AIS Track Time

[Ops.Navig8r]

is there any way to increase the default AIS Target Track time from 60 mins to say 600 mins as I use longer times to track S&R vessels in operational duties over longer times than 1 hour and at the moment I need to change the setting every time opencpn loads.

Secondly I would like to know if there is plug in which allows plotting of positions using land marks and nav aids which do not draw from your own craft. For example to plot a cocked hat, 4 point or transferred bearing fix.

[nohal]

Originally Posted by Ops.Navig8r

is there any way to increase the default AIS Target Track time from 60 mins to say 600 mins as I use longer times to track S&R vessels in operational duties over longer times than 1 hour and at the moment I need to change the setting every time opencpn loads.

Secondly I would like to know if there is plug in which allows plotting of positions using land marks and nav aids which do not draw from your own craft. For example to plot a cocked hat, 4 point or transferred bearing fix.

The track length for all AIS targets can be extended on the Ships -> AIS targets tab. You can further set specific targets to leave track always and even persistently on the Ships -> MMSI Properties tab in the toolbox.

For your plotting needs either the OCPN Draw or Dead Reckoning plugin might be what you are looking for.

[Ops.Navig8r]

Thanks for your reply, I'll try the DR plug in and see how it goes certainly the Draw plug in is not what I'm after.

I am aware of the setting of the AIS track time in the AIS targets TAB but its default is 60m I can and do change it every time I run the program, what I want to do is change the default value so changing it every time the program is loaded is not required. Other navigators use the program and it can be easily forgotten. If the vessel tracks are required by the Police or coroner as search evidence and are lost after 60mins we can't get them back and so loose valuable data. Thanks so much for your reply,
I hope I have cleared up exactly what I need to change.
Steve
SA Sea Rescue Squadron Operations Center Coordinator & Navigator.

[nohal]

Are we talking about the same thing?

On my freshly restarted OpenCPN the value I set in the last session was remembered to be 300 minutes (And has a default of 20)


But whatever the value, I imagine I would not want this on your position as what this does remember is lost when OpenCPN is shut down. At least not only this.

But we have some more related functionality.

As soon as you open the AIS target query for any target, you can persist it's currently remembered track and keep recording it until you shut down OpenCPN, which I would think is what you would need for the vessel that reports a distress (and other vessel participating in the operation and not covered by the next)


For the SAR and similar interesting vessels, whose MMSIs you probably know in advance, you can set up persistent tracking to be activated always, so you will have stored evidence of 100% of their movement whenOpenCPN is running.


Can you live with the above or should we still change something?


EDIT: One clarification - 300 minutes is a maximum allowed value for the general track length setting stored for all the vessels in range. The exceptions are the targets defined in the MMSI properties tab and targets you started to track persistently from the target query window, those record the track forever.

[Ops.Navig8r]

hi Noha,
Thanks for the info re the MMSI properties, I'll setup that next time I'm in the base and see how it goes. I did look at that tab but without an entry you can't see the other options so that's good info.
I updated from version 4.0.0 to 4.8.8 and yes the default has changed from 60 to 300 min so that's not too bad, at least you got 5 hours to remember to change it to a longer time if required, still would be nice to change the one setting as many times we have multiple agencies involved and that means setting up every new vessel as it joins the search.
I have now played with DR and draw and neither do the plotting I want, at this time I create routes through the transit points to get a fix is OK but not as nice as say DigiBoats SOB. SOB also marks DSC reports with the MMSI which is great when finding vessels without AIS unfortunately OpenCPN marks them all "Position Report" and you can't see at a glance which is which, but that is something for the developers.
I was hoping there might be a parameter in the opencpn.ini file I could add.

So thanks so much for a step closer or at least an alterative an a bit more knowledge.
Steve..

[nohal]

Originally Posted by Ops.Navig8r

hi Noha,
Thanks for the info re the MMSI properties, I'll setup that next time I'm in the base and see how it goes. I did look at that tab but without an entry you can't see the other options so that's good info.
I updated from version 4.0.0 to 4.8.8 and yes the default has changed from 60 to 300 min so that's not too bad, at least you got 5 hours to remember to change it to a longer time if required, still would be nice to change the one setting as many times we have multiple agencies involved and that means setting up every new vessel as it joins the search.
I have now played with DR and draw and neither do the plotting I want, at this time I create routes through the transit points to get a fix is OK but not as nice as say DigiBoats SOB. SOB also marks DSC reports with the MMSI which is great when finding vessels without AIS unfortunately OpenCPN marks them all "Position Report" and you can't see at a glance which is which, but that is something for the developers.
I was hoping there might be a parameter in the opencpn.ini file I could add.

So thanks so much for a step closer or at least an alterative an a bit more knowledge.
Steve..

Steve...

You are talking to "the developers"
- DSC position and distress report target names changed to include MMSI as of now.
- The maximum allowed length of the AIS target track may be extended beyond 300 minutes by setting key TargetTracksLimit in Settings/AIS section of opencpn.ini - I don't know how much traffic you have there, but there are many places where it really is not a good idea...
- I can't do anything about "software you don't know does it nicer", sorry, but feel free to open a feature request in our issue tracker describing what that nicer is.

You can get the O5 beta CI build with both these changes from https://ci.appveyor.com/project/bdbc...1226/artifacts

Pavel

[Ops.Navig8r]

Hi Pavel.
I could not see the TargetTracksLimit in the .ini file do I need to add it?
I could find TargetTracksMinutes=300 but if changed to say 480 it reverted back when opencpn opens.
What I meant by not as nice is with SOB you can plot bearing lines from various AtoN's and land points to find a position or get a "fix or waypoint" were they intersect without involving your own vessels location like the DR is dead reckoning from your location to a predicted location based on other variables. I would like to produce a fix or waypoint based on coastal marks.
At this time I produce a route from each point at a bearing and were they intersect is the point or fix I want, if measure could produce multiple lines that would do the job real quick.
The other thing I liked about SOB was the MMSI is shown with a DSC position, you can also have a list of MMSI numbers were you can give them a "friendly name" and a track colour which then stands out amongst all the rest. Anyhow that's by the by.
Thanks for your help, always leaning from you.
Steve.

[nohal]

Steve...

Originally Posted by Ops.Navig8r

Hi Pavel.
I could not see the TargetTracksLimit in the .ini file do I need to add it?
I could find TargetTracksMinutes=300 but if changed to say 480 it reverted back when opencpn opens.

Yes, you need to add it, I really don't want people to set it to 6000 and enter the English Channel.

What I meant by not as nice is with SOB you can plot bearing lines from various AtoN's and land points to find a position or get a "fix or waypoint" were they intersect without involving your own vessels location like the DR is dead reckoning from your location to a predicted location based on other variables. I would like to produce a fix or waypoint based on coastal marks.
At this time I produce a route from each point at a bearing and were they intersect is the point or fix I want, if measure could produce multiple lines that would do the job real quick.

So the only thing you don't actually like is that you later have to delete the routes you used to get that fix, do I understand correctly?

The other thing I liked about SOB was the MMSI is shown with a DSC position, you can also have a list of MMSI numbers were you can give them a "friendly name" and a track colour which then stands out amongst all the rest. Anyhow that's by the by.

The MMSI is part of the name in the build you downloaded yesterday. We already have the MMSI Properties to set special treatment per vessel, so implementing the rest would not be hard to do.

And please, really use the issue tracker for feature requests. It is absolutely sure that it will get forgotten if you don't.

Pavel

[Ops.Navig8r]

Hi Pavel,
You must have just abo8ut had enough of me by now.
I use open CPN in a base station environment and we do not have the traffic that the English channel has so 8 hours is OK I usually just add two "0's" to the old versions 60 default. So if I make the new 350 480 that will be good. So as I understand I need to add TARGETTRACKSLIMIT=480 after the TARGETTRACKSMIUETS=300 line ?

Grating routes to plot just seems a bit strange when I train other to use the software if you use paper charts you don't create a route until you have plotted several waypoints, to find the waypoints you plot those positions by bearings/distances to some known mark, I'm sure you know what I mean and I fell like I telling you how to suck eggs. Anyhow I'll need to find the developers forum in time as I find my way around this site.

I have not yet tried the DSC with the latest program but I can't wait to try it and see if the MMSI pops up, that will be great.

Thanks again.
Steve.

[nohal]

Originally Posted by Ops.Navig8r

Hi Pavel,
You must have just abo8ut had enough of me by now.
I use open CPN in a base station environment and we do not have the traffic that the English channel has so 8 hours is OK I usually just add two "0's" to the old versions 60 default. So if I make the new 350 480 that will be good. So as I understand I need to add TARGETTRACKSLIMIT=480 after the TARGETTRACKSMIUETS=300 line ?

Grating routes to plot just seems a bit strange when I train other to use the software if you use paper charts you don't create a route until you have plotted several waypoints, to find the waypoints you plot those positions by bearings/distances to some known mark, I'm sure you know what I mean and I fell like I telling you how to suck eggs. Anyhow I'll need to find the developers forum in time as I find my way around this site.

I have not yet tried the DSC with the latest program but I can't wait to try it and see if the MMSI pops up, that will be great.

Thanks again.
Steve.

Pavel

Just stick with the correct casing TargetTracksLimit, the config file keys are case sensitive. As you already will be editing the config file, you may change both

- Add TargetTracksLimit=1200
- Set TargetTracksMinutes=360

Next time you start OpenCPN, every AIS target will leave 6 hour track and you will be able to persistently set it to up to 20 hours from the GUI.

If you don't tell your colleagues it is a route and tell them it is a "line", will it be the same thing as on the paper chart with a pencil (where it also does not disappear until you erase it) and will it stop feeling that strange?
Anyway, I can imagine extending eg. the measure functionality to allow laying separate legs, just not sure everybody would be happy if that thing disappears when they are done...
OpenCPN's primary function will still be vessel navigation usable underway, so your use case, while important to us, can't change the logic and terminology used completely...

[Ops.Navig8r]

Hi Nohal,
I just tried the TargetTracksLimit=480 without success, even if the TargetTracksMinutes is set to 480 as well the track time is still 300 if the TargetTracksMinutes is removed the time is 20min and the line is rewritten to the .ini file as TargetTracksMiutes=20
So I can still only get 300 Max.
Cheers
steve.

[nohal]

Impossible with the build you downloaded yesterday. Once the TargetTracksLimit is set, it overrides the 300 minute limit, no way around that.
Of course only as long as you use that version, it changes nothing on any older OpenCPN, like 4.8.8

[Ops.Navig8r]

Hi Pavel,
OK that's great, so what you are saying is, if the TargetTracksLimit=480 is set then even if the display shows 300 it is in fact 480 min.

If that right then my track time problem is solved.
Thanks very much for that.

[Ops.Navig8r]

I though I had the latest version 4.8.8
Are you saying there is a later version I need to be able set the TargetTracksLimit ?
Thanks,

[nohal]

Originally Posted by Ops.Navig8r

I though I had the latest version 4.8.8
Are you saying there is a later version I need to be able set the TargetTracksLimit ?
Thanks,

Steve...

Yes, you need the latest continuous integration build from the O5 beta series. Change in the code done now on your request did not magically get into the 4.8.8 release from several months ago.
I have sent you the link in earlier post, but just in case you can't find it, here it is again: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/bdbc...1226/artifacts


Pavel