Recently acquired Beneteau 411 Raymarine pathfinder fit need AIS

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Tenedos

To be very fair, I have nothing against DY products. The iAIS unit I had, had the best AIS receiver capabilities among all the AISes I have had. I did not like the network/Wifi capabilities. Configuration was prickly (there was no interface to configure it), it was running on an odd IP network subnet, a lot of easy usability pieces were missing (lack of some basic things like DNS, mDNS, etc). If it were me, I would have designed the network component entirely differently. That being said, I am a network guy, and a developer by heart, so when it comes to TCP/IP stack and applications built on it, I have opinions and I wear a different lens

Taking a step back though, when you combine several different functionalities on a single box, this is what happens. You can find much better wifi routers (even with LTE, etc.) but they won't have AIS. You can find great AIS devices but who knows what they will do with networking. With DY, wireless piece was not good on iAIS for me. And I thought the price was high considering what I got (I could have bought a AIS transceiver for the same price). Overall wireless and networking are easy and cheap problems that are already solved. When you integrate it onto something, you get a subpar experience and you end up overpaying it.

This is all your call but when making an investment, I'd recommend not making it on NMEA 0183 or Seatalk 1. They are already gone. We all use them with our legacy equipment but IMO new investments should only be made on NMEA 2k. If not in this round, you will need it in the next round. So a basic convertor like E22158 will do it for you (SeatalkNG is basically NMEA 2k with different connectors) and allows you to invest in NMEA2k only.

And the new SeaTalk NG physical network archicture is WAY more flexible than the old SeaTalk, which was mostly just point-to-point to connect devices.

More interoperability with NMEA 2000 devices too, plus the ability to accomodate old SeaTalk or NMEA 1083 device still.

Yes, way better if you want to upgrade.

However, none of the above are an "investment"...just an expense.

[sparticle]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

And the new SeaTalk NG physical network archicture is WAY more flexible than the old SeaTalk, which was mostly just point-to-point to connect devices.

More interoperability with NMEA 2000 devices too, plus the ability to accomodate old SeaTalk or NMEA 1083 device still.

Yes, way better if you want to upgrade.

However, none of the above are an "investment"...just an expense.

The only device we would be buying in our scenario is the AIT5K (and maybe a different ST1 to NMEA interface if the E85001 didn't do what we wanted) which has a N2K interface so would sit on the N2K network without any issues in the future.

The E85001 would sit between the AIT5K (LS NMEA) and the Raymarine 400 Course Computer (ST1 I/O) we should get all of the boat data Muxed with the AIS & GPS data by the AIT5K via WiFi. Sending the Route/Course/AP info back via the AIT5K USB connection is the question mark. If this above worked we would have a very simple solution requiring us to only connect the E85001 at the AIT5K and 400CC.

More thinking to do I think it will be a couple of weeks before we can get back to the boat and try out this or other suggested wiring options. I do worry about loop back but we should be able to filter the NMEA coming in at openCPN end so clean (only what we want) in and clean (only Course/Route/AP) out.

There is a bit of mystery surrounding what does or does not get converted and sent back to the ST1 network. Things like if the data is already present on the ST1 network it will not be converted form NMEA. Initially the ROute/Course/AP info will nto be thre. But as soon as openCPN starts navigating it will. So not sure if its saying it will initially get it but will not update it.

I think this is one of those heuristics scenarios where the is no substitute for trying it!

Cheers
Spart

[Pizzazz]

You definitely making this more complicated that it is. The RL70 is a great chartplotter and it has nmea in/out with all sentences that you need including wind out (which is difficult otherwise). It does not do AIS although there is a way (read below). All you need to do is to buy a serial to WiFi or Ethernet adapter ($20 on Amazon) and connect it to your favorite PC or Android app. Then you have bidirectional everything.

Now, if you want to display AIS targets on the RL70, you can send them the the radar as MARPA targets. This is a function of the RL70 (inherited from its naval background) and it uses the nmea sentence RSD. The format is published. What you need to do is to take AIS targets from your radio or AIS receiver via nmea and put them in OpenCPN. Then you need to look at the nmea plugin and write some code that extracts the position, heading and speed data from the AIS sentence, puts it into RSD format and sends it via nmea to the RL70. The RL70 will display it as a MARPA target which is good enough. By the way, the radar will also send MARPA targets to the PC which no other current chartplotter can do.

This the maximum you can extract from the Pathfinder system. You do not need any equipment other than the serial converter.

Good luck.

SV Pizzazz

[sparticle]

Originally Posted by Pizzazz

You definitely making this more complicated that it is. The RL70 is a great chartplotter and it has nmea in/out with all sentences that you need including wind out (which is difficult otherwise). It does not do AIS although there is a way (read below). All you need to do is to buy a serial to WiFi or Ethernet adapter ($20 on Amazon) and connect it to your favorite PC or Android app. Then you have bidirectional everything.

Now, if you want to display AIS targets on the RL70, you can send them the the radar as MARPA targets. This is a function of the RL70 (inherited from its naval background) and it uses the nmea sentence RSD. The format is published. What you need to do is to take AIS targets from your radio or AIS receiver via nmea and put them in OpenCPN. Then you need to look at the nmea plugin and write some code that extracts the position, heading and speed data from the AIS sentence, puts it into RSD format and sends it via nmea to the RL70. The RL70 will display it as a MARPA target which is good enough. By the way, the radar will also send MARPA targets to the PC which no other current chartplotter can do.

This the maximum you can extract from the Pathfinder system. You do not need any equipment other than the serial converter.

Good luck.

SV Pizzazz

Onthat basis I don't need to buy anything as we already have a E85001 which has an rs232 interface as well as NMEA in out and Seatalk1. We do however need a transponder hence the AIT5K and the MarinePi will be the AIS display device via openCPN.

The 400CC shows it has wind data as well as everything else on the ST1 network.

Using the RL70's as Radar and navigation data displays is all we need them for as long as we can get the Route/Course/AP data to the ST6001 plus which should be easy via the 400CC. So only the E85001 needed hopefully plus the AIT5K or some other equally capable transponder and wifi server.

And the AIT5k has the vary latest GPS engine so a better fix for all....

Cheers
Spart

[Pizzazz]

You do not need the E85001, it only adds complexity. Nmea and serial port is the same think. What you need is a serial port on your pc/Android. This could be a usb serial cable or a serial to WiFi converter depending on what network you are running. The AIS transponder will connect via another serial port to your pc and feed AIS data. Actually, you do not even need OpenCPN, you can write a python script to convert from AIS to RSD targets. This script can run on the PC or Android device.

[sparticle]

Originally Posted by Pizzazz

You do not need the E85001, it only adds complexity. Nmea and serial port is the same think. What you need is a serial port on your pc/Android. This could be a usb serial cable or a serial to WiFi converter depending on what network you are running. The AIS transponder will connect via another serial port to your pc and feed AIS data. Actually, you do not even need OpenCPN, you can write a python script to convert from AIS to RSD targets. This script can run on the PC or Android device.

I am not sure I agree with your analysis. The Raymarine product specifically designed to do exactly what we want to do id the E85001 until they discontinued it and now promote the very expensive actisense product.

You mat be missing the point and that's my fault form my incomplete write up probably. We actually enjoy having a Nav computer on board its useful for allsorts of things and the AIS is a great tool for learning about the sipping around u. We've had hours of enjoyment out of openCPN and the AIT2K on the old boat.

Decent situational awareness to augment radar binoculars etc. The AIT5K talks to the MarinePi via USB so easy. If we can bridge the 2 units with a simple connection between the AIT5K (LS NMEA port) and the ST1 I/O port on the 400CC that would seem about the most simple and elegant solution.

We would of course then still have a wifi cloud full of all our data served at high speed via the AIT5K to consume using anything we like. Tablets phones etc.

We made a decision a few years ago to never sail without an AIS. We live and sail around the North Sea and English Channel. A decision we have never regretted.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Cheers
Spart