On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:05:34 -0400, Armond Perretta wrote:

I have Capn 8.3 running with several GPS units that can be switched to
provide nav data. This setup works just fine and has for a very long
time. I just loaded Offshore Navigator Light and SeaClear II for the fun
of it, and it happens that neither program can "see" the GPS data. I am
using a standard USB-to-serial cable and I have tried just about every
combination of port and speed and GPS interface setting on 3 separate
GPS units, but so far no go. Meanwhile the Capn 8.3 can see anything I
feed it. Any ideas?

The USB-to-serial cable *might* have something to do with it. The USB
standard does not include a GPS device, so a proprietary driver is
needed. Capn probably provides them, perhaps, ONL and SeaClear don't.
If you are familiar with telnet, you could telnet the port and see what,
if anything, is being transmitted.

thunder wrote in
t:

On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:05:34 -0400, Armond Perretta wrote:

I have Capn 8.3 running with several GPS units that can be switched
to
provide nav data. This setup works just fine and has for a very long
time. I just loaded Offshore Navigator Light and SeaClear II for the
fun
of it, and it happens that neither program can "see" the GPS data. I
am
using a standard USB-to-serial cable and I have tried just about
every
combination of port and speed and GPS interface setting on 3 separate
GPS units, but so far no go. Meanwhile the Capn 8.3 can see anything
I
feed it. Any ideas?

The USB-to-serial cable *might* have something to do with it. The USB
standard does not include a GPS device, so a proprietary driver is
needed. Capn probably provides them, perhaps, ONL and SeaClear
don't.
If you are familiar with telnet, you could telnet the port and see
what,
if anything, is being transmitted.

Excellent point. The Cap'n DOES have a USB serial port emulator/driver
that I'm sure is STILL resident on his computer even if The Cap'n isn't
booted. So, The Cap'n's driver is stealing the data away from the port,
no matter what program's running, making a data black hole that these
other programs have no way of accessing from the proprietary driver....

The only way he'd get to see it is if he completely UNinstalled The
Cap'n before installing one of these other crapware freebies, then he'd
probably have GPS info off the open USB port that's not open now with
the Cap'n's driver holding it close.

If The Cap'n works great DON'T SCREW IT UP! Use it to go sailing!

Trying to run several nav programs on that machine is SURE to screw it
up with all the system tinkering they have to go through to get
antiquated NMEA serial data through a computer that doesn't have ports
for it any more.....

--
Larry

Larry wrote:
thunder wrote ...
Armond Perretta wrote:

I have Capn 8.3 running with several GPS units that can be switched
to provide nav data ... I just loaded Offshore Navigator Light and
SeaClear II ... and it happens that neither program can "see"
the GPS ... I am using a standard USB-to-serial cable ... Capn 8.3 can
see anything I feed it ...

The USB-to-serial cable *might* have something to do with it. The
USB standard does not include a GPS device, so a proprietary driver
is needed. Capn probably provides them, perhaps, ONL and SeaClear
don't ...

Excellent point. The Cap'n DOES have a USB serial port
emulator/driver that I'm sure is STILL resident on his computer even
if The Cap'n isn't booted. So, The Cap'n's driver is stealing the
data away from the port ...

The only way he'd get to see it is if he completely UNinstalled The
Cap'n before installing one of these other crapware freebies, then
he'd probably have GPS info off the open USB port that's not open now
with the Cap'n's driver holding it close ...

Trying to run several nav programs on that machine is SURE to screw it
up with all the system tinkering they have to go through to get
antiquated NMEA serial data through a computer that doesn't have ports
for it any more ...

I think you both are onto the explanation. I suspected that something was
hijacking the port so I restarted the machine and did not run Capn, but
instead tried ON Lite and SeaClear separately. Unfortunately that didn't do
the trick as the port still appears to be closed to the other software.
What would happen if I used an additional USB-to-serial converter in another
USB socket? Maybe I'll try the next time I'm at the yard.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare

"Armond Perretta" wrote in
:

I think you both are onto the explanation. I suspected that something
was hijacking the port so I restarted the machine and did not run
Capn, but instead tried ON Lite and SeaClear separately.
Unfortunately that didn't do the trick as the port still appears to be
closed to the other software. What would happen if I used an
additional USB-to-serial converter in another USB socket? Maybe I'll
try the next time I'm at the yard.



The Cap'n driver would load and hijack the port on Windows bootup when the
drivers load, not the startup apps. The port is reserved by the driver
very early in the process....

Try this non-destructive change.

Open Device Manager....

Click the + box next to USB Controllers and look for the driver Cap'n has
its name on or some USB-to-Serial driver which may be more generic. I've
never hunted this driver down, myself.

Open any USB controller driver that looks like The Cap'n and look at the
driver's author. There is a selector to DISABLE the driver without
uninstalling The Cap'n, which would free up the port so your other software
could access the USB data coming in. You can always re-ENABLE it to make
it work again for The Cap'n.

OK your way out and remember how you got there, then try the new softwares.

--
Larry

Larry wrote:

Open Device Manager....

Click the + box next to USB Controllers and look for the driver Cap'n
has its name on or some USB-to-Serial driver which may be more
generic. I've never hunted this driver down, myself.

Open any USB controller driver that looks like The Cap'n and look at
the driver's author. There is a selector to DISABLE the driver
without uninstalling The Cap'n, which would free up the port so your
other software could access the USB data coming in. You can always
re-ENABLE it to make it work again for The Cap'n ...

I have 2 identical laptops with Capn and the other software installed on
each. As far as is possible these are identical installations (the idea
being that a complete back-up computer is simpler than reinstalling,
reformatting, etc., in a pinch). I used these computers on a recent cruise
to southern New England and they were fine, although at that time I had not
started messing with ON Lite or SeaClear. BTW these apps were loaded mostly
out of curiosity. I may consider migrating if the support situation with
Capn remains at its current low level (and I started using Capn with its DOS
version in 1993).

On the laptop I'm using right now to type this, there is a complete Capn
install with a USB-to-serial dongle. This setup was in use recently and ran
well, including the interface with the SR162 AIS receiver. I purchased a
"Y" adapter from Milltech that allows me to feed the GPS into the AIS
receiver, which then transmits the combined GPS and AIS data at 38,000 BAUD
to the laptop via the USB-to-serial adapter. A little bit Rube Goldbergy
but it works. Believe me, it was way COOL to get targets and CPA on the
screen, especially in a breeze at night off Montauk. But that's another
subject. Here's some info on the hardware on this box.

The Capn works with the associated USB converter. However I also manage my
home alarm system with this box. The panel communicates with the DLS
software via a serial port, and in the present case I use the same
USB-to-serial converter. And it works just fine. In other words on this
computer, I can run Capn and get GPS data in the afternoon, then take the
computer home and manage the alarm that night. No port hijacking.

Puzzling(?).

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare

"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

On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:04:35 +0000, Larry wrote:

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.

Cool. Sounds like you need 2 WebFoot adapters unless you have a
multiplexer with ethernet out? Is there a provision for multiple
listeners on the same ethernet data stream, using multiple Webfoot
adapters?

Larry wrote:
..

Open Device Manager....

Click the + box next to USB Controllers and look for the driver Cap'n
has its name on or some USB-to-Serial driver which may be more
generic. I've never hunted this driver down, myself.

Open any USB controller driver that looks like The Cap'n and look at
the driver's author. There is a selector to DISABLE the driver
without uninstalling The Cap'n, which would free up the port so your
other software could access the USB data coming in. You can always
re-ENABLE it to make it work again for The Cap'n ...

On both of the laptops I use for navigation, I was unable to find anything
in the USB section of Device Manager that was other than Microsoft-generic.
All the usual standard drivers from about 2001 for USB hubs, etc. However
under the Ports section in Device Manager I located the virtual serial port
whose driver matched the driver I loaded from software supplied by
the manufacturer. I disabled this, but was unable to see GPS data or
capture the port with either SeaClear or ON Lite. I did not yet take a
second USB-serial adapter down to the boat yard and try that angle.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare

"Armond Perretta" wrote in
:

On both of the laptops I use for navigation, I was unable to find
anything in the USB section of Device Manager that was other than
Microsoft-generic. All the usual standard drivers from about 2001 for
USB hubs, etc. However under the Ports section in Device Manager I
located the virtual serial port whose driver matched the driver I
loaded from software supplied by the manufacturer. I disabled this,
but was unable to see GPS data or capture the port with either
SeaClear or ON Lite. I did not yet take a second USB-serial adapter
down to the boat yard and try that angle.



Let's see if there is data on the port and if we can connect to it.

Open HyperTerminal from the Windows Accessories/Communications and setup to
read the port the NMEA data USB to Serial adapter is using. If NMEA data
is on the port, it will stream across hyperterminal like mad. Turn the
virtual serial port back on to create the COM port for Hyperterminal to
connect to.....Once you get that running and data streaming, these other
programs should see it too, but only one at a time. Only one app can
connect to a serial port at a time.



--
Larry