General information about RusalkaSoft and NMEA
Connecting NMEA to your computer
To use RusalkaSoft you need to get information from your instrument system into your
computer. Marine instruments are networked together with a protocol called NMEA 0183
(National Marine Electronics Association). This protocol is quite limited in its
capabilities. To make the most of it you will need a device called a NMEA multiplexer
(Google it, you'll find a few of them). We've had good luck with the ShipModul brand.
The multiplexer combines all the NMEA data into one stream and then allows that data
to be fed to a computer either via serial port, USB or Bluetooth. We would strongly
suggest that you get a multiplexer that supports filtering, GPS's in particular put
out far more data than is needed by most applications.
To function with all features and functionality RusalkaSoft only needs to see the
following NMEA strings:
VWR, VHW, RMC, DBT, HDG
We would suggest that you filter out all other strings than those necessary.
Generally to get full support you will need some kind of integrated instrument system
(that generally has wind instruments, a speedo and a depth gauge), a GPS and something
with a fluxgate compass (either an autopilot or a something like a KVH sailcomp,
sometimes you'll find them in the integrated instrument system).
If you have questions, comments or feature requests, please drop us a line at
eriks@rusalka.net.
