DOES MACENC CHARTS BLUETOOTH
Further down the line, at the binnacle (the outside helm), there is a base station for a wireless autopilot control… putting the Bluetooth RF link entirely outside the steel hull. This is also the location of the autopilot control box, which communicates over the network with the pilot itself back in the hydraulics bay. The bulk of the activity is behind the nav and power consoles in the pilothouse, where all the lower helm controls, engine and tank monitoring, and circuit breakers are located. And the terminating resistor at the mast step, which seems like a strange place to end the backbone since the Comm Console is not so far away, is to set myself up for the future transition from legacy masthead instruments to their N2K counterparts… with the network termination moving 60 feet up in the sky. Because there are alternatives to the simple “tee” in the form of 4-port tees and multiport boxes at the end of drop cables, I have tried to minimize the cabling (and cost) by grouping things as efficiently as possible. The blue sections are physical regions of the boat, and they are linked by the N2K network. Here’s how it all fits together (revised Jun 19, 2008): The immediate project, now underway, is getting the essential navigation tools all playing nice on the network: two Furuno NavNet 3D multifunction displays, the wind/speed/depth sensors, GPS and compass, autopilot and its wireless remote, rudder angle sensor, instrument displays, engine and fuel consumption data, tank levels, and so on.
DOES MACENC CHARTS MAC
The server (probably a Mac Mini, since I gave up on Damn Small Linux… though maybe an embedded ITX or Asus if power considerations overcome the hassles of KVM switching) will then turn all this into a database-backed website, accessible on or off the boat.īut that fancy tinkering is for later. The second zone is my own stuff… also hanging off USB, but taking the form of direct I/O and other interfaces to incorporate system configuration tools, power management, security, and a variety of environmental sensors. The Simrad autopilot uses “Simnet,” which is really N2K, so interfacing that is just a matter of wire cutters and field-attachable connectors. Scattered around the ship are sensors, instrument displays, chartplotters, an autopilot, engine interface, and even a two-layer gateway that lets the ancient B&G network sensors get translated to NMEA 0183 and thence to N2K. The first is off-the-shelf NMEA 2000 equipment (hereinafter called N2K) that is interconnected by a Maretron backbone, and available to the server via a USB interface. I’m basically thinking of this in two major zones. So with all that out of the way, and recognizing the handwriting on the wall, it is time to move forward with the ship systems. Besides, as I said, it really is good stuff, and there is much to be said for standardization and interoperability without a long shake-out period (remember S-100?) For an old geek like me, this seems self-serving in a very destructive sense, but there’s enough momentum in the industry that it will stick anyway. This discourages hobbyists, and even those who do come up with something clever at the network level are prevented from going public. What is more frustrating is that it is not really an open standard (as are the various layers that make up the Internet), so the cost of entry is high and there are substantial legal disincentives to hack, reverse engineer, productize, or even publish without paying to be in the club. This is annoying, but easy to fix once you know the game. All the latest marine equipment is designed to work with this, though some vendors still insist on forcing people to buy their own connectors and cables (going so far as to give their flavor of the standard a distinctive name to discourage shopping around). There can be lots of talkers, it’s faster, it’s electrically robust, it carries power to all but the thirstiest loads, and it can even be hot-plugged. NMEA 2000, the new stuff, is based on the well-established industrial CAN (Controller Area Network), and is technically far superior to the vintage 0183 protocol.
DOES MACENC CHARTS SERIAL
The old marine “networking” standard (NMEA 0183) was little more than glorified 4800 baud serial datacomm, with various vendors producing their own variants to jockey for competitive advantage. I have mixed feelings about this, but there’s really no choice.
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