The Jubilee Sailing Trust is a charity that aim to change lives through adventure and exploration. They do this by creating inclusive adventures out at sea.
For over five years Actisense has supported the team at Jubilee Sailing Trust (JST), by aiding them in improving their ship systems.
Back in 2015, Jim Phillips, Electrical Technical Officer at JST, approached us asking for help with data distribution to 2 RADAR and 2 ECDIS systems. Our NBF-3 NMEA 0183 buffers were the perfect fit. The buffers opened a lot of possibilities for Jim, whilst keeping the cost down and the install as simple as possible.
The system is still working well, and the NBF-3s provided the exact solution he needed to complete the idea.
Last year, JST approached us again, this time looking for a way to get NMEA 2000 data back to NMEA 0183 for wireless applications and remote diagnosis, whilst also needing a way of getting the 0183 AIS data from the ECDIS system / NBF-3 onto the N2K network.
For this to be possible, we provided an NGW-1-AIS which is our pre-configured NMEA 0183 / NMEA 2000 bi-directional conversion gateway, operating at 38400 baud rate with all AIS conversions enabled. This allowed Jim to simply connect the NGW-1 without configuring it using Actisense Toolkit, saving time.
Alongside the NGW-1, we also provided a W2K-1 Wireless NMEA 2000 Gateway. The wireless capability allows NMEA data to be sent to a laptop / mobile application, with no physical wires between the two devices, simplifying installations. When the W2K-1 is configured for NMEA 0183, it outputs the same NMEA 0183 sentences as an NGW-1, as the W2K-1 uses the same award-winning conversion engine.
Thanks to the W2K-1’s client connection feature, it was easily connected to the already existing network on-board, which opens up the capability for remote diagnosis and monitoring of data.
To confirm the operation of the W2K-1 and the NGW-1, the testing procedure was fairly straightforward. First, we needed to determine that the NGW-1 was converting all AIS data and outputting it onto the NMEA 2000 network. This is done by connecting to the W2K-1 and viewing the log files, or by connecting to the data server. As the W2K-1 logs every bit of data on the network, we can easily identify the data and determine if it is present. Once the NGW-1 conversions were confirmed, we went about testing the W2K-1 connections.
Using OpenCPN, we connected to the W2K-1 via the Access Point IP [192.168.4.1] using the data server configured for NMEA 0183, and monitored the data being received by OpenCPN using the debugger / advanced view window. The same test was then done using the IP address assigned to the W2K-1 in client mode by the existing Network. Once data receival and correct traffic info was confirmed, we were happy that both devices were operating correctly.
Watch the video about their installation below:
If you want to find out more about the Jubilee Sailing Trust and the incredible work they do visit their website – https://jst.org.uk/what-we-do/