Expedition Expedition Navigation Software

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4/24/2017 6:57 am  #1


Expedition Controlling Raymarine S2G Smart Pilot

We are a team mainly competing in dual handed races. We consider control of the autopilot by the optimised route in Expedition a very important feature in particular with reaching legs where we wll be able to fully concentrate on boat speed.

We have noticed our S2G Smart Pilot is very finicky in the NMEA sentences it accepts as valid data. For instance a simple 'Set active course and mark' is not accepted by the Smart Pilot. Only after creating a course with multiple waypoints and switching back and forth between them, the Smart Pilot is accepting tracking data. We compared the data from our Zeus plotter ($GP identifier) that is indeed able to provide the Smart Pilot with a single waypoint for tracking, with the output from Expedition ($EC identifier).

$GPAPB,A,A,0.001,R,N,V,V,64.8,T,,64.9,T,64.9,T,A*5A
$ECAPB,D,D,,,N,V,V,,M,,689,063,M,063,M,D*25

​The difference seems to be that Zeus is providing the Smart Pilot with a near zero XTE, while Expedition is providing no XTE data at all. Would it be possible for Expedition to provide zero or near zero XTE data instead of no data? Basically, while tracking on reaching courses, unless there are 'objects' on your track, not to have XTE data would be preferable anyway.

Last edited by firestorm (4/24/2017 8:46 am)

 

4/24/2017 10:02 am  #2


Re: Expedition Controlling Raymarine S2G Smart Pilot

I have that same issue with my NKE pilot  (that uses RMB sentences):  if you only have 1 WP to sail to Exp leaves the cross track and L/R indication in the RMB sentence empty and therefore you cannot have the pilot to steer on GPS.   Likely this issue is indeed solved if a 0 cross track is sent instead.   Is this possible Nick?

I'm not sure if the autopilot works on the basis of the cross track and L/R indication or that it just uses BTW (within the RMB sentence in case of NKE).   If it works on the basis of BTW I fully agree with Firestorm that having the option to always sent a zero cross track is useful. The NKE pilot will make a 45 degree turn to the rumb line in case the cross track gets greater than 0.4 Nm  (which I don't want:  I just want it to steer the BTW to the next waypoint).   This situation could happen when you e.g. have sailed the first leg downwind and than struggle to douse the gennaker.  As a result you then oversail the bottom mark and by the time you are able to put the boat on course for the 2nd (reaching) leg the boat is out of this 0.4 Nm range and instead of pointing to the next mark the pilot will steer this 45 degree turn to bring you back.

For the strongly growing dual handed scene in our area an improved autopilot control would indeed be very useful!






 

 

4/24/2017 12:19 pm  #3


Re: Expedition Controlling Raymarine S2G Smart Pilot

Hello,
The logic in Exp is to have a valid XTE if you have an active mark and a preceeding mark, else, the XTE could mean anything.

 

4/25/2017 10:30 am  #4


Re: Expedition Controlling Raymarine S2G Smart Pilot

Would however be great if Exp could send an XTE of 0 in case of just a target mark (without preceding mark) so the pilot can be enabled to steer on GPS towards the mark.

Last edited by ZeeZee (4/25/2017 10:30 am)

 

4/25/2017 1:20 pm  #5


Re: Expedition Controlling Raymarine S2G Smart Pilot

Done. Will be available in the next update.

 

4/26/2017 11:34 am  #6


Re: Expedition Controlling Raymarine S2G Smart Pilot

That's great Nick. Definitely helps the shorthanded crews. We'll live with the XTE and will train not to oversail bottom marks!

     Thread Starter
 

5/21/2017 11:22 pm  #7


Re: Expedition Controlling Raymarine S2G Smart Pilot

Using v.10.5.26 right now and can confirm the Ray S2G smart pilot perfectly tracks waypoints in Expedition through RMB and RMC sentences. Note RMC is necessary in case the smart pilot doesn't have a dedicated GPS antenna.

     Thread Starter
 

5/22/2017 12:18 am  #8


Re: Expedition Controlling Raymarine S2G Smart Pilot

Thanks for the feedback.

 

10/10/2019 12:32 am  #9


Re: Expedition Controlling Raymarine S2G Smart Pilot

Hi Nick,
I would like to take up this matter again, as I am sailing also often short/single handed and the track function of the AP is essential. If just setting one mark, Exp is not transmitting a correct XTE within the RMB or (preferably APB) sentence, because if the L or R parameter is missing, the AP will not read XTE at all. All navigation software I know and all plotters take the actual boat position when setting the active mark as preceding mark and then send course to mark and XTE to the AP. Do you think you could implement this function into the APB sentence (RMB and RMC are always conflicting with my plotter). It would make control of the APs track function so much easier - just one click and AP is set for the mark..

Rgds
Thorsten

 

10/10/2019 1:09 am  #10


Re: Expedition Controlling Raymarine S2G Smart Pilot

Hello,
In Exp you need a preceding mark to compute xte. IMO, it doesn't make much sense to compute it from an arbitrary position.
Why not just put in a preceding mark?
If you don't have an XTE, Exp sends zero in APB to keep the Raymarine pilot happy.

 

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