GPS not working

[mcerdos]

I am installing OpenCPN for the first time. I am installing on a WIN7 computer that has four COM ports connected to a serial port. The GPS is on COM2 at 9600 baud using NMEA0183. I am not able to get the little satellite icon to go green and I am not able to see my boat’s position. The ship icon is in the Pacific, I am in the Caribbean.

I have checked the NMEA trouble shooting window and do see the streams of data from the GPS. So, the NMEA input is there.

What am I missing?

I do not have a chart loaded for the area I am currently located. Could this be the issue? I would think I would still show the GPS to be working via the top right icon?

[bcn]

Are you sure your GPS is at 9600? The common baud rate is 4800 for basic GPS.
There are few exceptions though.

Can you post a screen shot of your COM settings from Options|Communications with the details of the COM port selected?

[mcerdos]

Originally Posted by bcn

Are you sure your GPS is at 9600? The common baud rate is 4800 for basic GPS.
There are few exceptions though.

Can you post a screen shot of your COM settings from Options|Communications with the details of the COM port selected?

I initially set the setting to 9600 based on the OpenCPN instructional video. However, it is set to 4800 and I have a good flow in sentences in the NMEA Debug Window.

The screenshot is attached:

[bcn]

The debug window shows that the COM2 does receive - but no GPS sentences. Nor other sentences containing lat/lon data.

What is COM3 about?

[bdbcat]

Is the GPS outside, or have a clear sky view for a fix?
In the debug window, there are no RMC messages. For some GPS receivers, this means there is no valid position fix.

Do you have any other app to monitor the GPS device status? What brand of GPS is this?

Dave

[mcerdos]

COM3 is wind and depth info. COM4 is AIS but is not enabled yet. I'm just wanting GPS at this point.

I am not sure what you mean regarding this part:

[QUOTE=bcn;2727909]The debug window shows that the COM2 does receive - but no GPS sentences. Nor other sentences containing lat/lon data./QUOTE]

Thank you so much for taking the time to help

[mcerdos]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

Is the GPS outside, or have a clear sky view for a fix?
In the debug window, there are no RMC messages. For some GPS receivers, this means there is no valid position fix.

Do you have any other app to monitor the GPS device status? What brand of GPS is this?

Dave

Hi Dave, Thanks for taking the time help. The GPS is working as it is used by another program on the same PC - TimeZero. TZ is not active as I am trying to set up OpenCPN for redundancy and additional chart support.

I understand I can not run both programs at once. TZ is working fine with the same connections and GPS.

[barnakiel]

This may be the clue.


If it is used by another software, it cannot be used by OpenCPN. Coms allow only exclusive use.



The com data can be bridged though.


I use wifi nmea data one of the reasons is now one set of data serves ALL laptops, tablets and phones onboard.


b.

[mcerdos]

Hi guys,

I figured it out. Sometimes I can be such a dumb ass

The GPS was on COM4 and the baud rate is 115200. I clear forgot I added another GPS about 4 years ago and the older unit is still in place as a back-up. DUH!

Thanks for the help.