NMEA2000 application and Maretron

Albatross Controls supports SMS notification: http://www.albatrosscontrol.com/en/tech/

I learned today that if you use an Airmar PB200 weather instrument, it will not feed data to a PC for the Weathercaster software, unless you use the Airmar or Actisense USB interface. I have the Maretron interface and the Maretron N2KView software and according to Airmar support - their instrument is "too sensitive" for the Maretron interface. So much for a standard!

Yeah, that makes no sense. AFAIK, the issue is that Maretron does not expose their N2K API publicly; it's only usable via N2KView. Other applications get 0183 versions of the N2K PGNs, if they exist, and if they are converted by the USB100. Actisense's version of the USB100, the NGW-1, has a limited list of translations (though they claim to be adding more with each firmware update).

Also, regarding alerts, the more expensive version of N2KView has them and email is one of the options. Of course you need a boat network connected to the internet at all times for that to work. SMS notification is best done by email -- all carriers allow you to send SMS to a subscriber using an email gateway, something like [email protected]. Direct SMS would require a GSM modem attached to your PC, which is a pain in the ass, or use of a generic HTTP->SMS gateway, which usually cost money.

HenryD, there is no standard for NMEA 2000/0183 translations. Also, I believe the latest beta version of Coastal Explorer uses DLLs that let it access direct N2K from the Maretron USB100. I think that will become more common once NMEA finally finishes the Third Party Gateway portion of the Standard.

Ben, I didn't know that Maretron had exposed those USB100 N2K APIs to 3rd party software developers. If so, that's good, and I suppose required for the TPG thing. My understanding was that unlike Actisense's APIs, Maretron was keeping the N2K data close to the vest. Perhaps they were pressured to change their policy by the release of Actisense's hardware, or perhaps that was the intent all along.

Adam, I was mainly just reporting what I see going on with CE. But I do know that Maretron was involved with the TPG concept from the beginning. I'm not sure any of us understand exactly how TPG is going to work, yet.

Can I use two USB converters - the Maretron and the Actisense on the same network and PC? that way the Airmar Weathercaster software will see the Actisense USB interface and the N2KView can see the Maretron USB interface?

Henry, that should work, as long at least one of the interfaces is operating in only the N2K-to-USB direction (or at least that PC data isn't being put on the N2K network twice somehow). The N2K network doesn't care (to a limit) how many devices are connected, and the virtual serial ports created by the Maretron and Actisense drivers should be separately addressable by each PC application.

Hi Henry,

I'm not sure that Airmar has given you the right impression. Although you do indeed need an Airmar or Actisense interface to use Weathercaster, the PB200 will work fine without Weathercaster; data will show on your current N2Kview software.

Kees,
I have some weather data going into the N2KView software, but some does not. For example, I wanted to graph the wind speed over the past 12 hours...N2KView has the graph wiget, but it see's blanks and other data that shows off the charts.

Kees,
Maretron does not have any better answer for why the wind speed graph does not work. The software still does not have a driver that will run on 64bit Vista. I am building a Win7 box that I will be trying next week but I have little hope. Maretron recommends a signature hack to trick windows but the hack gets identified by anti-virus software.