OpenCPN + BU353S4 + MAC OSX

[SV Aquavit]

I have Mac Powerbook and am trying to get OpenCPN to connect to my BU353S4.

Under "GPS Setup" in the OpenCPN manual, the MacOSX section says...

"When the driver is installed and the device connected, start OpenCPN, select the Toolbox and click the GPS tab."

Toolbox? GPS tab? There is no Toolbox and no GPS tab.

There is a Toolbar... But it does not have a GPS tab.

Any help appreciated!

[Vic_222]

I also have a MacBook running the latest Opencpn and I am also unable to use the BU353S4, not sure if I have the latest driver which is from 2011? I'm running Mohave on my Mac so will this driver work?

Cheers

Vic.

[ptulp]

Originally Posted by SV Aquavit

I have Mac Powerbook and am trying to get OpenCPN to connect to my BU353S4.

Under "GPS Setup" in the OpenCPN manual, the MacOSX section says...

"When the driver is installed and the device connected, start OpenCPN, select the Toolbox and click the GPS tab."

Toolbox? GPS tab? There is no Toolbox and no GPS tab.

There is a Toolbar... But it does not have a GPS tab.

Any help appreciated!

Looks like the manual is a bit outdated.

1. Start OpenCPN
2. Click on the Options Icon
3. Select “Connections”, and “Add Connection” and “Serial”
4. Under “Data Port” select the port displaying the BU353
5. Check the baudrate is 4800
6. Choose OK

[Vic_222]

The GPS works now. Thanks.

[SV Aquavit]

@ptulp

Thanks for clarifying the instructions, but I'm not seeing the BU353 in the dropdown.

@Vic_222

What version of the driver are you using?

What version of OSX?

Mine is 1.4 but I think there is a 1.6?

[SV Aquavit]

The USGlobalSat BU353-S4 puck needs a driver from Prolific to "fake" the Mac into thinking it has a serial connection via a USB port. There is a new version of the Prolific driver for recent OSX version, including High Sierra.

Products

Hopeful Mac OpenCPN users should not get excited tho. The new drivert does not register as an available serial or USB port on the Mac. Therefore, the BU353 does not appear in OpenCPN as an available connection.

If I knew OpenCPN and GPS pucks were this unfriendly to the Mac platform, I would never have started down this road!

I am now having to wade thru editing the Prolific driver code! Ferreting out Product ID and Vendor ID, applying Hex to Decimal Conversion, terminal commands and System Integrity Protection.

OpenCPN and USGlobalSat BU353-S4 should not claim to support Mac if you need to rewrite software to get it to work! No wonder the GPS installation docs in OpenCPN are so out of date!

[J.Kitchens]

It should say something along the lines of tty/usbserial. Or it may be cu/usbserial

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by SV Aquavit

I have Mac Powerbook and am trying to get OpenCPN to connect to my BU353S4.

Under "GPS Setup" in the OpenCPN manual, the MacOSX section says...

"When the driver is installed and the device connected, start OpenCPN, select the Toolbox and click the GPS tab."

Toolbox? GPS tab? There is no Toolbox and no GPS tab.

There is a Toolbar... But it does not have a GPS tab.

Any help appreciated!

The official manual states:

When the driver is installed and the device connected, start OpenCPN, select the Options icon and click the Connections tab. Click “Add Connection”. Select Serial. Open the “Dataport” menu & select the device from the list. It is not always obvious which is the correct one, but in general the device will have a name starting: ”/dev/cu.“ or ”/dev/tty.“. Some manufacturers make it obvious, like ”/dev/cu.MiniPlex-99000125“, but others may be more generic, like: ”/dev/cu.usbserial“. Set the “Baud Rate” to 4800 and click “OK”. If the correct selection has been made, you should see the GPS status icon change from red to green.

Very different than what you have quoted.
I have added some notes ptulp made for BU353S4

[J.Kitchens]

This is the BU-353 on my MacBook Air running OpenCPN 4.8.6

[SV Aquavit]

Originally Posted by J.Kitchens

This is the BU-353 on my MacBook Air running OpenCPN 4.8.6

Thanks J.Kitchens.

What version of Mac OS are you on? I'm on High Sierra and using version 1.6.1 of the Prolific driver and a BU-353 S4. Do you have the BU-353 USB? The two BU-353 versions are noted here:

https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...re:gps_devices

The S4 version appears to be less compatible. Maybe that's why the need to hack the driver.

[J.Kitchens]

My mac is running High Sierra also.
I believe mine is a BU353 USB but I'm not positive.
I use the Prolific 1.4.0 driver found on the HERE on the GlobalSat website and labeled BU353S4 Mac OSX USB Driver ／ English ／ 2011-11-18 ／.

Sorry. I didn't realize they were different versions. GlobalSat does list this driver as the one to use for Mac OSX on a BU353S4. Give it a try.

[SV Aquavit]

Finally got it working.

Here is a recap...

The OpenCPN instructions for adding a GPS to a Mac are hopelessly outdated.

Thanks to @ptulp, steps should be these:

1. Start OpenCPN
2. Click on the Options Icon (wrench)
3. Select “Connections”, and “Add Connection” and “Serial”
4. Under “Data Port” select the port displaying the BU353 (SEE NOTE!)
5. Check the baudrate is 4800
6. Choose OK

NOTE: Depending on which GPS you are using, the dropdown may say something completely different. It depends on the GPS device and the driver it requires.

Here's the process I went thru for the GlobalSat BU-353 SA on High Sierra.

First, get the latest driver here: Products

Install it and your Mac will need to restart.

- Go to About This Mac > System Report...
- Look in Hardware > USB for an entry that includes "Prolific"
- If you don't see one, make sure your puck is connected to the Mac and restart.
- Once you see the entry that includes "Prolific" in the USB connection list, boot OpenCPN and follow the above steps to set up the GPS connection.
- For the BU-353 SA + Prolific driver, the data port connection drop down you are looking for will say "tty/usbserial" or "cu/usbserial."

Hope this helps others avoid the hours I wasted trying to ferret out the process. I hope someone at least updates the Mac instructions in the OpenCPN manual for setting up a GPS!

[rgleason]

Please refer to this paragraph as an example...


https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...iguring_bu-353

1. Download the latest driver from Prolific - http://www.usglobalsat.com/s-24-support-drivers.aspx#A
2. Unzip and install the driver
3. Plug in the BU-353.
4. Start → (Right Click) My Computer → Properties → Hardware →Device Manager
   or Start→Run devmgmt.msc
5. Expand Ports
6. Look for the “Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port” and note the com port number (e.g., COM4)

The above is a description specifically for Windows. If you would like to provide a similar description but specifically for Mac, along with several screenshots, we will add that to the Mac Section here (upload the screenshots here please).
https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do..._setup#mac_osx


Thanks.

[continuouswave]

Let me add a few observations regarding MacOS and USB drivers for GlobalSAT USB receivers (or any device using the Prolific USB chip).

My GlobalSAT USB receiver is the older BU-353 model, not the -S4 model. I believe -S4 means SiRF4 chip.

My MacOS version 10.12.6, or "SIERRA."

I used the application "Serial Detect" from MAC-USB-SERIAL.COM to detect what chip was in the BU-353 device. You can download this nice app for free from

https://www.mac-usb-serial.com/stati...Detect-2.7.zip

The Serial Detect app then confirmed that the BU-353 was using a PL2303 chip, with Vendor ID 0x067b and product ID 0x2303.

Next I went to the Prolific website and downloaded the recommended driver for the PL2303 and MacOS 10.12.

The result of this was the BU-353 worked on MacOS 10.12, but with a severe limitation: once the USB serial connection was opened it would not close, and the entire USB system would become hung. The computer could not be shut-down or restarted, except by holding down the power button--always a dangerous choice.

I explored several instances of this happening until I convinced myself that there was no way around this problem.

I then returned to MAC-USB-SERIAL.COM and purchased their own MacOS 10.12 USB driver for the Prologic PL2303. The cost was about $10 in US-funds.

The MAC-USB-SERIAL.COM driver (version 3.2.0 for MacOS 10.12) works perfectly. The problem with the USB system hanging and preventing the computer from being able to shut down or restarted was eliminated. There is a simple installer application provided with the driver.

Considering the amount of time I spent trying to solve this problem--at least five hours of reading, testing, rebooting, and so on--the cost of an actual working driver at $10 is very reasonable. Although I generally would not jump to a commercial solution to a problem like this, in this instance getting a working driver for $10 was well worth the cost.

Once you pay for access to drivers you can download any number of them, as they come in different versions for different MacOS revisions and different USB chipsets. I believe you get one year of access.

Also, once you install a working driver, it should still be there if you run an updater on the MacOS system. I doubt at this point there will be big changes in the USB subsystem of MacOS, as changes for better security for USB hardware just happened in the past year or so.

I think this information may be useful for people trying to run newer versions of MacOS. There are drivers for all current and past MacOS versions available, including MacOS 10.14 (Mojave).

Also, from what I have read, the FTDI USB chips are well supported by the MacOS native drivers, so if a GPS USB receiver is used with FTDI USB chips, perhaps all the trouble of USB driver installation and selection may be eliminated.

[Ppatinka]

Originally Posted by SV Aquavit

I have Mac Powerbook and am trying to get OpenCPN to connect to my BU353S4.

Under "GPS Setup" in the OpenCPN manual, the MacOSX section says...

"When the driver is installed and the device connected, start OpenCPN, select the Toolbox and click the GPS tab."

Toolbox? GPS tab? There is no Toolbox and no GPS tab.

There is a Toolbar... But it does not have a GPS tab.

Any help appreciated!

Sucess (after several reboots!) Prolific supplies the underlying software and its manual helped a lot. I googled " pl2303 mac" and found the guide. The new security on MAC OS kept blocking me. Note unplug the USB device, until it loads successfully, The guide refers to a terminal program and the new OS doesn't come with it. "iTerm" is the new and improved version for OS high sierrra X Step 5 lst ttty kept failing until I unplugged the device

The toolbox and GPS tab? Click on "open CPN" and then "preferences" and then "connections" Until you can select data port "dev/cu/USBserial"the device isn't properly loaded and you need to keep rerunning the install program (and rebooting without the device attached)