I have finally narrowed down an issue that I have been working on for some time. CE will not pass way point information to my Furuno 1932 (older unit) radar. My older Garmin GPS feeds data to CE successfully. When the port is configured as a repeater and I put a way point into my Garmin GPS all the data goes through CE to the radar and everything works well. The lollipop feature works with the older GPS but not with CE. When I unclick the repeater button then nothing gets to the radar so I know the wiring is good.
I have played with sentence selection ad nauseam with no success. Other than endlessly playing with sentence selection are there any other ideas to get CE to pass waypoint information to the radar?
Any other settings or things that I might have missed?
Frank
It sounds as though your 1932 is expecting to find the waypoint data in a sentence or sentence format that CE isn't emitting (which is a little odd, as CE usually gets this stuff right). The best way to sort out the problem is to ask Furuno what NMEA sentence(s) the 1932 uses for the source for waypoint info. Unfortunately, the owner's manual (at least the edition on line at furunousa.com) doesn't specify the sentences expected by 1932. Good luck getting this info from Furuno!
The radar is probably expecting an RMB sentence which is the standard sentence for information regarding navigation from your current position to a destination waypoint. To have Coastal Explorer emit this, make sure the port connected to the radar has the Talker option enabled, that the RMB sentence is enabled in the "Tools > Configure Vessel and Electronics > Autopilot > Sentences" window, and that you have an active waypoint. You might also need to disable the Repeater option for that port in order to prevent the radar from receiving conflicting information generated by the Garmin.
Thanks. I called Furuno and the guy quickly rattled off: GGA ??? VTG ZDA HDG or HDT
Either this guy is really good or he is just good at getting to the next call quickly. GGA is not a valid choice obviously. I will try RMB first by itself. Then try the Furuno suggestions that are available. It sounds like I just need to keep trying various sentence combinations.
I will report back on Friday.
thanks Frank
I'm afraid the Furuno guy wanted to get on to the next caller...
GGA contains information about your current location such as the latitude, longitude, type of GPS, number of satellites in view, etc.
VTG contains your course and speed over ground.
ZDA contains the current date and time.
HDG contains your magnetic heading, deviation, and variation and HDT contains your true heading.
None of these sentences contain any information about an active waypoint.
The RMB sentence contains your active waypoint's name, latitude and longitude as well as the range and bearing from your current location to that waypoint. This is precisely what a radar needs to draw the lollipop...
Unfortunately the NMEA 0183 spec also allows this information to be provided by various other sentences or combinations of sentences, so without a definitive answer from Furuno, trial and error may be the only option.
Other things you might try include APB which is normally used to control autopilots, but it includes the information needed for the lollipop.
Some Furuno equipment is also picky about the Talker ID and will ignore information from talkers it is not expecting to hear from. By default Coastal Explorer uses 'EC' which means Electronic Chart Display but you can change this to anything you want in the "Tools > Configure Vessel and Electronics > Autopilot > Options" window. You might want to try GP (which means GPS) since that is what your Garmin is probably using and it seems to work...
Brad:
I wanted to report back that changing the Type from Electronic Chart to GP fixed the problem. Everybody is once again talking and listening.
thanks a lot for the advice and a great product.
Frank