Great Project - Thanks

[Dutchy46]

Andreas, thankyou for sharing your work on this topic. I built it last weekend. A few hardware variations but the software loaded and worked immediately. Bravo!
Rgds Ray

[Dutchy46]

While I am happy with the converter for my use, I have found a problem with it when used with at least 2 Raymarine models. In these examples the converter does not produce targets for Class B AIS vessels. Class A vessels are good.

My use is with a B&G Zeus 2 in a home bench test environment. It takes the AIS-N2k converter directly from my N2K network and displays both Class A and Class B targets. I also feed the N2K to an iKommunicate box which is connected to my home ethernet system, the output on the ethernet is sent by UDP messages available to portable PCs/iPads. An iPad connected by wifi running Navionics 'Boating' app sees and displays both Class A & B targets correctly. Also a PC running OpenCPN taking the UDP data sees and displays correctly.
However, a Raymarine a75 MFD (running Lighthouse 2 v19.03 s/w) on the N2K bus reads and displays Class A ONLY, no Class B (neither moving nor moored vessels). A Raymarine E120W connected to the N2K bus has the same problem, no Class B targets....BUT....the E120W is able to read the raw N0183 data from the AIS reciever (N2K disconnected from the E120W) which correctly displays BOTH Class A & B targets.
It appears that the Raymarine systems require something from the N2K AIS messages to include Class B which is not being translated in your conversion from the original N0183 data. Maybe this is resolved in later versions of Raymarine MFDs which use Lighthouse 3, but I do not have the hardware to check this.
I know this project is 3 yrs old now and it is certainly a good solution for my main needs, but have you had news of this problem before and is it something you plan to resolve.
Again, thankyou for your work on this matter and putting it into the public domain.

[AK-Homberger]

Hi,

I tested it with Ramarine es75 and Lighthouse 19.3 version. There it worked well.
Try to use the older version 0.4 of the coce. Since version 05. I send message type 19 as PGN129040 (instead of 18 and 24a/24b PGNs).

Regards,
Andreas

[Dutchy46]

Hi Andreas,
Thankyou for your reply.
The news is good. For my first build of your project I compiled and loaded the software using Arduino IDE 1.8.15. Once you confirmed that the system is known to work with RM models and also mentioned in your description that you had to deal with some compiler differences I decided to update to IDE 2.3.2, recompiled and loaded again. Hooray, Class B targets appeared. So I guess this is a small variation caused by the compiler differences. I didn't consider it at first because it worked correctly with the other hardware.
I appreciate your assistance.
The version of software I downloaded is 0.7. You suggested I might try v0.4 of the code. I don't need it now, but I am curious as to where I would find that older version. I am only a light user of github so maybe it is buried back in an area I don't know about.

Rgds
Ray
Edit to correct version of original Arduino IDE used

[Dutchy46]

I was curious to know why one of the 2 different compilations would be acceptable to Raymarine but not the other.
I made a comparison of the N2K data from each compilation using an Actisense NGT-1. Here is what I found:
PGN129039 is the only AIS PGN (Class A or B) which shows any difference between compilations. Field 12 of the data 'AIS Transceiver Information' from the IDE 1.8.15 always has data "31", but IDE 2.3.2 produces "0 (Channel A VDL Reception)" or "1 (Channel A VDL Reception".
It looks like field 12 is not being converted correctly for PGN129039 by v1.8.15.
Class A transmissions also have PGNs with 'AIS Transceiver Information', Field 12 in PGN129038 and Field 20 in PGN129794. In both these PGNs the data matches in each of the compilations.
It seems the Raymarine software checks the 'AIS Transceiver Information' for validity and if it is not, it rejects the target. '31' appears to be an unacceptable value for the field.
Knowing this information answers my curiosity but is not really important since we know v2.3.2 compiles correctly, so I am not asking you to make any software change. However I would suggest you update your 'README' file to specifically advise that IDE 2.3.2 works but earlier versions may not.
Regards