Golf Cart GPS Systems

Raveon’s RavTrack GPS tracking system is the ideal golf cart tracking system to track golf-carts and golf course maintenance vehicles. Golf Cart Tracking

RavTrack GPS tracking delivers helpful, real-time location information and displays it on a map image of your golf course. You can track the carts, mowers, trucks, and workers. You can see where you mowed each hour, day, or week. You can quickly locate carts to deliver food and beverages.

It also can detect potential theft or abuse of your carts and equipment. You can configure keep-out zones and many other rules to notify the ranger or security if a rule is violated.

The Benefits of Licensed Frequencies

Because Raveon’s RavTrack system uses VHF and UHF licensed UHF radio frequencies, you can easily cover your whole course and have no monthly air-time fees. The RavTrack system is also available on the MURS radio band, which is license-free. It works where GSM radio-based systems don’t and because the airtime is free, your update-rate of cart position and status is the fastest in the industry. You can easily track 75 carts with 15-second update rates.

And unlike the short-range 900Mhz and 2.4gHz solutions, RavTrack will cover your course, and reliably show you where your vehicles are.

RavTrack GPS tracking improves golf course operations by:

1. Quickly locating specific carts, assets, employees, and vehicles
2. Track valuable assets (carts, trucks, cars, generators, trailers, mowers, security…)
3. Reducing wasted time when locating people.
4. Alarm the supervisor on speed, idle, and location violations .
5. Enforce keep-out zones and course boundaries.
6. Reduce theft by alerting when item move outside of the area.
7. Record and report the battery voltage for each cart
8. Log vehicle use, location, speed, and time for later reporting.
9. See what areas have been mowed or fertilized, by hour, day, week, or any time period

For more information about the RavTrack system:

Attend our webinar where we introduce the technology and provide an overview of the system.
View a list of some of our Customers. We partner with many diverse companies and government agencies.
Learn more about how the RavTrack system is designed by viewing the asset tracking infographic.

November 4, 2010January 7, 2018

Improving GPS Tracking Precision Using WAAS

Introduction:

WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) is the next generation standard for implementing higher accuracy GPS systems. As demand for GPS continues to grow, the US government has implemented a more robust system to meet the needs of next generation tracking and improved reliability while still maintaining standard equipment in the field. Raveon Technologies has taken advantage of this new standard by adding WAAS to both their M7 GPS transponders and their industry leading RavTrack precision tracking solution.

Brief History of Loran-C/GPS/DGPS/WAAS:

In an effort to support military and commercial aircraft, Loran-C was the first implementation of modern GPS technology. Employing multiple ground based radar towers (sometimes compared to as bowling pins) typically near airports and larger cities, Loran-C provided excellent positioning for its time as a method to keep track and position aircraft. The downside of Loran-C was that it was less available in rural areas and completely unavailable over large bodies of water. Loran-C was also not accurate enough to support extremely bad weather and non-visual approaches.

GPS technology was next on the scene providing a 10x and greater improvement of positioning while solving the aforementioned approach problems. Using satellites and a low cost receiver approach, GPS took tracking from an expensive professional solution to a system that is now available in most cars, watercraft, and personal equipment.

Adding a differential mathematical approach, a specialized receiver, and land based FM towers, DGPS further improved positioning by another 10x. The downside of the approach is that it relies on line-of-site (to the towers) and provides spotty coverage in smaller towns and rural areas that don’t have the luxury of piggybacking on towers of local FM radio stations. Also of note is that a DGPS receiver is not compatible with a off the shelf consumer GPS unit.

WAAS is the latest approach and by far the most accurate. Using a combination of GPS satellites, ground stations, and geo-stationary satellites (see below for greater detail), accuracies up to less than 1M can be attained using standard off the shelf GPS equipment. With this type of spec, WAAS allows for new markets and solutions requiring a higher level of accuracy previously unattainable with existing solutions.

Some of these markets that Raveon Technologies WAAS enabled GPS transponders now support include vehicle collision avoidance, precision vehicle tracking and navigation, tighter and more specific geo-fencing, more accurate personal tracking, precision agriculture plotting, along with several other position dependent solutions.

Topography of a WAAS System and How It Works

WAAS is a combination of ground based stations and satellite transceivers used to greatly improve the accuracy and performance of conventional GPS. Conventional GPS relies on using satellite transceivers “only” which are subject to ionosphere disturbances (billows), satellite orbit errors, timing, and clocking errors. By augmenting ground based stations, the errors associated with GPS are greatly minimized if not eliminated while also adding monitoring and real time adjustment of the GPS satellites themselves.

The system installed in North America is as follows: 35 plus ground base stations called Wide area Reference Stations (WRS) along with the existing satellites provide correlation data that is sent to 2 Wide area Master stations (WMS) on each coast to create a corrected signal. This corrected signal is then retransmitted by a geo-stationary satellite called a Ground Uplink Station (GUS) that is fixed at the equator.

The system provides for guaranteed accuracy of 3 meters or less with typical accuracies approaching sub 1 meter (multiple samples may be accumulated to achieve even better specs). Adding to the accuracy improvement, uptime approaches 99.999% with a downtime of 5 minutes per year while conventional GPS can only guarantee 4 days per year of downtime.

Specifications of WAAS vs. Standard GSP, DGPS, and LORAN-C:

The following is a table of specifications and observed lab measurements of the various positional methods used in the US.

TYPE	Horiz.	Vert.	Comments

WAAS	7.6M	7.6M	Specification
	.9M	1.25M	As measured

DGPS	10M	10M	Specification
	1.6M	2.1M	As measured

GPS	100M	50M	Specification
	2.5M	4.8M	As measured

LORAN-C	460M	460M	Specification
	55M	55M	As measured

As can be seen from the table, Raveon Technologies WAAS enabled transponders provide the most accurate tracking and positioning available while employing standard GPS gear. DGPS comes in at second, but as discussed, is only employed and is dependable in cities and urban areas where FM towers are available and line of site can be attained using the specialized DGPS gear. Standard GPS will continue its success in supporting the large consumer but lower precision auto, marine, and personal tracker market. LoranC, although the least precise, has a large installed base in the personal and small aircraft segment.

Below is a comparison of the position error of a GPS tracking system using WAAS augmentation and DGPS. In this test, the horizontal accuracy was very good with each method. The WAAS system had much better vertical accuracy.

Conclusion

By implementing a WAAS GPS M7 or RavTrack system from Raveon Technologies, precision accuracy approaching sub 1 meter is attainable and repeatable using existing GPS receiver systems allowing for new applications and end-products in the positioning and tracking space.

October 28, 2010October 28, 2010

No PRAVE messages received

So, you set up RavTrack PC and connected your base station to the computer running RavTrack PC. And yet, nothing is happening. This article describes some common solutions to communication problems in a RavTrack GPS tracking system.

Connection/COM port issues

When the system is running, select View > Communication Statistics from the main screen. This will show you how the various RavTrack PC communication channels are operating. In the second column of the communication statistics is a message counter with two numbers AAA/BBB. AAA is the number of NMEA messages from the local radio connected to RavTrack PC. BBB is the number of PRAVE messages that came into RavTrack PC through this channel. A PRAVE message occurs whenever the “base” radio receiver connected to RavTrack receives a GPS position report over-the-air.

If the message counter shows 0/0, then there is no communication with the base radio. This is probably due to on of the following things, and will have to be remedied:

The Base radio is off.
The base radio is not connected to the PC running RavTrack PC.
The COM port that the base radio is plugged into is not configured correctly (Program Properties > Congure I/O to repair it).
The cable connecting the base to the PC is bad, or is a “Null modem”. For most computers, the connection will be a USB or a 9-pin serial cable wired 1:1.
The COM port that the base is connected to is in use by another software program.

No Over-the-Air Reception

If the message counter in the Communication Statistics window shows NNN/0 where NNN is some non-zero number, and the second number is 0, this means the base radio is communicating with RavTrack PC sending NMEA messages, but nothing is being received over the air. The COM port and cables are fine, but there is a problem receiving the over-the-air messages. The most common problems that will cause this and need to be corrected are:

No antenna is connected to the base radio.
The base antenna cable or connector is broken.
The KEYPHRASE is not set. The KEYPHRASE encryption code must be the same in all radios. The factory default KEYPHRASE is “RAVEON”.
The base receiver is not set to the correct frequency. Note: the base’s STAT LED will blink green each time it receives a message from a GPS transponder.
The TOID (ATDT) in the mobile transponders are not set to the base station’s ID. Note: you can set the base station address mask to ATMK 0000 to receive all messages regardless of TOID.
The mobile transponders are not transmitting. Reasons for them not transmitting may be:
A. No power to the transponder.
B. No GPS satellite lock. The transponder’s GPS antenna must be able to see the sky.
C. The transmit frequency is incorrect.
D. The KEYPHRASE is wrong.
E. Their antenna or coax cable is broken or disconnected.

Common Configuration Errors

From the factory, all Raveon GPS transponders and base stations are configured to work out of the box. You will not need to set anything just to verify they work. But, you may bave to modify some settings for your particular installation before you put them in the field. The following parameters within the base station and GPS transponders must all be set correctly and to the same settings on all units for your system to work:

KEYPHRASE
Over-the-air baud radio. Do not change without consulting the factory.
TOID of the transponder must be the ID of the base.
Group number (ATGP). The factory default is none, and is typically left at none (ATGP 0).
TDMATIME and SLOTTIME parameters.

October 6, 2010

COCOM GPS Tracking Limits

The U.S. Department of Commerce requires that all exportable GPS products contain performance limitations so that they cannot be used in a manner that could threaten the security of the United States. The following limitations are implemented on the Trimble Copernicus receiver receiver.

Immediate access to satellite measurements and navigation results is disabled when the receiver’s velocity is computed to be greater than 1000 knots, or its altitude is computed to be above 18,000 meters. The receiver continuously resets until the COCOM situation is cleared.

If the Raveon GPS transponder will be used in aviation applications, the unit should be put into the AIR mode. See the posting “gps-receiver-dynamics” for information about the AIR, LAND< and SEA modes.

September 30, 2010April 17, 2012

GPS Receiver Dynamics

The GPS receiver in Raveon’s M7 and Atlas PL GPS transponder may be configured for different situations. By default it is configured for LAND operation.
Selecting the correct operating parameters has a significant impact on GPS receiver performance. GPS receiver dynamics may be optimized for LAND, AIR, or SEA operation.

LAND = 1    Maximum speed the GPS will receive at is 233knots/268mph/430kmh. Useful altitude from -2000 to +9000 meters.
SEA = 2    Maximum speed the GPS will receive is not specified. Useful altitude from -2000 to +9000 meters.
AIR = 3   Maximum speed the GPS will receive at is 1000knots/1150mph/1800kmh. Useful altitude from -2000 to +50,000 meters.

The default setting for the GPS receiver used in Raveon’s M7 series of GPS transponders and Atlas PL Transponders is LAND.
The default LAND operating parameters allow the receiver to perform well in most environments. Transponders with firmware version C12 or higher are able to view the GPS receiver’s configured dynamics, and change the dynamic mode between AIR, LAND, and SEA. Upon power up, the firmware reads the internal GPS receiver’s current configuration.

The user can optimize the internal GPS receiver in the transponder to a particular application. If the receiver is then taken out of this environment, the specifically tuned receiver may not operate as well as a receiver with the default options.
The dynamics feature default setting is LAND mode, where the receiver assumes a moderate dynamic environment. In this case, the satellite search and re-acquisition routines are optimized for vehicle type environments. In SEA mode, the search and re-acquisition routines assume a low acceleration environment. In AIR mode, the search and reacquisition routines are optimized for high acceleration conditions.

Reading the GPS Receiver Configuration

The GPS receiver configuration may be determined by using the GX command to show the overall configuration of the M7 or Atlas PL transponder. The “Dynamics” command will also return a string in the following format that indicates how the GPS receiver in the transponder is currently configured.

MMM, EE.E, SS.S

MMM: dynamic mode AIR, LAND, or SEA
EE.E: Elevation Mask
SS.S: Signal Mask

Elevation Mask

This is the minimum elevation angle for satellites to be used in a solution output by the receiver. Satellites which are near the horizon are typically more difficult to track due to signal attenuation, and are also generally less accurate due to higher variability in the ionospheric and tropospheric corruption of the signal. When there are no obstructions, the receiver can generally track a satellite down to near the horizon.

Signal Mask

This mask defines the minimum signal strength for a satellite used in a solution. There is some internal hysteresis on this threshold which allows brief excursions below the threshold if lock is maintained and the signal was previously above the mask.

Configuring the Dynamics

Use the DYNAMICS command to set or read the dynamics. DYNAMICS with no parameter will return the configuration. The following commands may be used to set the dynamics:

DYNAMICS 0    (factory default dynamic mode)
DYNAMICS 1    (LAND)
DYNAMICS 2    (SEA)
DYNAMICS 3    (AIR)

When issuing the DYNAMICS x command, give the GPS receiver a few seconds to execute it. The M7’s firmware will also send a “flash save” command to the GPS receiver after the dynamics configuration is changed so that the change becomes permanent in the GPS receiver. Upon power-up, the GPS receiver will use the new dyncamics setting.

To verify the dynamics setting was saved, cycle power on the M7 or Atlas PL, enter the CONFIG mode, and enter the GX command to view the overall configuration of the device. The GPS receiver dynamics will be displayed.

Advanced GPS Receiver Configuration

To facilitate the advanced user, Raveon added a command “PASS” in the C12 firmware. PASS will pass the parameter of the command to the internal GPS receiver in NMEA format. The GPS receiver used in the M7 transponder and ATLAS PL personal locator is a Trimble Copernicus II. The technical manual for the Copernicus II contains details on how to configure it using NMEA type messages.

For example, to set the GPS receiver to AIR mode, issue the following command while in the command mode.
PASS $PTNLSCR,0.60,5.00,12.00,6.00,0.0000020,0,3,1

The command’s paramter is a NMEA formatted sentence without the * or the checksum. The M7 or Atlas will append the * and the checksum to the sentence before sending it to the internal GPS receiver. To set the dynamics, use the DYNAMICS x command, not the PASS command. The PASS command is provided to the advanced user who wished to reconfigure the receiver’s low-level configiruation paramters such as signal and elevation masks.

If you change the GPS receiver’s configuration with the PASS command, do not forget to issue the save configuration command to the GPS reciever. The save command for the GPS receiver in the M7 and ATLAS PL is:
PASS $PTNLSRT,H,2,7,0

August 24, 2010January 16, 2011

Connecting M7 to Garmin Oregon

Overview

The M7 GX series of GPS transponders may be directly connected to a Garmin Oregon 450. When connected, the Garmin display map will show the location of the vehicle it is in PLUS the location of all other M7 transponders within radio range. This unique feature allows one to quickly, easily, and inexpensively, make a mobile AVL system for tracking cars, trucks, race cars, construction equipment, or any thing Raveon’s M7 GX transponder may be installed on.

The Garmin Oregon 450 has a built-in interfaces for a “NMEA 0183? devices, which is another way of saying that they can connect to other devices using a serial cable. The NMEA 0183 is an RS232 serial connection that typically operates at 4800 baud. It is used to exchange way point and other information between displays, GPS devices, and transponders.

When Raveon’s M7 GX transponder is connected to the Oregon using the NMEA 0183 connection, the M7 transponder can put icons on the screen of the Garmin display. As the transponder received updated positions from other vehicles, it updates the position of the icons on the Garmin display.

How NMEA 0183 works

Here is how their NMEA 0183 interface works:

NMEA 0183 Cable Connections

NMEA 0183 is a standard communications format for marine electronic equipment. For example, an autopilot can connect to the NMEA interface of a GPS and receive positioning information. The GPS can exchange information with any device that transmits or receives NMEA 0183 data. See the following diagram for general wiring connections. Read your product’s owner’s manual for specific wiring information.

NMEA 0183 Wiring (Data cable)

The Garmin Oregon 450 uses the yellow wire to transmit, the white wire to receive and the Black and green wire for ground.

The M7 DB9 Serial Connector

The 9-pin serial I/O connector on the M7 is a female 9-p D-sub miniature connector having the following pins configuration.

Front-view of DB-9 connector on modem (female)

*Pin #*	*Name*	*Dir*	*Function*	*Level / Specification*
1	CD	out	Carrier detect
2	RxD	out	Receive data	Data out of the modem.
3	TxD	in	Transmit data	Data into the modem.
4	DTR	in	Data terminal ready	Normally ignored by the FireLine modem.
5	GND		Ground connection	Signal and power ground
6	DSR	out	Data Set Ready
7	RTS	in	Request to send
8	CTS	out	Clear to send
9	Power	In/out	DC power (not Ring signal)	User may supply the DC power to the modem on this pin.

Wiring the DB9

The Oregon’s “Data Cable” must be connected to the M7 transponder. This connection will allow the M7 to put icons on the screen of the Oregon display, showing the location of other tracked vehicles. The Raveon M7 GPS transponder uses a 9-pin “DB9? connector to connect to the Oregon. Solder the Oregon data cable wires onto a DB9 connector and plug the DB9 into the M7 transponder as shown below:

The white wire goes to pin two of the DB9, the yellow wire to pin 3, the black and green wires get twisted together and both go to pin 5, and the red wire goes to pin 9 of the DB9. It is recommended that you keep the fuse on the red wire when setting up the DB9 connector.

Configuring the M7 GX Transponder

Raveon has a designed the M7 GX transponder to work with Garmin Oregon Display or any other NMEA 0183 display that can accept the “$GPWPL” NMEA message. The $GPWPL is an industry standard message that the Garmin displays and many other GPS displays interpret as a way point command. The M7 GX outputs this $GPWPL message to put icons on the screen of the Garmin, and to move the icons around on its screen.

To configure the M7 transponder to output the $GPWPL message, set the M7 GX to GPS mode 2. To do this, put it into the configuration mode by send the +++ into the serial port. The M7 will respond with an OK. Type GPS 4 and press enter to put it into GPS 4 mode. GPS 4 is the mode that causes the M7 GX to output $GPWPL messages whenever it receives a status/position message over the air.

Raveon Technologies Corporation

990 Park Center Drive, C

Vista, CA 92081

sales@raveontech.com

760-727-8004

June 13, 2010January 7, 2018

Monitoring your GPS Tracking System

With any complex communication system, there can be problems which cause it to not work as planned. It could be a power failure, electrical failure of a component, computer crash, cut cable, broken antenna, lightning damage, or a host of other unforseen issues. Most of these are easy to deal with, but quickly being notified when they happen can be important.

You are able to monitor your GPS tracking system if your system uses RavTrack PC or any other GPS tracking software that allows you to create an alert if a vehicle does not report in. By configuring your RF infrastructure components to also work as GPS transponders, the same tools used to monitor vehicles can be use to monitor your system.

For example, if you use a repeater in your system, configure it to periodically transmit its GPS position also. This way, if the antenna fails, power goes out, or it just stops working, your GPS monitoring software will send an alert.

With RavTrack PC, you can setup an Alarm and Monitoring Rule to help you monitor your radio network, server, or system operation. Using the “No Reports” parameter monitoring feature, you can configure an alert to send an email to IP or Management personnel if your system stops working.

Monitoring System Components

To determine if part of all of the GPS tracking system is working, the periodic GPS position messages sent over the air may be monitored, and if they stop coming in, an alert can be generated to notify personnel of a potential system problem.

The easiest way to monitor the radios in your network is to configure them to report their GPS positions over-the-air. Then configure an Alarm and Monitoring Rule using the No Reports parameter monitor to send an email if the item being monitored does not report in within a preset time period. This will cause the Alert email to be sent if a part of the GPS tracking system fails such as broken antenna, cut cable, failed power supply, lightning damage, and unplugged serial cable.

Most radio transceivers, such as the M7 GX series of radios, which are used at a base station site may also be configured to output standard NMEA GPS position messages every 5 seconds. This periodic local NMEA GPS message can also be used to determine if the base station radio is alive and operational. To use the NMEA GPS position in an alert, you must configure the Communication Channel to interpret the NMEA GPS data as a tracked object in your system. There is an option to Interpret GPS data w/o ID as ObjectData in the Systems Communications configuration tab. If this enabled, RavTrack PC will create a new tracked vehicle with an ID 900X where X is the communications channel. RavTrack PC will place the location of the vehicle 900X at its GPS position.

If there is a GPS transponder in the network that always is powered on and working, then the position report from that unit may also be used to check for system operation.

Monitoring a Server running RavTrack PC

The technique described above will work to monitor individual system components such as receivers, cabling, repeaters, and antennas. But if a main server running RavTrack PC fails, the failed server cannot report itself failing. A solution to this dilemma is to also run RavTrack PC on a management workstation, and then configure the same No Reports Alert on the workstation. If the a server fails, causing the RavTrack system to stop recording GPS tracking data, the workstation’s No Reports Alert will then trigger, send an email, and/or alert the operator.

June 1, 2010June 1, 2010

Configuring the NMEAMASK bitmask

The M7 GPS transponders and the Atlas PL personal locators may be configured to output NMEA 0183 GPS messages from its internal GPS receiver. For GPS tracking, these GPS transponders can receive GPS position reports from other radios, and they may also be configured to output their own GPS location via their serial port.

Following is a list of the NMEA messages that are available (as of revision C2 of the Firmware).

NMEA Message	Bit Number (zero based)	Bit Mask (hex format / Decimal)
GGA	0	0x001 / 1
GLL	1	0x002 / 2
RMC	9	0x100 / 256

Refer to the product’s technical manual to see which NMEA messages are sent out in the various operating modes. Once you set the “GPS Mode” of the radio using the GPS X command, you can change the NMEAMASK parameter to modify with of the NMEA sentences will come out the serial port.

For example, to have only the RMC sentence come out the serial port, use the following command”

NMEAMASK 256

To have the GGA and GLL come out the serial port use this command:

NMEAMASK 3

The NMEAMASK parameter is the sum of all of the decimal values of the individual bits corresponding to the NMEA messages.

May 12, 2010May 12, 2010

Updating the RavTrack PC EXE file

It is usually possible to upgrade the RavTrack PC AVL software program to a newer version without re-installing the software as long as the major revision number is the same. (2.6 to 2.7, 3.1 to 3.3 …) Most upgrades can be performed by simply replacing the RavTrackPC.exe file which is stored in the program directory on your computer. This quick upgrade method avoids having to perform a full re-install of the RavTrack PC AVL software when simply upgrading to the current version.

To perform the quick update:

Close RavTrack PC. File > Exit
Click on the link below to download a copy of the latest .exe file:
http://ravtrack.com/downloads/RavTrackPCexe.zip or use the .exe file emailed to you from Raveon tech support.
Open the .zip archive folder by double-clicking on it.
Locate the directory on your computer that holds the RavTrack PC program. For most users the full path to this file is: C:/programfiles/raveon/RavTrack PC/
Rename the current RavTrack PC.exe file file to RavTrack PCold.exe.
Copy the new file from the named RavTrack PC.exe to your RavTrack PC program directory. For most users the full path to this file is: C:/programfiles/raveon/RavTrack PC/RavTrack PC.exe

You may now run RavTrack PC as you have been, and the new version will be executed. If there are data base upgrades to do, RavTrack PC will automatically perform the updates when it starts up.

May 10, 2010January 16, 2011

GPS Tracking with the Garmin 60C Series

The M7 GX series of GPS transponders may be directly connected to a Garmin 60C series of hand-held GPSs. All members of the Garmin 60C family have an RS232 option that is compatible with NMEA 0183 messages. This allows them to be used with Raveon’s RavTrack series of GPS radio transponders to make a complete GPS tracking system.

When connected to the M7 GPS radio transponder or the Atlas PLPersonal Locator, the Garmin’s map will show the location of all of the the user PLUS the location of all other transponders within radio range. This unique feature allows one to quickly, easily, and inexpensively, make a portable AVL system for tracking cars, trucks, racecars, construction equipment, or any thing Raveon’s M7 GX or Atlas PL transponder may be installed on.

The Garmin 60C series of hand-held GPSs have built-in interfaces for a “NMEA 0183” devices, which is another way of saying that they can connect to other devices using a serial cable. The NMEA 0183 is an RS232 serial connection that typically operates at 4800 baud. It is used to exchange way-point and other information between displays, GPS devices, and transponders.

When Raveon’s M7 GX transponder is connected to the Garmin display using the NMEA 0183 connection, the GPS radio transponder can put icons on the screen of the Garmin display. As the transponder receives updated positions from other vehicles, it updates the position of the tracked vehicle icons on the Garmin’s display.

Garmin 60C, 60CS, 60Cx Wiring

From the Garmin technical manual, here is how their NMEA 0183 interface works:

NMEA 0183 Cable Connections

NMEA 0183 is a standard communications format for marine electronic equipment. For example, an autopilot can connect to the NMEA interface on the Garmin 60C and receive positioning information. The Garmin 60C series can exchange information with any device that transmits or receives NMEA 0183 data. See the following diagram for general wiring connections. Read yourother product’s owner’s manual for more wiring information.

NMEA 0183 Wiring (Data cable)

Wiring the Serial Cable

The Garmin’s “Data Cable” must be connected to the M7 GPS transponder (or Atlas OL). This connection will allow the M7 to put icons on the screen of the Garmin display, showing the location of other tracked vehicles. The Raveon M7 GPS transponder uses a 9-pin “DB9” connector to connect to the Garmin. Solder the Garmin data cable wires onto a DB9 connector and plug the DB9 into the M7 transponder as shown below:

Connect the white wire(serial data from M7 into Garmin) from the Garmin’s Serial Cable goes to pin 2 of the M7’s RS232 DB9 connector. You do not need to connect the brown wire(serial data from Garmin), so you can trim it off. Connect the shield braid of the Garmin Serial Cable to pin 5 of the DB9. The red wire optionally can connect to pin 9 of the Raveon GPS transponder’s DB9 to power the Garmin from the DC source that powers the M7.

If you do not wire your own cable, but instead use Garmin’s RS232 serial cable, you will need to connect the Garmin’s RS232 cable to the M7 GPS transponder using a “NULL Modem” adaptor.

Configuring the Garmin

Set the NMEA communication of the Garmin to 4800 baud.

Configuring the M7 GX Transponder

Raveon has a designed the M7 GX transponder to work with Lowrance Display or any other NMEA 0183 display that can accept the “$GPWPL” NMEA message. The $GPWPL is an industry standard message that the Lowrance displays and many other GPS displays interpret as a waypoint command. The M7 GX outputs this $GPWPL message to put icons on the screen of the Lowarance, and to move the icons around on its screen.