User's Manual

Page 19
Copyright © 2015, Vesper Marine Ltd. All rights are reserved
NMEA Command Interface
The Virtual AIS Beacon supports the NMEA-0183 (v4.10) command interface. All commands
start with a formatter such as $XXAID or !XXABM. The first two XX characters indicate the
talker ID and are ignored by the Virtual AIS Beacon, so can be set to the caller’s preference.
AtoN Configuration
The Virtual AIS Beacon supports the programming of its virtual AtoN marks using the
standard NMEA-0183 (v4.10) sentences. The corresponding legacy sentences as defined in
IEC 62320 Appendix A are also supported as indicated in Table 1.
Full sentence details can be obtained from the NMEA-0183 v4.10 standard. Note not all the
sentences will respond to a query as indicated by the queryable column.
Table 1 – Supported Public NMEA 0183 Sentences
Formatter
Description
Queryable
IEC
62320
AID
AtoN Identification Configuration
Yes
ACF
General AtoN Station Configuration
Yes
ACG
Extended General AtoN Station Configuration
Yes
ACE
CBR
Configure Broadcast Rates for AtoN Station
Messages
Yes
AAR
MEB
1
Message Input for Broadcast
No
VER
Version details
Yes
BBM
Binary Broadcast Message
No
ABM
Addressed Binary Broadcast Message
No
Note 1: MEB is used to set the message contents. Five MEB payloads may be stored. The
corresponding CBR is used to determine the broadcast rates for the stored message.
After a command has been issued the Virtual AIS Beacon will respond with an OK or ERR
sentence to indicate a success or failure.
Examples: $PVSP,OK*2D
$PVSP,ERR,NOT FOUND*63
Example Configuration for a Virtual AtoN
A Beacon Cardinal N mark named VIRT ATON with an MMSI of 995121006 at position 36°
50.9866 S, 174° 45.1895 E on a mode A reporting interval of 3 minutes would be set on a
Virtual AIS Beacon with a serial number of GZ12345 using:
$ABAID,GZ12345,1,995121007,V,C*5B
$ABACG,995121006,00,,,,0,VIRT ATON,0000000000,C*05
$ABACF,995121006,7,3650.9866,S,17445.1895,E,1,,,,,,09,1,C*06
$ABCBR,995121006,21,0,0,0,1682,13500,1,0,3,1682,13500,C*0F