NMEA simulator

You can use NMEA simulator to simulate real NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2000 devices or analyze bus messages. With simulator you can e.g. test your navigation application at home without any physical devices. It can be also used to simulate data for real devices on bus.

Features

Sends common NMEA0183 or NMEA2000 messages. For NMEA2000 output you need specific hw to connect to the NMEA2000 bus.
NMEA2000 device simulation. With commercial NMEA2000 / NMEA0183 Simulator also does address claiming and responding to message request.
Reads NMEA0183 or NMEA2000 messages and displays them in console in chronologic order or list as latest different messages.
NMEA2000 bus device list. Can be defined to work as active or passive.
Message highlighting.
Message filtering.
Real GPS satellite simulation.
Save messages for further analyze.
Playback for saved messages.
Loads messages saved in Simulator, OpenSkipper xml or Actisense EBL format.
Free version has some limitations:
- Message count is limited to 5000 for Message console or Loaded messages.
- Only 2 message highlighting.
- Only first 100 NMEA2000 messages will be showed parsed.
- Less sending options.
Coming: Replay loaded messages.

Test without physical devices

To use NMEA simulator locally without physical ports you need to setup it to send data to one COM port. This port has to be connected with null modem cable to other COM port, what your e.g. navigation software listens. You do not need real ports at all, since there is also null modem cable emulator com0com. So try this setup with NMEA simulator do the next:

Download com0com null modem emulator from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/com0com/
Install com0com comport emulator driver and add e.g. com port pair COM29-COM30.
On NMEA simulator "Tools"-"Options..."-"NMEA0183" Choose port COM29 for sending.
Open your navigation software and choose port COM30 for reading NMEA 0183 data. Depending your navigation software you may need to also define which sentences it listens. If possible, choose all.
On NMEA Simulator main window lower right tick checkbox "Run", so it will start sending data to selected com port (COM29). On status row lower right there should read "Msg Buffer: 0". If that start to grow, no one is reading data from other end (COM30). Check that you have configured you receiving application right and it is listening.

For NMEA2000 select com port on "Tools"-"Options..."-"NMEA2000". Note that NMEA Simulator currently supports only Actisense format for sending, so your application must also support that format for NMEA 2000. You can also test NMEA Simulator with Actisense "NMEA Reader", which you can download from https://www.actisense.com/acti_software/nmea-reader/

Connecting to real world

If you want to send NMEA 0183 data to physical NMEA 0183 devices, simply connect com port to them and select that port on NMEA Simulator NMEA0183 settings like for null modem connection. See also Note 2!

If you want to send NMEA 2000 data to physical NMEA 2000 bus, you need also supporting hardware for that. You can use either Across Ocean Systems NMEA2000 / NMEA0183 Simulator (See Note 2!), Actisense NGT-1 or build your own box with my NMEA 2000 library example ActisenseListenerSender. I prefer to use Teensy 3.2-3.6 with example. See Note 1 and Note 2!

Simulating devices

NMEA Simulator can also simulate NMEA 2000 devices. You can define device for NMEA Simulator to match your real device. To do also address claiming, check "Address claiming" under device definition. Note that address claiming does not work with NGT-1. If you do not enable address claiming be carefull to define device source address different than any other device on your bus.

Run multiple NMEA Simulator instances

You can run multiple NMEA Simulator instances with different options by starting simulator with command line option:
NMEA_Simulator -options ‹path_to_options_file›

Replay recorded track

NMEA Simulator can follow track you have recorded with your navigation software. Currently there is only support for OpenCPN .gpx track or route, Nobeltec VNS and Admiral track format. Send me sample of your track format, so I may add it, if you see that function usable for you.

Notes

Note 1! Some features on simulator requires that device communicates directly with bus. E.g. Actisense NGT-1 acts as bus device so all messages sent from simulator shows on bus as sent from NGT-1. To get full power of these features you need either commercial NMEA2000 / NMEA0183 Simulator. You can build own box with NMEA2000 library ActisenseListenerSender example, where both streams has been defined for Serial, but with it you will not see NMEA2000 messages parsed.

Note 2! With commercial Across Ocean Systems NMEA2000 / NMEA0183 Simulator. box you will get some other extended features. Commercial box has also NMEA0183 connector so you can use same box for sending both NMEA2000 and NMEA0183 data.

Command line options

-options ‹path_to_options_file›
Start simulator by saving all settings to given .ini file. If file does not exist, it will be created and current default options will be copied to it.
You can use definition %PROGDIR% to point NMEA_Simulator.exe location. e.g.
-options %PROGDIR%\MyDevice.ini
-RunStartDelay ‹run_delay_in_ms›
Set NMEA Simulator to run mode after given delay. Minimum delay is 100 ms.

License

You can use NMEA simulator for personal use for free.

For commercial use, please contact author (see Help-About on NMEA simulator) to support development. Note that there is more options on commercial version.

There is no warranty, so use it with your own risk.

Thanks

For Kees Verruijt for his excellent CanBoat project and Dr. Andrew Mason for OpenSkipper project. These were start for simulator NMEA2000 part data descriptions.

For Dr. T.S. Kelso for managing satellite information on https://celestrak.com/. Based on his "SGP4 Pascal Library" on https://celestrak.com/software/tskelso-sw.php I managed to add GPS satellite simulation.

Version history

Version history is only available on build in help. Open NMEA Simulator and select Help-Version history