AIS on laptop (without wifi!)

Kelpie said:
I'd like to upgrade from my old NASA AIS receiver to a transponder. As my plotter is a pretty clunky old 5" Lowrance I would rather have the display on my laptop which will be running OpenCPN.
I'm not really sure where to start. Can I actually get one of these 'black box' AIS transponders to talk to a laptop, and if so, how?
Click to expand...

There is an AIS receiver on our club boat which has a serial output and feeds into the plotter . I have a similar one here as the link below which can feed the serial port on my Standard horizon plotter or at home using a serial to USB feed my laptop which runs a chart program and displays the AIS in the local area.. It picks up at a range of up to 40 miles but then I am 600 ft above sea level.

Smart Radio Sr161 Ais Receiver for sale | eBay
 
GHA said:
Almost but not quite, the plugin converts n2k to nmea0183 which it passes on to opencpn. Seems a bit pointless now with so many more data types available using signalk.
Click to expand...

Yes, but none of that is directly relevant to using N2K with OpenCPN. And your statement that OpenCPN doesn't support N2K is incorrect.

I think we all know that you are a champion for SignalK, but it isn't the only way of doing things and in this particular circumstance it adds an unnecessary step. The OpenCPN Toucan plugin is click and play.

"Passing on" NMEA0183 to OpenCPN makes a lot of sense since there isn't a data type supported by OpenCPN that isn't also supported by NMEA0183.
 
JohnGC said:
Yes, but none of that is directly relevant to using N2K with OpenCPN. And your statement that OpenCPN doesn't support N2K is incorrect.

I think we all know that you are a champion for SignalK, but it isn't the only way of doing things and in this particular circumstance it adds an unnecessary step. The OpenCPN Toucan plugin is click and play.

"Passing on" NMEA0183 to OpenCPN makes a lot of sense since there isn't a data type supported by OpenCPN that isn't also supported by NMEA0183.
Click to expand...
You're a bit mistaken on both counts there, nit picking a bit but strictly speaking opencpn does not support n2k, the twocan plug in converts n2k to nmea0183 which opencpn does support. Little difference in installing siganlk or the plugin, for most a bit easier installing the plugin if they happen to have one of the devices it supports. Probably more than enough data anyway in nmea0183 for the vast majority but some plugins like the tactics dashboard display data only available as signalk, there is data supported inside opencpn unavailable as 0183. Likely more to follow as the plugin authors develop their software along the way.
 
For the OP:
CAMINO-108W
Is in your price range and has wifi and a patch antenna for GPS. It will need a separate antenna or splitter. Or if you get the 108S it has splitter but no wifi. It does have USB though and NMEA2000 and 108 ports.
 
Buck Turgidson said:
For the OP:
CAMINO-108W
Is in your price range and has wifi and a patch antenna for GPS. It will need a separate antenna or splitter. Or if you get the 108S it has splitter but no wifi. It does have USB though and NMEA2000 and 108 ports.
Click to expand...

Found it at £352, nice, thank you.

I don't think I have a 'network' as such on the boat, just a plotter and an old B&W radar.
It's possible that the plotter could be made to display AIS data but it's only a 5" screen so not really ideal, hence wanting to use the laptop. Also once I sail off the edge of my UK charts that plotter is going to become pretty useless... can't see myself spending the money on other chart areas, even if they are still available on such an antiquated model (pretty sure it takes CF cards!)
 
GHA said:
nit picking a bit but strictly speaking opencpn does not support n2k, the twocan plug in converts n2k to nmea0183 which opencpn does support.
Click to expand...

are these converters two-way?

one reason to have a nav program support N2K is that you can send numbers computed by the program to N2K instrument displays - say at the mast.

This is easy with the NGT-1 gateway and a nav program that receives and sends N2K
 
Kelpie said:
Found it at £352, nice, thank you.

I don't think I have a 'network' as such on the boat, just a plotter and an old B&W radar.
It's possible that the plotter could be made to display AIS data but it's only a 5" screen so not really ideal, hence wanting to use the laptop. Also once I sail off the edge of my UK charts that plotter is going to become pretty useless... can't see myself spending the money on other chart areas, even if they are still available on such an antiquated model (pretty sure it takes CF cards!)
Click to expand...
Guessing from happy hour chats etc probably navionics is the most popular nav prog among cruisers, "closer to home" round europe anyway, Many run opencpn or/as well. Well worth getting a tablet set up with opencpn and something transmitting AIS data over wifi to have in the cockpit even if you don't go for an AIS transmitter. Opencpn does a fanstatic job at displaying AIS targets. Also getting sat images and navionics/cmap charts from sasplanet is gold dust. And just started playing with the saillogger signalk app which might be interesting to you for you trip, seems perfect for cruising. Install the app, get a user code online and give your boat computer some internet access once in a while, that's it! :cool:
Saillogger: Effortlessly log your sails
 
GHA said:
First, download the signalk server from here, the latest version is on the right hand side of the screen under "releases", 0.4.1 today >
SignalK/signalk-server-windows

& double click to install. Quite good instructions on the web page.

<snip>
Click to expand...

Followed the above and it worked a treat, so thanks again for taking the time to type it all up. I think KIP will do just what i want.
 
PaulRainbow said:
Followed the above and it worked a treat, so thanks again for taking the time to type it all up. I think KIP will do just what i want.
Click to expand...
Great! There are a good few on here who just sprout FUD (from crypto currency land- Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) about things they don't know anything about and have never bothered to try, quite negative really so good to hear of an easy success :cool:

I'll do a quick database install notes sometime soon for windows, for any kind of data it's like going from looking through a keyhole into a dark room to opening the door and turning on the light ... :cool:
 
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