NMEA to USB (2021 style)

Iliade

Iliade

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27 Apr 2005
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Shoreham - up the river without a paddle.
www.airworks.co.uk
My Garmin's NMEA is dying and I want a back up solution without resorting to my spare old faded plotter. I have seen a few 'marine priced' options, but don't care to spend as much as a new handheld GPS on the solution.

Is anyone aware of a dirt-cheap Chinese NMEA to USB converter cable please? (with all the gubbins nicely hidden in one of the ends so I don't have to concern myself with it.) Or any other similarly cheap way of getting AIS data onto an android tablet and perhaps even routing data into the autopilot?


EDIT: Would this work? (with an OTG adapter, which I already have.)
 
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I suspect that the best solution for getting AIS data onto a tablet is an NMEA to wifi converter but I'm not sure what you mean by your Garmin's NMEA dying? If the NMEA output is dying it doesn't sound as if you will have any data to send in due course.

Richard
 
There are loads of USB-Serial adapters.
It's not hard to use any of the FTDI232 types to see NMEA data on a PC, using a terminal program such as 'Putty'.

Getting an Android device to read such data off the USB and do anything useful with it is a whole other question.

I think I prefer having the data going into the tablet by Wifi, so the tablet can be in a waterproof case on deck.
 
Thanks all.

The issue is that my 451 is on it's last legs. The sounder part has already died and the NMEA, both in and out, is dying. If I change the baud rate it often works for a few hours/minutes, then that dies. Some days it works fine all day. I use NMEA to send AIS to the plotter and track to the autopilot. My old plotter could do the track, but cannot display AIS (AFAIK)

I have ordered one of the £3 adapters and will try that with an OTG, but as you say, getting it into the software is another whole story. Also I don't really like Christmas tree arrangements when sailing as they are just asking to get broken. I had enough of that in the early days of linking GPS to hand held computers. It is in a wheelhouse so fairly well protected, but...

WiFi sounds good, but I haven't found anything under about £100. If anyone knows better please do tell?
 
Iliade said:
Thanks all.

The issue is that my 451 is on it's last legs. The sounder part has already died and the NMEA, both in and out, is dying. If I change the baud rate it often works for a few hours/minutes, then that dies. Some days it works fine all day. I use NMEA to send AIS to the plotter and track to the autopilot. My old plotter could do the track, but cannot display AIS (AFAIK)

I have ordered one of the £3 adapters and will try that with an OTG, but as you say, getting it into the software is another whole story. Also I don't really like Christmas tree arrangements when sailing as they are just asking to get broken. I had enough of that in the early days of linking GPS to hand held computers. It is in a wheelhouse so fairly well protected, but...

WiFi sounds good, but I haven't found anything under about £100. If anyone knows better please do tell?
Click to expand...
The Yakker is often mentioned on here. £50 on eBay

NMEA to WiFi BRIDGE | eBay

Richard
 
It arrived a few days ago, a two-way YakBak version ~£75 after VAT etc. Wired it into the AIS and autopilot yesterday. AIS works perfectly with both mobile phone and Android tablet running Navionics. Memory Map doesn't appear to handle the AIS overlay, but that could easily be an RTFM issue.

I now need a weather window to go to sea to see if the autopilot has been set up correctly.

All in all very pleased thanks RichardS!
 
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