Hi,

Wonder if you can forward an email to Stefan Lindeman in the hope that he can help with a question I have on Cetrek autopilot.

I have just acquired an old Cetrek 757 unit to put on an old (1954) ex-mfv

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It came without documentation but I have been able to assemble everything in the kitchen and it all seems to work...

The question I have is on the Electronic Compass. It has two cables, one which connects into the Distribution board and a second cable that has just been cut so I've no idea what it might have been connected to. Inside the compass this cable has only got two cores connected (plus screen) although it is actually an 8 core cable.

One other question which Stefan probably won't be able to answer, given that he has the 737 autopilot, is that the 757 display has a rubber covered connector on the back. I'm trying to find out what that might be for ...

Hope you can help,

Ian Whittaker

I'll be on the boat during the weekend and will investigate this matter then. I have the manuals so maybe I can find something there too. There is a company in UK servicing and supplying spares
for Cetrek. I cant recall their name now but I have bought new displays for my fly repeaters from them. I'll search for their name too. - Could be found if you Google arround a bit too.
cheers
Stefan

Hi,

Thanks for your prompt replies.

I realise I have typed the wrong number for the Cetrek...

It is a 930-727 display, a 930-550 compass, and unidentified rudder feedback all connected to a 930-617 distribution board. I think it is all late 1980's vintage. Any documentation or general information on these units gratefully received. I didn't mention but I have hooked up my laptop, via the serial interface, onto the NAV-1 port in the distribution board and by transmitting the NMEA 'APB' sentence can get the autopilot to respond. My Magellan GPS provides that output and I use that with 'Seaclear' on my laptop as a chartplotter.

Thanks,
Ian

Mark,

My testing with the laptop is just using a bit of Visual Basic code that outputs the APB sentence at regular intervals. I have to set the comms port first using a DOS window where I type:-
MODE COM1:4800,n,8,1
then I set the VB stuff running.

The 9-pin serial connector has a wire from pin 5 to the -ve side of the NAV1 connector and a wire from pin 3 to the +ve side. With the autopilot in standby you can see the Led flickering as data is received. The cable I made up using an old mouse cable. Chopped off the mouse and connected up black and brown wires to NAV1. Use a meter to check that black is pin 5 and brown is pin 3. It didn't work originally because I was using the orange wire which is pin 2. (The pin 2/3 is from memory and I don't have the cable to hand, it's back at home)

If you have VB on your laptop I can send my test program. I can mimick various NMEA sentences.

Ian

Morning Mark,

I've fired off an email about this item in case it also covers the 727

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My pal are recalled the old

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website from the web archive and we have downloaded some of the manuals. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anything on the 727.

You asked about the Magellan. At present we don't have the autopilot fitted (it's all in a box). As I said we have scans of the charts covering the west coast of Scotland and we use these with the 'Seaclear' plotting package (

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) on a laptop. The GPS provides the position plot information. The plan is to take the GPS feed into the laptop, plot the position and use the pass-through feature to pass on the APB (autopilot) message output when using waypoints to the autopilot. I need to make up a Y configuration connector (9-pin ~ 9-pin ~ two bare wires ) so that I can plug the GPS on one 9-pin, the laptop onto the other 9-pin and the two bare wires onto the 617 board. Because I'll be using the comms port transmit to send stuff to the autopilot there will be no way to download waypoint info to the GPS. That's not really a problem, I'll just key in the positions directly to the GPS.

What laptop software are you trying to use to 'drive' the Cetrek?

Where are you based? As I say, my pals boat is moored near Oban.

Ian

We have the model you speak of too!! but I have tried in vain to get it to listen to the laptop. I think it is the software.

You say that you use the Magellan for providing the output - do you upload waypoints to the GPS and use the GPS to control Autopilot? We have a Garmin 128 and I have been able to control Autopilot with it but I can't control AP with laptop.

I waill also try to answer your questions along with Stefan. Maybe I can make progress too.


Mark

I was at the boat at the weekend and got the 727 manual so I will digitise it for you as a PDF doc and get it uploaded.

Good morning Mark,

That's great, look forward to that.

Did you get anywhere with your laptop?

I made up my Y cable at the weekend and it worked with my Magellan. I also have a sat phone with includes a GPS and I have used that with the laptop and Seaclear. I tried it with the cable and it failed... got a message on the display that DTR was not connected. I had to connect pin 4 on the 9-pin connector at the GPS end through to pin 4 on the laptop connector. Works OK now with the sat phone or the Magellan.

I wondered whether this might be why your laptop doesn't work with the 727. If your software is looking for any of the other signal lines (DTR Data Terminal Ready, CTS Clear to Send, etc) it's not going to get them from the 2 wire connector on the distribution board. I remember in the old dats we used to make up a loopback arrangement where the transmitter signals were linked back to the receiver signals, you might need something like that.

Ian

Ian

Not sure where the DTR error meesage you are getting is coming up? was that on the laptop?

This discussion should be helpful to others - I was going to do a transscript to the new Princess Owners Club Forum... would this be OK?

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I'll get the manual done soon. It's here beside me - shoudl have time this evening.


Mark

Hi Mark,

I've no problems with you putting any of this on a forum.

The DTR message came up on the sat phone, it's a Thurya. I recognised what it mean't because I've been in computing for 40 years !!! and I've picked up the odd bit of 'useful information' along the way.

Basically the receiving end (laptop) will raised the signal level on pin 4 to indicate that the Data Terminal (the laptop) is ready to receive a communication. The Cetrek doesn't have these signals so you either need the sending device to just send anyway (my Magellan) or you need to fool it into thinking the other end is ready. My laptop and test program is acting like the Magellan, it sure sends anyway.

This web page gives a good description although it is geared to the older 25 pin connectors, but does also give the 9-pin pin naming.

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Regards,
Ian

I couldn't visit the boat last Weekend so no news from my side. - Next weekend though I'll go.

As I have two obvious data experts on line please tell me what I have to do to get my GPS puck (Haicom HI-204E) to work with my new laptop (Compaq nx8220). The problem is obviously that the laptop interpret the gps as a mouse causing the cursor to go maniac on the screen. I know I should disable the false mouse but it seems impossible with the gps connected as the cursor is wild, and when I disconnect the gps nothing shows to disconnect?

I succeeded in installing it on my old laptop that also had winXP but now I must be doing soemthing wrong as it wont work. I have installed the xp driver.
cheers
Stefan

Hi Stefan,

I assume that your Haicom is the one with the PS2 connector that you are putting into the Compaq PS2 port. Although there is probably a way of disabling that port so that the compaq doesn't think it's a mouse there is another route. The Haicom is also sold as a USB connector version and this should work with your compaq. I had a quick look on eBay and found this.

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The blurb on eBay says it all. I haven't done any exhaustive searches to see if this is a 'good' buy.

Ian

When it is a new install of WinXP the GPS is shown as a mouse and moves the cursor about. I just turn off the GPS or unplug it and then go into the Control Panel, Hardware, Device Manager and disable the newly found mouse (the GPS). After that I have no problems receiving GPS data for the software.

I am using Meridian Seatrak software. The guys are very helpful at Meridian but even with multiple updates they have yet not got the laptop and autopilot to talk to each other, well one talk the other listen. The last update I got from them last year they said that the Garmin GPS autopilot output and the laptop output are now nearly identical. The laptop does not output custom garmin nmea code and the AP wouldn't understand it anyway.

I know that I am close to getting things to work...

My brother has just got Tsunami so we will try that too. The charting software that we will probably end up getting and one that impressed me very much at the Southampton Boat Show was the Chartwork Winchart NautiQ. For ease of use it still comes 2nd to Seatrak but otherwise it looked extremely good and you get full vector charts of UK and Ireland with the software!


Mark

I have just scanned and have now uploaded the Cetrek 727 Autopilot manual to the POC website. It is a TIF format file with about 70 pages within the one TIF file. I tried making a PDF but it turned out way too large - the TIF is only 2Mb

To download the manual, right click below and "Save target as..."

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OK, so your Seatrack software can quite happily see the Garmin and plot tracks using the GPS data.

Lets assume your laptop is using a 9 pin comms port for output (See PC1 below) and the Cetrek is PC2

The Cetrek -ve equates to PC2 pin 5
The Cetrek +ve equates to PC2 pin 2.
There is no output from the Cetrek so PC2 Pins 3, 7 and 8 can be ignored.

This first diagram is the wiring required when the laptop requires the CTS (Clear to Send) signal raised before it will send. We feeback the RTS (Ready to Send) so that it comes in as the CTS.



If that doesn't work then perhaps the laptop is waiting for DSR (Data Set Ready). Since the Cetrek doesn't provide that we mimic that by letting the laptop feed back DTR (Data Terminal Ready) into the DSR and DCD (Data Carrier Detect) lines. (In this case the RTS and CTS pins can be ignored.



Finally, if that doesn't work then combine both variants by linking PC1 Pin 7 and PC1 Pin 8 instead of taking then across to PC2.

Final thought... is your Garmin using the same serial input that you want to use for the output to the Cetrek?

Ian