My friends got back to me with screenshots. First one shows a short "goto" route, second shows the port settings for the autopilot (they didn't scroll down enough to show the sentences, but they're there), third shows the NMEA datastream with no commands for the AP.
If you need more let me know and I'll try to get it but I'll be crossing the Sea of Cortez early next week.
Some clarifications.
The simple open MaxSea with the lit navigation station sufficient to enable the driver with Opencpn.
It can be assumed that MaxSea sends info to the SPX 30 Central, but before it goes through the E85001 interface.
I turn off the navigation station, I again and it still works!
I don't think whether a equipment or navigation station.
But what kind of info MaxSea can send to the PC via the Central SPX 30? And this info is lost to the shutdown of the PC.
MaxSea only sends NMEA sentences, but if I open MaxSea without switching on the power off spx 30, it does not work.
It is not necessary to have a track on MaxSea. Then?
JP
My friends got back to me with screenshots. First one shows a short "goto" route, second shows the port settings for the autopilot (they didn't scroll down enough to show the sentences, but they're there), third shows the NMEA datastream with no commands for the AP.
If you need more let me know and I'll try to get it but I'll be crossing the Sea of Cortez early next week.
Some clarifications.
The simple open MaxSea with the lit navigation station sufficient to enable the driver with Opencpn.
It can be assumed that MaxSea sends info to the SPX 30 Central, but before it goes through the E85001 interface.
I turn off the navigation station, I again and it still works!
I don't think whether a equipment or navigation station.
But what kind of info MaxSea can send to the PC via the Central SPX 30? And this info is lost to the shutdown of the PC.
MaxSea only sends NMEA sentences, but if I open MaxSea without switching on the power off spx 30, it does not work.
It is not necessary to have a track on MaxSea. Then?
JP
Are you using any 'com port sharing' drivers on your system?
I had a situation where OpenCPN would not open my usb GPS unless I had first run Maxsea. It took me a long time to find out it was the com port sharing software I'd installed that was causing the problem.
Don't know if this is your problem but it is something to consider.
I really need to confirm the output sentence setup for COM8.
It should include only ECRMB, ECRMC, and ECAPB. There is no need to echo APHDG, GPGGA, and GPRMC to the autopilot on COM8.
If we can get a copy of the config file (opencpn.ini), we can confirm the setup without multiple wrench screenshots.
Thanks, and have a good trip.
Dave
I'll email them again and get them to resend the second screenshot scrolled down a bit more. The issue, though, is that there are no sentences with $EC in the stream, I would think if they had too many included at least something would appear.
The $APHDG is there because I wanted to prove there was a connection to the autopilot (I assume this info is coming from the fluxgate via the AP).
We tried it with various sentences included, initially just the bare minimum as detailed in the AP manual, by now I think it has all but the kitchen sink in there.
I'm still waiting on the screenshot, I don't think they have good/any internet access at the moment.
Has nobody else been able to confirm if this is a bug? All the screenshot will do is show there are sentences in the box that should be sent to the AP.
I'm assuming this situation is not typical, most of us who have connected an AP did so many releases back and update as new versions are released. Can someone who gets a new PC try and install a fresh copy and see if it works?
Works fine for me on Win7.
Consider this: If the ECRMB, ECAPB do not appear in the NMEA debug window on COM8 in blue, then the issue is solely with OpenCPN. It has nothing to do with the AP per se, nor MaxSea, nor any other external hardware.
I can see no way in the code that ECxxx should fail to appear in the NMEA debug window if they are enabled as output.
Now, they may not actually be appearing on the output port. This would be another problem, possibly hardware. And if they do appear, the autopilot may not recognise them. This would be yet another problem.
But first, we've got to see them as blue output in the debug window.
The previous NMEA debug screen screen capture was pretty short, and showed only a part of one seconds trace. We need to get confirmation that the ECAPB, etc appear sometime in the output stream.
OK, so I was finally able to meet up with my friends and get some more screenshots. In the meantime they managed to drown their primary PC, so I also did a little more setup work on their backup PC - getting the COM: ports sorted - so they no longer match the earlier posts.
I have attached the screenshots and the .ini file. Although the NMEA datastream shot is small, I watched it for a while and there were no $EC statements issued. Everything else works fine.
They are now way up in the Sea of Cortez and out of contact, as will I be in a week or so.
Cheers
(Quick edit: I should mention that I tried all variations of settings in the "Accept/Ignore/Transmit/Drop" boxes to no avail).
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