July 25, 2012 21:14
That is very similar to what I'm trying to do. Except I have the EM-Track B100, which looks suspiciously similar to the AIS650, except that it's orange.
The manuals are very cryptic, but I'm beginning to fear that the AIS unit does not multiplex incoming data to the USB port. Only from one NMEA port to the other. What instrument suite do you have and how is it converted to NMEA 0183? Are you using the RM NMEA bridge? If so, it has a serial port (some assembly required). So the next step would be to connect the instrument bridge independently to the laptop on another USB port. I haven't yet tried this.
For the time being, I'm simply trying to get Polarview to talk to the AIS unit and no other devices. Over the course of an hour, it will randomly connect and show a little GPS data for a few seconds at a time, but no AIS.
Of course, the other issue is whether or not the AIS unit is transmitting data correctly to the USB port. This can be tested using the software that came with the unit. (Mine did... if yours didn't you might try looking for downloads at Raymarine. Or try ProAIS2.) ProAIS2 doesn't have any problems receiving GPS or AIS data from my unit, where Polarview can't see anything.
The manuals are very cryptic, but I'm beginning to fear that the AIS unit does not multiplex incoming data to the USB port. Only from one NMEA port to the other. What instrument suite do you have and how is it converted to NMEA 0183? Are you using the RM NMEA bridge? If so, it has a serial port (some assembly required). So the next step would be to connect the instrument bridge independently to the laptop on another USB port. I haven't yet tried this.
For the time being, I'm simply trying to get Polarview to talk to the AIS unit and no other devices. Over the course of an hour, it will randomly connect and show a little GPS data for a few seconds at a time, but no AIS.
Of course, the other issue is whether or not the AIS unit is transmitting data correctly to the USB port. This can be tested using the software that came with the unit. (Mine did... if yours didn't you might try looking for downloads at Raymarine. Or try ProAIS2.) ProAIS2 doesn't have any problems receiving GPS or AIS data from my unit, where Polarview can't see anything.