NMEA System and OpenCPN

[Bazdav]

I am having a catamaran built in the Philippines and working on a nav system from scratch. My plan is to put a Nmea backbone from the top of the mast through to the engines. I am going to use a marine Box PC with a core 2 duo fanless processor with 2GB of ram. I Plan to use an Airmar PB200 weather station through the backbone with a USB gateway.
My question is "Can openCPN translate the sentences from the Airmar or do I need additional software.

This is by first post so go easy on a learner!!
Many thanks in anticipation
Bazdav

[DotDun]

OpenCPN can certainly understand the NMEA 0183 sentences the PB200 produces. I don't believe OpenCPN supports NMEA 2000, therefore if N2K is your network of choice, you'll probably need a N2K - 0183 gateway.

[Bazdav]

Originally Posted by DotDun

OpenCPN can certainly understand the NMEA 0183 sentences the PB200 produces. I don't believe OpenCPN supports NMEA 2000, therefore if N2K is your network of choice, you'll probably need a N2K - 0183 gateway.

Thanks Dotdun, there will be a mixture of Nmea 2000 and 0183 in that case, for example the autopilot X5 will output 0183 but the depth sounder 2000. Will the gateway handle both protocols at the same time in the one gateway or will I need 2 separate gateways for each protocol?

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by Bazdav

Thanks Dotdun, there will be a mixture of Nmea 2000 and 0183 in that case, for example the autopilot X5 will output 0183 but the depth sounder 2000. Will the gateway handle both protocols at the same time in the one gateway or will I need 2 separate gateways for each protocol?

NMEA 0183 only allows a single 'talker' on the network. Hence if you have multiple 0183 talkers it'll require a 0183 multiplexer to combine them into one network. Does the X5 talk NMEA2000? If so, you *could* do everything on 2000 and install a 2000-0183 gateway to connect OpenCPN. This might save one (or more) 0183 multiplexers.

I took a look at the PB200, it's not clear to me that it supports both 0183 and 2000 at the same time. It appears they offer a choice of either cable (0183 or 2000) but not a cable that allows both at the same time.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you use the PB200 for it's compass and want to feed that into a radar for ARPA, you'll most likely have to run the PB200 on NMEA 2000 as 0183 isn't fast enough. Most radars want heading data at 10hz for ARPA.

Good Luck!

[blubaju]

The Airmar PB200 may be ordered with a NMEA0183 or NMEA2000 or a combined cable. With the combined cable it transmits on NMEA 0183 & 2000 same time. With the supplied program you can select wich sentences are transmitted and even tell the unit to use compass course or COG for wind calculations.

Not so funny, changing these parameters you do on a PC and it must be connected to the bus you want to change, for instance, you can not use the NMEA0183 connection to change any settings regarding the NMEA2000 connection.

Though there is a list of direct NMEA commands that lets you bypass the usage of Airmars Weathercaster software

I connected the Airmar PB200 directly on Raymarines SeatalkNG backbone, NOT on the spurcable as my mast is 18m, and it works fine, the terminating resistor is build into the PB200 and is activated using a PIN in the plug.

More information on Airmars homepage, download the manual ;-)

Originally Posted by DotDun

...

I took a look at the PB200, it's not clear to me that it supports both 0183 and 2000 at the same time. It appears they offer a choice of either cable (0183 or 2000) but not a cable that allows both at the same time.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you use the PB200 for it's compass and want to feed that into a radar for ARPA, you'll most likely have to run the PB200 on NMEA 2000 as 0183 isn't fast enough. Most radars want heading data at 10hz for ARPA.

Good Luck!

[Zeelandia]

OpenCPN works fine "very good job" only problem i have is sending data to
GPS Furuno GP32.
Receiving NMEA data and AIS data is good.
Anybody here has experience with this uploading to GP32?

[DotDun]

I'm curious what data would you upload to the GP32 from OpenCPN?

[Zeelandia]

I created a route with multiple waypoints and want to upload this to the Gp32, I'm receiving good GPS information but can't send back to the unit, checked all the wiring diagrams 10 times but still no luck.
Laptop with standard RS232 ( DB9) ( pin2 RxD) (pin3 TxD) and (pin 5 GND) to GP32 wiring resp. yellow , green, blue.

[DotDun]

In a quick look at the OpenCPN documentation and the GP32 manual, it appears that OpenCPN supports GPX transfer of routes and the GP32 supports the NMEA0183 GPRTE sentence. OpenCPN appears to understand GPRTE, but the route manager only mentions the GPX format. (I don't believe these are compatible, GPX appears to be xml.)

You might try exporting the OpenCPN route to a file, then loading it in a program like GPSMaster and have it output in NMEA0183 to the Furuno.

An alternative would be to connect OpenCPN to the input of your autopilot and let OpenCPN drive the boat.

[Zeelandia]

Thanks sofar DotDun, i did'nt find that in the documentation, ofcourse i did'nt know where to look for but it seems a real issue.
I worked with Maxsea ver 10.3 before and the upload had no problems, but i like the OpenCPN and the vision behind it.
Do you think there is change OpenCPN can make the option to choose between GPX en GPRTE?. oK I stick to the Open CPN and find a work a round as you suggested. The first option to export and output it to GPSMaster i understand, so will try that first.

The second option direct connect to autopilot puzzels me, it would be the most efficient way, but i cannot figure out how to do that having a FURUNO FAP300 that is direct connected to the GP32 (white blue wire GP32 ;yellow,green wire FAP 300) can I connect direct to the RS232 pin two and 3?
Thanks sofar I keep you posted about the rest

[bdbcat]

zeelandia....

Sorry you are having trouble here.

Sending routes directly to GP32 via NMEA sentence ECRTE should work.
Use the RouteManager->SendToGPS button.

If sending the route does not work, try to send just one waypoint to GPS, using the same button. This uses the ECWPT sentence.

If it does not work, I would say that there is a wiring problem.

This works for my Leica GPS, and others who have tested it with a variety of receivers. We know, however, that each GPS receiver has quirks. I don't think we have had anyone try this under controlled conditions with a Furuno GPS yet.

Persist!
Dave

[nilespf]

Not sure of exactly where your at in the conversation, but cpn will send ecwpt and ecrte strings. When you initiate the RouteManager->SendToGPS button, cpn's first strings will be the ecwpt's and the last string will be the ecrte info. I use this process and it works great for all but long routes.

Phil