NMEA into Pi

[dgadee]

It's not really integration like that though, just there if you want it. seems nothing to lose not to go for openplotter, they've found (probably nearly..) the bugs for you and makes installation so much easier. \then pick and choose between opencpn & qtlvm or both.

Have just installed it over my existing operating system. Still not quite sure what it is! But will have a play around. The documentation is pretty poor in terms of overview - the installation instructions are fine.

 

[mattonthesea]

I am an OpenCPN fan - great AIS - but this is VHM's suggestion to look at qtLmv. Not got charts sorted yet, so not sure what it's like in real life. Looks very complicated.

I had a look at qtlvm and a chat with the guys from VMH. I asked if there was a cut-down version as it has more functionality than a thing with a lot of functionality. They said that they'd has that comment many times before but the author was not interested in reducing. So I continue with OpenCPN and use o-charts on the Pi

 

[dgadee]

I had a look at qtlvm and a chat with the guys from VMH. I asked if there was a cut-down version as it has more functionality than a thing with a lot of functionality. They said that they'd has that comment many times before but the author was not interested in reducing. So I continue with OpenCPN and use o-charts on the Pi

I can understand that view. I have spent this afternoon trying to get the VMH charts (UK + Ireland) onto the Pi. Can't see how it works at all - ran out of space and can't get it to run off a memory stick. Seems to be a prblem with even getting to the activation point. It's only £15 or so for the charts so not much of a loss. qtLvm looks a very bloated system trying to do everything. As someone who went round Britain with just Navionics on a tablet, I don't think I need all that bloatedness. It looks like OpenCPN and o-charts may be my chosen route. All I need is where I am (a mark on a chart) and what is coming at me (an AIS mark). Everything else is redundant.

 

[fifer]

Depending on how many nmea things you want to interface into your pi (and how much you want to spend), you might want to look at off the shelf nmea->usb converters from YakBitz

YakBitz

 

[dgadee]

Depending on how many nmea things you want to interface into your pi (and how much you want to spend), you might want to look at off the shelf nmea->usb converters from YakBitz

YakBitz

I have the device which takes the ais output from the VHF and sends it to a tablet (I think Navionics - seems so long ago I was sailing). Would I be able to connect via WiFi from the pi to that device (Yakker, I think) and do without a physical connection? Pi would need location and AIS.

 

[dgadee]

And ... now I can't see how to remove programs from the Pi. With Linux Mint (and most other versions, I thought) there is a package manager which knows what to remove. When I click on remove software on the Pi, I get a list of individual program elements and I've no idea which should be removed.

 

[GHA]

And ... now I can't see how to remove programs from the Pi. With Linux Mint (and most other versions, I thought) there is a package manager which knows what to remove. When I click on remove software on the Pi, I get a list of individual program elements and I've no idea which should be removed.

in add/remove software >>

That's in openplotter, your menus might look different - what image are you using? The openplotter image has already stripped out the stuff you don't need for boat nav & added (or made it easy to add) the bits you do. Well worth starting from that, helps to keep on track with the latest opencpn & plugins.

 

[dgadee]

in add/remove software >>

That's in openplotter, your menus might look different - what image are you using? The openplotter image has already stripped out the stuff you don't need for boat nav & added (or made it easy to add) the bits you do. Well worth starting from that, helps to keep on track with the latest opencpn & plugins.

Yes, I can see how that works now. There's a lot of other stuff. though, that isn't needed - Libre office for example. I may just reinstall the OS and start again.

 

[fifer]

I have the device which takes the ais output from the VHF and sends it to a tablet (I think Navionics - seems so long ago I was sailing). Would I be able to connect via WiFi from the pi to that device (Yakker, I think) and do without a physical connection? Pi would need location and AIS.

I believe you could. You would just need to point the RPi wifi to connect to the Yakker. In this case you would lose the Openplotter wifi NMEA broadcast I think.

I'm not sure if its possible with the yakker, but some wifi devices can be set up in either host or slave mode i.e. they set up their own hotspot and you point other devices to connect to that (acting just like a home router), or you tell them the details in the firmware of the actual host and then they act as a repeater for that host. In both cases the data gets from the Yakker to the RPi, but in the second case, you could still use the openplotter general hotspot to distribute all NMEA data, not just that recieved through the Yakker.

The alternative is to buy a separate cheap usb wifi dongle to connect to the Yakker, leaving the main RPi wifi chip to oeprate as normal. On your boat if you looked for wifi points to connect to, you would see both the Yakker and the RPi/Openplotter.

 

[GHA]

I believe you could. You would just need to point the RPi wifi to connect to the Yakker. In this case you would lose the Openplotter wifi NMEA broadcast I think.

I'm not sure if its possible with the yakker, but some wifi devices can be set up in either host or slave mode i.e. they set up their own hotspot and you point other devices to connect to that (acting just like a home router), or you tell them the details in the firmware of the actual host and then they act as a repeater for that host. In both cases the data gets from the Yakker to the RPi, but in the second case, you could still use the openplotter general hotspot to distribute all NMEA data, not just that recieved through the Yakker.

The alternative is to buy a separate cheap usb wifi dongle to connect to the Yakker, leaving the main RPi wifi chip to oeprate as normal. On your boat if you looked for wifi points to connect to, you would see both the Yakker and the RPi/Openplotter.

Openplotter will let you create a wifi network and connect to another network just using the internal wifi adapter. Though it's not a great idea, works mostly but not completely stable, crashes now and again. Though as you say usb/wifi dongles cost little and can be handy in marinas etc with a usb extension lead to get a slightly better line of sight plus no need to change any passwords on phones etc as openplotter shares the web access to the network it creates .
Network — OpenPlotter 2 documentation

 

[dgadee]

I am beginning to see why the Moitessier Hat is a solution - gps and ais on board the pi. But I won't give up yet - will see how this can all be implemented in a simple manner.

 

[mattonthesea]

I can understand that view. I have spent this afternoon trying to get the VMH charts (UK + Ireland) onto the Pi. Can't see how it works at all - ran out of space and can't get it to run off a memory stick. Seems to be a prblem with even getting to the activation point. It's only £15 or so for the charts so not much of a loss. qtLvm looks a very bloated system trying to do everything. As someone who went round Britain with just Navionics on a tablet, I don't think I need all that bloatedness. It looks like OpenCPN and o-charts may be my chosen route. All I need is where I am (a mark on a chart) and what is coming at me (an AIS mark). Everything else is redundant.

Yep that's me too: where I am and what's around me. The rest is relatively simple seamanship. I sailed to the Caribbean and back; started with just GPS and paper charts but got AIS and OpenCPN along the way.

 

[fifer]

I am beginning to see why the Moitessier Hat is a solution - gps and ais on board the pi. But I won't give up yet - will see how this can all be implemented in a simple manner.

I think this sort of fragmentedness is a fundamental weakness of the NMEA and RPi/Openplotter approach. In my view, the Moitessier hat is a great piece of kit, but would have been improved tenfold if it included an NMEA mux for distribution of nmea signals to devices that aren't wifi enabled.

On my boat I have a DSC VHF, and an older Garmin 45x chartplotter which is mounted under the sprayhood. I would like to be able to easily pass ais and dsc nmea signals to the chartplotter so I can output these on the sunlight readable screen. This could easily be done independently of the RPi. However I would also like to be able to pass the same into the RPi, and then take data out of the Pi and potentially distribute AIS and route/waypoint info into the chartplotter as well (assuming I get ais onboard somehow as well). Working out how to do all this with non-wifi enabled kit is tricky, and it seems possible to end up spending a small fortune on converters and multiplexers.

 

[dgadee]

Yes, wiring things together is a problem, even with my low level of desired integration. I'm going to try a wee bit more WiFi. I have ordered a GPS hat for the Pi. Hopefully I can get AIS from the yakker/vhf to the Pi. That would be then be a "standalone" system which would do me.

Sunlight screen on a tablet in the cockpit would be great for harbour entrances. Until then I'll just use the one I have.

The only negative at present is that I can't use VMH raster charts with this system. Not so keen on vector charts.

 

[laika]

I think this sort of fragmentedness is a fundamental weakness of the NMEA and RPi/Openplotter approach. In my view, the Moitessier hat is a great piece of kit, but would have been improved tenfold if it included an NMEA mux for distribution of nmea signals to devices that aren't wifi enabled.

Having loads of converters dangling off a pi isn't a good look. Moreover you do have to do a bit of hotplug configuration (does raspbian still use udev? Haven't looked at it for a while...) so everything doesn't swap round interfaces if one of your adapters is loose on bootup. So I totally agree: a single "thing" with 4xisolated rs422 screw-down terminals would be marvellous. USB would probably be fine: You might well want to locate the nmea terminals a little way away from the pi. The software component is trivial.

fwiw, if I understood a previous open question correctly, the yakker seems to be able function both in ap and station mode, so no tricks required on the pi:
http://www.yakbitz.com/Yakker.aspx

 

[GHA]

Having loads of converters dangling off a pi isn't a good look. Moreover you do have to do a bit of hotplug configuration (does raspbian still use udev? Haven't looked at it for a while...) so everything doesn't swap round interfaces if one of your adapters is loose on bootup. So I totally agree: a single "thing" with 4xisolated rs422 screw-down terminals would be marvellous. USB would probably be fine: You might well want to locate the nmea terminals a little way away from the pi. The software component is trivial.

fwiw, if I understood a previous open question correctly, the yakker seems to be able function both in ap and station mode, so no tricks required on the pi:
Yakker

Re udev, openplotter I think uses it, option to remember other than port anyway -
Serial app — OpenPlotter 2 documentation

Also don't know much about this board but has 6 NMEA0183 inputs as well as n2k and other stuff.

Thomas-GeDaD/openplotter-MCS

I got one made with various sensors by jlcpcb to send data vie wifi but haven't tested the nmea inputs yet, the esp32 should have 2 uarts free to use. 40 quid for 5 boards plus delivery.
boatybits/boatymonpy

 

[fifer]

Re udev, openplotter I think uses it, option to remember other than port anyway -
Serial app — OpenPlotter 2 documentation

Also don't know much about this board but has 6 NMEA0183 inputs as well as n2k and other stuff.

Thomas-GeDaD/openplotter-MCS

I got one made with various sensors by jlcpcb to send data vie wifi but haven't tested the nmea inputs yet, the esp32 should have 2 uarts free to use. 40 quid for 5 boards plus delivery.
boatybits/boatymonpy

Thanks, I had no idea these things were being produced! Will take a deeper look

 

[dgadee]

Are there combined 12v to 12v and 12v to 5v power supplies about? And what do people use for project boxes? Pi boxes all seem to be snug fits.