Diagnostics - a/c/e/eS/gS-Series MFD NMEA 0183 Buffer

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Diagnostics - a/c/e/eS/gS-Series MFD NMEA 0183 Buffer

Should one of the MFD's NMEA 0183 ports be interfaced to a NMEA 0183 talker or listener and there be a suspected communications issue between the devices, then examining the MFD's NMEA 0183 port buffers may be very helpful in determining whether the MFD is transmitting data to or receiving data from the device supporting NMEA 0183 communications protocol. The list of supported NMEA 0183 output Sentence Indentifiers (TX) and input Sentence Identifiers may be found within the appendices of the latest version of the LightHouse MFDs Operation Instructions.

Executing the command sequence HOME->SET-UP->MAINTENANCE->DIAGNOSTICS->INTERFACES->NMEA 0183-x (where x is the number of the port that the NMEA 0183 device has been interfaced to)->BUFFER->DIRECTION->BOTH; START BUFFER will cause the displayed buffer to list the direction (TX or RX), time, and message content of all NMEA 0183 communications being transmitted and received by the MFD. When seeking to diagnose a problem with received data, it can be helpful to first configure the buffer to display only received (RX) NMEA 0183 communications by setting the buffer's Direction setting to RX. If requested, the buffer may be recorded to a microSD memory card by using the buffer's START RECORDING feature. Generally, it will only be necessary to record a minute or so of data for diagnostic purposes. Recording may be stopped by using the buffer's STOP RECORDING feature. The following file will be created and saved to your microSD memory card when buffer recording has been commanded:
----- NMEA0183-x_yyyyyy.log (where x is the NMEA 0183 Port number and yyyyyyy is the log number).



Should there be a concern that the MFD's NMEA 0183 port is not operational, then a wraparound test of the MFD's NMEA 0183 ports may be performed per the instructions within the FAQ found here.


RAYFAQ#