I've salvaged an old Windows 3.1 notebook from a closet and am using
it as a NMEA network tester to see what's on the networks of Lionheart
and its neighbors with data problems.

I made up a little serial test cable with a DB9 serial plug on one end
to hook to the notebook with a 6' coax cable terminated in flea clips
from Radio Shack to tap into anyone's network data stream at any point
in their sick system. One lead goes to notebook ground, DB9 pin 5,
(NMEA -) and the other goes to pin 2, (NMEA +). The handshake lines
are jumpered to each other to make sure the terminal program is always
running in the top diagram of webpage:
http://www.aggsoft.com/rs232-pinout-...sfer-cable.htm
The PC TX line (pin 3) isn't connected to anything. The PC is only
used to monitor what's going on, a data reader.

Windows 3.1 boots much faster than 95/98/2000/ME/XP as it's a much
smaller, simpler operating system. 3.1 also has the familiar
Hyperterm simple terminal program which I've simply configured to look
at the serial port at 4800 baud, 8/N/1 standard NMEA data speed.
Changing it is simple for other data speeds.

The old notebook allows me to watch the data streaming across the
network and will save the data stream to disk for later review, if I
like.

I even got the old gelcell battery to take a charge. On such a slow
processor with so little memory and disk drive, it'll run over 4 hours
on a charge, plenty of time to test any system.

If someone has hooked up two talkers the output just goes crazy, of
course.....

Larry

I needed this to figure out which of just two pieces in a simple NMEA
connection was "bad". The guy had a Garmin GPS hooked to a Yeoman
Sport XL plotter. I confirmed the wires were connected properly and
nothing was shorted out. I could see data flowing on the NMEA lines
with my Radio Shack Data Probe, but had no way of looking at the data
to see if it were valid.

It wasn't. The Garmin was transmitting garbage and has been returned
for repair. To confirm it, I took my Eagle handheld GPS and hooked it
to the Yeoman, which instantly found its position on the chart, to the
delight of its owner. He'll use his handheld until the Garmin comes
back.

Great use for an old notebook with no real home any more. Even a DOS
notebook will work if you feed DOS a redirect to send serial port data
to the console or use any old terminal program that'll run under
DOS.....





Larry W4CSC

"Very funny, Scotty! Now, BEAM ME MY CLOTHES! KIRK OUT!"

"Larry W4CSC" schreef in bericht
...

I needed this to figure out which of just two pieces in a simple NMEA
connection was "bad". The guy had a Garmin GPS hooked to a Yeoman
Sport XL plotter. I confirmed the wires were connected properly and
nothing was shorted out. I could see data flowing on the NMEA lines
with my Radio Shack Data Probe, but had no way of looking at the data
to see if it were valid.

It wasn't. The Garmin was transmitting garbage and has been returned
for repair. To confirm it, I took my Eagle handheld GPS and hooked it
to the Yeoman, which instantly found its position on the chart, to the
delight of its owner. He'll use his handheld until the Garmin comes
back.

The Garmin was most probably not transmitting garbage but trying to
communicate using its own native protocol, which is not understood by a
Yeoman and also not by your clever NMEA test set-up.
You need to set-up all Garmins to have them transmit proper NMEA sentences,
otherwise they use their own protocol.
--
Rgds,
/Ger Rietman
www.sailsoft.nl

Garmin's protocol, I believe, still uses ASCII characters, which WILL
display fine under the simple terminal program.....but not in NMEA
statements.

The Garmin in question was set to NMEA in and out in its setup
program.....(c;

The test set works great on Seatalk, too!


On Mon, 3 Nov 2003 13:12:36 +0100, "Ger"
wrote:


"Larry W4CSC" schreef in bericht
...

I needed this to figure out which of just two pieces in a simple NMEA
connection was "bad". The guy had a Garmin GPS hooked to a Yeoman
Sport XL plotter. I confirmed the wires were connected properly and
nothing was shorted out. I could see data flowing on the NMEA lines
with my Radio Shack Data Probe, but had no way of looking at the data
to see if it were valid.

It wasn't. The Garmin was transmitting garbage and has been returned
for repair. To confirm it, I took my Eagle handheld GPS and hooked it
to the Yeoman, which instantly found its position on the chart, to the
delight of its owner. He'll use his handheld until the Garmin comes
back.

The Garmin was most probably not transmitting garbage but trying to
communicate using its own native protocol, which is not understood by a
Yeoman and also not by your clever NMEA test set-up.
You need to set-up all Garmins to have them transmit proper NMEA sentences,
otherwise they use their own protocol.
--
Rgds,
/Ger Rietman
www.sailsoft.nl





Larry W4CSC

"Very funny, Scotty! Now, BEAM ME MY CLOTHES! KIRK OUT!"

"Larry W4CSC" schreef in bericht
...
Garmin's protocol, I believe, still uses ASCII characters, which WILL
display fine under the simple terminal program.....but not in NMEA
statements.
Nope. It does *not* use ASCII characters. Besides that: it is a handshaking
protocol, which means it is bi-directional, NMEA is not. Furthermo it
works at 9600bps, whilst NMEA works at 4800bps. So you will never get any
readable results using Hyperterminal with NMEA settings.


The Garmin in question was set to NMEA in and out in its setup
program.....(c;
OK, then it must be a defective unit you have been using.


The test set works great on Seatalk, too!
Hmm...

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
Garmin's protocol, I believe, still uses ASCII characters, which WILL
display fine under the simple terminal program.....but not in NMEA
statements.

Garmin is binary, although some transported data may contain ASCII
characters.

The Garmin in question was set to NMEA in and out in its setup
program.....(c;

The test set works great on Seatalk, too!

Impossible. Seatalk is pure binary and 9 bit/character, something a PC uart
cannot handle without special software support.

Meindert

On Mon, 3 Nov 2003 21:36:07 +0100, "Ger"
wrote:


"Larry W4CSC" schreef in bericht
...
Garmin's protocol, I believe, still uses ASCII characters, which WILL
display fine under the simple terminal program.....but not in NMEA
statements.
Nope. It does *not* use ASCII characters. Besides that: it is a handshaking
protocol, which means it is bi-directional, NMEA is not. Furthermo it
works at 9600bps, whilst NMEA works at 4800bps. So you will never get any
readable results using Hyperterminal with NMEA settings.

Hmm....thanks for the info. We only gots one Garmin, an old 185 for
backup, and it's always set to NMEA0183 in/out.

Damn them all for this proprietary crap!

If BOATERS would quit BUYIN' "Proprietary", they'd all quit making it!



Larry W4CSC

"Very funny, Scotty! Now, BEAM ME MY CLOTHES! KIRK OUT!"