Vesper marine AIS data input via wifi

[TJ D]

Hi,

Ok, I just loaded opencpn, downloaded charts and have GPS into it via a usb connection. All looks good.

Step 2- AIS.

I have a Vesper unit which puts out NMEA via wifi, but I can't seem to get the plotter configured to receive any sentences this way. It seems to want a comport which is hard wired only.

Has anybody tried receiving via wifi?

Thanks, TJ

[nohal]

TJ...
Yes, all the time. OpenCPN supports data coming over both TCP and UDP network sockets. Refer to the documentation of the Vesper unit to find out the way it gets it's IP address and on which port it makes the data available.

Pavel

[BostonFlicka]

I haven't had opportunity to try it yet, however in my research I came across this.

Configuring openCPN for XB-8000 or WatchMate Vision : Vesper Marine Support


Hope it helps.

Cheers

[TJ D]

Originally Posted by nohal

TJ...
Yes, all the time. OpenCPN supports data coming over both TCP and UDP network sockets. Refer to the documentation of the Vesper unit to find out the way it gets it's IP address and on which port it makes the data available.

Pavel

YES! That did it. Thank you. Next stop... GRIB data overlays! Any neat tricks to share on that one?


By the way, the watchmate vision manual that comes with the unit does in fact have the IP address and the port. I set it up as a UDP port, priority 2 behind GPS.


So far so good.


TJ

[a64pilot]

Outstanding, my Vision is due in this Mon., this helps a lot, thanks

[TJ D]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Outstanding, my Vision is due in this Mon., this helps a lot, thanks

Sure thing. We've had the vision for about a year and a half, and we really like it a lot. Usually when we're out offshore, it's the only thing that's on all the time, so we really like the separate, standalone display on it.

I think you'll be happy with the purchase, and now that we know we can use it on OCPN, even better.

TJ

[fogmachine]

Originally Posted by TJ D

YES! That did it. Thank you. Next stop... GRIB data overlays! Any neat tricks to share on that one?

TJ

Hooked up OpenCPN 4.0 to a Vesper using the defaults and "it just worked" using GPSD - might have been even better using TCP. Setup time including Googling for default password with a smart phone was maybe three minutes. Very impressed.

We used Zygrib for wind and wave forecasts; I decompressed the GRIB files with "gzip -dk" (in ~/.zygrib/grib), copied them to a directory OpenCPN could see them, and had no trouble importing.

This gave us position, AIS, weather, and charts in one convenient place; much better than using the little screen and modern art charts of our Furuno. The only annoying thing was (the known issue of) losing AIS connectivity when the MacBookPro went into power saving mode. Next is radar overlay.

[fogmachine]

Found that OpenCPN understands GRIB files in bz2 (compressed) format so there's no need to manually decompress. Can also download GRIBs direct from NOAA (NOAA National Operational Model Archive & Distribution System - NOMADS Home Page) but the ZyGrib interface is much nicer.