I am unable to get my navico auto pilot PH 8000 to respond to commands
issued from a R70RC Raymarine chart plotter. The auto pilot
understands the commands from a navigation program on a laptop e.g.
$ECBWC,183107,4420.66,N,07600.81,W,130.81,T,144.65,M,0.971,N,00232
$ECBWR,183107,4420.66,N,07600.81,W,130.81,T,144.65,M,0.971,N,00223

A sample from the chart plotter using hyper terminal

$ECBWC,211611,4421.01,N,07600.90,W,112.5,T,126.0,M,0.72,N,GOTO CURSOR,D68
$ECBWR,211611,4421.01,N,07600.90,W,112.5,T,126.0,M,0.72,N,GOTO CURSOR,D79

understand NMEA data from a laptop and not similar data from the chart
plotter? Could there be different line feed or carriage return
characters, maybe different voltages? Could feeding the data through a
multiplexer solve the problem. I have tried everything I can thing of
with no success, Does anyone have any suggestions.

Thanks

--
Lewis Boone
265 Poulin Ave #1705
Ottawa, Ontario
K2B 7Y8
LewisGBoone@gmail.com

Check what sentences your autopilot wants.  The BWC and BWR sentences only have bearing to waypoint, and the pilot will probably also want cross-track error, as given in the XTE sentence.  What other sentences (if any) are the two systems sending to the pilot?

The RMB sentence includes both bearing to waypoint and XTE, and seems to include all the data my Raymarine pilot wants.

APB is an older sentence (use discouraged on new systems) that has both bearing and XTE.

Thursday, August 31, 2006, 6:17:39 AM, Lewis wrote:

LB> I am unable to get my navico auto pilot PH 8000 to respond to commands
LB> issued from a R70RC Raymarine chart plotter. The auto pilot
LB> understands the commands from a navigation program on a laptop e.g.
LB> $ECBWC,183107,4420.66,N,07600.81,W,130.81,T,144.65,M,0.971,N,00232
LB> $ECBWR,183107,4420.66,N,07600.81,W,130.81,T,144.65,M,0.971,N,00223

LB> A sample from the chart plotter using hyper terminal

LB> $ECBWC,211611,4421.01,N,07600.90,W,112.5,T,126.0,M,0.72,N,GOTO CURSOR,D68
LB>  $ECBWR,211611,4421.01,N,07600.90,W,112.5,T,126.0,M,0.72,N,GOTO CURSOR,D79

LB> understand NMEA data from a laptop and not similar data from the chart
LB> plotter? Could there be different line feed or carriage return
LB> characters, maybe different voltages? Could feeding the data through a
LB> multiplexer solve the problem. I have tried everything I can thing of
LB> with no success, Does anyone have any suggestions.

LB> Thanks

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI    Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lien Hwa 28 (AKA Polaris 30) "Sea Spray"
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

An update to my auto pilot,  chart plotter problem.

The Navico auto pilot will only accept APA, BWC, BWR and XTE NEMA
sentences, and from that list the chart plotter will only output BWC
and BWR. It also appears that the chart plotter output's NMEA version
2.3 and my auto pilot don't understand 2.3. I found the following info

The last version 2 iteration of the NMEA standard was 2.3. It added a
mode indicator to several sentences which is used to indicate the kind
of fix the receiver currently has. This indication is part of the
signal integrity information needed by the FAA. The value can be
A=autonomous, D=differential, E=Estimated, N=not valid, S=Simulator.
Sometimes there can be a null value as well. Only the A and D values
will correspond to an Active and reliable Sentence. This mode
character has been added to the RMC, RMB, VTG, and GLL, sentences and
optionally some others including the BWC and XTE sentences.

I was looking at the info on Brookhouse Multiplexes

http://brookhouseonline.com/nmea_multiplexer.htm

If I understand the documentation correctly using their multiplexer
the output from the chart plotter could be modified to conform to
something the auto pilot will understand.

Has anybody experience with this and is it a viable option.

Thanks to all who advised me with this problem. It is very much appreciated.

On 8/31/06, Lewis Boone lewisgboone@gmail.com wrote: