NMEA WiFi

[Champagne Murphy]

Is there a reasonably priced NMEA WiFi router around?
Follow on from the question about a cream crackered plotter (yes, it is), I'm looking at a tablet based system at least until cheaper MFDs become available. To get AIS overlay on it I need NMEA to go in wirelessly

 

[temptress]

http://uk.alibaba.com/product/19105...WH-RS232-RS485-serial-to-WiFi_1910596094.html in the UK

Is there a reasonably priced NMEA WiFi router around?
Follow on from the question about a cream crackered plotter (yes, it is), I'm looking at a tablet based system at least until cheaper MFDs become available. To get AIS overlay on it I need NMEA to go in wirelessly

lots of options. IMO Bluetooth might be a better option - uses less power. Anyway for your purposes NEMA can be considered to be an implementation of an "RS232 Serial" interface - so just googe RS232 to USB or serial to Bluetooth or some such combination and pick one. Mapln is your friend if you are in the UK.


Link above...

 

[laika]

Thought there'd be a raft of replies by now....

Presumably you've seen the price of the offerings from Digital Yacht, Shipmodul, Brookhouse etc. and don't like it.

Some of us who lurk more on the PBO side of things have little single-board computers (e.g. raspberry pis) or wireless routers running open source operating systems which bridge NMEA and wifi, often doing double duty as routers, storage devices, video/audio distribution hubs etc.

Cheap chinese serial to wifi devices have worked for some (again you might find more accounts searching the PBO forum).

As you're posting in scuttlebutt rather than PBO you might be after a bought rather than hacked together solution. I have no personal experience of the vyacht router (http://vyacht.net) but I've exchanged emails with its creator who seems like a clever chap (though, I think, something of a one man band rather than a big company) and not heard any complaints about it so far either here or on cruisersforum. Reasonably priced and, I'd argue, worth at least considering.

 

[Champagne Murphy]

Thought there'd be a raft of replies by now....

Presumably you've seen the price of the offerings from Digital Yacht, Shipmodul, Brookhouse etc. and don't like it.

Some of us who lurk more on the PBO side of things have little single-board computers (e.g. raspberry pis) or wireless routers running open source operating systems which bridge NMEA and wifi, often doing double duty as routers, storage devices, video/audio distribution hubs etc.

Cheap chinese serial to wifi devices have worked for some (again you might find more accounts searching the PBO forum).

As you're posting in scuttlebutt rather than PBO you might be after a bought rather than hacked together solution. I have no personal experience of the vyacht router (http://vyacht.net) but I've exchanged emails with its creator who seems like a clever chap (though, I think, something of a one man band rather than a big company) and not heard any complaints about it so far either here or on cruisersforum. Reasonably priced and, I'd argue, worth at least considering.

I like the look of that, neat and affordable. I've emailed to ask if I can feed AIS into a chartplotter as well as wifi. Thanks Laika

 

[RobbieW]

Laika is, I think, being more than a little modest here. He is the author of a piece of software called kplex whose job it is to multiplex NMEA 0183 sources together and ship them out as IP packets. It is, as he said, 'roll your own' and only deals with 0183 but if thats all you need and you've a little computing nous then its worth a go. From the look of the vyacht offering it can bring together a max of two disparate inputs. Using kplex I bring together 3 x 0183 inputs, one of which is AIS at 38400, to output to OpenCPN but the software is limited only by the hardware running it so 'n' inputs are possible. vyacht says he uses OpenWRT, one of the open source router OSs Laika referred to; you could buy a suitable router for 20-30 quid, compile and install kplex, connect the NMEA sources via a USB hub and there you have it.

 

[nathanlee]

Laika is, I think, being more than a little modest here. He is the author of a piece of software called kplex whose job it is to multiplex NMEA 0183 sources together and ship them out as IP packets. It is, as he said, 'roll your own' and only deals with 0183 but if thats all you need and you've a little computing nous then its worth a go. From the look of the vyacht offering it can bring together a max of two disparate inputs. Using kplex I bring together 3 x 0183 inputs, one of which is AIS at 38400, to output to OpenCPN but the software is limited only by the hardware running it so 'n' inputs are possible. vyacht says he uses OpenWRT, one of the open source router OSs Laika referred to; you could buy a suitable router for 20-30 quid, compile and install kplex, connect the NMEA sources via a USB hub and there you have it.

Another user of kplex here. I have it running on a Raspberry Pi 2 (£26 quid I think), and it pumps out AIS and GPS data over a wifi network which is also powered by a small 3g enabled router so the instant any device connects to my boat's network, it has access to the full suite of NMEA information as well as internet access. Perfect for tablets, but also handy for playing with openCPN on my laptop.

However, to get that sort of setup working you'll need a basic knowledge of electronics, be comfortable using a command line interface, and know a little bit about networking. It isn't hard to setup, at all, but I'd say that unless you have at least a passing interest in geekery, then it's going to be a bit of a chore.

It's worth doing though. The functionality you can create with very little effort surpasses anything that's on the market as a plug-and-play option at the moment.

As for reliability: The Raspberry Pi setup doesn't stack up too well in those stakes to be honest. The achilles heel is the SD card - SD cards are a notoriously unreliable storage medium, so there's chance it'll break well and truly whilst at sea. There are ways around that though - carry a spare SD card that's an exact copy of the one in use (i.e. card in, reboot, and you're back online as if nothing happened), or run the Pi from a hard drive. On that note, I also have a Banana Pi (a "clone" of the raspberry) and that has a SATA interface, so you could also make it an on-boat media server with a terabyte of more of films, engine workshop manuals, instruction manuals in PDF, and all your music and even favourite booby pics, if you're in to ornithology.

If you want absolute reliability then I reckon RobbieW's suggestion of OpenWRT is a safe bet. It's a firmware update for designed to be always-on home/office routers. I have no experience of it myself (yet), but I've heard good things, and if I wasn't in to messing with the capability of the Pi, I'd be running that setup myself, not least for power efficiency.

As for kplex, I have that running 24/7. It's very stable.

 

[ianfr]

There was another thread recently about this. I bought one of the little RS232 to Wifi adapters from eBay that were recommended. It works well and I now have wireless AIS available to tablet and phone. I will try and find the link tonight and post it. The adapter was about £50 delivered.

Ian

 

[Colvic Watson]

Look forward to seeing the link Ian, sounds like a nice answer to the problem.

 

[ianfr]

Here is the item I bought from ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121650364306?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

There are more advertised.

It comes with a mains adapter, which is rubbish, but it runs on 5v - 18V apparently. So mine is wired into the same power as the AIS receiver. Nmea output is fed to the RS232 port, bits for that can be obtained from Maplins etc.

Ian

Same device as post 2

 

[haydude]

Is there a reasonably priced NMEA WiFi router around?
Follow on from the question about a cream crackered plotter (yes, it is), I'm looking at a tablet based system at least until cheaper MFDs become available. To get AIS overlay on it I need NMEA to go in wirelessly

I did that using a bluetooth/serial converter to receive NMEA on my computer/phone/tablet via bluetooth. Search for "serial bluetooth" on eBay and weed out those unfinished that are specific for arduino. Bear in mind they require 5V power supply. This can be done adapting a 12V to USB power supply (typical car phone chargers).

Hope this helps.

 

[Heckler]

Is there a reasonably priced NMEA WiFi router around?
Follow on from the question about a cream crackered plotter (yes, it is), I'm looking at a tablet based system at least until cheaper MFDs become available. To get AIS overlay on it I need NMEA to go in wirelessly

I used a vYacht Wifi, works good. http://vyacht.net
S

 

[lpdsn]

Is there a reasonably priced NMEA WiFi router around?
Follow on from the question about a cream crackered plotter (yes, it is), I'm looking at a tablet based system at least until cheaper MFDs become available. To get AIS overlay on it I need NMEA to go in wirelessly

There's the vYacht one available from Sweden. I've fitted one, but the project stalled for a while because I had to focus on a few other things, but I've since got it going.

I had it working quite well with AIS information into OpenCPN on a Vista laptop, but have decided not to use the laptop on the boat. That was working over Ethernet. I did have a problem with WiFi, which I've concluded was a PC issue. The ARP request wasn't being resolved. Tests with a mate's Andriod tablet showed that wasn't a problem for the Android, but I haven't got around to buying an Andriod tablet yet.

The unit is quite cheap (€112 for the basic NMEA0183 version, so very good if buying in Sterling at current exchange rates). I went for the NMEA2000 version with an additional Ethernet port. The conversion of NMEA2000 to 0183 for output over WiFi looks to work pretty well.

 

[Boo2]

I used a vYacht Wifi, works good. http://vyacht.net
S

These look great, but can anyone tell me how chartplotter SW on a PC can connect to NMEA data on Wifi ? My copy of Mapquest and others expects to see NMEA on a serial port, is there SW out there that spoofs Wifi data to a virtual serial port ?

Thanks,

Boo2

 

[Heckler]

These look great, but can anyone tell me how chartplotter SW on a PC can connect to NMEA data on Wifi ? My copy of Mapquest and others expects to see NMEA on a serial port, is there SW out there that spoofs Wifi data to a virtual serial port ?

Thanks,

Boo2

Opencpn the latest version, has the option of switching to tcip for an input or Navmon?
S

 

[RobbieW]

Opencpn the latest version, has the option of switching to tcip for an input or Navmon?
S

OCPN has been using tcpip or serial inputs for inbound and outbound data for some long while now. TCPIP support was certainly improved in V3, I'm not aware of further enhancement for V4 but then I've not looked

 

[laika]

OCPN has been using tcpip or serial inputs for inbound and outbound data for some long while now. TCPIP support was certainly improved in V3, I'm not aware of further enhancement for V4 but then I've not looked

In v.4 IP data connections can be inbound, outbound or bi-directional which has made some things a bit easier: You can now re-broadcast data over UDP without having to muck about with input priorities by simply setting the data connection to output only. v.4 also supports data over multicast udp but that's not going to be of interest to many people. You also don't need two separate connections if you're getting data from a source which can also relay autopilot instructions.

 

[rupeski]

Hi All, there is clearly some great knowledge on here. I wonder if any of you can help. I have limited knowledge on this but this is what I am trying to do:
Get NMEA 0183 data over wifi to display on a PC or Android tablet with relevant software.
So far I have:
NMEA output from an NKE NMEA interface for wind speed and angle
NMEA outputs from a Cetrek 2000 unit for depth and Log, battery water temp etc
AIS from a Digital Yacht transponder (send and receive)
Garmin 451 chartplotter
Serial RS232/RS485 to Ethernet TCP/IP RJ45 & wifi, Ethernet to wifi gadget
a couple if other similar adapters and gender changers
Serial to USB adapter
Android tablet and PC
+
Very little knowledge of how it all should go together!

so far I am struggling to get anything to read on the pc or tablet despite being able to establish a wifi connection with the router. Would anyone out there be able to advise me with a rough guide if what I should be doing and what software/apps I should be using to connect, troubleshoot and ultimately read the info.

Any helpful advice gratefully received!