NMEA 2000 / Interfacing to Maretron Devices / Actisense NGT-1 NMEA 2000 USB Interface

[Dave@Ventec]

Does anyone have any information and examples of interfacing LabView to a NMEA  2000 network?  Specifically I would like to interface with a Maretron Marine NMEA 2000 network.  Through this interface I wish to read and write data sentances to the various network devices.

I do have a Actisense NGT-1 NMEA 2000 USB Interface, that does bring in and display sentances using associated software, if that provides any help.

Thanks in advance,

David

[esmaham]

Hi David ,

I am not aware of any specific examples, but it can be done using the VISA USB RAW commands. Look at the links I provided you. You can search for VISA USB RAW to find more information at ni.com.

How Can I Communicate With a Device Using NI-VISA USB RAW Mode?

How Do I Use VISA To Do An Interrupt Out Transfer For My USB RAW Device?

What is the Difference Between USB Raw Control and USB Raw Bulk?

Thanks and have a great day.

Esmail Hamdan | Applications Engineering | National Instruments

[Dennis_Knutson]

Before going down the rabbit hole of USB RAW, check the windows device manager and VISA to see if you have an extra com port with the device plugged in. According to the USB driver installation manual, it is supposed to appear as a com port and if that's true, you just have to use the serial functions (i.e. VISA Read) in order to get the data.

USB RAW has to be considered the very last option to be tried. You would need quite detailed information from the vendor and that is something that is not clearly made on the NI links.

[Dave@Ventec]

Dennis,

Thank you for your comments.  The USB interface does appear as a com port.  I have written VISA interfaces to com ports before, so your suggestion is certainly correct advice and doable.

I was under the impression the CAN and NMEA busses were so standard that there might be some VI's now available to do the basic interfacing, after specifying some of the basic mesage structure.  BUT I have been unable to find any such examples......

So I was hoping / wishing that some of the ground work had been done and was available....

Thanks again.

[iangodfrey]

Hi Dave,

This is a bit of a shot in the dark given the age of the post below, but I am facing an apparently identical challenge with the same hardware (Maretron and Actisense NGT-1 unit) and wondered whether you had come across a solution to the challenge posted below? We want to pull in data from the NMEA CAN bus alongside all sorts of other inputs on a test vessel platform we are building.

You will see from my profile that I am brand new to the software and forum - I have tried to locate a solution from the forum history but without success. Apologies in my newbie status just means I've missed something!

Thanks in advance,

Ian

[Dave@Ventec]

Ian,

No apologies necessary.  Unfortunately I have not worked on this subject since the original post...  However I am getting back into boating - NEMA 2000 - Maretron and LabView.  If I come across anything I'll let you know.  Please do the same.

Best,

David

[iangodfrey]

Hi David,

Thanks for the reply. We have a fairly serious deadline approaching to get this solved so I should be in a position (unless I've failed) to let you know how we've made it work in a month or so. We have been in touch with Actisense and it looks like we can use their software developer kit to bridge the gap.

Thanks,

Ian

[KyleFischer]

We are also interested in something similar. Actisense bi-directional with Labview. We won't be doing anything with Maretron. 

[iangodfrey]

Hi,

Great news - please share if you make any progress and noted re Maretron. Once you're into the NMEA system, I don't think it matters too much what the connected hardware is(?), I have a mix of connected device brands. Despite timings mentioned in my previous post, I am still working on this and I will also post information when we are there.

Ian