System Interfacing
To allow the integration of a BATS with GPS, the PC system will require an ethernet connection (local area network) if a Serial Multiplexer is used, otherwise at least two serial ports are required. If only one port is used it could be linked to the Noland Engineering N183-41 Serial Multiplexer. The Serial Multiplexer provides four NMEA standard listener ports ( IN1B, INIA, IN2B, IN2A, IN3B, IN3A, IN4B, IN4A ). One Serial Multiplexer listener port is linked to the BATS system. The output from the BATS system to the Noland Serial Multiplexer needs to have the serial cable configured for no handshaking.
The second Serial Multiplexer listener port is linked directly to a GPS receiver. Since the Serial Multiplexer provides four listener ports a depth sounder may be connected to one of the remaining listener ports. The Serial Multiplexers RS-232 output ( RX, COM and TX) must be connected to the host PC system using a DB-9 cable supplied with the Serial Multiplexer. The Serial Multiplexer will supply the PC with the relative position and current latitude/longitude of the support vessel using information from the EdgeTech USBL and the GPS receiver. Vessel heading information, derived from a flux-gate or gyro compass, can be supplied via the BATS system or the GPS receiver. For further information regarding the interfacing and setup of the Serial Multiplexer, see the Noland Engineering N183-41 manual.
If the IPS is to be used in "ship only" mode with no input from a tracking system or if the tracking system is to be referenced to a fixed lat/long position rather than a GPS derived position, then only one device needs to be connected to the serial multiplexer.
Note: The Lantronix UDS-200 can be replaced with either RS-232 to ethernet or RS-232 MUX (e.g. Noland) or multiport (2-min) RS-232 to USB Hub converters.
Note:RS-232 is the typical cable configuration when a handshake is not required.