Connecting to addtional NMEA Instruments

Additional NMEA instruments (such as a depth sounder, fluxgate compass, wind speed/direction, knotmeter, or engines) can be connected to your Mac. The NMEA data can come through a serial port, an NMEA to PC interface, or over TCP/IP. (See connections overview section on methods to connect).

[Select menu item Connect in the Instruments menu. If the Settings drawer is not open, select the Settings button to open it. In the Settings drawer the correct serial port and rate can be selected. You can otherwise select **Use GPS Port to use the same port the GPS is connected to.

Note: If Simulate is selected on the GPS menu, and Use GPS Port is selected, simulated values will be displayed on the Instruments panel.

If the instruments are properly connected and are transmitting NMEA data, then the Instruments panel will display the received data. A good connection will be indicated by a green icon next to the Settings button in the Instruments panel. If a red icon  is seen it most likely indicates the rate selected in the Settings drawer is not the same as the instruments are using or the instruments are not transmitting NMEA data. If the icon shows only yellow it indicates NMEA data is being received, but it cannot be interpreted. Symptoms of this include incorrect rate or instruments which are not transmitting the NMEA data that MacENCx64 can interpret.

[Select the Transparent checkbox to make the Instruments panel semi-transparent.

The Monitor button will open/close a drawer that displays the raw NMEA data. Use the Start button to enable output and the Clear button to erase the contents. If the instruments are properly connected you will see a stream of NMEA data displayed when the Start button is selected. When GPS data is being repeated to another port it will be enclosed in brackets [ … ].

Select the Connect at Startup checkbox in the Preferences window to have the Instruments panel automatically open when MacENCx64 is started.

Select Magnetic or True buttons in the Preferences window to control how heading (HDT/HDM) is displayed.

Select Apparent or True buttons in the Preferences window to control how wind (AWA/TWA and AWS/TWS) is displayed.

The Instruments panel can be resized and all of the fields will be sized appropriately. This makes a useful Instruments data repeater.

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