VHF to laptop

[Medusa25]

Hi All.

Is it possible to connect my Cobra VHF to my laptop as I am using a usb gps with opencpn. The VHF has a 3.5mm jack plug, would that only connect to a dedicated gps system?

Regards Med

 

[Dave_Seager]

In principle it is possible to do what you suggest although it may not be the best approach.

You would need a serial output from your laptop. This will probably require a USB/serial (RS232C) interface as most laptops do not have serial ports as standard. You would also require some software to feed your GPS position from the USB GPS dongle to the new serial port in NMEA format. You would also need to make up a lead to connect from the 9-pin serial connector to the VHF radio. I doubt whether this really uses a 3.5mm jack as that would normally be for an extension speaker. The GPS connection is normally just a couple of wires, probably red and black on a Cobra.

The disadvantage of this set up would be that the VHF set would only have GPS data available to it when the laptop was running. Laptops are not particularly robust when used at sea and I would not like to rely on one in an emergency.

It might be better to rig up a cheap GPS system just to feed data to the VHF set. I use an old Garmin hand held GPS which can be powered directly from 12 volts and provides the necessary NMEA data. All I have to do is press one button to turn it on or off.

 

[agurney]

Hi All.

Is it possible to connect my Cobra VHF to my laptop as I am using a usb gps with opencpn. The VHF has a 3.5mm jack plug, would that only connect to a dedicated gps system?

Regards Med

Is the jack not for audio, such as an external speaker?

 

[Medusa25]

No there is one for a speaker and one for gps. you get a black and red wire with a 3.5mm jack on the end with the radio I thought the jack went into the back of the vhf and the wires connect to your gps somehow the speaker and gps on the back of the unit are the same.

I was hoping to connect the wires to the laptop somehow maybe solder to usb or rgb port.

 

[nimbusgb]

You can't solder/twist/or glue anything from your VHF directly to a USB port. The technologies are totally incompatible.

You need a USB to 232 converter ( to be completely compatible you need a usb to NMEA converter ) plugged in to the PC and set up to transmit the $GPRMC sentence to the port. The converter turns it from a virtual serial port on the PC into a physical serial signal compatible with the radio.

The good news is a USB/Serial converter cost just a couple of £

 

[agurney]

No there is one for a speaker and one for gps. you get a black and red wire with a 3.5mm jack on the end with the radio I thought the jack went into the back of the vhf and the wires connect to your gps somehow the speaker and gps on the back of the unit are the same.

I was hoping to connect the wires to the laptop somehow maybe solder to usb or rgb port.

I assume red will be data in (data out from GPS), black to ground.

If your GPS has an RS232 D-Sub connected via a USB adapter, then you can solder to the RS232 connector.

If your GPS is USB only, I'd use a USB to RS232 dongle for the radio, and use software to share the data across two virtual com ports using something like VSPE.

If you don't have enough USB ports Poundland have 4 port hubs.

 

[Medusa25]

gps is a bu 353 mouse