Feature Requests

[brucechun]

Dave,
I am not sure if a VDR from OpenCPN will be played back by other program. It can be any format if it is only OpenCPN will play back the file. If needed, OpenCPN may provide a redirect stream in pain text to external program like the AIS does.
Certainly, the processing load is another concern.

[bcn]

Bruce...

what you can do today - independent from OpenCPN - is to pipe a NMEA0183 stream into a file and the VDR plug-in will play it.
A "time stamped" file format will create the additional conditions or will require some add-ons as outlined in my former post.

And btw: I would find such an enhanced version of the VDR interesting and useful. Adding correct time-lapse or slow-motion replay.

Not much burden for the PC

Hubert

[brucechun]

Hi Hubert,

It is great.

Bruce

[RhythmDoctor]

I have an feature to request:

Add an entry to the context-sensitive (right-click) menu to filter charts for RNC only, ENC only, or both. Upon selecting RNC or ENC, the blue or green piano buttons become the only ones that show up at the bottom of the screen.

Explanation: I know that this can currently be done with chart groups, and I use that feature extensively to accomplish this. But with multiple groups already created for different regions of the world and different chart sources (NOAA, NGA, etc.), separating ENC and RNC doubles the number of folders and chart groups that I need to create. It becomes complicated.

So having a menu item to do this could simplify the use of chart groups.

I find that I use ENC files when doing real-time chartplotting on the boat (so I can use course-up mode and still see depth soundings right-side up), but use RNC files for advance planning at the nav station (so I don't suffer delays due to recreating SENC files when I pan to new areas). This is such a frequently used filter that it deserves its own menu item.

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by bcn

Bruce...



what you can do today - independent from OpenCPN - is to pipe a NMEA0183 stream into a file and the VDR plug-in will play it.

A "time stamped" file format will create the additional conditions or will require some add-ons as outlined in my former post.



And btw: I would find such an enhanced version of the VDR interesting and useful. Adding correct time-lapse or slow-motion replay.



Not much burden for the PC



Hubert

I too would like a VDR real time player. I believe for NMEA streams with GPS data the time line is in the data since GPS produces time information. Thus I have thought to use that as a way to regulate the playback speed. Then any regular NMEA file can be played in real time or faster/slower as desired. Where this idea won't work is with network streams. My vdrplayer Python script would be a good starting point for a real time NMEA player/server. Then O would not need to change to have this realtime aspect.

[rgleason]

RDr why not add this as Tracker item Feature request?

[rgleason]

Brucechun
Improvements to VDR would help us with testing. There are several tracker items for improvements, but a timestamped real time player recorder has not been requested yet. Suggest you weite the request up in tracker

[MAS3]

Hi.

I tried reading back a few pages but didn't find an earlier request yet.
New AIS'es transmit message 5 in version 2 or higher.
Since may 2016, new inland installations (unit exchanges included) are required to be of this higher AIS version.
So from now on we will never see ships names of the newer vessels.

It would be nice to have support for a higher version of those AIS messages.
If this requires some extra information, please let it know, i will put in some requests on how to handle these newer messages in that case.

[nohal]

MAS3...
If you have some documentation for the changes introduced in AISv2+ at hand, it would save us some searching...

Thanks

Pavel

[rgleason]

MAS3 tracker or flyspray is located at opencpn.org look in tabs on the right. Register and make a new feature request.

[did-g]

Originally Posted by bcn

Bruce...

what you can do today - independent from OpenCPN - is to pipe a NMEA0183 stream into a file and the VDR plug-in will play it.
A "time stamped" file format will create the additional conditions or will require some add-ons as outlined in my former post.

And btw: I would find such an enhanced version of the VDR interesting and useful. Adding correct time-lapse or slow-motion replay.

Not much burden for the PC

Hubert

Hi,
NMEA versions > 4 have a tag block and there's a timestamp parameter. VDR could add one when writing sentences to disk.
cf AIVDM/AIVDO protocol decoding

[P_Dub]

How to increase the size of the ICON tide pole when showing the tide?
Best Regards.

[P_Dub]

Thanks for your kind help.

[Alan Hoeneisen]

Recommendations to improve OpenCpn

1- I am using version 4.2. The drop down box to chose a way point icon is too long. On my computer it goes off screen so I can no longer select some of the options. In the previous version it was OK.
2- If you zoom into your area you can visually see in what direction you are moving. As you zoom out there comes a time when your location is shown as a mark. There is no longer visual indication of your heading. To tell were you are going you now have to look at the small numbers at the bottom of the screen. I would recommend adding a fine line (Or dashed line) of a reasonable length to the position mark so that when zoomed out you can also SEE in what direction you are moving. It could be turned off in preferences.
3- For the OpenCpn version for phones and tablets: What works well for these devises is a center screen reference point. This way the information for the center screen can be displayed. If I move a point of interest to center screen I can get its lat, long and course and distance to my location. (In the PC version of OpenCpn this information is displayed for the mouse pointer)
PS Regarding my software ImageCal and MapKap (Yacht Bebinka home page) I wrote them about a year and a half ago because I did not find software on your page that did the job for me. To date could not figure how to contact you about it. Thanks for mentioning them, they may be of use to others. Have a nice day. Alan

[.Paul.]

Originally Posted by Alan Hoeneisen

Recommendations to improve OpenCpn

1- I am using version 4.2. The drop down box to chose a way point icon is too long. On my computer it goes off screen so I can no longer select some of the options. In the previous version it was OK.

Alan,

The dropdown Icon list in the Waypoint Properties dialog was too tall in OpenCPN 4.2.0 and OpenCPN 4.2.1. This is fixed in OpenCPN 4.4.0, the current version.

Paul