Open CPN

[single]

My old laptop has open cpn and various charts installed.I have never tried using it until now.It all looks good but i don't think it is getting data from my magellan 315 gps.baud rate etc are set right but it only gives options mentioning garmin so is my magellan not compatable or am i doing something else wrong like wrong serial to usb cable?

 

[Nico]

My old laptop has open cpn and various charts installed.I have never tried using it until now.It all looks good but i don't think it is getting data from my magellan 315 gps.baud rate etc are set right but it only gives options mentioning garmin so is my magellan not compatable or am i doing something else wrong like wrong serial to usb cable?

I think Garmin have a proprietary protocol, which has more information than NMEA, which is an open format. You should be able to use the Magellan with NMEA. Some help here:

http://opencpn.org/ocpn/setting_up_gps

 

[single]

Thanks for link, looks like a driver issue.

 

[Elemental]

Thanks for link, looks like a driver issue.

Shouldn't need a driver. I don't know much about the 315, but it's capable of delivering NMEA 0183. The PC (Linux or Windows ?) should just read the COM<n> Port (windows) or tty<n> (Linux). OpenCPN won;t know what GPS you're using.

Most likely a Baud/parity/flow control issue.

Some info here

 

[RichardS]

Shouldn't need a driver. I don't know much about the 315, but it's capable of delivering NMEA 0183. The PC (Linux or Windows ?) should just read the COM<n> Port (windows) or tty<n> (Linux). OpenCPN won;t know what GPS you're using.

Most likely a Baud/parity/flow control issue.

Some info here

My BU-353 USB GPS dongle has a driver which I downloaded from

http://www.usglobalsat.com/s-24-support-drivers.aspx

Perhaps it would have operated without the driver but I didn't try?

Richard

 

[Fantasie 19]

It might be worth your while installing a (free) application called XPORT... XPORT is a port manager (among other things it allows you to assign a COM port manually) for GPS devices, but it will also allow you to try different Baud rates from within the application, while also testing if XPORT can see your GPS... might be worth a play?

 

[single]

I will try the above and the a new serial/usb cable when it comes.I think its that its not recognising.

 

[single]

Maybe try another plan? How can i copy all the cpn and charts onto my other laptop?

 

[Hoolie]

Maybe try another plan? How can i copy all the cpn and charts onto my other laptop?

Ethernet cross-over cable?
DVD disk?
USB drive?
File transfer on your wifi router?

 

[mjcoon]

It might be worth your while installing a (free) application called XPORT... XPORT is a port manager (among other things it allows you to assign a COM port manually) for GPS devices, but it will also allow you to try different Baud rates from within the application, while also testing if XPORT can see your GPS... might be worth a play?

An alternative, more GPS-specific, is share-ware GPSU which you can find indirectly via GPSU User Yahoo Group. (No commercial interest of mine but I've been a user for years.)

Mike.

 

[PhilipH]

Cannot offer techie advice but just to say that we had OpenCPN on our laptop and downloaded all the US charts (raster and vector - all free) for the East Coast USA and plugged in our GPS via a USB connection. Brilliant ... except that the raster charts for part of the Thousand Islands and the St Lawrence are not North up but sort of North East up - suddenly found ourselves apparently sailing across an island.

 

[david_bagshaw]

use gps portchecker, to see there is nmea and its port settings (it is free)

 

[single]

Next problem is i installed CPN on second laptop but trying to open it gives an error report.

 

[david_bagshaw]

if it is the one about cant find com port, just close the report & carry on.

 

[Fantasie 19]

Next problem is i installed CPN on second laptop but trying to open it gives an error report.

...you're just going to have to be a little more descriptive...

 

[charles_reed]

If you're using 2.5 OK if not upgrade.

Open tools - go to GPS.

You will have Garmin in the window - pull down the sub-menu and go through the suggested COM ports one by one.

It's all down to a COM port issue, if you have the USB GPS drivers installed.