NMEA & AIS

NMEA is a marine industry standard for communicating information between on-board devices. Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a standard for exchanging vessel location and other information using VHF radio signals. AIS data is typically shared between on-board devices using NMEA.

SEAiq supports using external NMEA/AIS information over WiFi and (for devices that support it) Bluetooth. SEAiq can also be configured to act as an NMEA server, forwarding own its information to other devices.

With the appropriate configuration settings in SEAiq you can do the following:

• Display AIS targets on the Navigation tab and access information about vessels reporting AIS information under the AIS tab.
• Use your vessel's onboard GPS in place of your device's internal GPS.
• Access and display numerous sensors from your on-board systems.
• Use GPS on devices that do not include integrated GPS.
• Forward GPS from one device to another (when you have several devices and some do not have GPS hardware).

Numerous alarms are provided for NMEA data. Among these include an alarm to indicate data corruption. When at least 10 "sentences" and 5% of the total in the prior 5 minutes have checksum errors, an alarm will be presented. These are shown no more frequentl than every 5 minutes.

Important for Apple IOS: If you receive a dialog SEAiq would like to find and connect to devices on your local network, be sure to press OK. The most common issue users have is caused by not allowing this permission. This can be resolved by following these steps .

Settings

This section describes how to connect your device to an NMEA data feed over WiFi. Before adjusting these settings, you first ensure your NMEA data feed and this device are connected to the same network.

• Enable : This switch turns on NMEA support. Normally, you should enable this only after first setting the other configuration items.
• Inactivity Alarm : When enabled, an alarm is generated after 15 seconds of inactivity during which no NMEA data was received. After pressing OK, the alarm is disabled for 1 minute. If no data has still been received, it fires again.

• Inactivity Alarm Reminder : When enabled, a warning is generated when (1) data is received from NMEA and (2) the Inactivity Alarm is disabled. A warning is given asking if you would like to enable the Inactivity Alarm. Pressing Alarm, enables the inactivity alarm. Pressing OK disables this warning for 5 minutes, after which it may fire again.

  This also functions similarly for Extra NMEA Connection, if that is enabled.

• AIS Alarm : When enabled, alarms reported from AIS are displayed to the user.

  AIS alarms normally are generated by the ship's AIS, not a PPU. Unfortunately, the meaning of AIS alarms may vary between ship's AIS systems.

  Alarms cause the display to flash with a warning message. After dismissing the alarm, no further AIS alarms are reported for at least 2 minutes.

  Regardless of whether alarms are enabled, recent alarms from AIS can be viewed under Settings / NMEA & AIS / Diagnostics.

• HDOP Alarm (Only SEAiq Pilot) : When enabled, an alarm is generated if GPS HDOP exceeds 5.0 for 5 reports. HDOP is an abbreviation for Horizontal Dilution of Precision, an estimation of the accuracy of GPS positions. If an alarm occurs, it is disabled for 60 seconds after you acknowledge it.

  The requirements for 5 reports is to avoid so-called false positive alerts where one or a few high-HDOP values are reported.

  HDOP alarms are not generated when RTK FIX is active.

  This alarm requires that an HDOP value is received from NMEA/AIS. Typically, this information is not available from a basic WiFi AIS Pilot Plug. If no HDOP is received, no alarm fires.

• Own-Ship Data Alarm : When enabled, an alarm is generated when the data source for Own-Ship GPS, COG, SOG, HDG, or ROT is lost or changes in a way likely to reduce data quality. Also, a listing of the source of these sensor data is shown in the Source panel of the status bar.

• Show Device GPS (Only SEAiq Pilot) : When enabled, the device's internal GPS position is displayed along with position from NMEA/AIS. A circle marked INT indicating the radius of Horizontal Position Error is also shown. The position is intended to be used to help validate GPS information reported from NMEA/AIS.

  If other GPS positions are available but were not used for display of Own-Ship, they are also shown. Possible other positions include AIS, NMEA (for Primary NMEA), and EXTRA (for Extra NMEA).

• NMEA Verification Alarm (Only SEAiq Pilot) : When enabled, an alarm fires if NMEA/AIS and GPS position differ by at least 100m. After acknowledging an alarm, it is disabled for 1 minute.

  The alarm incorporates the relative positions of the NMEA and GPS antennas in determining the alarm distance. See Own-Ship settings.

Derived ROT

• Derive ROT from HDG (Only SEAiq Pilot) : When enabled, Rate-of-Turn (ROT) information from AIS for Own-Ship or NMEA is replaced with derived values. See the dampening setting below. This can be helpful when accurate heading is reported but not Rate-of-Turn. Or if the Rate-of-Turn information has a problem. If NMEA/AIS reports accurate Rate-of-Turn information, you should not use this feature. This feature is only supported with live Own-Ship data from NMEA/AIS. It is not supported with Virtual Boarding.
• ROT Dampening (Only SEAiq Pilot) : This controls how much dampening to apply to Derive ROT from HDG feature above. Dampening is used to decrease the impact of occasionally spurious data, at the cost of somewhat less responsiveness. Normally, more dampening results in more accurate ROT but longer delay in detecting it. Conversely, less dampening results in less accurate ROT but faster responsiveness. Three levels can selected from. This setting has no effect unless Derive ROT from HDG is enabled.

Standard WiFi Devices

• PCA Non-Portable Pilot Unit : Configure for use with the Panama Canal Authority Non-Portable Pilot Unit specification. This includes the following devices:

  • Trelleborg P3
  • Navicom Dynamics CanalPilot
  • SAL Navigation SPU-100
  • CAIM NaviMotion
  • SAL SPU-100

  The PCA NPPU standard uses UDP communication on port 17608. The network configuration for NPPU is the same as Trelleborg CAT ROT (v2-5).

• Navicom Dynamics GyroPilot (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with Navicom Dynamics GyroPilot. This is for MK2 onwards. Prior to MK2, the network configuration is different and depends on the serial number of the device, so please refer to your product documentation.
• Navicom Dynamics ChannelPilot (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with Navicom Dynamics ChannelPilot. This is for MK3 onwards. Prior to MK3, the network configuration is different and depends on the serial number of the device, so please refer to your product documentation.
• Navicom Dynamics HarbourPilot (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with Navicom Dynamics HarbourPilot Triton Lightweight. Prior to Triton, the network configuration is different and depends on the serial number of the device, so please refer to your product documentation.
• Navicom Dynamics HarbourPilot (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with Navicom Dynamics HarbourPilot Triton Ruggedised. Prior to Triton, the network configuration is different and depends on the serial number of the device, so please refer to your product documentation.
• Trelleborg CAT ROT (v1) (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with Trelleborg CAT ROTv1.

• Trelleborg CAT ROT (v2-5) (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with following Trelleborg devices:

  • CAT ROT (v2) without CAT I
  • CAT ROT (v3) without CAT I
  • CAT ROT (v4) without CAT I
  • CAT ROT (v5) without CAT I
  • CAT ROT and CAT I (v2) (using firmware before 1.2)
  • CAT II (configuration 1)
  • CAT III (configuration 1)

  For CAT II and CAT III, please see documentation for further configuration steps that are required, as well as additional configuration options.

  The network configuration received UDP on port 17608 and is the same as PCA NPPU.

• Trelleborg CAT ROT+I (v2,v4-5) & CAT XT (v4-5) (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with following Trelleborg devices:

  • CAT ROT and CAT I (v2) (using firmware 1.2 or later)
  • CAT ROT and CAT I (v4)
  • CAT ROT and CAT I (v5)
  • CAT XT (v4)
  • CAT XT (v5)

• Trelleborg CAT ROT+I (v3) & CAT XT (v3) (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with following Trelleborg devices:

  • CAT ROT and CAT I (v3)
  • CAT XT (v3)
• Trelleborg CAT PRO (Modes 1-3) (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with Trelleborg CAT PRO (Documentation). This enables connections to all available modules, including the EXT, HDG, and POS modules. You can press the CAT PRO status panel to see detailed diagnostics information from the modules. Additionally, you can use Settings / Trelleborg PPUs / CAT PRO section to change various settings for your modules.
• Trelleborg CAT PRO (Mode 4) (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with Trelleborg CAT PRO (Documentation). This enables connections to all available modules, including the EXT, HDG, and POS modules. You can press the CAT PRO status panel to see detailed diagnostics information from the modules. Additionally, you can use Settings / Trelleborg PPUs / CAT PRO section.

• AD Navigation PPUs (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure WiFi for use with all recent AD Navigation devices. All recent AD Navigation devices use the same WiFi configuration. Supported device include ADQ-2, ADX DUO, ADX XR, and ADX XR Lite. These all use host 10.33.3.3 and port 8023. The ADX XR2 has a different setting.

  Some older devices may have custom settings; please contact your documentation or AD Navigation for your configuration details.

• AD Navigation XR2 (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure WiFi for use with AD Navigation ADX XR2. These use host 10.33.3.4 and port 8023.
• AD Navigation XR2 (UDP) (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure WiFi for use with AD Navigation ADX XR2 in UDP mode. These use host port 8000. UDP mode may provide more reliable WiFi connectivity but requires a recent firmware version to be loaded in the device.

• KSNTEK KSN11-W or KSN55 / PilotsTech AW2016 (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with certain KSNTEK and PilotsTech devices, including:

  • KSNTEK KSN11-W
  • KSNTEK KSN55
  • PilotsTech AW2016

  These devices use connection type TCP, host 192.168.1.1 and port 8888.

• KSNTEK KSN11-C ROT or KSN55-C / PilotsTech AW2016C-ROT (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with certain KSNTEK and PilotsTech devices, including:

  • KSNTEK KSN11-C ROT
  • KSNTEK KSN55-C
  • PilotsTech AW2016C-ROT

  These devices use connection type TCP, host 192.168.2.1 and port 8888.

• PilotsTech AW2016C-ROT & AW2016-GPS (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with PilotsTech AW2016C-ROT and AW2016-GPS. The AW2016-GPS AW2016C-ROT should be connected to the AIS plug and the AW2016-GPS should be place in a location with good exposure to GPS satellites. In this configuration, the AW2016C-ROT provides AIS, HDG, ROT; the AW2016-GPS is used for GPS, COG, SOG.
• PILOT CENKIN WiFi AIS Pilot Plug (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with PILOT CENKIN® WiFi AIS Pilot Plug.
• CENKIN CP4 (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with CENKIN CP4 WiFi AIS Pilot Plug. This device uses host 10.10.100.254 and port 8899.
• TRENZ PPU (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Configure for use with TRENZ PPU via WiFi. This device uses host 10.10.10.100 and port 8919. For Bluetooth operation, you can configure manually.
• Navigandi Orbis : Configure for use with Navigandi Orbis. Host 192.168.4.1, Port 5, and Connection Type TCP. See Navigandi Tech for more information.
• Vesper XB-8000 : Configure for use with Vesper XB-8000. Host 192.168.15.1, Port 39150, and Connection Type TCP.

Connection

• Connection Type : Select WiFi or Bluetooth connection to external GPS device.

  Bluetooth is not supported on Apple iPads/iPhones.

• WiFi Setup : Set up and manage an external NMEA/AIS feed over WiFi.
• Bluetooth Setup : Set up and manage an external NMEA/AIS feed over Bluetooth. Not available on Apple iPad or iPhone.
• Status & Diagnostics : This shows diagnostics describing the current status of your NMEA/AIS configuration.

Extra Connection (Advanced)

• Enable (Only SEAiq Pilot) : This switch turns on NMEA support for an additional feed. Normally, you should enable this after first setting the other configuration items. You should not enable this unless you know that it is needed. This feature requires an Enterprise Subscription.

• Connection Type (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Select WiFi or Bluetooth connection for extra GPS device.

  Bluetooth is not supported on Apple iPads/iPhones.

• WiFi Setup (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Set up and manage an extra NMEA/AIS feed over WiFi.
• Bluetooth Setup (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Set up and manage an extra NMEA feed over Bluetooth. Not available on Apple iPad or iPhone.
• Status & Diagnostics (Only SEAiq Pilot) : This shows diagnostics describing the current status of your Extra NMEA/AIS configuration, if enabled.
• Inactivity Alarm (Only SEAiq Pilot) : When enabled, an alarm is generated after 15 seconds of inactivity during which no NMEA data was received. After an alarm is acknowledged, it is disabled for 1 minute. If no data has still been received, it fires again.

Extra (2) Connection (Advanced)

• Enable (Only SEAiq Pilot) : This switch turns on NMEA support for an additional feed. Normally, you should enable this after first setting the other configuration items. You should not enable this unless you know that it is needed. This feature requires an Enterprise Subscription.

• Connection Type (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Select WiFi or Bluetooth connection for extra GPS device.

  Bluetooth is not supported on Apple iPads/iPhones.

• WiFi Setup (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Set up and manage an extra NMEA/AIS feed over WiFi.
• Bluetooth Setup (Only SEAiq Pilot) : Set up and manage an extra NMEA feed over Bluetooth. Not available on Apple iPad or iPhone.
• Status & Diagnostics (Only SEAiq Pilot) : This shows diagnostics describing the current status of your Extra (2) NMEA/AIS configuration, if enabled.
• Inactivity Alarm (Only SEAiq Pilot) : When enabled, an alarm is generated after 15 seconds of inactivity during which no NMEA data was received. After an alarm is acknowledged, it is disabled for 1 minute. If no data has still been received, it fires again.

Saved Devices

• Load Device : Load NMEA WiFi and Bluetooth settings for a saved device. Pres EDIT to remove unneeded configurations.
• Save Device : Press this button to save your NMEA WiFi and Bluetooth settings.
• Configuration Name : This is the name of the current configuration.

Advanced

• Advanced : Advanced settings for NMEA & AIS.

NMEA Server (All but SEAiq Pilot)

SEAiq supports forwarding GPS information to other devices as a new NMEA feed. This is useful, for instance, if you have an iPhone with GPS and a WiFi-only iPad without GPS. You can install SEAiq on both devices, configure the iPhone as an NMEA server and the iPad as an NMEA client.

In the example above, you first need to make sure both devices are on the same WiFi network. Then get the IP address of the iPhone by going to Settings, WiFi, and selecting the name of the network being used. Then pick a port number to use. Here we use 10000.

• iPhone (NMEA Server Settings)
  • Server Enable: ON
  • Server Port: 10000
• iPad (NMEA settings)
  • Enable: ON
  • Use NMEA/AIS GPS: ON
  • Use UDP: OFF
  • Host: IP address of iPhone
  • Port: 10000

The SEAiq NMEA server does not currently forward AIS data, only GPS-related data (location, course, speed, etc).