Wireless NMEA2000 Data in to OpenCPN

[simonpickard]

Humm.

I have been quite surprised by how 'dark ages' marine equipment is. Seems like a very messy bunch of data formats, non of which are standard. Everything should just be wifi these days, we should be able to view anything we wish.

I guess I'm used to the iPad era where things just work.

The go free app on my iPad is very cool. But there doesn't seem to be an app for the Mac for some reason.

[Paul_DY]

Actually compared to some markets, the marine market is quite forward thinking and this is in part due to the good work that the NMEA have done.

When you think of all the competing marine electronics manufacturers whose equipment can be connected together via NMEA0183 or NMEA2000, it is quite amazing really and although not perfect, has certainly made things a lot easier and open.

Apple have Billions of dollars of revenue to invest in their "sand boxed" environment for software and hardware developers to create products within. The result is a very efficient eco-system where things usually just work and end users have a very nice experience.

The total marine electronics market is a fraction of the Apple market and is spread across perhaps a dozen "large" manufacturers (everything is relative) and a host of other smaller companies and even "one man band" developers.

I think it is probably unrealistic to expect the "Apple Experience" in every aspect of your life, but we can all try !

[simonpickard]

Sorry, I'm not buying that at all.
You don't need to be Apple to stick to established standards such as wifi, or even bluetooth. It's just simple data being sent around at the end if the day.

From what I've seen its more a marketing gimmick from the different electronics firms.. "Our devices now talk to each other 25% better than the other guys!".
The point is that "talking" shouldn't be an issue. Move everything to wifi and focus on improving features.

[Paul_DY]

That's OK, I was not trying to sell it to you, just giving you a different view of the challenges of technical development.

Wi-Fi is a great standard and can help engineers do lots of clever things but it only provides a transport mechanism for transferring data and you need other protocols and standards that define the data and make it possible for different devices to use it.

Just because two devices are Wi-Fi compatible does not mean they can work together - just try getting your iPad to AirPlay a video on a Samsung Smart TV or AirDrop a photo to a friend's Android phone.

What is missing is an agreed standard for "all" the marine data and how it will magically move around the Wi-Fi network and be understood by all of the devices on the network. There is an NMEA standard being developed for this (OneNet) but it takes time for a committee (even an experienced and expert one) to define a new standard.

So until suitable standards exist your best bet for getting wireless NMEA in to OpenCPN are devices like our NavLink or the Navico GoFree.

[CarCode]

Paul,

so where is your list of NMEA2k PNGs understood by OpenCPNs NMEA0183?
That is the question here.

Gerhard

[bcn]

Originally Posted by Paul_DY

There is an NMEA standard being developed for this (OneNet) but it takes time for a committee (even an experienced and expert one) to define a new standard.

So until suitable standards exist your best bet for getting wireless NMEA in to OpenCPN are devices like our NavLink or the Navico GoFree.

The upcoming OneNet standard (=NMEA2000 over Ethernet) implies to have a software NMEA2000/OneNet gateway (type-approved) on your PC.
One might compare this with having an Actisense N2K dongle today. Bandwidth and distances are different of course.

[Paul_DY]

Originally Posted by CarCode

Paul,

so where is your list of NMEA2k PNGs understood by OpenCPNs NMEA0183?
That is the question here.

Gerhard

I did not get a chance today to do this, I think everyman and his dog are getting their boat's ready for Easter and my ear has been glued to the phone and my fingers to the keyboard, but I will grab my N2K engineer tomorrow, update our current document and send this to you ASAP.

[muttnik]

Originally Posted by Paul_DY

Actually compared to some markets, the marine market is quite forward thinking and this is in part due to the good work that the NMEA have done.

Sorry to pick you up on this but that's like saying that compared to some music Wham! are quite progressive. Coming to marine electronics from the computer industry is like falling through a timewarp to the 80s. Can Bus? Really? That's the whizzy new thing? Closed industry association? Secret protocols and they set the lawyers onto you if you even mention their name? Hmm..let me re-check the flux capacitor. Security? we're certainly in pre-morris worm territory. And from looking at a number of devices supporting "up to 1 tcp connection" it's before the discovery of the concurrent server.

As for OneNet...what's the current time frame for publication of the NMEA's new ethernet-based standard? Pushed back to 2015 now? And do the manufacturers have the IPv6 stacks primed and ready to go once the standard is released?

This certainly isn't intended as a dig at Digital Yacht, who along with the likes of Actisense bring some much-needed products to market. But I'm very definitely with simonpickard on the (general) marine networking "state of the ark" statement

[Paul_DY]

Hey ! I can accept you having a dig at the industry that I have spent my entire working life in.....but I draw the line at criticising Wham

We are obviously not going to agree on why developments and technologies in the marine market cannot be directly mirrored to those in the consumer electronics world, so perhaps we should just agree to disagree on that point.

[Paul_DY]

Originally Posted by CarCode

Paul,

so where is your list of NMEA2k PNGs understood by OpenCPNs NMEA0183?
That is the question here.

Gerhard

This is the list that I promised. It shows both the conversions from NMEA2000 to Wireless NMEA0183 (the data OpenCPN will receive) and the conversions from Wireless NMEA0183 to NMEA2000 (the data OpenCPN can transmit).

Hope this will give you a good idea of what OpenCPN will operate like with our NavLink wireless NMEA2000 server.

[CarCode]

Thank you Paul,

that will be a great help for users to decide which device to buy.

Gerhard

[Davidasailor]

Originally Posted by muttnik

"GoFree"'s "tier 1" data is simply NMEA-0183 over TCP. As navico imagine it, client software would listen for service announcements (Bonjour or Navico's own service announcement protocol) and connect to a GoFree data source without the user having to tell their software how to find it. OpenCPN, like most non-navico software, doesn't do that but you can still set up a tcp data connection by getting the MFD to tell you its IPv4 address (which sadly might theoretically change as it is dynamically assigned). How to get the Zeus to tell you its address is in the manual. There's probably a list of PGNs which are converted somewhere, but not owning one I haven't looked.

Navico lists the nmea sentences provided over wifi at: http://www.bandg.com/Documents/produ...language=en-GB

[cwetto]

Originally Posted by bcn

Paul,

what about a (Ethernet) cable option for those of us that don't trust the wireless stuff that much?

(and perhaps updating your web page of the Wireless NMEA2000 data in order to show that O is tested with it as well?)

Hubert

I have just setup a new Zeus12T/4G/NAIS and conect it to old H3000 setup with AT10 and AP25 simrad.
As I have already router with gsm, ext wifi (ubiq bullet), local wifi and eth switch I do not want to add another wifi.
Connect yellow eth port of Zeus12T to eth switch and all data is avalable on standard wifi.
Also all NMEA2000 data is avalable on eth. so I can view it with NMEA2000 capable SW on Pc.

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[cwetto]

Originally Posted by cwetto

Also all NMEA2000 data is avalable on eth. so I can view it with NMEA2000 capable SW on Pc.

I have DHCP server on router and only problem is how to force Zeus to predefined Ip addres which is needed for OpenCPN and pc NMEA2000 viewer.


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