"nm" wrote in message news
On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 20:58:53 +0300, TomS wrote:


"nm" wrote in message news

last sunday I tried to connect a laptop to the instrumentation of a boat
with a B&G Hydra 2000 system.
I downloaded a paper from b&g site:
http://www.bandg.com/pdfs/FAQs/faq007.pdf
where they use a cable named 135-0a-160
since i don't have such cable, i cut a serial cable and connected the
wires (according to the pins specified in the table) to the nmea
processor
i started several serial port sniffers (also one written by me), but, of
course, it didn't work
i tried to use only pins gnd, rx and tx, tried also to swap rx and tx,
but
still nothing
tried also on several different ports of the processor
my port sniffer sometimes reads strange characters, so I thougth that
the
cable referenced in the document may have some electronics inside, but I
couldn't find any useful info about that
anyone can help me out on this?
thanks
Nicola

You say you have a Hydra system. Do you also have a Performance
processor?
The pdf you are refering to is describing how to make a cable for your
performance processor.

About a year or two ago B&G made came out with a separate Hercules main
processor.
Previous to that the difference between a Hydra and Hercules system was
that
a Hercules system
had a Performance processor, Hydra did not.
Today a Hercules system uses the Hercules main processor and can also
have a
Performace processor.
The Hydra system has a Hydra main processor but can also have the same
performace processor.

If you do not have a Performance processor you need a NMEA FFD to be able
to
connect to NMEA
equipment (also computers=RS232). The main processor (weather Hercules or
Hydra) does not have NMEA nor RS232 connections.

If you have a Performance processor:
The performace processor has two NMEA outputs, two NMEA input one RS232
input and one RS232 output. Total 3 inputs and 3 outputs. Only two inputs
and outputs can be used at a time. This
can be configured from a FFD (see B&G website, Hercules manual).
The RS232 output is kind of unusual, this can be configured to 9600bps,
7bits, 2stop bits etc, which might seem unusual. Also the port does not
output data all the time and not in NMEA format. The data must be
requested
with special commands (all this described in the Hercules manual). Some
programs speak this "strange language" such as Deckman for Windows,
MaxSea,
Raytech Navigator etc. The higher end navigation/tactical programs, not
your
ordinary Ozi, SeaClear or such.

Hope that this made it a little bit clearer
Regs,
TomS



the processor has no "performance" label on it, so i assume it is a normal
processor (there's no RS232 port on it)
i have a FFD display, but didn't find much info on how to connect nmea
equipment to that ...
thanks for the reply, now it's a BIG bit clearer

First the pdf you are refering to is for a cable to connect a performance
processor.
The RTS and CTS signals on a performace processor can be shorted, no need
for handshake.

Now to your system:

FFD's are availabel as regular NON-NMEA FFD's and NMEA FFD's.
In order for the system to talk to the outside world you need a NMEA-FFD if
you do not have
a performance processor, wich you say you don't.
The type of FFD should be printed on a label on the back. Or you can check
the nuber of wires:

NON-NMEA FFD's
Data on green
Data on white
Supply +12V on red
Supply 0V on black
Yellow (if connected via a pushbutton to 0V/black) acts as the page key
Screen

NMEA FFD Has the above plus:
NMEA IN A on brown
NMEA IN B on blue
NMEA OUT A on violet
NMEA OUT B on black

The NMEA FFD output can be read with a computerconfigured with 4800bps, 8
data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, no flow control.

Connect the FFD's brown wire to your 9pin serial ports pin3
Connect the FFD's blue and black wire to your 9pin serial ports pin5
Connect the FFD's violet wire to your 9pin serial ports pin2

And the PC will be able to communicate with your B&G system.

Regards,
TomS