Nmea

The NMEA 0183 Protocol

Table of Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. What is the NMEA 0183 Standard? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 1 Electrical Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 General Sentence Format . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Talker Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Sentence Identifiers and Sentence Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 SomeProprietary Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Manufacturer Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

The material presented in this document has been compiled from various inofficial sources. It is neither a complete nor error-free description of the NMEA 0183 standard. In particular, it does not cover the new sentences and the high-speed interface defined in version 3.x. Klaus Betke, May 2000. Revised August 2001.

1. What is the NMEA 0183 Standard?
TheNational Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) is a non-profit association of manufacturers, distributors, dealers, educational institutions, and others interested in peripheral marine electronics occupations. The NMEA 0183 standard defines an electrical interface and data protocol for communications between marine instrumentation. NMEA 0183 is a voluntary industry standard, first released in March of1983. It has been updated from time to time; the latest release, currently (August 2001) Version 3.0, July 2001, is available from the NMEA office (Warning: the price for non-members is 250 US$). P O Box 3435 New Bern NC 28564-3435 USA www.nmea.org NMEA has also established a working group to develop a new standard for data communications among shipboard electronic devices. The new standard, NMEA2000, is a bi-directional, multi-transmitter, multi-receiver serial data network. It is multi-master and self-configuring, and there is no central controller. The NMEA began a beta testing period in January 2000 with eleven manufacturers. A release version of NMEA 2000 is expected in 2001.

The NMEA 0183 Protocol

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2. Electrical Interface
NMEA 0183 devices are designated as eithertalkers or listeners (with some devices being both), employing an asynchronous serial interface with the following parameters: Baud rate: Number of data bits: Stop bits: Parity: Handshake: 4800 8 (bit 7 is 0) 1 (or more) none none

NMEA 0183 allows a single talker and several listeners on one circuit. The recommended interconnect wiring is a shielded twisted pair, with the shield grounded only at thetalker. The standard dos not specify the use of a particular connector. Note: The new 0183-HS standard (HS = high speed) introduced in version 3.0 uses a 3-wire interface and a baud rate of 38400. This type of interface is not discussed here. Its is recommended that the talker output comply with EIA RS-422, a differential system with two signal lines, "A" and "B". Differential drive signals haveno reference to ground and are more immune to noise. However, a single-ended line at TTL level is accepted as well. The voltages on the A line correspond to those on the TTL single wire, while the B voltages are inverted (when output A is at +5 V, output B is at 0 V, and vice versa. This is the unipolar RS-422 operation. In bipolar mode ±5 V are used). In either case, the recommended receive...