How to... Wireless... 3G router... B&G Triton systems

[ifoxwell]

So my wife and daughter want wireless access to the internet and a network hard drive... which I can do

But I would like access to the instruments?

I know this has been covered before (sorry) but can some one explain to me in words that I might be able to understand, what the simplest way of achieving this is.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Ian

 

[Lucky Duck]

I have B&G's wireless offering fitted on board this allows me to control and view my Zeus plotters via their 'app' (which can display pretty much everything the instruments can) but I can't directly view or control the Triton displays.

 

[RichardS]

I have a set of Raymarine instuments but it has no wifi. I didn't have AIS so I bought a Vesper Marine XB8000 which is a wifi-enable AIS transceiver (transponder).

I have connected the XB8000 into the Raymarine plotter so the AIS display now appears on the chartplotter screen. However, the Raymarine also now sends all its NMEA data to the XB8000 and the XB8000 broadcasts all that data over wifi so I can read all the instrument data on my laptop and my tablet or phone or anything ..... and all without any wires so anywhere on the boat.

If you are thinking of fitting AIS it's a great solution.

Richard

 

[MountainGoat]

This can be done home-brew using a USB serial adaptor (I don't have the precise model number to hand, can look it up if you want to pursue this), a laptop or Raspberry Pi running Linux or Mac OS X, and an open source tool called kplex:

http://www.stripydog.com/kplex/

It then broadcasts the instrument data over Wifi, which you can use on various phone and tablet apps, but getting it working is quite hands on. If you're comfortable with the required computery bits though, it's a lot cheaper than buying one of the little boxes that does that same thing.

 

[ifoxwell]

Thanks for the replys guys

What I really want to do is make the data available via a standard wifi router rather than have it on its own stand alone network. Any ideas on how I could do this?

 

[bitbaltic]

I imagine you will need something that will multiplex your instrument outputs and send the NMEA to your router via IP over an Ethernet connection; there are a few such multiplexers out there such as Shipmodul's Miniplex-3E. But it depends on what you already have and what sort of tech you are comfortable with. Google suggests Pi- based solutions can be made up. You might also choose to do the job with a simpler/cheaper multiplexer and a dedicated PC.

 

[northwind]

Thanks for the replys guys

What I really want to do is make the data available via a standard wifi router rather than have it on its own stand alone network. Any ideas on how I could do this?

The cheap way is to use a raspberry pi and Keith's KPLEX software for it, around £50 to do it, plus your time to set it up.

 

[RichardS]

Thanks for the replys guys

What I really want to do is make the data available via a standard wifi router rather than have it on its own stand alone network. Any ideas on how I could do this?

I thought that I had explained how in post #3?

If you don't want the AIS facility you can just buy an NMEA to wifi converter from Digital Yacht which will give you everything but the AIS.

http://www.digitalyachtamerica.com/...oduct/50-wln10-wireless-nmea-server-4800-baud or

http://www.digitalyachtamerica.com/...ct/51-wln10hs-wireless-nmea-server-38400-baud

depending upon whether you already have a wired AIS device on board or whether you want to future-proof in case you ever buy one.

Richard

 

[Spirit of Glenans]

See a full review/comparison article in the current (June) issue of Yachting Monthly.