[Openpilot-developers] NMEA 2000 Support - Offer for collaboration

[Tim B. <ti...@en...>]

I recieved this e-mail from Andrew today. He seems quite happy to share 
knowledge of NMEA2000. Would anyone like to develop this in a similar way to 
the existing NMEA0183?

Cheers All,

Tim B.

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Our C# project
Date: Thursday 14 January 2010
From: Andrew Mason <a....@au...>
To: tbr...@us...

Dear Tim,

I have just come across your Open Pilot project (via your comment at
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/onboard-electronics-controls/avia-virtual-
instruments-windows-pcs-27994.html), 

and wanted to tell you about the work that we are doing in the
University of Auckland, New Zealand. I supervised a student project last
year to understand the NMEA 2000 (N2k) format. As part of this, I have
been liaising with Kees (http://yachtelectronics.blogspot.com/) to share
what we have learnt; you may have seen his occasional comments on
Panbo.com. He has created an XML file containing N2k definitions for us
to use.

I have also been working with a student on developing open source
software in C# to receive and display N2k data. We are currently adding
the ability to handle 0183 messages as well. The user can build their
own displays using the C# compile time editor, which (with thanks to
some C# tricks) gives us access to lots of standard C# dial and text
controls. This code is not yet released anywhere, but will be
soon(ish!); I will let you know when this happens.

Our software does not have any of the plotting capabilities you have
developed, but otherwise has similar goals.

If you are interested in adding N2k support, then it may be beneficial
to work together on this. Our code attempts to be very general in that
it read in an XML N2k definition file from which the N2k support is
constructed. (Our XML file is somewhat more detailed than Kees' file.) A
similar approach would work in C++. Collaborating on standard schemes
for sending N2k over ethernet could also be good. We currently use the
Actisense NGT N2k-to-USB adapter for our interfacing; if you are
interested, I can give you details on how to use this without requiring
any Actisense DLL's.

I look forward to hearing from you. Cheers,

Andrew

PS: You can see some early N2k-related images at
http://www.yachtsciences.com/




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Lead Developer
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