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Larry

"Armond Perretta" wrote in news:-
:

Puzzling(?).

Very.

My captain didn't like the USB cord dangling off the chart table, so I
wifi'd the whole system using a Webfoot RS232 (close enough) to Ethernet
adapter on the serial port of the boat's Noland NMEA multiplexer. The
Ethernet is plugged into a Netgear wifi router which creates the boat's
hotspot for all the wifi devices in a wireless LAN, including file sharing,
etc. Webfoot comes with a virtual serial port driver that interfaces with
the wireless LAN to connect itself to the Webfoot over the network, even
across the internet if that's what you need. The virtual serial port can
be any COM port you like in the laptop it's mounted in so when the Cap'n
goes searching for NMEA data it stumbles upon COM3 with NMEA on what
appears, to The Cap'n, as a real serial port hooked to the boat's NMEA
network boxes.

You can even take the laptop to other boats or the Yacht Club nearby and
have "remote control" of the NMEA devices, up to about 200-300' away.

With a charged laptop, or better yet a WinXP netbook with a long running
battery, you can operate the boat's extensive NMEA system laid out in a
beanbag under the genoa with your favorite beverage and snack, hollering
back to the winch slaves in the cockpit, "Prepare to come about!" as you
click a new waypoint for the B&G Network Pilot to steer to on the laptop in
front of you....(c;]

How disgusting.......

--
Larry