Bouncing curser in Open CPN

[Adonnante]

I have recently updated Open CPN to the latest release, 3.2.0. All worked well until I connect my AIS USB plug whereupon the curser then started moving around the screen, and often off it, without any assistance from me! The program works fine without the input from the Digital Yacht AIT100; it worked well all last year with CPN3.1. Has anybody else experienced this problem?

Peter.

 

[sailorman]

assume windowz 7
i had no probs with xp, formatted the lappi to w7 & had the same. the cursor picking up the tool bar & moving it & opening programmes. i changed the usb gps dongle & all now ok.
the dongle wasnt compatable with w7

 

[geoid96]

I experienced the same crazy mouse syndrome when the NMEA data was mistaken for that of a serial mouse. It was solved by following instructions in this link:
http://www.sealevel.com/support/article/AA-00487/0/How-to-fix-crazy-mouse-syndrome-with-USB-serial-adapters.html
On an older machine running XP I could get around it by only switching on the GPS and AIS after OpenCPN was running and the ports allocated.

 

[DJE]

I am going to give OpenCPN a try on a laptop this season. I have a gps feed from my Furuno GP 72 via a USB/serial adaptor that seems to work in the boatyard. Can anybody recomend a cheap AIS engine that will work with OpenCPN? (Sorry to piggy back on somebody else's thread.)

 

[sailorman]

I am going to give OpenCPN a try on a laptop this season. I have a gps feed from my Furuno GP 72 via a USB/serial adaptor that seems to work in the boatyard. Can anybody recomend a cheap AIS engine that will work with OpenCPN? (Sorry to piggy back on somebody else's thread.)

I have a Bellfield dongle @ £99. ( see web site to order)
you will need another vhf aerial, mine is on the stern rail

I have also a Maplin`s GPS dongle @ £20

 

[temptress]

This is a WINDOWS problem and is usually related to a serial device, in this case the input from your AIS, being mistaken for a serial mouse. It is driver related search on the web for updated drivers or this might work:

use device manager to delete the drivers that are currently installed
disconnect the AIS
shutdown and power off the PC
restart the PC
#once everything has rebooted and before you start OPENCPN plug in the AIS and let the drivers re-install.

 

[RobbieW]

To the OP; this does seem to be a generic Windows problem, usually when plugging in a GPS rather than an AIS. The Plug'n'Play bit of Windows looks at the data stream coming from the device and categorises it accordingly - apparently NMEA GPS data looks a lot llike a serial mouse as others have said. On XP, I found a tip that disabled the 'enumeration' for the USB/Serial ports which sorted the problem except that the GPS still needed to be turned off when booting XP (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/windows/hardware/ff546979(v=vs.85).aspx is roughly the idea but not the actual link). I now have a 7 machine but havent got around to enabling the GPS & AIS inputs - if the thread hasnt moved on much I'll update when I do, its forecast to be windy here Fri/Sat/Sun so wont be working outside

To DJE: I use the NASA AIS engine (Mk 1), works very well - especially now I've upgraded it to the latest firmware (£12 from NASA for the chip)

 

[nigelmercier]

See here: http://www.euronav.co.uk/eurohelp/techdocs/TN036.htm

 

[Adonnante]

Thanks for all the helpful advice. I shall be able to get to the boat in the next few days so I'll try the suggestions and report back. The AIT 1000 unit has been superb and all last year reliably supplied AIS data and a GPS position for Open CPN. The current problem has only appeared over the last couple of days whilst re-installing the electronics and as I've also updated CPN I, mistakenly, assumed it was responsible. It may be easily overcome but taking greater care with the order of start-up, I'll also check drivers other suggestions.

Thanks again.

Peter.

 

[sailorman]

Thanks for all the helpful advice. I shall be able to get to the boat in the next few days so I'll try the suggestions and report back. The AIT 1000 unit has been superb and all last year reliably supplied AIS data and a GPS position for Open CPN. The current problem has only appeared over the last couple of days whilst re-installing the electronics and as I've also updated CPN I, mistakenly, assumed it was responsible. It may be easily overcome but taking greater care with the order of start-up, I'll also check drivers other suggestions.

Thanks again.

Peter.

i have my usb`s marked-up as to what plugs in where, running W7 it fires up no matter what procedure is adopted. BUT i do have system crashes from time to time

 

[RobbieW]

See here: http://www.euronav.co.uk/eurohelp/techdocs/TN036.htm

Tried all those at one time or another, the only solution that has worked consistently for me on XP (and allowed me to use it 'normally') has been to edit the enumeration counter in the registry - see my previous post

 

[Adonnante]

Thanks to everyone for their help, problem solved! I switched off the AIS but didn't unplug, went to Device Manager>Mice and other pointing devices, and disabled the Serial Ball Point which was the MNEA input that was causing the confusion.

Peter.

 

[nigelmercier]

In case the "mouse" comes back, here's the fix:

Open Regedit, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SerMouse and change the value "Start" from 3 to 4
Reboot

There is a reg file that will do the editing for you: http://www.curioustech.net/downloads/reg.zip

 

[tidclacy]

Eh bye gum what a wonderful language you techies have. Do you find time to sail???

 

[Adonnante]

Eh bye gum what a wonderful language you techies have. Do you find time to sail???

Yes, any time of the day or night, any day or night.

'techie'!, you wait to I tell them down the pub.

Peter.