Anyone use Navtex?

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

The PC version "navtex pro" does store the messages locally in the Navtex unit until you download them onto your PC. The Raymarine version doesn't.
Not happy :>((

It's easy to be a little confused...
The NASA Navtex Pro is a stand alone unit which stores and displays Navtex messages. I think it is only single channel. (518)
The NASA Navtex Pro Plus is a stand alone unit which stores and displays Navtex messages. It is dual channel.
The NASA Navtex engine is just that; a navtex receiver for feeding navtex data to a device. If the device isn't ready to receive data, tough.
The NASA MARINE PC Navtex Pro is a navtex engine with internal storage but it needs to hand shake with a PC to dump the messages to the PC program. It is dual channel. I may be wrong but wouldn't imagine your plotter would be able to handshake with it. It is supplied with a PC program for doing this.

[MikeCC]

JW,

What Dave is referring to is a special version of the Navtex Pro engine for Raymarine kit. It was to do with the baud rate and interface IIRC. I have no idea why it was produced without 'offline' storage capability though.

The standard PC Navtex Pro is dual frrequency and offers storage while powered on but not connected to PC (or other unit if you can attach for serial data and interpret the Navtex stream, but not E Series). As far as I'm aware, the Navtex Engine and the PC Navtex Pro are one and the same thing.

It's easier if the other units are referred to as Target Navtex Pro and Pro Plus. The Pro has pretty well fallen of the end now.

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by MikeCC

JW,

What Dave is referring to is a special version of the Navtex Pro engine for Raymarine kit. It was to do with the baud rate and interface IIRC.

OK. I wasn't aware of a special version. Thanks for that.

[Pikey Dave]

According to NASA, the Raymarine equipment isn't capable of accepting the Navtex info as a "dump" which it would get if the info was stored in the Navtex unit & sent to the Raymarine display when it was switched on. The Raymarine implementation of Navtex, requires the raw data to be sent to the Raymarine kit as it is received, literally letter by letter. Basically the Raymarine version of the NASA Navtex is acting like a real time receiver / decoder & not a recorder. I asked Raymarine tech support if this flaw would be corrected in the upcoming V4 software release, they replied that it wasn't a flaw & that's how it was supposed to work. hmmm!

[smartcom]

The NASA PC Navtex Pro also should not be confused with our PC Navtex software (www.pcnavtex.com), which pre-dates NASA's use of PC Navtex.

The problem with leisure marine NAVTEX units is that there is no standard for the data interface protocol, unlike commercial kit where there have been NMEA sentences for Navtex for a few years now. This makes it a problem to interface to. Most from McMurdo, Furuno, and the earlier NASA Navtex Engines just dump the data out to the serial port, but this doesn't work if you want the Navtex receiver to store messagesa for you - you either need a proper comms protocol, or you need to have the user press buttons on the kit (like with Furuno's NX-300).

[Polwart]

Smartcom - welcome to the forum. Can I suggest you take the time to find the guidelines on commercial posting though - unless you want the natives to chew you up and spit you out!