Mike,
I did exactly what you are talking about with my old compaq laptop and
a Raymarine tiller pilot on my Hughes 31. I use either Nobeltec or
Fugawi as my mapping software. My Nobeltec is old and I can't afford
to get the new version so I bought Fugawi 4 ECS which takes either the
old BSB charts, the new ENC charts or several other maps. I purchased a
GPS receiver that plugs into my USB port (cheap, $135.00 CDN) so
requires no power except from the computer and run the auto pilot off my
nine pin serial port. Only requires two wires, Pin 3 to NEMA data on
the autopilot and Pin 5 to ground. The whole system works like a dream
except that the Raymarine unit won't automatically follow a route. When
you hit a waypoint you have to tell it to turn onto the next leg by
pressing Nav or Track or +10 -10 depending on your unit. This I'm sure
is planned on the part of Raymarine as your average recreational boater
is an idiot and if they allowed for it to automatically follow a route
somebody would put it on autopilot and go below for a beer. The largest
majority of newer laptops don't seem to have a serial port and I don't
know how the output will work with a USB to Serial converter. Before I
found the USB GPS I tried several USB to Serial converters trying to get
my old Lowrance GPS to interface with my computer before I finally found
one that would work.
Ed Henderson


wrote:
Hi All: I'm new to the group, but I do have a serious question.

In April I bought a new DELL XPS Laptop... great machine, but I'm not
doing a commercial here.! My problem is, I want to hang a GPS on one
of the inputs and, possible an autopilot on the output. I have a
Garmin handheld but will replace that with something that runs off boat
power and my old autopilot died a couple of years ago so that will be
replaced as part of this package replacement project.

Does anyone know a good place to go for recommendations or does anyone
on this group have any? I've already looked at the Garmin site but I
don't really know if that's where I want to go.

Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Mike