NOBELTEC Australia
by MR Marine Electronics

 

MR Marine Electronics
Australian Distributor of
Jeppesen Nobeltec Products

 

Office Hours Monday to Friday 9am to 3pm Sydney Time (EST)

Phone 0428-250-520 or email Contact MR Marine Electronics

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MiniPlex-41USB

The MiniPlex-41USB is the ideal solution for computers and laptops without a serial port. The functionality of this NMEA multiplexer is the same as the MiniPlex-41. It features 4 NMEA inputs, 2 NMEA outputs and a USB interface.

The MiniPlex-41USB can be connected directly to the USB port of the computer, without an additional Serial <-> USB converter. The supplied driver creates a virtual COM port on the computer, allowing all existing navigation software to be used with this multiplexer.

The two NMEA outputs (talker ports) allow distribution of the NMEA data to up to eight instruments.

The combination of the MiniPlex-41USB and it's virtual COM port driver is a dedicated NMEA solution, as opposed to a generic Serial <-> USB converter. It therefore does not exhibit the well known problems of these generic converters like false detection of mice when the GPS is switched on or sudden drop-outs in the NMEA data stream.
Any attempt of Windows to detect Plug & Play devices on our virtual COM port is blocked. The result is that the MiniPlex-41USB is a real trouble-free Plug & Play solution. Just plug in the USB cable, load the driver disk, a few clicks and you're up and running!

The MiniPlex-41USB is completely transparent to NMEA data. Incoming data is simply stored and forwarded as complete NMEA sentences to the connected instruments and/or PC.
 

Operating modes

The MiniPlex-41 has three modes of operation, which affect the routing of NMEA data:
Server: Data received on the NMEA inputs is sent to the computer. Data received from the computer is sent to an NMEA output.
Hub: All received data (on the NMEA inputs and from the computer) is sent to an NMEA output.
Auto: Automatic selection between Server and Hub mode. This is a useful feature for people who have a GPS and an autopilot connected to the multiplexer, and sometimes wish to sail without taking their laptop on board. When the laptop is not connected, the multiplexer is in Hub mode and crosstrack  and waypoint information from the GPS is directly sent to the autopilot. When the laptop is connected and sending data, the multiplexer automatically switches to Server mode and the autopilot will receive crosstrack  and waypoint data from the laptop instead.
This mode also serves as an emergency backup: when the laptop or computer crashes, the multiplexer will fall back to Hub mode after a timeout of 10 seconds.

Seatalk® Conversion

When the Seatalk -> NMEA option is selected, NMEA In 4 becomes a SeaTalk® compatible input, offering conversion of the most common SeaTalk datagrams on a Raymarine® network into NMEA sentences.

 

Specifications:  
Supply voltage: 5VDC from the USB bus or 8-30VDC external power.
Current consumption: 50mA (100mA max. with fully loaded talker ports)
Inputs: 4 x NMEA-183/RS-422, galvanically isolated
Outputs: 1 x USB, 2 x NMEA-183/RS-422
Operating modes: Hub, Server and Auto
Buffers: 5 buffers of 1000 characters (4 x NMEA, 1 x USB)
Speed NMEA in: 4800 Baud
Speed NMEA out: 4800, 9600, 19200 or 38400 Baud
Dimensions: 138 x 62 x 30mm
 

A manual can be downloaded.

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  Copyright © 2006-2008 MR Marine Electronics  Nobeltec Australia
  Last automatically updated: 22-Sep-2008