Em-trak wifi multiplex

Red Panda said:
Thread resurrection time as I get closer to purchase.
I was reading the Navionics guide to how to connect AIS, and it offered an option I hadn't previously considered - using a WiFi-enabled chart plotter like my B&G Vulcan 7 to provide the WiFi feed to the Navionics app. That would mean I don't need a WiFi-enabled AIS, which is quite a saving in Emtrak world.
Has anyone used this option?
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After multiple emails exchanged with B&G's support over a couple of days, they still hadn't given me much in the way of technical details and I finally googled what port to use - I agree with @stevead on CruisersForum when he says "B&G do themselves a disservice with their lack of good technical documentation."

What B&G did tell me is that "Vulcan will transmit all NMEA0183 sentences listed in the manual and AIS data" - that is to say all the supported NMEA0183 around pages 62 & 65 of the manual - and also that data present on the NMEA2000 network (wind, speed, depth are mentioned) will be converted to NMEA0183 to be transmitted.

I don't yet have AIS installed on my boat, but I tested the Vulcan with OpenCPN and it seems to work - certainly the GPS position is transmitted, so I assume the rest is ok. Connect a laptop to the Vulcan's wifi and go to "Connections" in OpenCPN's preferences to click "Add Connection" - make it a network connection, TCP protocol, and enter the Vulcan's IP address (which is the wifi gateway you're connected to, or can be found in the Vulcan's wifi settings) and port 10110.

This may have saved me the cost of the premium em-trac model - I'll read the manual this weekend and see if it has any other features I need.
 
KompetentKrew said:
After multiple emails exchanged with B&G's support over a couple of days, they still hadn't given me much in the way of technical details and I finally googled what port to use …..

…..This may have saved me the cost of the premium em-trac model - I'll read the manual this weekend and see if it has any other features I need.
Click to expand...

Excellent detective work, KK!
 
KompetentKrew said:
After multiple emails exchanged with B&G's support over a couple of days, they still hadn't given me much in the way of technical details and I finally googled what port to use - I agree with @stevead on CruisersForum when he says "B&G do themselves a disservice with their lack of good technical documentation."

What B&G did tell me is that "Vulcan will transmit all NMEA0183 sentences listed in the manual and AIS data" - that is to say all the supported NMEA0183 around pages 62 & 65 of the manual - and also that data present on the NMEA2000 network (wind, speed, depth are mentioned) will be converted to NMEA0183 to be transmitted.

I don't yet have AIS installed on my boat, but I tested the Vulcan with OpenCPN and it seems to work - certainly the GPS position is transmitted, so I assume the rest is ok. Connect a laptop to the Vulcan's wifi and go to "Connections" in OpenCPN's preferences to click "Add Connection" - make it a network connection, TCP protocol, and enter the Vulcan's IP address (which is the wifi gateway you're connected to, or can be found in the Vulcan's wifi settings) and port 10110.

This may have saved me the cost of the premium em-trac model - I'll read the manual this weekend and see if it has any other features I need.
Click to expand...
Thread resurrection! Did you get any further with this setup? I've been busy with non-boaty things all summer and just reminding myself of ideas. And realising the Emtrak kit has gone up in price over the last months...
 
Yes. I can't be arsed to read the whole thread to see what exactly you're trying to do, @Red Panda, but I bought the non-wifi em-trak and connected it to my B&G via NMEA 2000, then connected my MacBook and Windows tablet to the B&G's wifi network and both could see the AIS targets in OpenCPN.

The AIS targets were also shown on the plotter, obviously.

In OpenCPN you need to go into the settings and create a new connection for the NMEA data giving the B&G's IP address (I'm pretty sure it's port 10110 UDP, as described here) and the AIS targets just show up. My Windows tablet was cheap and reconditioned when I bought it in 2019 - it's a low end Atom CPU and it doesn't meet the hardware requirements for Windows 11, so it started getting a bit slow and unresponsive with all this data coming in, but it worked perfectly on my MacBook.

I didn't have any other data coming into either to the em-trak nor to the B&G so I can't say for sure that depth or STW data is transmitted properly. I think I already said that GPS data is, so OpenCPN shows position and SOG.
 
KompetentKrew said:
Yes. I can't be arsed to read the whole thread to see what exactly you're trying to do, @Red Panda, but I bought the non-wifi em-trak and connected it to my B&G via NMEA 2000, then connected my MacBook and Windows tablet to the B&G's wifi network and both could see the AIS targets in OpenCPN.

The AIS targets were also shown on the plotter, obviously.

In OpenCPN you need to go into the settings and create a new connection for the NMEA data giving the B&G's IP address (I'm pretty sure it's port 10110 UDP, as described here) and the AIS targets just show up. My Windows tablet was cheap and reconditioned when I bought it in 2019 - it's a low end Atom CPU and it doesn't meet the hardware requirements for Windows 11, so it started getting a bit slow and unresponsive with all this data coming in, but it worked perfectly on my MacBook.

I didn't have any other data coming into either to the em-trak nor to the B&G so I can't say for sure that depth or STW data is transmitted properly. I think I already said that GPS data is, so OpenCPN shows position and SOG.
Click to expand...
Thanks! That's exactly what I'm planning on doing - using the B&G WiFi to broadcast the AIS along with the rest of the nav info. I've already used the B&G WiFi to mirror the plotter to my phone/pad, and as all the other data I need is from B&G instruments (and on the N2K network) I'd like to hope B&G WiFi contains it.

That'll save me a couple of hundred £ :)
 
Trying to connect B952 (latest FW) with Garmin GPSMAP (latest FW) and get all data multiplexed via USB to PC. This sh*t just doesn't work. I can't get e.g. DPT sentences no matter how connected. Connecting GPSMAP with nmea to usb cable works just fine (both low/high speed options tested). It looks like B952 is spitting just it's own AIS/GPS sentences and nothing more. Any ideas how to solve?
 
Kemp said:
Trying to connect B952 (latest FW) with Garmin GPSMAP (latest FW) and get all data multiplexed via USB to PC. This sh*t just doesn't work. I can't get e.g. DPT sentences no matter how connected. Connecting GPSMAP with nmea to usb cable works just fine (both low/high speed options tested). It looks like B952 is spitting just it's own AIS/GPS sentences and nothing more. Any ideas how to solve?
Click to expand...
The AIS does not multiplex NMEA data and output it via USB.
 
Although I'm not sure that it'll do what @Kemp requires (IMO @Kemp should start a new thread telling us exactly and in detail what they're trying to do) I believe the multiplexing support promised in the first post of this thread has still not been implemented.

I find em-trak's support prompt to reply and very helpful (Mike on the first occasion, Hakeem this year for this subject and another), but on 25/2/2022 they told me that "multiplexing … is a feature that we are looking to implement in the coming weeks as a software update". I contacted them again, nearly a year later, and their reply on 2/2/2023 was "Apologies for the continued delay and inconvenience. We're still in the testing process and It is taking longer than expected. We're waiting on real world testing to ensure it works as required."

I can't say for sure they haven't released the update in the last 4 months, but I see no mention of it on their website.
 
I just wanted to get multiplexed data via USB and keep wifi on PC connected to the internet at all time.
 
PaulRainbow said:
The N2K update is still in testing.

There may be a solution to using the USB port, i'll post back when i have more detail.
Click to expand...
OK, there is a way to get the NMEA0183 data from both ports output through the USB port.

You will need to send 2 commands using the Serial Data tab of proAIS2,

$PSMT,0,3,0x2C75B2FA,0,nvseti "nmea1mux"^2C0x42^2C2^2C0^2C0,0*4C
$PSMT,0,3,0x2C75B2FA,0,nvseti "nmea2mux"^2C0x41^2C2^2C0^2C0,0*4C
 
PaulRainbow said:
You will need to send 2 commands using the Serial Data tab of proAIS2,

$PSMT,0,3,0x2C75B2FA,0,nvseti "nmea1mux"^2C0x42^2C2^2C0^2C0,0*4C
$PSMT,0,3,0x2C75B2FA,0,nvseti "nmea2mux"^2C0x41^2C2^2C0^2C0,0*4C
Click to expand...
Thanks, I will try. Hopefully I will not brake the unit.
 
PaulRainbow said:
You should be fine, i'm an Em-trak dealer, the information comes from them.
Click to expand...
Dear PaulRainbow, please give me some advice.
I was doing a reset on the Raymarine ais 650 using the mmsi reset tool, and accidentally clicked on Reset Unit configuration.
after this, the boat configuration was recorded and saved/
ais passes all tests, reports the absence of errors, but does not send anything on the air. at the same time vswr 1.7: 1 and if you turn off the antenna it remains at the same value,
The blue signal does not appear on splitter 100 either.
Is this a result of deleting the configuration or a faulty transmitter? can this be fixed?
 
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