OpenCPN and McMurdo Smartfind M15

[Redcar RNLI]

Hi folks. Sorry if this has been asked elsewhere. We have obtained a McMurdo Smartfind M15 AIS receiver which we intend using in the lifeboat station, connected to a laptop via a USB connection. The provided McMurdo software finds the info from the receiver OK, but OpenCPN doesn't. We want to use more precise Admiralty-type charts so it's important we get the receiver to talk to OpenCPN.

We've stared at the problem but can't see a way through. Any ideas please? Thanks, Dave, Redcar RNLI

[bcn]

First check that only ONE software is running to listen to the AIS device. COM ports can't be shared.

Your OS, your version of OCPN?
Did a walk through the documentation?

How are your communication settings to connect to the AIS? AIS baud rate is normally 38400.

[Redcar RNLI]

Originally Posted by bcn

First check that only ONE software is running to listen to the AIS device. COM ports can't be shared.

Your OS, your version of OCPN?
Did a walk through the documentation?

How are your communication settings to connect to the AIS? AIS baud rate is normally 38400.

Hi - thanks - the USB is allocated to serial port 4, baud rate is correct, and we're on Windows 10.

[petter5]

Originally Posted by Redcar RNLI

The provided McMurdo software finds the info from the receiver OK, but OpenCPN doesn't. We want to use more precise Admiralty-type charts so it's important we get the receiver to talk to OpenCPN.

We've stared at the problem but can't see a way through. Any ideas please? Thanks, Dave, Redcar RNLI

Have you shut down the McMurdo software ??. If running it will block opencpn from accessing the AIS since com ports can't be shared.

[bcn]

No other program tries to read from the AIS?

In the COM settings of OCPN does the correct port show up (drop down list)?

When you disconnect the USB (unplug/plug-in), what does the Windows device manger show? How is the device named?

Under Windows some programs will not release the port correctly. You might need to power cycle the AIS device to get the right handle. Disconnect the USB before power cycling. To prevent to power the AIS via USB... In case it is powered externally.

USB cables and connectors are an extra pest in this context.

The cow shall fly for sure..

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by bcn

The cow shall fly for sure..

But too often Windows broke the neck of the cow...
Get another operating system to have fun.

Gerhard

[petter5]

Originally Posted by CarCode

But too often Windows broke the neck of the cow...
Get another operating system to have fun.

Gerhard

I AGREE !!

[Redcar RNLI]

Originally Posted by petter5

Have you shut down the McMurdo software ??. If running it will block opencpn from accessing the AIS since com ports can't be shared.

Thanks. Yes we've made sure everything else which might poll the port is closed down.

[petter5]

Originally Posted by Redcar RNLI

Thanks. Yes we've made sure everything else which might poll the port is closed down.

First of all, It should work with win 10.

Check your connections in opencpn. When adding connections, choose "serial" In the Dataport pulldown menu, can you see the actual dataport, and if so, is it com3 - baudrate should be set to 38400
Click apply, and be sure that this dataconnection now are checked "enabled". Press "Apply" Check " Show NMEA Debug Window" Can you see the datastream from the AIS ? ( AIVDM messages).

I just tried with another brand AIS on win 10 and it works fine on a 1 year old HP laptop.

On the other hand - this 1 year old laptop has speed / Performance less than a turtle and most programs run frustrating slow, including Opencpn. I also run opencpn on a 2003 model IBM Thinkpad T42 using Xubuntu and Opencpn run like a Concorde compared to a Turtle under Win 10 even if the pc is 12 years older. If you will use this pc for monitoring traffic and operations for your lifeboats, I would definitively abandon the win 10 OS, or find an old pc / laptop and install Xubuntu to be used for opencpn/AIS.

[bcn]

The Windows zoo of different machines is almost as big as the ARM stuff - plus all the Linux variants.

We have not had - and don't have right now - performance problems on our Windows machines.
From 7 year old XP stuff, W7 and 8.1, Win10 32bit and 64bit.
The Win10 32bit 10" 250€ tablet just works ok for what it is.

Better than our A20 ARM system with Debian.

The OS-X Mac Mini is not the fastest neither (and being my main system for WWW Safari hangs a lot - yes it is updated).

Don't forget that about 80% of OCPN users are on Windows, so the chance to hear here from problems is high. And yes, USB under Windows is not the most stable thing in the world. But once it is running..

If you want to hear funny things about connecting devices just read the OpenPlotter thread. Users over there are expecting problems, so they do not complain that much.

It is not just plug&play for any combination of HW & SW.

So just help the other guys with our experiences to get their stuff right.
No crusades please

[AedanC]

I've been through the process of setting up OpenCpn on Windows 10 with a USB AIS receiver, albeit a different brand. It took a bit of messing around to get things working in the beginning but it has been very stable after that. I was using a very low end tablet PC and there were no performance issues.

I recommend getting a terminal program like putty so you can see exactly what's coming from the AIS receiver. This will let you confirm the AIS is operating correctly and that you have all the COM ports, baud rates and other settings correct. You should see lines of text coming in looking a bit like this:

!AIVDM,1,1,,B,D02HW70>lDfp00E6DlHE6D0,2*6D
!AIVDM,1,1,,B,13fJu6gP0oOFRF8MNv1;hgvB05q8,0*0D
!AIVDM,1,1,,A,402HW4Qv0UgB9ODDMP2>700Uq8,0*5A

...with possibly some other ones starting with $ interspersed.

You can get putty from Download PuTTY - a free SSH and telnet client for Windows.

Once you have things like this arriving on putty then reboot and set up OpenCpn with the same settings, hopefully it should work then, it did for me.

Good luck,

Aedan

[CarCode]

Aedan,

you are going to complicate things which are quite simple for a real operating system. AIS data is usually transfered via serial connections either RS422 or RS232 which works also. There is no need for a secure shell or telnet. Computers without the former 9-pin serial connector uses USB and a virtual COM port. A driver is needed however.
Sadly Windows up to now is not able to handle a serial port correctly and also not a virtual port at all. Use another connector of your computer as it was used the first time, and you have to install everything again. Use a bluetooth SPP device and you see 2 virtual COM ports but only one is the right one. There is quite more ******** the people in Redmond never was able to fix. So Windows up to Win10 is far away to be an operating system. An operating system should be able to handle terrabyte harddisks, large RAM, and any other stuff connected to the maschine. A few times ago Windows could not even store a large file.

Gerhard

[nohal]

Gerhard...
I suppose Aedan suggested using putty as a serial terminal emulator, which it of course also is. Good advice to find out whether there is something actually coming on a serial port, FWIW.

Pavel

[AedanC]

Originally Posted by nohal

Gerhard...
I suppose Aedan suggested using putty as a serial terminal emulator, which it of course also is. Good advice to find out whether there is something actually coming on a serial port, FWIW.

Pavel

Thank you Pavel, that's exactly what I did mean, I should have made it clearer that putty should be used in terminal mode not telnet or ssh. That debugging method generally works very well, I've been using it for years.

Aedan


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