Plugin Question

[phiggins]

Is it possible to send commport data from a plugin. I have a Furuno chartplotter and the format of the data is not correct on an upload of a route even when I have the "Format uploads for Furuno GP3X" checked. I was thinking of writing a plugin to do it.

Thanks

[bdbcat]

phiggins...

Access to comm ports from PlugIn is not possible.

What's up with the Furuno upload format? Link to specs?

Thanks
Dave

[phiggins]

Dave,

The Furuno model is a 1722C. I can send you the operators manual that shows the format but it would probably be better to show you a trace of the data from a program that I wrote that does the upload properly and a trace from OpenCPN tha fails. I talked to the Furuno people to get the correct format.



Here is trace from my program send a simple 3 point route :

03:18:18 $PFEC,GPwpl,2113.691,N,08644.034,W, R0101,M,@:01test,A,,,,*7C
03:18:18 $PFEC,GPwpl,2113.833,N,08644.062,W, R0102,M,@:01test,A,,,,*7A
03:18:18 $PFEC,GPwpl,2113.832,N,08644.168,W, R0103,M,@:01test,A,,,,*71
03:18:18 $GPRTE,1,1,C,001, R0101, R0102, R0103*59
03:18:19 $PFEC,GPrtc,001,,01test*44
03:18:19 $PFEC,GPxfr,CTL,E*59

The attachment is a screenshot the OpenCPN NMEA window after sending the same route, it also shows the route properties.

There are 4 things that I see are different other than the waypoint names:

1. There are two fields in the GPwpl that you don't send. The sixth field is the waypoint color which I set to a "M". The seventh field is a waypoint comment "@:01test" which I set to the route name. These fields may not be needed, we could try it without.

2. There is no checksum in your sentences, not sure if that is really needed, maybe not.

3. In the $GPRTE sentence the third field, the message mode in my trace is a "C" in yours its a "c" . Furuno said that for a 1722C it must be the capital C, for other models its the small c which you are sending.

4. I send a route comment GPrtc,001,,01test*44 this may not be required.

Of the 4 I think number three is the biggy. I remember when writing my program it had to be a capital "C".

[phiggins]

You can get the Furuno Operators manual here:
FURUNO 1722C MANUAL Pdf Download.

The format for the upload is in section 6 but the Route Data Format $GPRTE and the Route Comment fields GPrtc are mixed up.

[phiggins]

I recompiled V3.2.0 and added these two statements to rte.cpp line 153:

sentence += _T("C"); // PH99 uppercase required for FOR Furuno 1722C
// sentence += _T("c"); // trying lowercase for generic NMEA device PH99 Commented

now it puts the capital C in the
$GPRTE,1,1,C,001, R0101, R0102, R0103*59

but will have to wait until I return to my boat to see if it actual uploads to my Furuno Model 1722C.

It would also be nice if you could upload multiple routes.