Raymarine SeatalkHS data in OpenCPN

[AndreHuizing]

Hello,
I'm new to this forum and am looking hard for a way to make use of the SeatalkHS/Ethernet connection between my E120 and PC with OpenCPN. I think most data including Radar etc. is available in the STHS connection. Is there a Plugin (planned) to use this in OpenCPN. Have searched but could not find one and think more people will be interested in this.

Thanks in advance for your reactions.

Cheers,
Andre

[xeon_tsd]

Interested... posting to follow.

[rgleason]

Andre such a plugin is entirely possible however no one has stepped forward to program that plugin. There are some sources for the seatalk to nmea conversion which might make it easier to do.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[AndreHuizing]

Thanks for the replies, very useful. I actually had not realized that OpenCPN has the option "network" when creating a new connection. Have not tried this yet. Anybody knows if this is usable to get the data from the SeatalkHS ethernet?
Pushing it here: would it also be possible to get Radar image info from such a connection (as my analog radar is connected to the E120 and I understand it can transmit the digital radar image over its connectors).

Cheers,
Andre

[rgleason]

Andre, you can get a seatalk - nmea converter from raymarine and connect opencpn to read the nmea data.

[nohal]

Andre...
Read Seatalk HS interface / RaspberryPi - Raymarine Technical Forum
You might be able to reverse engineer the protocol as was done with Lowrance and Garmin radars. It is impossible to do without access to the actual HW and noone I'm aware of has such access, so you really are on your own.

Pavel

[AndreHuizing]

Thanks...that frankly does not sound too hopeful.
I'm a newbee to this and more or less assumed that a mainstream ethernet protocol like SeatalkHS would be supported in OpenCPN.
Actually not sure why I get a lot of tips on converting stuff to NMEA? That will never allow input of anything more than low speed data like GPS or depth...or am I missing a point here?
My E120 is connected via STHS to an E80 on the flybridge by only one ethernet cable. The E80 displays everything including radar and even camera images.
My simple thinking was that if the E80 can do this it would not be too hard to have OpenCPN do it?

Cheers,
Andre

[nohal]

Andre...
Capture the packets on the ethernet cable and see for yourself.
SeatalkHS is obviously not that mainstream as nobody seems to have done it yet.

Pavel


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[rgleason]

Andre, you are going to have to do some reading to understand how to convert your Seatalk Interface to NMEA for OpenCPN. There are a number of hardware devices that will do this for you.

These converters will give you GPS, Wind (apparent & true), and all the other data you have available on the seatalk bus converted to Nmea so Opencpn will be able to use it.

Additionally, there is often an "In" Nmea connection which will permit Opencpn to send data (instructions) in Nmea through the converter to the Seatalk bus.

Many Mux devices such as Brookstone, Articsense, Digital Yacht etc have Seatalk conversion.

See these links:
Raymarine SeaTalk NG Networking
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com...1166_5_WEB.pdf
Raymarine NMEA 0183 Multiplexer
Boat Projects: Beginners Guide to Raymarine's Seatalk and Derivatives
Raymarine Seatalk - NMEA bridge for Brookhouse multiplexer
Thomas Knauf Â*Â*Â*Â*SeaTalk Technical Reference
Shipnetwork – OpenSeaMap-dev
http://www.shipmodul.com/en/index.html

Seatalk1 is ray's propriety version of nmea 0183. Seatalk1 is readily able to be converted to nmea 0183. Raymarine supply an accessory (Part #E85001) for converting Seatalk to NMEA 0183. Also, ShipModul's and Brookhouse's MUXes also convert Seatalk to NMEA 0183. Alternatively, if you have the ST60 repeater, you will find a NMEA output on the device which can connect directly to a SOB COM port.

You should understand that none of these devices will provide the necessary connections to Raymarine Radar, that will require additional programming of a new OpenCPN plugin for that purpose.

Pavel, you may not see that many Raymarine Display's and Radars where you are, but I can assure you that they do have a very sizeable share of the recreational and commercial market. Their current "e" Series is a very attractive display with many good features and their radars are excellent [we have a very early monochrome screen, Autohelm Radar which is still working well.] The new radars are also very good and if an OpenCPN plugin were developed it might be used quite a bit, however the users that buy Raymarine, I think, are generally are looking for a full system, similar to Furuno users. However Raymarine users need to speak up about this, and some Raymarine user with the programming skills might step up to the task..

[nohal]

Rick...
Seatalk and SeatalkHS are two completely different beasts. While Seatalk has about 100% of the market where I used to be sailing most of my life, I have never ever seen SeatalkHS network on a boat...

Pavel

[rgleason]

Yes Pavel, you are absolutely right about SeatalkHS, ....sorry, read the post too fast.

[AndreHuizing]

OK, thanks all. I think I need to go the Seatalk/NMEA route. That will solve most things except the radar overlay...I guess.
As with most things: If it seems to easy to be true, it probably is...

Cheers,
Andre

[Greggegner]

Any update for this. It would be nice to use a PI and eithernet cable to my C90W...


Greg S/V Sweet Dreams
Pearson P385 out of Racine Wisconsin

[transmitterdan]

Greg,

You can put your request into the feature request system at opencpn.org. I don't think this is requested very often though. Your C90W has NMEA out I believe. That will work with OpenCPN.

[xc50]

Hi all,

New to the forum and noticed this topic has been dormant for a while. We recently bought an 11yr old X-Yacht and have replaced the old exterior Raymarine C120W plotter with a new Axiom Pro. Plug and play works well, including with our old radar (RD418D) and the existing NMEA networks (SeaTalkNg as well as NMEA0183 for the VHF).

My goal has been to replace the old C90W plotter in the interior nav station with a PC (intel NUC) with OpenCPN. All hardware is installed and we've directly hooked the Axiom Pro up to the PC via a network cable and a RayNet (the new SeatalkHS connector) to Ethernet adapter. Note we had to use a female-female RayNet cable that came supplied with the plotter to make this work as the connector on the plotter was male. Not sure if that influences the network connection as I've read these are crossover cables.

My two questions at this point:

- I've tested the network connection and it seems that the PC does find the plotter. In the attached images you can see the IP address on the plotter, and in the Windows terminal image you can see that it found the exact same address on the network. When I add that IP address as a network connection in OpenCPN however I don't see anything coming in. Does anyone have any experience with this? What network settings am I to use in OpenCPN? Port number for instance? I've searched the net (incl this forum) for hours and couldn't find anything.

- Ultimately I'd really like the radar on the PC. Judging by a recent release of the Radar PI plugin our radar should be supported. Does anyone have experience setting this up? I can't select Raymarine as a brand when trying to set up the plugin :S.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, many thanks!!