PC Instrument Interface

[TwoD83]

I plan to have a DC computer onboard (runs directly off of 12V DC, designed for cars and uses very low power). I would like to interface it with as many instruments as possible to make it versatile. I know people have used their SSB's as a modem. Has anyone done or know about any setup's like this? Does anyone manufacture instruments (depth sounders, speed loggers, etc.) that have USB interfaces?

[Nautichthys]

Not as such. Older marine instruments can be connected together by serial cables and then connected to a computer through a serial port (assuming the computer is old enough to have one) or through a serial to USB adapter. The magic term for this type of "network" is NMEA 0183.

Hooking up older NMEA 0183 instruments is similar to what we had to go through in the early 90s to get a mouse to work - endless hours happily fiddling with comm port speeds and setting IRQs. It's a challenging hobby if you're into that sort of thing.

There's a lot of material on this site (SailNet) and others discussing NMEA 0183. This site has some good basic material: Diagrams for standard model Brookhouse NMEA multiplexer

Newer instruments will have NMEA 2000 hookups. Same basic idea as NMEA 0183 without the fun of trying to figure out how many "talkers" you might have and what colour wire a particular manufacturer used for "Data Out" and whether the output is differential or ....

The SSB modem is a ham radio thing. No idea what's involved other than more $$ and slow download speeds pretty much limited to email. No sea-going WoW with this system.

This site is well worth poking around on, once you start learning some of the acronyms: Panbo: The Marine Electronics Weblog