That's very cool. My program can switch between the charting program on the PC
and the GPS as the steering command source. If the PC dies, I have to unplug
the GPS from the PC serial port and plug it into the serial port on my B&B NMEA
interface. Not quite as slick. Although some might consider your rotary switch
a single point of failure?

Glen


On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 13:18:58 GMT, (Larry) tempted fate with:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 11:43:54 +0100, "garry crothers"
wrote:


But if I cannot upload waypoints to the gps, then I would be better getting
the plotter to drive the autopilot, with perhaps a changeover switch in case
the plotter failed.

There ya go! That's the best way to do it. I'm installing a rotary
switch on my buddy's ketch. It will feed the autopilot from either
the chart plotter in the Raymarine SL-72C radar/WAAS-GPS/gyro
..or....the Garmin 185 GPS...or....the Dell notebook computer running
The Cap'n software...or....The yeoman glued upside down to the bottom
of the chart table......at the flip of the switch in case its heavy
weather. Unless the autopilot fails, we're probably gonna have
steering...(c;


Larry

Extremely intelligent life must exist in the universe.
You can tell because they never tried to contact us.

Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 at worldwidewiley dot com