.

[Janusz]

Hi - I am about to install my new HP-33A and was reading up on the connections issues. I was planning on making a USB cable out of the pins
5,6,7 and 8 but now I am wondering if I must go via the DB-9 (RS232)
route.
Today's laptops are so thin that they can't even provide the DB-9.
Any one could enlighten me? Thanks.

[Reefmagnet]

Originally Posted by Janusz

Hi - I am about to install my new HP-33A and was reading up on the connections issues. I was planning on making a USB cable out of the pins
5,6,7 and 8 but now I am wondering if I must go via the DB-9 (RS232)
route.
Today's laptops are so thin that they can't even provide the DB-9.
Any one could enlighten me? Thanks.

You can buy an RS422 to USB converter on Ebay for a couple of dollars. They work like a charm.

[nohal]

Originally Posted by Janusz

Hi - I am about to install my new HP-33A and was reading up on the connections issues. I was planning on making a USB cable out of the pins
5,6,7 and 8 but now I am wondering if I must go via the DB-9 (RS232)
route.
Today's laptops are so thin that they can't even provide the DB-9.
Any one could enlighten me? Thanks.

USB of course is not electrically compatible with RS232 and you must use an adapter.
But the HP-33A, as you seem to know, also has an USB interface so you may simply directly connect pins 5-8 to an USB type A or, if your laptop is really "modern", USB type C connector using just a piece of cable.

[Janusz]

Thank you to users nohal and reefmagnet for quick reply.
I was afraid that one must use the DB-9 and have to convert to USB in the absence of RS232 in one's laptop.
Thanks for confirming the direct USB option.

[nohal]

Originally Posted by Janusz

Thank you to users nohal and reefmagnet for quick reply.
I was afraid that one must use the DB-9 and have to convert to USB in the absence of RS232 in one's laptop.
Thanks for confirming the direct USB option.

BTW, Matsutec HP-33A AIS Transponder - Page 5 seems a little dated and HP-33A manual is completely unclear on the subject, but I would suspect you will actually need to use the serial for the data connection... (still you can of course connect the serial-usb adapter directly to the pins 3-5, no DB9 connectors are needed)

[Janusz]

Hi user nohal,
I am afraid, you are correct since there is a discussion out there that the
USB direct connection does not transmit data and is for firmware updates
only. The USB to serial converters are rather complicated things as the attached diagram shows. Not sure it would be wise not to use the DB9
plug and attempt to wire directly assuming the adapter can be cleanly opened.
Who says sailor's life is easy?

[nohal]

The USB-serial adapters like https://www.ebay.com/itm/6Pin-PL2303...8AAOSwHnFVriig are pretty trivial. Whether they are connected to a DB9 connector or not makes absolutely no difference in what they are and what they do.

[Reefmagnet]

Just a note on NMEA 0183. It uses RS-422 for transmission. Even so, you can usually get by with an RS-232 converter, but some NMEA 0183 outputting devices won't play with RS-232. It's probably better to use an RS-422 device if you have the choice, especially if the cable uses independent wire pairs for Rx and Tx.

[nohal]

The HP-33A manual explicitly talks about RS-232 everywhere the serial connections are mentioned and given circuits like MAX232 are cheaper than their RS422/485 counterparts I even tend to believe them... Anyway, given the electrical characteristics, whatever that port actually is and whichever of the cheapest chinese adapters used, it will likely just work.

[reflectionsv37]

I have the Matsutec black box version and have also setup a couple of the HP33A's for friends. The RS-232 works perfectly with an inexpensive serial to USB converter.

Keep in mind that both GPS and AIS sentences are sent via the same RS-232 connection so make sure you set the port speed on OpenCPN to 38400 baud rate.

Another interesting thing about the HP33A is that the GPS portion of the unit is a clone/copy of the Furuno GP-31,32 GPS's. If you want to upload routes and waypoints to the HP33A setup OpenCPN to the Furuno mode in setup. I've tested it and it works. For detailed instructions on how to use the GPS including uploads, download a Furuno GP-31 or 32 manual.