Opencpn not seeing serial AIS/GPS data

[Dsanduril]

I've done some playing with various software and settings. Your results make me think that the USB virtual port is expecting flow control. It shouldn't - NMEA is a streaming protocol - but it seems to be behaving that way. Here's what I checked:

By default, Hyperterminal sets CTS (along with DCD and DSR) high when it connects to a com port.

OpenCPN sets DCD and DSR high on connection but does not set CTS (not surprising, given that they're expecting a stream). If you set "Use Garmin..." in the connection definition the OpenCPN seems to toggle all three, and if you set both Garmin and "Output on this port...." then it seems to hold all three high. What I suspect is that in playing with the settings you were able to get OpenCPN to set CTS high, and the NAIS then started streaming. It's only a wild theory, but the best I can come up with.

The link Moo posted above on configuring a virtual com port is a good one. In Win 10 you can go to Device Manager, Ports, select the NAIS com port, Properties, Port Settings:



This tab may or may not be available, it depends on the type of virtual com port driver that is created by the NAIS software. If the tab is there I would set the flow control to "None" if it isn't already.

If this was a real serial port it would be easy to jumper CTS to hold high, but in this case it may take a software solution. You may want to try any one of the software packages mentioned above that are meant to split serial/GPS signals to multiple users. They may (or may not) be programmed to set CTS high when connecting, then not worry on the output side when OpenCPN connects. That effort would be trial and error.

[AboardAdventurer]

Have you made any more progress with this? I think I'm having the same problem. All attempts to get my USB100 to input NMEA data (GPS, Environmental, etc) into OpenCPN has failed. Its getting pretty darn frustrating, especially as I keep reading others who just plugged theirs in, set the ports, and away they went. I'm getting similar output thru the Maretron N2KAnalyzer as you have, and I can see it on a serial port packet sniffer...nothing else works though.

Any progress you've made on this front would be most interesting to hear about.

Cheers.

AA

[Dsanduril]

Take a look at post #23, that's a good place to start. Do the OpenCPN logs indicate that it is opening the port? Or that the port opening fails? That goes a long way to deciding where to start digging.

[AboardAdventurer]

Thanks. I ran thru this and was able to locate the two files (log and ini). The log shows the NMEA comm port opening, but does not indicate any chatter on it. I installed the debug line into the .ini file and ran the log again and actually got LESS NEMA lines in the log with the debug in the ini file. I'm also apparently getting sporadic output in the NMEA sentence channel as the sniffer only picks up messages half the time I initiate a session. I'm not really sure whats going on but I'll tell you it is getting very frustrating. I have no errors showing in N2KAnalyzer. When I do see NMEA sentences in the Serial port sniffer, the formats don't look like what they should look like. It doesn't appear as though this is something that can be modified within the Maretron architecture....

AA

[AboardAdventurer]

In case this is of any help...the most recent log file.

18:29:41:

________
18:29:41: 2019-11-28
18:29:41: ------- Starting OpenCPN -------
18:29:41: 5.0.0+9065270
18:29:41: wxWidgets version: wxWidgets 3.1.2 Microsoft Windows NT 64 bit wxMSW
18:29:41: OS Version reports as: 6.1
18:29:41: MemoryStatus: mem_total: 4002 mb, mem_initial: 11 mb
18:29:41: SData_Locn is C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\
18:29:41: PrivateDataDir is C:\ProgramData\opencpn\
18:29:41: Using existing Config_File: C:\ProgramData\opencpn\opencpn.ini
18:29:41: Setting Ownship Lat/Lon 43.7, -70.3118
18:29:41: Switch InlandEcdis mode Off
18:29:41: Styles loading from C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\uidata\styles.xml
18:29:41: No styles found at: C:\ProgramData\opencpn\
18:29:41: No styles found at: C:\ProgramData\opencpn\.opencpn\
18:29:41: Using SVG Icons
18:29:41: Detected display size (horizontal): 476 mm
18:29:41: Getting DefaultSystemLocale...
18:29:41: Found LanguageInfo for: English
18:29:41: System default Language: en_GB
18:29:41: Config file language: en_US
18:29:41: Adjusted App language: en_US
6:29:41 PM: Opencpn language load for: en_US
6:29:41 PM: Loading catalog for opencpn core.
6:29:41 PM: Getting DefaultSystemLocale...
6:29:41 PM: Found LanguageInfo for: English
6:29:41 PM: Opencpn language set to: en_US
6:29:41 PM: Loading Configs catalog: C:\ProgramData\opencpn\Configs\configs.xml
6:29:41 PM: Creating MyFrame...size(1344, 728) position(-8, -8)
6:29:41 PM: Creating glChartCanvas
6:29:41 PM: Metrics: m_display_size_mm: 476 wxDisplaySize: 1920:1080
6:29:41 PM: Loading Tide/Current data source: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\tcdata\HARMONIC.IDX
6:29:41 PM: OpenGL-> Renderer String: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
6:29:41 PM: OpenGL-> Version reported: 4.2.0 - Build 10.18.10.3412
6:29:41 PM: OpenGL-> Detected Intel renderer, disabling stencil buffer
6:29:41 PM: OpenGL-> Texture rectangle format: de1
6:29:41 PM: OpenGL-> Using Vertexbuffer Objects
6:29:41 PM: OpenGL-> Using Framebuffer Objects
6:29:41 PM: OpenGL-> Using FBO Stencil buffer
6:29:41 PM: OpenGL-> Using Depth buffer clipping
6:29:41 PM: OpenGL-> Using s3tc dxt1 compression
6:29:41 PM: OpenGL-> Compressed tile size: 128kb (8:1)
6:29:41 PM: OpenGL-> Minimum cartographic line width: 1.0
6:29:41 PM: OpenGL-> Minimum symbol line width: 1.0
6:29:41 PM: ChartSymbols loaded from C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\s57data\chartsymbols.xml
6:29:41 PM: Using s57data in C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\s57data
6:29:41 PM: ChartDB Cache policy: Application target is 1024 MBytes
6:29:41 PM: Loading chart db version: V018
6:29:41 PM: Chartdb: Chart directory list follows
6:29:41 PM: Chart directory #0: C:\Users\MV_Adventurer_Nav\Documents\Charts\RNC\US _ME
6:29:41 PM: Chart directory #1: C:\Users\MV_Adventurer_Nav\Documents\Charts\RNC\US _REGION02
6:29:41 PM: Chart directory #2: C:\Users\MV_Adventurer_Nav\Documents\Charts\ENC\US _REGION02
6:29:41 PM: Chart directory #3: C:\Users\MV_Adventurer_Nav\Documents\Charts\RNC\US _REGION03
6:29:41 PM: Chart directory #4: C:\Users\MV_Adventurer_Nav\Documents\Charts\ENC\US _REGION03
6:29:41 PM: Chart directory #5: C:\Users\MV_Adventurer_Nav\Documents\Charts\RNC\US _REGION04
6:29:41 PM: Chart directory #6: C:\Users\MV_Adventurer_Nav\Documents\Charts\ENC\US _REGION04
6:29:41 PM: GPS Watchdog Timeout is: 6 sec.
6:29:41 PM: OpenChartUsingCache, NOT in cache: cache size: 0
6:29:41 PM: OpenChartUsingCache: type 3 C:\Users\MV_Adventurer_Nav\Documents\Charts\RNC\US _REGION03\13003\13003_1.KAP
6:29:41 PM: Creating new chart
6:29:41 PM: Initializing Chart C:\Users\MV_Adventurer_Nav\Documents\Charts\RNC\US _REGION03\13003\13003_1.KAP
6:29:41 PM: OpenCPN Initialized in 501 ms.
6:29:41 PM: DPMM: 4.03361 ScaleFactorExp: 1
6:29:41 PM: Looking for UserIcons at C:\ProgramData\opencpn\UserIcons
6:29:41 PM: Loading navobjects from navobj.xml
6:29:41 PM: Done loading navobjects, 0 duplicate waypoints ignored
6:29:42 PM: Opening NMEA Datastream Serial:COM3
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: plugins loading from C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager searching for PlugIns in location C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: Loading PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\chartdldr_pi.dll
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\chartdldr_pi.dll
API Version detected: 113
PlugIn Version detected: 103
6:29:42 PM: chartdldr_pi: C:\Users\MV_Adventurer_Nav\Documents\Charts
6:29:42 PM: chartdldr_pi: C:\Users\MV_Adventurer_Nav\Documents\Charts
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: Loading PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\dashboard_pi.dll
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\dashboard_pi.dll
API Version detected: 106
PlugIn Version detected: 102
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: Loading PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\nmeaconverter_pi.dll
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\nmeaconverter_pi.dll
API Version detected: 108
PlugIn Version detected: 100
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: Loading PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\ocpndebugger_pi.dll
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\ocpndebugger_pi.dll
API Version detected: 114
PlugIn Version detected: 104
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: Loading PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\radar_pi.dll
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\radar_pi.dll
API Version detected: 116
PlugIn Version detected: 500
6:29:42 PM: radar_pi: Windows sockets initialized
6:29:42 PM: radar_pi: Configuration file values initialised
6:29:42 PM: radar_pi: Log verbosity = 0. To modify, set VerboseLog to sum of:
6:29:42 PM: radar_pi: VERBOSE = 1
6:29:42 PM: radar_pi: DIALOG = 2
6:29:42 PM: radar_pi: TRANSMIT = 4
6:29:42 PM: radar_pi: RECEIVE = 8
6:29:42 PM: radar_pi: GUARD = 16
6:29:42 PM: radar_pi: ARPA = 32
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: Loading PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\wmm_pi.dll
6:29:42 PM: PlugInManager: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\wmm_pi.dll
API Version detected: 108
PlugIn Version detected: 101
6:29:42 PM: WMM: WMM model data loaded from file C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\wmm_pi\data\WMM.COF.
6:29:42 PM: Opencpn language load for: en_US
6:29:42 PM: Loading catalog for: opencpn-chartdldr_pi
6:29:42 PM: Loading catalog for: opencpn-dashboard_pi
6:29:42 PM: Loading catalog for: opencpn-ocpndebugger_pi
6:29:42 PM: Loading catalog for: opencpn-radar_pi
6:29:42 PM: Loading catalog for: opencpn-wmm_pi
6:29:42 PM: Loading catalog for opencpn core.
6:29:42 PM: Getting DefaultSystemLocale...
6:29:42 PM: Found LanguageInfo for: English
6:29:42 PM: radar_pi: multicast reception for 239.254.2.0 port 50100 on interface 10.0.1.66
6:29:42 PM: options: got device count: 1
6:29:43 PM: ***GPS Watchdog timeout at Lat:43.7 Lon: -70.3118
6:29:44 PM: radar_pi: multicast reception for 239.254.2.0 port 50100 on interface 10.0.1.66
6:29:47 PM: radar_pi: multicast reception for 239.254.2.0 port 50100 on interface 10.0.1.66
6:29:47 PM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\chartdldr_pi.dll
6:29:47 PM: chartdldr_pi: DeInit
6:29:47 PM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\wmm_pi.dll
6:29:47 PM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\dashboard_pi.dll
6:29:47 PM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\nmeaconverter_pi.dll
6:29:47 PM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\ocpndebugger_pi.dll
6:29:47 PM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\radar_pi.dll
6:29:47 PM: radar_pi: Garmin HD receive thread stopped in 0 ms
6:29:47 PM: opencpn::MyFrame exiting cleanly.
6:29:47 PM: Chart cache purge
6:29:47 PM: Chart cache PlugIn purge
6:29:47 PM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\chartdldr_pi.dll
6:29:47 PM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\wmm_pi.dll
6:29:47 PM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\dashboard_pi.dll
6:29:47 PM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\nmeaconverter_pi.dll
6:29:47 PM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\ocpndebugger_pi.dll
6:29:47 PM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\radar_pi.dll
6:29:47 PM: Closing NMEA Datastream Serial:COM3
6:29:47 PM: Stopping Secondary Thread
6:29:48 PM: Stopped in 1 sec.
6:29:48 PM: Chart cache purge
6:29:48 PM: opencpn::MyApp starting exit.
6:29:48 PM: LOGBOOK: 2019-11-28 23:29:48 UTC OFF: Lat 43.70000 Lon -70.31180
6:29:48 PM: UnLoading Tide/Current data source: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\tcdata\HARMONIC.IDX
6:29:48 PM: opencpn::MyApp exiting cleanly...

It looks as though its getting Lat/Lon data at the very end even though I can't see evidence of it anywhere, and the satellite monitor doesn't show anything connected.

[Dsanduril]

OpenCPN appears to be opening Com3 properly, is that the correct port for the USB100? (assume it is, but might as well ask).

Can you set NMEA debug in the ini file? And let it run for a minute or two?

[Dsanduril]

Sorry, saw the post before the log answered the questions. Can you post some of the sniffer (even just a screen shot)? Also, happy to move over to your other thread.