Open CPN question (importing / exporting)

ProDave

ProDave

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I've got Open CPN loaded on my PC at home, and also on my laptop.

Now I'm not intending taking the laptop on the boat, so I'm going to be using it purely for route planning and printing chartlets.

My question:

Once I've set up waypoints and a route, is there any way to export those waypoints and route to a Garmin ploter for use on the boat?

I've looked through all the options, and I can't find anything about exporting data.
 
Not done it personally but in version 2.4.412 (not sure which version it was introduced in i'm afraid) if you open the route manager, select the route you want to send and then click 'Send To GPS' I believe you can acheive what your looking for.

You will also have to tell OpenCPN which port the Garmin GPS is connected to on your PC along with setting your Garmin GPS port into GARMIN mode rather than NMEA for it to work.

Hope this get you started.
Simon

Edit: Just realised you said you're not taking the laptop to the boat so this method assumes that your able to bring your GPS home to load the routes onto the GPS prior to leaving.
 
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SJF said:
Not done it personally but in version 2.4.412 (not sure which version it was introduced in i'm afraid) if you open the route manager, select the route you want to send and then click 'Send To GPS' I believe you can acheive what your looking for.

You will also have to tell OpenCPN which port the Garmin GPS is connected to on your PC along with setting your Garmin GPS port into GARMIN mode rather than NMEA for it to work.

Hope this get you started.
Simon

Edit: Just realised you said you're not taking the laptop to the boat so this method assumes that your able to bring your GPS home to load the routes onto the GPS prior to leaving.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

I'm only running version 2.3.1 which I thought was the latest "released" version (I'm sure it was when I downloaded it only a couple of weeks ago) perhaps the later ones are in beta testing?

Anyway, you are correct, Route manager has the "send to GPS" button so that's what I want. I knew it had to be there somewhere, but I was expecting to find it under "tools"

Yes that's exactly what I want to do, create the route and waypoints on the home PC with Open CPN, because it's got a so much more user friendly interface, then upload them to the Garmin to use on the boat.

This of course assumes I can find a spare 7 pin power / data cable at a reasonable price (see my ad in "wanted") so I can have a power and data cable set up at home to do the transfer. You would think these cables would be readily available for such a use, but I haven't found one yet (not searched that hard yet)
 
Just thinking about this a bit more. What about signal levels (touched on in another thread)

I know the Garmin outputs TTL level signals. I also know (from another experiment) that my PC will accept TTL level signals into the "RS232" port. So that's communication one way sorted then.

But what about from the PC to the Garmin? The PC will output true RS232 level signals.

But what will the Garmin accept? The manual does not tell me. Useless.

All the manual shows is the Garmin connected to other NEMA devices. So I guess there's an implied 5VTTL logic level there, but not explicitly stated.

So am I right in thinking I should level convert the RS232 output from the PC down to TTL level?
 
ProDave said:
I've got Open CPN loaded on my PC at home, and also on my laptop.

Now I'm not intending taking the laptop on the boat, so I'm going to be using it purely for route planning and printing chartlets.

My question:

Once I've set up waypoints and a route, is there any way to export those waypoints and route to a Garmin ploter for use on the boat?

I've looked through all the options, and I can't find anything about exporting data.
Click to expand...

You can export as a GPX file. Somewhat confusingly you seem to have to enable exporting to GPX in the Options and then you get the Toolbar icons. That allows you to export GPX to a memory card of some kind. Once you do that if you can import gpx to your plotter from an SD Card or something similar then you're laughing.
 
ProDave said:
Thanks, that's just what I wanted to hear.

Do you connect it on the boat, or just at home? If at home, did you have trouble finding a spare 7 pin data / power cable?
Click to expand...

The laptop has always been on the boat. I sometimes prepare routes at home on the desktop PC and export to the laptop using a pen drive, then upload to the Garmin from the laptop.

I prepare routes and navigate using Maptech (at home and on the boat) but use OpenCPN for AIS (which gives a very clear display if the chart detail is turned down and is excellent for CPA and alarms).

I haven't tried exchanging routes with the Garmin from OpenCPN but don't see why it shouldn't work. I'll try it tomorrow, if I remember.
 
Garmin transfer

From memory you go to route manager and 'upload to GPS'. Now the trick - if you only want to upload waypoints this will work ok (it sends NMEA) but if you want to upload a route you need to change the protocol to GARMIN on both GPS and OpenCPN. Sorry I can't be more specific but the answers are there if you go looking - it works, I've done it.

If this doesn't help PM me and I'll find some time to go digging.

Cheers
 
Playtime said:
I haven't tried exchanging routes with the Garmin from OpenCPN but don't see why it shouldn't work. I'll try it tomorrow, if I remember.
Click to expand...

Well - I tried . . . . . and failed. :(

There are several variables - Garmin interface (NMEA or GRMN), OpenCPN NMEA/GRMN tick for Route transfer, baud rate (4.8 or 9.6) in OpenCPN and baud rate on the COM port.

I thought I tried all sensible combinations but none succeeded. I didn't spend too long trying, though, as I had other things to do, so maybe I missed the one combination that works.

Has anyone else succeeded (in uploading a route from OpenCPN to a Garmin GPS)?
 
I've just tested this with my Garmin GPSMAP 76csx and OpenCPN 2.4.412 (Beta) and it worked first time, here is how I did it...

Set the Garmin GPS's port to GARMIN mode

In the OpenCPN toolbox select the GPS tab and setup as follows:
  • NMEA Data Source: The port that your GPS is connected to (in my case it was COM10)
  • NMEA Baud Rate: 4800
  • 'Use Garmin GRMN/GRMN (Host) Mode for Waypoint and Route uploads' should be selected.
  • Click OK
  • Open Route Manager
  • Highlight route to be transferred and then click on 'Send to GPS'
  • Check your GPS for the transferred route

N.B. In order for me to use OpenCPN as a live plotter again, I had to return the Garmin GPS to NMEA mode before it worked again.

Hope this helps
Simon
 
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SJF said:
I've just tested this with my Garmin GPSMAP 76csx and OpenCPN 2.4.412 (Beta) and it worked first time
Simon
Click to expand...

Thanks Simon.

I thought I tried that combination first but maybe not. :confused:

I am not using the beta software, though; maybe there has been an update in this area? Also, I'm using an old GPS128.

I'll try again over the weekend - I'm on the boat for a few days so should find enough time!
 
Okay, I've got the data transfer working as I want.

Here's the set up.

On the Garmin, set Input/Output mode to be "data transfer" and leave it set up as the default "slave mode"

In Open CPN, in Toolbox, GPS tab, select your Comm port (in my case Comm 1), keep the default baud rate of 4800, and tick the box for "Use Garmin GRMN/GRMN (host) Mode for Waypoint and route uploads.

Then in Open CPN, create your route. then with Route Manager, highlight the route and click "send to GPS" where you will again be asked to select the Comm port, then press Send.

In one go, that sends all the waypoints and the selected route to the Garmin.

Remember to set the Garmin back to NMEA In / out for use on the boat.

And remember to give your waypoints names no longer than the 6 character limit of the Garmin.

A few words about wiring:

I used the NMEA in and NMEA out, connected directly to the RS232 port on my PC, and it works with no level conversion required. (blue and brown wires on the Garmin cable)

There are also "RS232" in and out cores, (green and white) I tried these but they did nothing. Not entirely sure what they are for.

One other thing, in Open CPN there is an option under toolbox / GPS there is tick box for "show GPS/NMEA data stream window" Well it does indeed show a little data window, but it NEVER displays any data, even though the data transfer works. A bug in Open CPN perhaps?
 
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