PC question

[bromleybysea]

I’m no computer buff so please be gentle with me! I run PC plotter on an old Thinkpad. The data input is via the serial port. The cable is wired to the Tacktick NMEA interface which has an input from the chart plotter for position information, so on the PC Plotter I have access at the chart table to all the data available on the chart plotter and Tacktick instruments. I sorted this out and am inordinately proud of myself. I recently installed NavMan pro, mainly for a bit of fun but also to check on The data stream when I was having trouble configuring the system when I started it up after the winter. The two programs run happily on their own but I can’t dfigure out a way to get them to share the data input. PC Plotter only seems happy running on the COM1 port and won’t share it. Does any of this make sense and what can I do about it, if anything?

 

[RichardS]

I don't know anything about Navman but of you download and install a free program called NavmonPC it will allow multiple programs to share data. It also a good program for displaying all the NMEA data on your system.

Richard

 

[bromleybysea]

I typed the original question after a hard day fettling and a long drive home and I’m afraid the gremlins got in. Of course I meant NavmonPC which, as Richard points out, allows you to see the NMEA data stream on the system. So the issue is: how do I get it to share data with PC Plotter? Thanks.

 

[andyp]

Been a while since I played with PC Plotter but NavmonPC allows you to set up a Virtual Serial Port (up to 3, I think).
You then point PC Plotter to the Virtual Serial Port and NavmonPC sends all or some of the NMEA data from the physical Serial COM port to the Virtual Serial Port where PC Plotter can use it.
Sounds complicated but easy to set up and NavmonPC allows you to monitor data on each port separately for ease of debugging.

 

[bromleybysea]

Thanks. sounds fairly straightforward. I’ll have a look next time I’m down at Bradwell.