hooking up laptop navigation program to Raymarine tillerpilot

[[email protected]]

Folks:

I have a Panasonic Toughbook with both USB and a real serial port with
an installed copy of Capn ver8.0. Some months ago I purchased a
Rarmarine ST 2000+ tillerpilot, in part due to its ability to receive
naviagation data from the laptop.

Although the tillerpilot works great by itself, it does not want to
talk (or listen?) to the Capn.

To check the wiring of the serial cable, I also ran a copy of Fugawi
4.0, and it works great: the lcd window on the tillerpilot shows the
relevant navigation data being received, and will follow a route quite
well. The GPS is a Holux 231 that connects to a bluetooth receiver
mounted in the card bus--its on com port 5.

Both com ports 1 and 2 were set to 4800, and all the navigation data
is standard NEMA

Has anyone had any luck with a similar set up? Any way to check if
the Capn is sending data out via the serial port? I've got pins 3 and
5 hooked up to the supposed matching pins on the autopilot wiring
conector. and I'm assuming that is working correctly since Fugawi can
talk to it.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Gary

 

[Glen \Wiley\ Wilson]

Folks:

I have a Panasonic Toughbook with both USB and a real serial port with
an installed copy of Capn ver8.0. Some months ago I purchased a
Rarmarine ST 2000+ tillerpilot, in part due to its ability to receive
naviagation data from the laptop.

Although the tillerpilot works great by itself, it does not want to
talk (or listen?) to the Capn.

To check the wiring of the serial cable, I also ran a copy of Fugawi
4.0, and it works great: the lcd window on the tillerpilot shows the
relevant navigation data being received, and will follow a route quite
well. The GPS is a Holux 231 that connects to a bluetooth receiver
mounted in the card bus--its on com port 5.

Both com ports 1 and 2 were set to 4800, and all the navigation data
is standard NEMA

Has anyone had any luck with a similar set up? Any way to check if
the Capn is sending data out via the serial port? I've got pins 3 and
5 hooked up to the supposed matching pins on the autopilot wiring
conector. and I'm assuming that is working correctly since Fugawi can
talk to it.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Gary

I haven't worked with a recent release of CAPN, but the old ones
wanted to send the autopilot output to the same port the GPS was on.
Has that changed?

____________________________________________________________
Glen "Wiley" Wilson <usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com>
To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious.

Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and
logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/

 

[Dennis Pogson]

Folks:

I have a Panasonic Toughbook with both USB and a real serial port with
an installed copy of Capn ver8.0. Some months ago I purchased a
Rarmarine ST 2000+ tillerpilot, in part due to its ability to receive
naviagation data from the laptop.

Although the tillerpilot works great by itself, it does not want to
talk (or listen?) to the Capn.

To check the wiring of the serial cable, I also ran a copy of Fugawi
4.0, and it works great: the lcd window on the tillerpilot shows the
relevant navigation data being received, and will follow a route quite
well. The GPS is a Holux 231 that connects to a bluetooth receiver
mounted in the card bus--its on com port 5.

Both com ports 1 and 2 were set to 4800, and all the navigation data
is standard NEMA

Has anyone had any luck with a similar set up? Any way to check if
the Capn is sending data out via the serial port? I've got pins 3 and
5 hooked up to the supposed matching pins on the autopilot wiring
conector. and I'm assuming that is working correctly since Fugawi can
talk to it.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Gary

Is your laptop/Capn software receiving data from the Holux (on pin 2) ?

 

[[email protected]]

Dennis, thanks for your reply.

The GPS data comes in via bluetooth com port 5. The Holux 231 sends
out the data, and it is received by a a bluetooth receiver in the card
slot. That has worked well, and shows up both in Capn and Fugawi with
no problem. I just can't figure out how to get Capn to talk to the
autopilot, evn though Fugawi works fine!

Gary

 

[[email protected]]

Glen, thanks for the reply. I hadn't considered that option, though
it is mentioned on the Capn/Maptech web site. It gives me something
to think about, and look into.. Thanks

Gary

I haven't worked with a recent release of CAPN, but the old ones
wanted to send the autopilot output to the same port the GPS was on.
Has that changed?

 

[Larry]

[email protected] wrote in [email protected]:

The GPS data comes in via bluetooth com port 5

And The Cap'n, which I don't think will talk to more than one com port (at
least ours won't), is transmitting your data out on Bluetooth through the
same port.....

Now all we need is a Bluetooth Tillerpilot and we'll have a wireless
networked boat!....(c;

That'll be about 2025 as slow as the NMEA bureaucrats respond to changes in
technology. They're still talking RS-422 from 1975....

 

[Larry]

[email protected] wrote in [email protected]:

Nope....It's still sending data back to its serial port in the 1975 NMEA
multiplexer technology.

 

[Bill Kearney]

The GPS data comes in via bluetooth com port 5

And The Cap'n, which I don't think will talk to more than one com port (at
least ours won't), is transmitting your data out on Bluetooth through the
same port.....

Now all we need is a Bluetooth Tillerpilot and we'll have a wireless
networked boat!....(c;

Use a Bluetooth to serial converter.

That'll be about 2025 as slow as the NMEA bureaucrats respond to changes in
technology. They're still talking RS-422 from 1975....

Oh please, quit with the whining about NMEA, willya? It's gotten more than
old....

 

[[email protected]]

Bill:

thanks for the reply.

Any idea where such a converter might be found?

Gary


at 09:47 AM, "Bill Kearney" <[email protected]> said:

 

[Bill Kearney]

STFW perhaps?

http://www.google.com/search?q=bluetooth+serial

----- Original Message -----

 

[[email protected]]

Ah, Search the F..king Web. I did so , and found likely candidates.
I was just wondering out loud if you had any particular candidates.

Thanks for your help.

Gary

 

[Larry]

NMEA multiplexer plugs into:
http://www.stayonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=2368

Webfoot Ethernet port connects to:
http://www.netgear.com/products/details/MR814.php
(cheapest Netgear wireless router)
Router autoconfigures Webfoot with DHCP just like it does your laptop.
Webfoot now has IP address on LAN/Wireless LAN up to 256 laptops can
connect to.

Wireless router connects to laptop running The Cap'n to COM2, a "Virtual
Serial Port" driver that automatically connects itself to the Webfoot IP,
seamlessly (and wirelessly) connecting The Cap'n to its serial port on
the NMEA multiplexer. The Cap'n doesn't know what's in between because
it acts like a serial cable.

You lay out on beanbag under genoa with great view of obstructions while
crew slaves follow your orders shouted back through FRS walkie talkie
link into cockpit....."PREPARE TO COME ABOUT!", as autopilot rounds
waypoint commanded by The Cap'n on your wireless boat network....(c;

If slip has wifi to internet, you can open a port in the router to route
calls to the Webfoot from any place on the planet, so you can check WIND-
AT-THE-MAST, DEPTH, etc. from any place on the planet....like from your
desk at the office. (Hint: when you pull the log out of the hole to
keep the critters from jamming it, leave it so it can feel the
temperature inside the boat (leave the deck plate open). This "water"
temperature reading now allows you to check to see whether the air
conditioner is working on the boat in summer....or the heater has failed
and all the pipes not winterized are about to freeze and burst in
January.....from home/office/hotspot at Starbuck's/girlfriend's internet
with simple dumb terminal program. Just leave the sensor electronics
running you want to remotely monitor....

Going ashore and worrying about the boat dragging anchor while you're at
Rosie's Bar and Lounge? No problem. Leave GPS running, too. Set GPS
anchor alarm and watch for it from Rosie's wifi.

All great fun.....(c;

Too bad NMEA stuff isn't on Ethernet TCP/IP plugged directly into hub...
(snif)