Opencpn to Seatalk and SeatalkNG

[fgd3]

Originally Posted by Nereus32

I just bought a boat with a complete (but slightly dated) Raymarine system on it and desperately want OpenCPN to be running overtop of the whole thing.

Check your Raymarine instruments for NMEA 0183 ports. My autopilot has a port for receiving NMEA 0183 data. It's on the back of the autopilot control head near the bottom. It is sufficient to put speed over ground from my GPS to the speed instrument and to feed waypoint tracking information to the autopilot. You might not need the Actisense converter.


Fabbian

[Douwe Fokkema]

Originally Posted by fgd3

My autopilot has a port for receiving NMEA 0183 data. It's on the back of the autopilot control head near the bottom.
Fabbian

Which autopilot is that? Which control head?

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by fgd3

Check your Raymarine instruments for NMEA 0183 ports. My autopilot has a port for receiving NMEA 0183 data. It's on the back of the autopilot control head near the bottom. It is sufficient to put speed over ground from my GPS to the speed instrument and to feed waypoint tracking information to the autopilot. You might not need the Actisense converter.


Fabbian

All of the Raymarine Multi and Graphic heads have NMEA ports as well.

[B25Matt]

To get OpenCPN to see the USB device you have to tell it the device name it will be on. I'm a Linux guy and under IOS it shows up as a non logical name (IMHO). To find the name of a USB device in IOS I did the following:

1) Remove the device (GPS in my case)
2) Open a terminal (xterm) and type the command: "ls /dev > ~/junk1.txt"
3) Note: don't type in the quotes.
4) Insert the device
5) Enter the following command: "ls /dev > ~/junk2.txt"
6) Finally: "diff ~/junk1.txt ~/junk2.txt"

This will tell you what the name of the device is. From there you enter that name as the connection name in OpenCPN.

Lastly remove the temporary files: "rm ~/junk1.txt ~/junk2.txt"

I've had very good success with the Yacht Devices WIFI NMEA 183-2000 device. Very happy with it. It all worked out of the box.

[Moo]

Originally Posted by fgd3

Check your Raymarine instruments for NMEA 0183 ports. My autopilot has a port for receiving NMEA 0183 data. It's on the back of the autopilot control head near the bottom. It is sufficient to put speed over ground from my GPS to the speed instrument and to feed waypoint tracking information to the autopilot. You might not need the Actisense converter.


Fabbian

You may not need it but you should have it as it provides isolation between the pc and instrument network; which a connection to a serial port most likely wont.



Chris

[fgd3]

Originally Posted by Douwe Fokkema

Which autopilot is that? Which control head?

The control head is labeled "ST6002" and "SmartPilot". The main circuit board is in a box labeled simply "SmartPilot". I noticed there are NMEA 0183 "In" and "Out" ports on the main board in addition to the NMEA "In" ports on the control head. Twelve years ago when I installed the autopilot I could have answered your questions more completely and accurately but that information has disappeared into the mists of time.


Fabbian

[Douwe Fokkema]

Originally Posted by fgd3

The control head is labeled "ST6002" and "SmartPilot". The main circuit board is in a box labeled simply "SmartPilot".
Fabbian

That is the "old generation" autopilot, from the time NMEA2000 and Seatalkng did not exist. In that case there is of course no need for conversion with an Actisense NGW-1, you can't even connect it.


But to connect the new line of Evolution autopilots you will need to convert the NMEA2000 (= Seatalkng) to NMEA0183, for example with an Actisense NGW-1. That conversion works excellent. But I have until now not been able to get the Evolution autopilot into Track mode. The control head displays BTW, DTW, XTE and still it complaines "No navigation data" when I try to activate Track mode. Raymarine support can't help either, they just don't know. I suspect Raymarine refuses data from other sources than their own displays for commercial reasons.

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by Douwe Fokkema

But I have until now not been able to get the Evolution autopilot into Track mode. The control head displays BTW, DTW, XTE and still it complaines "No navigation data" when I try to activate Track mode. Raymarine support can't help either, they just don't know. I suspect Raymarine refuses data from other sources than their own displays for commercial reasons.

Do you have a rudder reference indicator?

[Moo]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

Do you have a rudder reference indicator?

and speed through the water?


Does the bearing to waypoint make sense? ditto XTE etc.?



Can you display your position on the control head? ditto COG etc?



It will work, you are missing something

[fgd3]

Originally Posted by Douwe Fokkema

That is the "old generation" autopilot, from the time NMEA2000 and Seatalkng did not exist. In that case there is of course no need for conversion with an Actisense NGW-1, you can't even connect it.


But to connect the new line of Evolution autopilots you will need to convert the NMEA2000 (= Seatalkng) to NMEA0183, for example with an Actisense NGW-1. That conversion works excellent. But I have until now not been able to get the Evolution autopilot into Track mode. The control head displays BTW, DTW, XTE and still it complaines "No navigation data" when I try to activate Track mode. Raymarine support can't help either, they just don't know. I suspect Raymarine refuses data from other sources than their own displays for commercial reasons.

I was responding to the original poster who mentioned he had acquired a boat with "dated" Raymarine instruments. So he may not need the Actisense converter.


With my autopilot the key to having it track to a waypoint is to set the GPS to navigate to that waypoint. You've probably tried that, but just in case, could it be something that simple?


Fabbian

[Douwe Fokkema]

Originally Posted by Moo

and speed through the water?

Does the bearing to waypoint make sense? ditto XTE etc.?
Can you display your position on the control head? ditto COG etc?
It will work, you are missing something

I had XTE, BTW, DTW all right. That used to be enough for the old 400 + 6001 pilot. Now I added GPS position, and the autopilot (EV1) is going to track mode. I was indeed missing something. Thanks a lot!


By the way (reacting on other reaction), it is not the GPS that is handling the route. The GPS only provides position in my case. The route is handled by OpenCPN. OpenCPN generates the APB sentence that is converted by the NGW-1 to the 127237 PGN (heading track control) on NMEA2000. I am using the Actisense Toolkit for setting the configuration on the NGW-1.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by Douwe Fokkema

That is the "old generation" autopilot, from the time NMEA2000 and Seatalkng did not exist. In that case there is of course no need for conversion with an Actisense NGW-1, you can't even connect it.


But to connect the new line of Evolution autopilots you will need to convert the NMEA2000 (= Seatalkng) to NMEA0183, for example with an Actisense NGW-1. That conversion works excellent. But I have until now not been able to get the Evolution autopilot into Track mode. The control head displays BTW, DTW, XTE and still it complaines "No navigation data" when I try to activate Track mode. Raymarine support can't help either, they just don't know. I suspect Raymarine refuses data from other sources than their own displays for commercial reasons.

This is the exactly the same issue I have. I setup everything correctly, but the Autopilot will not accept the waypoints and as such I get the "No navigation data". It must be possible with SignalK though as I can use the Wilhelm SK app to fully control the autopilot.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by Moo

and speed through the water?


Does the bearing to waypoint make sense? ditto XTE etc.?



Can you display your position on the control head? ditto COG etc?



It will work, you are missing something

Do you have the Evolution autopilot and have successfully set it up to accept waypoints from OpenCPN? If so it would be good to see your config.

If not, I don't know how you can say "It will work, you are missing something".

I think there are a few people with the same issue around the Evolution autopilot.

[Moo]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

Do you have the Evolution autopilot and have successfully set it up to accept waypoints from OpenCPN? If so it would be good to see your config.

If not, I don't know how you can say "It will work, you are missing something".

I think there are a few people with the same issue around the Evolution autopilot.

See the OPs post above. He was missing something.

I don't have an evolution pilot or any other pilot, I have an wind vane">Aries wind vane. But marine electronics are my profession, it's what I do day in day out. However given the scarcity of info that most people post on forums about the best answer I can usually give is along the lines of "you are missing something"; if I was standing in front of the equipment I would be able to drill down to the cause very quickly. Trying to help somebody on a forum who says "my autopilot doesn't work, what's wrong?" is often a hiding to nothing. But given all the info I can get there.

And yes Evolution pilots, or more accurately the spx pilots (evolution is only the heading/attitude sensor part) will take AP sentances from OCPN.

How about posting you configuration, I not just of OCPN, but of your whole sysyem? I do that and I'll try to pick the bones out of it for you.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by Moo

See the OPs post above. He was missing something.

I don't have an evolution pilot or any other pilot, I have an Aries wind vane. But marine electronics are my profession, it's what I do day in day out. However given the scarcity of info that most people post on forums about the best answer I can usually give is along the lines of "you are missing something"; if I was standing in front of the equipment I would be able to drill down to the cause very quickly. Trying to help somebody on a forum who says "my autopilot doesn't work, what's wrong?" is often a hiding to nothing. But given all the info I can get there.

And yes Evolution pilots, or more accurately the spx pilots (evolution is only the heading/attitude sensor part) will take AP sentances from OCPN.

How about posting you configuration, I not just of OCPN, but of your whole sysyem? I do that and I'll try to pick the bones out of it for you.

Hi Moo,

In the post I quoted you were replying to Douwe Fokkema not the OP.

Douwe Fokkema seems to have a problem with the Evolution pilot picking up waypoints from OpenCPN. I have the same issue. Thanks very much for the offer of help, it's probably best left to another thread more specific to the Evolution system to avoid the confusion like we've been having.