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barunal · 13-07-2018, 01:59

Hi All.
I am looking for a solution to be able to display the seatalk1 network's data on OpenCPN, including the AIS data.
What is the recommended solution here?
Thank you!

JeroenAdam · 13-07-2018, 03:28

I would go for a ShipModul Miniplex3 USB + Raspberry (with OpenPlotter).
OpenPlotter will send the data (GPS/Wind/depth/compass/AIS) over wifi to (m)any OpenCPN instances.

jimseng · 13-07-2018, 07:27

I have the shipmodul miniplex 2 wifi version and I cannot get the USB (ftdi) serial connection to work. I have tried for hours with different baud rates and failed. However plugged into my Surface pro it is a very good product so I guess the version 3 will be just as good. But if anybody knows how to get the USB/serial connection to work I would be very interested. I am just a bit concerned the the USB chipset is incompatible the the Rpi.

JeroenAdam · 13-07-2018, 08:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimseng

I am just a bit concerned the the USB chipset is incompatible the the Rpi.

For the Miniplex3-USB, it is is plug-and-play on a Raspberry. OpenPlotter is actually Raspbian Stretch. I only have to set the baud rate to 460800 chich is very fast, it is one of the important differences between Miniplex 2 and 3.
I'm very happy with it, all data, inclusing compass rate (Raymarine fluxgate) at 10Hz is easily sent OpenCPN which gets its data over wifi from OpenPlotter.

jimseng · 13-07-2018, 09:04

JeroenAdam Thanks!!!

I didn't even know about that baud rate but I just set my pi with :
stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 460800 and now I am I receiving data from my GPS/AIS and auto pilot. How many hours did I struggle with this?

So my solution is going to be:

GPS/AIS from my S.H. VHF to miniplex
Raymarine seatalk to miniple
OpenCPN to miniplex (Surface pro via wifi to my Raspberry pi.)
Raspberry Pi to/from miniplex/auto pilot.
Raspberry pi also running kplex to route NMEA/Seatalk to surface pro and Android phone.

So barunal. I agree. Shipmodul miniplex is a good way to go.

jimseng · 13-07-2018, 09:11

Kplex doesn't seem to support that baud rate!

JeroenAdam · 13-07-2018, 09:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimseng

Kplex doesn't seem to support that baud rate!

The OpenPlotter guys have managed this, when I wrote I set the baud to 460800, I meant I just have to set it in the OpenPlotter user interface. That is since v1.x.x which was released two months ago. Before, with v0.x.x, I had to launch stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 460800
I suppose it can be set in a Kplex config file, why even use a customized Raspbian and not OpenPlotter?

jimseng · 13-07-2018, 09:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeroenAdam

why even use a customized Raspbian and not OpenPlotter?

That is a valid question! My pi is many things on the boat, most importantly for music and I have a whole php/mysql thing going on and I tend to shy away from things that do it all for me because I end up losing my stuff. But hey. SD cards are cheap so I might have to givce it a go.

muttnik · 21-07-2018, 04:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimseng

Kplex doesn't seem to support that baud rate!

Actually it has done since late 2016 in the develop branch on github. The problem is kplex is long overdue a "production" release and there's a bunch of bug fixes and minor features that have been made since the "current" version. I don't know what the openplotter folks are using these days but I'm guessing it's a snapshot of dev or the 1.4 beta

conachair · 21-07-2018, 04:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by muttnik

Actually it has done since late 2016 in the develop branch on github. The problem is kplex is long overdue a "production" release and there's a bunch of bug fixes and minor features that have been made since the "current" version. I don't know what the openplotter folks are using these days but I'm guessing it's a snapshot of dev or the 1.4 beta

pi@openplotter:~ $ kplex -V
1.4rc1-7-g4f862ce