NMEA 2000 to WiFi or Bluetooth ?

[STATUE]

I have an iCom M506 VHF that has an AIS receiver and NMEA2000 output wired to my new plotter.

Can I also have the AIS output to my android tablet ?

Is there a device that you can wire to the NMEA2000 that then presents to WiFi or Bluetooth ?

 

[laika]

Most tablet apps expect data over wifi to be in "NMEA-0183" format so you either have to buy a box which connects to the backbone, converts to 0183 and outputs over wifi or do it in two stages: buy something which converts NMEA-2000 to NMEA-0183 and then send that over bluetooth/wifi. Why would you muck about with the latter if things exist to do the former? Because nmea-certified boxes to do the former will cost a lot. DIY and commercial-but-uncertified options do exist but there's a lot of shonkey software out there and I'd be particularly concerned about things like collision management when connecting to a N2K bus. Some uncertified options might be splendid. I'm sure you'll get some recommendations to consider in this category.

The approach I'd take would be to buy a simple converter like the actisense ngw-1 (translates between N2K and NMEA-0183) and plug it into something which converts NMEA-0183 to wifi or bluetooth. The NGW-1 costs about £100 but cheap options abound for the latter task and with the NGW-1 taking care of bus management you don't have to worry about cheap and cheerful solutions for the wifi conversion part stuffing your N2K bus.

 

[prv]

Looking at the VHF manual, it does also have an 0183 output. The manual doesn't say that AIS data is included in this, but it's badly enough written that I wouldn't take that as evidence that it isn't included either. Before spending on an N2k to 0183 converter, it might be worth a moment with a laptop and a serial terminal to see if there are AIS sentences coming out?

Technically the ProconnX CAN-ETH does what you're asking for (puts N2k PGNs into UDP packets that you could bridge onto wifi) but as Laika says, this probably isn't actually useful as I doubt there are any tablet apps expecting AIS over N2k.

Pete

 

[laika]

Looking at the VHF manual, it does also have an 0183 output. The manual doesn't say that AIS data is included in this, but it's badly enough written that I wouldn't take that as evidence that it isn't included either. Before spending on an N2k to 0183 converter, it might be worth a moment with a laptop and a serial terminal to see if there are AIS sentences coming out?

A more verbose version of my previous post said much the same but after consideration I guessed it most likely only outputs DSC/DSE given that
- that's all it explicitly says it outputs over 0183
- if it was ouputting AIS there would likely be mention of baud rate (which there isn't).

I'd guess the 0183 connections are identical to the ones on the older models like the m604. But it can't harm to check (or ask the ever-helpful icom)

 

[prv]

A more verbose version of my previous post said much the same but after consideration I guessed it most likely only outputs DSC/DSE given that
- that's all it explicitly says it outputs over 0183
- if it was ouputting AIS there would likely be mention of baud rate (which there isn't).

I think you're probably right. On all counts

Pete

 

[smartcom]

I agree with most of the comments made above.
I suspect that the reason why very few apps currently support NMEA2000 is because of the high price and somewhat draconian licencing conditions imposed by NMEA if you buy the standard - much worse than if you buy, say, an ISO or British Standard document.
There will be a Kickstarter project coming up in February/March next year for a more cost effective and more flexible NMEA0183/NMEA2000/Wi-Fi device that'll allow you to route anything to anything (e.g. wired NMEA2000 in to NMEA0183 Wi-Fi out), filter input and output sentences and PGNs, with a bigger list of supported sentences and PGNs than devices currently available.
We're going the NMEA2000 certified route as we looked at some of the reverse engineered N2K libraries, and they have a way to go in support of the full range of PGNs and also in robustness.

 

[pvb]

I have an iCom M506 VHF that has an AIS receiver and NMEA2000 output wired to my new plotter.

Can I also have the AIS output to my android tablet ?

Is there a device that you can wire to the NMEA2000 that then presents to WiFi or Bluetooth ?

Which plotter do you have? Many now have a wifi output.

 

[lpdsn]

I've a ShipModul MultiPlex. Now fully N2K compliant. You can get versions with both USB & WiFi output. Mine cost €250. If that's in the price range you're considering I'd highly recommend it, especially if you're semi-hands-on and like a bit of kit that is very configurable.