Recently got one which works a charm with Open CPN under Windows. Not so with Navigatrix. In Open cpn tools, the ais shows as /tmp/fifo. I looked at the oscilloscope which was wavering around very quickly so I couldnt really tell if it was showing me there was an ais stream. jolly difficult page to understand.
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Any suggestions? Many thanks, Tony

The /tmp/fifo and the oscilloscope are for modified VHF radios plugged into the soundcard (input or mic) of a computer.

You will have to find out how you're attaching your AIS to the machine. Once you know that, you can select the appropriate AIS port setting in OpenCPN.

...just looked up RadarGadgets AIS Dongle.

The AIS setting should be one of the USB ports (/dev/ttyUSBX)...

You can either poke around, or I'll get back to you and we can figure out which one it is; make it permanent; and not have it conflict with your GPS

Thanks so much Moe....what a hero you are!! First my dratted garmin gps (now working perfectly!) and I'm sure you'll be able to crack this one next!

Meanwhjile, I'm diligently doing my homework and reading up all the documentation on the forum.....fascinating stuff but I fear I have a long way to go!

cheers, Tony

You and me both Tony.

In the meantime...with your gps plugged in, plug in your AIS.

Set the OpenCPN AIS to /dev/ttyUSB1 and see if you are getting the data on the screen.

Thanks, Moe. Tried that and it knocked the gps off. Then I saw on the satelite page that the gps was already on that same "outlet" (for want of a better word!)

I'm away from it at the moment so I can't reproduce the terminal page to show you but, it is recognising the ais as being plugged in but not as an ais! We lost internet connectivity over the week-end (welcome to the third world) so now we are back up and running I'll send you a pic of the terminal when I get home tonight.

cheers for now, Tony

That's what ya' get when you make assumptions...incorrectly.

The assumption was that the gps would be /dev/ttyUSB0 and the ais would be /dev/ttyUSB1.

Do you have a wireless adaptor plugged in as well? That would bump everything up.

Assuming wireless at /dev/ttyUSB0; gps at 1; and ais at 2.

OK: No other device connected. XGPS is showing the gps is on dev/tty/usb0. I plugged in the ais, then in Open cpn tools opened up the ais section. It did not give me an option of USB1, so I typed it in manually. Meanwhile, it has still knocked off the gps. The only way to get gps back is to unplug the ais, in open cpn tools make the gps "none" then re-make it back to "garmin". zPlugging in the ais again (even though on dev/tty/usb1), knocks out the gps again.

Here's the terminal:

nx@nx:~$ sudo dmesg | tail
[ 1054.847490] loop2: rw=0, want=2144482, limit=1026048
[ 1054.858468] attempt to access beyond end of device
[ 1054.858485] loop2: rw=0, want=536918254, limit=1026048
[ 1054.866672] attempt to access beyond end of device
[ 1054.866688] loop2: rw=0, want=2415966450, limit=1026048
[ 1055.577001] attempt to access beyond end of device
[ 1055.577019] loop2: rw=0, want=67156220, limit=1026048
[ 1055.577032] attempt to access beyond end of device
[ 1055.577042] loop2: rw=0, want=4295538942, limit=1026048
[ 1204.456257] usb 5-1: USB disconnect, device number 2
nx@nx:~$ sudo dmesg | tail
[ 1054.866672] attempt to access beyond end of device
[ 1054.866688] loop2: rw=0, want=2415966450, limit=1026048
[ 1055.577001] attempt to access beyond end of device
[ 1055.577019] loop2: rw=0, want=67156220, limit=1026048
[ 1055.577032] attempt to access beyond end of device
[ 1055.577042] loop2: rw=0, want=4295538942, limit=1026048
[ 1204.456257] usb 5-1: USB disconnect, device number 2
[ 1227.156131] usb 5-1: new full speed USB device number 3 using uhci_hcd
[ 1227.351802] cdc_acm 5-1:1.0: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.
[ 1227.351882] cdc_acm 5-1:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
nx@nx:~$

What's the next move, Yoda? Thanks, Tony

Woops, sorry, I meant putting the open cpn gps back to network lib gps (not garmin). The sattelites are still showing in xgps, just no position in open cpn.

As you see...

When in doubt, either continue to poke in the dark, or read the directions...OpenCPN's manual entry on this gizmo.

Put everything back to the way it was when it worked and try /dev/ttyACM0...and I'll cut back on faulty assumptions.

Oh well.....,why read the instructions when you can guess!! Working a charm now!! Many thanks, Moe and safe travels!! Tony

My thoughts exactly, Tony.

I only read the instructions if I've failed miserably...and then only reluctantly.

Does your setting persist from one boot to another?

Ah ha - Funny you should ask that!! The short answer is Yes it did but well into a run across the caribbean, on rebooting, nothing would mount!! Had to revert to Windows......!!!!

Just remaking a new stick: Hope to goodness I don't have the gps saga again!

Further to my last, I'm taking a catamaran up to New York tomorrow, so I hope the download goes smoothly as, when its working, the navigatrix version of open cpn is rather better than my windows one.

I'm using an 8 gig stick and it seems a bit of a waste of the other 4 gigs....should I perhaps extend the partitions? It seems a bit "advanced" for me at my stage of the learning curve. Would there be any benefit in doing this?

When you say 'nothing would mount' do you mean 'the black screen with the single line of text Syslinux 4.03 2010-10-22 EDD Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al that happens briefly at every boot...but stays and will not go away because the previous time the stick was yanked out before it finished powering down 'nothing would mount'....or do you mean something else?

Regarding the gps...there will be no saga because we know the solution.

Well, Moe, you've got me there!! I can't quite remember what happened but I tried to get a terminal to open and as far as I can recall, it didnt but then using the arrow keys I got a scroll of verbiage in which "invalid" apeared quite a few times!! I'm sorry I didn't keep a copy - you know what its like at 2.00am on a bumpy night.....!!

I'm pretty certain I let the little darling shut down completely before turning the machine off....but mebbe I didn't!! Anyway - new stick is just installing itself as I write so as soon as that's happened, I'll persistent-ise it then go to bed!

Naw, sorry Tony, once again I don't have a clue what's going on.....I do know that frequently when ya' pull the plug before everything is shut down it will lock up on the next boot witht the black screen and the one line Syslinux 4.03 2010-10-22 EDD Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al . It doesn't happen everytime, but I've not done enough messing with it to know at what point it's fatal and what point it's just a bad idea. (I had a USB with a bad connection that would wiggle loose.)

If you've whacked a key and you see a bunch of 'garbage' scroll past the system is not brain dead. It might not even need to be 'fixed'...just brought back to the GUI. If something did break, and you can't back to the GUI, it and can be fixed. The method to fix it has been posted several time in the Forum, (it's the same method to recreate the persistant files) but should go into the Documentation....sometime.