ComNav Vector G2, Installation & Operation Manual

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ComNav G2 & G2B Installation & Operation
Document PN 29010093 V1.5 - 52 -
16 December 2016
Changing the Configuration
You may change the factory-default configuration of the G2, if you wish!
•
Many other output sentences can be enabled, and/or the factory-default ones
disabled, to suit the requirements of any specific installation.
•
The output update rate of each enabled sentence may be changed as required.
– If a given sentence is enabled on both ports, the output rate on each port may
the same, or different, if desired.
•
The port Baud rates can be changed, as required.
– There may be different Baud rates on each port, if desired.
These changes, as well as numerous other characteristics of the G2’s operation, are done by
means of a set of proprietary NMEA sentences or PGNs. These sentences or PGNs must be
sent to the G2 from a suitable “control” device, such as the Navigator G2 GPS Compass
Display System, or a PC, via the Receive wire on the RS-232 side of the Port 1, or through
the CAN port.
For an overview of how to configure the G2’s NMEA 0183 output sentences, and tables of the
G2’s available command sentences, see section under Care & Maintenance Appendix 3.
For an overview G2’s NMEA 2000 PGNs, see page 51.
Making Changes
To make changes, a suitable control device must be connected to the G2:
•
A PC running suitable software – i.e., HyperTerminal, RealTerm or some other “dumb
terminal” program.
•
a Navigator G2 GPS Compass Display
•
in the IMO model, or in an NMEA 2000 installation, a G3 Compass Display
Using a Terminal Program
If you have a terminal program already installed in your computer, you can use it to
customize your G2 Satellite Compass. Tera Term, RealTerm and Hyperterminal are some of
the examples of this type of common programs.
You need a serial port to communicate with G2. If your computer does not have a COM port,
you can easily find a USB-to-serial-port adapter at a low cost from your local electronics
store. The system should be wired as shown in Figure 16 or Figure 17.
G2 configuration is done through pure text commands as listed in Appendix 3. Once you
have connected to your G2 through any terminal program, you can send a text command to
G2 to change the settings as you want.
Output a command file through a terminal program
You may want to change more than one configuration settings and you want to apply the
same configuration to more than one compass. In such case it is a common practise people
put all commands into one text file, and send the file to the compass all at once.
Because the communication port has very limited bandwidth, and the compass has a limited
memory buffer, sending out too many commands out may result in commands been lost. To
prevent the command lost from happening, you should configure the terminal program so that
when the text file is sent there is a small pause after each line. Figure 19 shows an example
of how to add a 100-ms pause between command lines for Tera Term. Other terminal
programs have similar settings.