Need help with NMEA in on Mac version (and other questions)

[colemj]

So I haven't looked at OpenCPN for a couple of years and just recently gave it another look. I am very impressed at how far along this has progressed and am now using it regularly on both our Mac's and PC's. It is certainly ready for the big time now - and I know that I am about the last person here to have figured that out!

I have both a Maretron N2K-USB converter and an Actisense NGW-1 N2k-0183 converter to get instrumentation and transducer data to the PC/MAC.

Everything works fine on the PC version using both converters except sending data to the autopilot. I can't seem to get it to connect to the Simrad AC42 autopilot. Using Coastal Explorer, only the Actisense converter works for autopilot control. Using OpenCPN, neither work.

Anyone have any suggestions?

On the Mac, I can't get any NMEA data at all to show up. Do I need some type of virtual comm port software or something similar? Is it an Actisense/Maretron Mac driver issue (I don't think they have Mac drivers)? The Actisense is connected to a common Prolific serial-USB converter, so I don't think it needs a special driver.

In the OpenCPN setup, I see a couple of choices for data source, but I don't know what they mean: "Network LIBGPS", "Network GPSD", "/dev/cu.serialport", etc.

Does OpenCPN draw a heading line from the boat icon showing the heading? I see the COG predictor line option, but missed if there is one for heading also.

Mark