Frustrated!

P

Pat Anderson

New member
OK, doing my PC nav system, laptop with Coastal Explorer. I have the Digital Yacht AIS100 Pro AIS receiver all installed, all wired up and ready to go. But we cannot pass GO...The green LED status light is on on the AIS receiver, the AIS is apparently A-OK. So now I plug the USB cable from the AIS receiver into the computer with the driver CD inserted. The AIS instructions say Windows will pop up the "New hardware found" notification and automatically find the correct driver on the CD. When I plug the USB cable from the AIS into the computer, it makes the little sound when you plug something in, but then nothing happens, no "New hardware found" notification. So I cannot proceed if the computer does not recognise the AIS receiver is there and load the drivers. I am stymied. The only thing I can think of is that the AIS receiver is defective. Any other ideas?
 
Hi Pat,

It can take up to several minutes for the PC to fully acknowledge the device in some situations. Make sure you give it a little time after plugging it in and try a different USB port on the laptop if there are several. Also, what is the make/model of this device so I can look up the install directions?

Greg
 
I did not use a Digital Yacht AIS, but I have used there USB adapter cable. Which had green and yellow little led lights at the USB plug. They would flash indicating the AIS sending or receiving data.
My laptop had to be told what communication port the AIS was plugged into.
For me, it was a pain to figure out the COMM PORT thing.
Find a computer savvy friend.
alan
 
To get CE on my laptop to communicate with the AMEC AIS on my new-to-me boat, I had to fiddle with CE's data port settings. Would not work until I got the data baud rate correct (115200 in my case).
 
m2cw

turn off everything -completely turn power off

connect accesories to PC
turn on accessories first
next turn on PC

this might help recognize them

if this does NOT work


Click on the Start button
then on the Control Panel
clcik on Hardware and Sound
At the top is Devices and Printers
click Device Manager
a new window will open
look for item(s) with ! exclamation mark
write down any messages, conflicts or related info
usually you can delete the device safely
power off again
reboot
go back to Device Manager and check
 
Aurelia":3s16vt4a said:
Hi Pat,

It can take up to several minutes for the PC to fully acknowledge the device in some situations. Make sure you give it a little time after plugging it in and try a different USB port on the laptop if there are several. Also, what is the make/model of this device so I can look up the install directions?

Greg
Click to expand...

Greg,

It is a Digital Yacht AISPro100, purchased from Defender. And thanks for any advice!

Pat
 
BrentB":3vjftp3i said:
m2cw

turn off everything -completely turn power off

connect accesories to PC
turn on accessories first
next turn on PC

this might help recognize them
Click to expand...

Everything above but try putting CD in last.
 
Pat, the AIS unit specs says the baud rate (bit rate) is high speed NMEA output, 38,400 baud.

To set the baud rate, go into Device Manager as described above, select the proper input port and set the port rate to 38,400 bps, a standard rate. You can find the proper port by plugging and unplugging the USB port whilst Device Manager is running. BTW, I assume the AIS unit has a USB port as part of its standard output; you're not using a serial to USB adapter.

My AIS receiver comes with 2 outputs. One has a USB plug and plugs directly into my PC. The other is a wire bundle that I've wired into the NMEA-0183 input port of my Lowrance display. Be sure you've got the right output port, some serial to USB adapters have to use a particular driver, not a Windows generic. You can check this with Device Manager. Or go to your local Electronics Store and let then install it for you.

Boris
 
SOLVED! The internet and Google are my friend!

If a device is not showing up, Google told me to go to Device Manager and look for a device with a yellow exclamation point. Lo and behold, there was a device named FT232R USB UART which sounded suspiciously like what I was looking for. I am familiar with FTDI chips and USB to serial on my ham radio programming software and cable, so I knew I was on the right track.

So I Googled FT232R USB UART, and ended up at the FTDI site on their drivers download page, and downloaded the driver(s) for Windows 7.

The FTDI notes say this is a two stage driver installation, so I did the manual driver update for the FT232R USB UART device, and as FTDI said it would, that caused another device to show up in Device Manager, this one called USB SERIAL ADAPTER, also with yellow exclamation point. I repeated the manual driver install, and now there there is a device called Ports.

I finally ran Coastal Explorer's Auto Detect Ports, and it told me it found a COM port on Com 3 at 38000 baud, and automatically configured it for baud and "listener."

As soon as I did that, the info from the C-80 (location, speed and course, and it no doubt will show depth when I am in the water and have the depth sounder turned on) showed up on my PC monitor. I hit the Tracking tab, and an AIS Vessels list showed up, but there were no vessels in the list, again, I trust this will work when I am out on the water, since it knows the AIS is there. Since my boat is in the garage, Coastal Explorer shows the boat on land and keeps telling me "Land ahead" in case I didn't know! I don't know how (yet) to make CE stop talking to me!

Color me relieved and no longer frustrated. I give Digital Yachts an "F" for their driver installation CD, which simply failed, but all is well that ends well!

Thanks all!

 
Pat,

Look in the menus available from the upper left hand corner of CE. Look for 'alerts'.
You can set the parameters for alerts or turn them off.
 
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