There has to be a sailing nerd out there somewhere.....
After doing a great deal of research online about
GPS - PC Interfaces and navigation software and so forth, I notice that NMEA 0183 protocol multiplexers that output to an RS 232 connection are widely avaliable. This looks very exciting, but I can't for the life of me find any instruments that state plainly in the ad copy that they output standard NMEA sentences, it all seems to be some proprietary manufacturers comms protocol and interfaces.
Is it possible to integrate 3 instrutments plus
GPS to all talk to a PC and interface with charting software? As a sys admin in real life this idea is very exciting 2 me (a waterproof display and bluetooth trackball at the helm!, etc) but NMEA isn't exactly as standardized as TCP/IP, is it?
Also, a search for open source nav software turned up zilch, which was rather surprising.
Anyone that can point me in the right direction? I would greatly appreciate it.
Gary