Control Raymarine autopilot from OpenPlotter

[MigGat]

My setup is Rpi4 + MacArthur HAT.
When I bought it, the boat had the "typical old set" of raymarine equipment:

ST60 tridata
Authelm SmartPilot
C80 Plotter
Radar (can't remember the model)

So far I managed to get all the information into SignalK using both the NMEA0183 and SeaTalk1 ports in MacArthur HAT, except:

- Radar information. Is it possible at all to forward radar info from C80 to SignalK using any protocol?
- Installed the "Autopilot" SignalK app, to see if i could control the autopilot without any other confirguration (aside from the basic plugin config), and the result is that i can control the app from the "physical" autopilot (image attached), but it doesn't work the other way around. Do you thinik is configuration missing? Or maybe wiring? As far as I understand, the autopilot uses SeaTalk1 connection, but maybe is using NMEA018n, for which i'm not transmitting anything :S


   

---

BTW, i see the messages steering.autopilot.state = "auto" or "standby" on SignalK databrowser when i push the buttons on the raymarine device.

[Sailoog]

AFAIK signal k can not handle radar data. There are some opencpn plugins that can get data from some radar brands.

Seatalk1 in MacArthur HAT is only input. If you want to send data to your autopilot you should connect it by NMEA 0183 output. AFAIK the autopilot signal k app is still under development.

[MigGat]

Thanks @Sailoog. I was afraid i wont be able to get radar data, so no big surprise.
I ordered the proper wires and will try to connect the autopilot using NMEA0183 and I'll tell you how it goes!

[MigGat]

Ok, so I managed to connect MacArthur's NMEA0183 TX1 to the NMEA IN of my aoutopilot.
But the problem with the autopilot plugin is that there is no option to configure a NMEA0183 output, only N2k and ST, so i'm totally lost here.

Maybe the only solution is to write my own code to send the nmea sentences, but just to test, i tried node-red. It has NMEA out node, but i don't understand how i "register" that nmea output anywhere :S

[Sailoog]

I do not know the autopilot sk plugin but if it is generating n2k data you can try translating autopilot sentences to nmea 0183 using the signalk-to-nmea0183 plugin. this plugin uses the event "nmea0183out" and you can send this event by your NMEA0183 TX1 connection.

More info about events: https://openplotter.readthedocs.io/en/3....exing.html

[MigGat]

I connected the 0183 TX2 to the Autopilot NMEA in, but I still cant seem to make it work (i tried reverse polarity).
I'm not sure if the Serial application is setup correctly, if I should use TX1 instead, or if the problem is software related :S

Any tips on how can I diagnose the issue?

[MigGat]

I can control it from the C80 which is down below in the cabin, but i need some way to engage/disengage the pilot from the coockpit.

If I connect MacArthur's NMEA out to C80, it will translate to Seatalk1 and send it to the aoutopilot, but "what" kind of sentence do I need to send in order to put the autopilot in auto/standby mode?

[MigGat]

When I connect NMEA out to C80 NMEA in, C80 stops receiving any nmea data :S
Actually the only NMEA information it cares is about the GPS, but it starts screaming like crazy with an error message "NO FIX".

I activated every option in the plugn SignalK to NMEA 0183 plugin, but C80 doesn't seem to receive anything, only yields the error.

An additional unfortunate event is that if I connect the Seatalk network to MacArthur's ST1 in, the plotter starts screaming to with a "no bearing" error message.

Something is definetly f****d up with my setup, but i don't know how to fix it

[MigGat]

Ok, so nmea problems solved with proper wiring. Now the c80 es receiving nmea sent from SignalK, which is great.

However, there is still the issue of ST. When the raspberry to the ST network, the c80 loses access to it, and i don't understand why :S

That's the main issue. However, there is also another problem. SignalK is not sending nmea messages such as waypoint position, xte, etc... nothing relate to routes,

[SCarns]

I used it with an N2K network and it worked fine. You may need to use the nmea0183-to-nmea0183 forwarding plug in to send $APB, $RMB, $RMC, and possibly $XTE to a port called “seatalkout” as defined in the autopilot config. Then you’ll be getting the data out to the autopilot plugin. If it doesn’t work after that, then go back you your wiring set up.