Conflict Raymarine AIS700 and RS150

[AdamLipsky]

Hi all, I need help with my electronic network system. I have an STNG/nmea2000 net, with autopilot EV-1 and GPS Raymarine RS150. Worked perfectly on opencpn chartplotter on various systems (Windows, RPi+ PicanM), I could e.g. see the difference between heading and actual direction of voyage.
I bought Raymarine AIS700. It uses its own GPS antenna and my understanding is that without it, it would not be able to transmit my position. There is now, however, a conflict between the two GPS sources; in OpenCPN dashboard under "GPS compass", the rose keeps flashing on and off twice a second, and the "Position" also keeps changing between two slightly different values.
When I disconnected the RS150, the effect is gone but the "GPS Compass" only shows the rose when I actually move the GPS antenna around, and the boat icon moves. Otherwise, the rose is gone, and the boat icon stands north up. (Also, the "GPS Status" that usually shows satellites above is blank.)
When I disconnected the GPS antenna from the AIS700 and the connected the RS150 back in, it didn't solve the problem, compass rose still flashing.
I tried connecting the AIS700 through nmea0183 (it has a dedicated output) but the effect is identical.
The nmea2000 signal is decoded by Two Can plugin and it works when I select 129038 .41 AIS Class messages VDM.
Is there any way I could force the AIS700 to stop broadcasting the position information and instead only give me other vessels to my screen? Before, I had a radio with AIS receiver (Standard Horizon) connected by nmea0183, and it worked perfectly.

[stevead]

You can disable the transmission of NMEA 183 position sentences (GGA, GLL, RMC) with the Raymarine AIS setup software.

However I am not sure whether doing so also diasbles the transmission of the NMEA 2000 equivalent messages (PGN 129025, 129026 & 129029). If it does, then that will solve your problem.

IIRC, the current version of the OpenCPN TwoCan plugin (V2.11) automatically filters/prioritizes PGN 129029 from multiple sources, by selecting the source with the best HDOP.

Also the next release of OpenCPN (currently undergoing development/testing) also allows the user to prioritize position data by manually selecting the preferred source.

[AdamLipsky]

Thank you for your reply! I installed the proAIS2 software, it shows no "Output GNSS Sentences" is checked. But the machine still sends them. (And no option to configure nmea2000.) Obviously a bug but the firmware update is outright impossible (requires their MFD).
Downloaded OpenCPN 5.7.1 beta 3. Run once but there was no option to download TwoCan of any version (it wasn't in the catalogue). And now I can't run it anyway, it crashes immediately after start.
Also couldn't find TwoCan 2.11 anywhere on the internet, I would like to try it, pity. The old OpenCPN does not allow me to switch to beta plugin catalogue, saying I have to modify some settings file which I can't find. It looks like I have to wait until it's all in final version.
Thank you for your support, will keep watching this for further tips.

[stevead]

Downloaded OpenCPN 5.7.1 beta 3. Run once but there was no option to download TwoCan of any version (it wasn't in the catalogue). And now I can't run it anyway, it crashes immediately after start.

There should be a version of OpenCPN 5.7 Beta 3 that runs on your RPi. The beta natively supports SocketCAN so it will use your exiting PicanM interface without any additional software. The Beta includes the facility to prioritize multiple sources of GPS data.

TwoCan is not currently supported on OpenCPN 5.71 Beta 3, I am waiting until it has stabilized before releasing the next version of TwoCan.

Also couldn't find TwoCan 2.11 anywhere on the internet, I would like to try it, pity. The old OpenCPN does not allow me to switch to beta plugin catalogue, saying I have to modify some settings file which I can't find.

Oops, omission on my part, I have yet to release TwoCan V2.1 for any version of OpenCPN, guess I was waiting for 5.7 to be released. To enable the OpenCPN Beta Catalog, just follow the intructions, add CatologExpert=1 to the Plugins section of the OpenCPN configuration file, which is usually located in C:\ProgramData\OpenCPN on Windows and in ~/.opencpn/opencpn.conf on Linux

[PlugIns]
CatalogExpert=1

[stevead]

Also couldn't find TwoCan 2.11 anywhere on the internet, I would like to try it, pity. The old OpenCPN does not allow me to switch to beta plugin catalogue, saying I have to modify some settings file which I can't find.

Further to my last reply, TwoCan Version 2.11 has not been added to the OpenCPN Catalog, however if you wish to add it manually it can be downloaded directly from the Cloudsmith repository. Select the tarball that matches your Operating System and from OpenCPN Settings->Plugins use the "Import Plugin" option.

Note that it only is supported on the release version of OpenCPN (v5.6) and not on the beta release (v5.7),

[AdamLipsky]

Thank you, your help is appreciated, however, I can't download it - I even created an account in Cloudsmith but I can't search other people's stuff, I simply have no access to download your files.

In the meantime, I realised that if all the can0 traffic is processed by SignalK server (nmea0183 is not connected and not even set up), then the compass rose stays steady. The position is still changing twice a second, I can see it in OpenCPN left bottom, but the compass is not blinking. Interesting, I have no explanation.

I have two SD cards for RPi, one with older 32 bit software from 2020 (works fluently) and one with 64 bit from 2022 that has problems (OpenCPN menus look particularly bad, sometimes don't fit in its place, plugins missing even if it's the same version 5.6.2, the add-ons/plugin in server can't be configured because the cogwheel button is unresponsive, etc.)

I thank you for your support and appreciate it! I know this is not a revenue-making project and you must do all in your spare time.

[Tehani]

Originally Posted by stevead

IIRC, the current version of the OpenCPN TwoCan plugin (V2.11) automatically filters/prioritizes PGN 129029 from multiple sources, by selecting the source with the best HDOP.

Glad to hear you've adopted that solution as well. I hope that PGN 129029 helps you to enable the rest of the data (COG / SOG, Sats, etc) of the same ID.