Beta Test / Technical

[Gone Troppo]

Thanks for the explanation.

Regards,
Stephen

[idpnd]

Thanks for the info, the expert mode is just what I was hinting at on the feature request thread. Please note that most people would be using this for looking closely at GPS tracks for purposes of retracing tracks or anchoring rather than actual chart-based navigation.

The plain boundaries are much easier on the eye, nice hint there; on my display settings, the depth lines are rendered in a much prettier fashion (and very similar to the commercial competition!) - see screenshot.

By the way Mani the opencpn "favicon"/main programme icon looks very good, excellent job..

Thanks for your attention,

Max

[sae140]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

SAE140....

What you are seeing is "Symbolized Boundaries" of a caution area.
Part of S52 specs. You can change the symbolization rules in Toolbox->VectorCharts->Boundaries. "Plain" may be less distracting.

Dave - that's brilliant, thanks.
Might I respectfully suggest that the program settings default to 'Plain' - I'd bet money that most users would prefer the clearer picture.

Dunno why the other ECS samples choose not to show the boundaries at all....

BTW, that's why I attached 3 comparison files - to show that even commercial programs are displaying the CM93 data ever-so-slightly different, so there really isn't a hard 'standard' in practice.

Thanks
Dave

Thank you Dave - for so much hard work, and for dealing so patiently with problems which are essentially only cosmetic, but make such a lot of difference to the end user - well, at least they do to this end-user !

[oddysea]

Hi Dave

Not sure if this should be on this thread, but maybe against all convention, what is the chance of making recognised ships another coulor..see attached pic..not a hectic busy port but well "confusing"

Mike

[sinbad7]

Mike...

Yes,I think that would come high on my list of AIS improvements when Dave can find the time. The conventions from other programs are as follows:

Cargo -green
Tanker-red
Law enforcement-black
Sail-white
Passenger-blue
Fast vessels-orange
Fishing-brown
Pleasure-cyan
Pilot-grey

I think I would also like to have accessable a clickable list of targets which are displayed on the chart. A click would display the target's query box.

[dacust]

Very, very small glitch, or maybe enhancement request.

If I zoom out to max on a raster chart, then move the cursor to an area with no chart, scroll wheel zoom out doesn't work. Have to zoom in, then out.

-dan

[sinbad7]

REF #200

The color coding could be something like this:

[phiggins]

Dave,

Any luck with the Dr. Watson dump I sent you? Version 1.3.4 gets exceptions quite often on XP for me. I can get more dumps if you need them.

I find the Linux version 1.3.2 to be much more stable.

Paul

[bdbcat]

Paul...
I looked at your dump files. Familiar pattern....

Version 1.3.4 Windows has an intermittent memory corruption problem under heavy AIS/GPS load with external port mux like Franson. The error appears on memory free(), so the first indication of the problem occurs long after the fact.

Working hard to track it down. Have enabled Pierre (not regular forum member) with debug version of opencpn to try to get to the root cause. Blubaju crashes too, same root. Common thread seems to be complex port configuration, with external mux like Franson, and another app like GPSMON.

This debug version of opencpn checks the entire crt heap every second, looking for corruption. Obviously slows down the application.

I cannot reproduce the failure locally. Tried and tried.....

If you are willing, you could try the same type of debug test:

So, to proceed:

1. Download the Microsoft debugging tools from

Install Debugging Tools for Windows 32-bit Version
Install the tools.

2. Download a debug version of opencpn from

http://southbaynetwork.com/opencpn/opencpn_debug.exe


3. From windows, find and run windbg.

4. File->Open executable.... Select opencpn_debug.exe

5. Enter "g" (for "go") in the debugger command window.

6. Run opencpn as usual. Leave it running for a while, with full GPS input, charts, etc. Stress test it. It may run a bit slower....

7. We hope the debugger breakpoint is hit. If it is, it means the heap got corrupted within the last second. There may be useful information in the debugger.

8. If the error line looks like this (we hope):

"HEAP[opencpn_debug-2009-10-21.exe]: HEAP: Free Heap block 12b88fc0 modified at 12b88fe8 after it was freed"
or
"HEAP[opencpn_debug.exe]: dedicated (0005) free list element 01DF4418 is marked busy"

then in the windbg command window, type

db 0x12b88fc0 l100

Note the address from the "HEAP..." line.

This will dump memory at the actual corrupted memory block. Hopefully we may recognize the data pattern being erroneously written, and give a clue to the opencpn module making the error.


With any luck we will stumble onto the bad memory write and nail this thing.

Thanks
Dave


btw, are you running XP, XP Pro, or Vista?

[Zoef]

Hi Dave,

In September and the first 2 weeks of October I've been sailing in the Med, using OCPN running on Vista, with CM93/2009 maps, using GPS-Gate and no AIS. In the beginning we had plenty of crashes, but since version 1.3.4 they reduced to 1 or 2 a day. As you already mentioned, these could be related to the use of GPS-Gate.
From an ease-of-use point of view, OCPN licks most commercial programs.

Back home I've installed OCPN on Win7, on the full version and on tiny7; no GPS-Gate this time. It behaves like under Vista.

Thanks for all your efforts.

Klaas

[sinbad7]

I am running OpenCPN latest ver. on Vista Home and using the free 'Virtual Serial Ports Emulator' from eterlogic.com and have NEVER had a crash even with a 7000 plus AIS data feed.

[modul8]

I am running openCPN in Wine in linux with a bluetooth gps tethered wirelessly to my netbook via usb.
when i list usb ports, it says:
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 064e:d101 Acer Crystal Eye Webcam
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
[user@localhost ~]$
so i assume that the GPS signal is going to come from a com port somehow linked to USB bus002 Device 003.
i keep getting an error that the com port won't connnect. WHat am I missing?

[cagney]

modul8

Why are you not using the Linux version of OpenCPN?

Thomas

[modul8]

couldn't get it to install properly. the wine version was easy to install.
perhaps the linux route would tak e some of the pain out of finding the usb bluetooth GPS unit.
are there any linux dudes out there who could walk me through the steps?
i have linpus lite on an acer aspire 1 netbook., 1gb ram.

[manimaul]

Originally Posted by modul8

are there any linux dudes out there who could walk me through the steps?
i have linpus lite on an acer aspire 1 netbook., 1gb ram.

Linpus is Fedora based... so I think you need an rpm. You could try converting the .deb to .rpm using alien I haven't used alien in a long time...try googling ".deb to .rpm using alien".