Feature Requests

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

... If this data is reasonably accurate, then combining it will allow you to directly compute set and drift (subtract water referenced motion from ground referenced motion), which will be hugely useful for those of us who sail in strongly tidal waters. ...

My ancient (c.1995) Autohelm (now Raymarine) GPS would do this, if compass & paddlewheel data was on the ST1 bus. But it would not put set/drift onto the ST1 bus, which meant that the autopilot didn't know anything about currents when you told it to steer to a way-point, a HUGE omission IMHO. The AP would then have to work it out by itself, as XTE increased, sometimes trying to sail too far upwind trying to return to its correct course. If I knew what the set & drift were, I could use the AP dodge function to pre-set it to compensate, but that's a poor "fix".

All of which is a long way to say that set & drift are quite valuable info, IMO.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Jon Hacking

My ancient (c.1995) Autohelm (now Raymarine) GPS would do this, if compass & paddlewheel data was on the ST1 bus. But it would not put set/drift onto the ST1 bus, which meant that the autopilot didn't know anything about currents when you told it to steer to a way-point, a HUGE omission IMHO. The AP would then have to work it out by itself, as XTE increased, sometimes trying to sail too far upwind trying to return to its correct course. If I knew what the set & drift were, I could use the AP dodge function to pre-set it to compensate, but that's a poor "fix".

All of which is a long way to say that set & drift are quite valuable info, IMO.

But this would not consider leeway.

I don't think you care about set and drift for rhumbline navigation to a waypoint. All you need is COG and SOG; that is the "nav mode" in modern pilots. And likewise for CTS navigation over moving water, the instantaenous calculation of set and drift is not needed -- you must have predictions of set and drift for the whole passage in order to formulate your CTS; I have a special program for that.

You DO care about set and drift for tactics when sailing, however. My B&G Zeuses display calculated set and drift from the "Sail Steer" page, but without knowing the lateral speed of the boat through the water (leeway), this is wildly inaccurate. Even more inaccurate with typically inaccurate STW data.

When I built my network 7 years ago, I imagined quite different quality of data than what I ended up with. I spent a lot of money on ultrasonic speed log (Airmar CS4500) and wind instrument (Maretron WSO100), neither of which were actually all that accurate; ditto the H2183 compass.

I replaced the wind instrument last year with an LJCapteurs unit which seems to be somewhat better, but I think I need the long arm to get it out of the upwash -- I have the impression that it is not reading exactly right when sailing hard on the wind.

Now I'm going to replace the CS4500 with the DX900+, and I'm adding the SCX21 compass. I hope finally I will be able to have the kind of data I was imagining back then. It would be really cool to be able to work with the new lateral speed data in OpenCPN.

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

But this would not consider leeway.

I don't think you care about set and drift for rhumbline navigation to a waypoint. All you need is COG and SOG; that is the "nav mode" in modern pilots. ...

Dockhead, it just does the vector subtraction. The paddlewheel & compass define the vector of the boat's motion through the water, while the COG/SOG from the GPS define the motion over the bottom. Subtract those 2 vectors & you get a pair of numbers (inaccurately labeled set & drift) which is the single vector that defines the difference.

This vector does include leeway, as well as currents, tides, etc. A racer might want to split those apart, but we don't race our home. The vector is updated constantly, but since it's not put on the wire, the AP doesn't know about it, & has to use XTE to correct its course to a waypoint. Luckily, that vector usually doesn't change very quickly most of the time (unless sailing the inside passage or similar).

I thought OpenCPN could do that vector subtraction itself, if all 4 parameters were available to it, but I might be thinking of earlier versions of MaxSea.

But I think we're saying much the same thing. Knowing how much your boat is being affected by currents & leeway is useful, whether crossing oceans, day-sailing, or racing.

Are you wanting to further refine that vector?

[rgleason]

DX900+ $1100

The brochure lists a nmea0183 sentence I am not familiar with and I don't believe it is recognized by Opencpn DX900+ Brochure for nmea0183 sentences and nmea2000 pgn. $VMNLA Navigational Leeway Angle.
The "+" version is without paddlewheel and is able to sense the direction through the water up to 6 knots sideways.

• SOG speed over ground
• STW speed thru water
• Altitude
• Pitch Angle
• Roll Angle
• Leeway Angle
• Water distance log
• Water Temperature
• Depth
• Data Log and History Graphs
• Cell phone app

Explanation Graph of Calculated Leeway vs Measured
I think this would work well with the B&G Zeus System over Nmea2000. My Zeus 12 Touch optionally calculates Leeway from tables or shows leeway if available. This information does not get to my old Autohelm autopilot either. I wonder if Sean's Autopilot_Route accepts and uses Leeway information. Probably not.


-------

Furuno SCX20/21 Compass $1000-1100 with 4 heads
20 version is Nmea2000, 21 version is Nmea0183
Uses 4 sensing heads for accuracy, also multi GNSS (GPS, QZSS, GLONASS, Galileo)
Extremely accurate heading, pitch, roll, and heave information
1.0 degree heading accuracy, 0.02 knot speed accuracy
Panbo "much better at handling the multipath interference that can mess with many satellite compasses if they don’t have a very clear sky view"

• Time
• Position
• Heading
• 3-Axis Speed
• Pitch, Roll, Heave
• Rate of Turn (RoT)
• Air Pressure and Temp
• Radar & Ais true motion trails accuracy, particularly Furuno

------

Precision 9 Compass (not GPS) (Simrad, B&G) $645

• heading accuracy of ±2 degrees after calibration
• rate of turn
• roll, pitch and heave data
• high precision for nine separate axes: heading, heel, trim, roll, pitch, yaw, surge and sway
• Nmea2000

------
B&G ZG100 GPS $200

• Position (accurate)
• 10Hz update rate
• Sail Specific COG/SOG filtering for optimum performance
• GPS/Galileo support
• Augmented with WAAS, EGNOS and more
• Integrated heading sensor
• Heel & Trim sensors
• Waterproof (IP67)
• NMEA 2000
• Not recommended for MARPA which needs a rate compass, but still helps radar overlay.

These instruments dwarf my old Raymarine ST60 Tridata budget, but add much better instruments. Regarding wind:


---------


Airmar WX200 Masthead Wind, GPS, Baro, 3 axis gyro & accelerometer, pitch & roll. $1100-1200 Brochure

• Ultrasonic measurement of apparent and theoretical wind speed and direction.
• Wind Speed Accuracy 5% m/s at 4 angles Resolution 0.1 m/s User config damping.
• Wind Direction Accuracy +/-3% at 10m/s. Resolution 0.1 degrees
• Barometric pressure
• Air and wind chill temperature
• Relative humidity (field serviceable option)
• Calculated dew point and heat index
• GPS (10 hz) position, speed over ground, and course over ground
• GPS Position Accuracy: 3 m (10') CEF
• Three-axis, solid-state compass with dynamic stabilization
• Three-axis rate gyro supplies rate-of–turn data
• Three-axis accelerometer for best-in-class pitch and roll information
• 3-axis Compass Accuracy (200WX only): 1° RMS, 1° static heading accuracy; 2° dynamic heading accuracy (three-axis compass, 200WX only) Resolution: 0.1°
• Pitch and Roll Range: 50°Accuracy: ±1° in range of ±30° Resolution: 0.1°
• Housing IPX6 rated for water-ingress protection
• Data output via a single cable (various lengths available)
  • NMEA 0183/ASCII serial data protocol over RS-232 interface
  • NMEA 2000 protocol over CAN
  There is some overlap in output between the DX900+ Hull Transducer and WX200 Masthead which would need to be resolved.

[aBates98]

Hello there! apologies if this has been addressed elsewhere, but I searched as best I could and did not find this request in this thread or on the Flyspray. It may be part of a existing bug I found there(FS#2712), but not directly.

I would like to be able to create my own Man Over Board type button(s). Customized waypoint creator. Single click that will drop a waypoint at the current boat location, with date/timestamps. Customizable Icons as well. Long term wish would be to save grib data in the description.

MOB button currently drops a marker and displays "MAN OVERBOARD at TIME on DATE"

CTRL-O currently drops a marker but no data is visible with it, on screen or in the properties window. This maybe tied to the FS#2712.

Im a small boat Fisherman, who targets Haddock and Dogfish off the coast of Massachusetts. I set short tub trawls, and need to mark the start and end of the sets. I set multiple sets. Daily. My current plotter is getting tired, and i am looking for what to replace it with. OpenCPN certainly looks promising.

I would like to be able to save data with the waypoints, not just a million unnamed waypoints on the screen. Having to go and manually add date and time info to the waypoints is just not conducive while working an active fishing boat. Generally running North and South, ending up 1/2 to 1 mile away from start. Ultimately Id like 2+ customizable buttons, that would drop a waypoint with name - " START (or END) at TIME on DATE". Icon customization as well. Green X for start, Red x for end for example. Click first button at the start and the second button at the end. Being able to save other data in the description would be great as well, either GRIB, or actual water temp, depth, any and all applicable saveable data. Having the "End" button also trigger a Nav To back to "Start" location, similar to the MOB button, would be a reach goal as well. Ultimately this may be more a plugin request then a feature request, but since it seems so similar to the MOB button it may be possible to implement a basic form of it reasonably "easy".

If it would be possible to create a couple custom MOB type buttons, or sets of buttons(Set 1 Start and END, Set 2 Start and End, ect), I would be elated. any additional functions would be icing.

If there is an existing plugin that will accomplish this request, then please direct me to it, thanks!

[Antipole]

@aBates98 ... this sounds a rather user-specific need. You could do all you ask using the JavaScript plugin if you are willing to craft a script.
I suggest you use it to display a dialogue with a start button and on clicking that you create your waypoint and then display an end button. You could have fields to store text comments with the waypoints. You could also create a two-point route from start to end waypoints. Actually, thinking about it you might create the start and end as a route rather than as permanent waypoints. Then when you delete the 'route' the waypoints and data would vanish with the route - if that is what you want.
Have a look at the Build Race Courses example in the plugin user guide. That is not what you are wanting to do, but that example displays successive dialogues and builds routes and would give you an example of how to go about doing what you want.

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by aBates98

MOB button currently drops a marker and displays "MAN OVERBOARD at TIME on DATE"

CTRL-O currently drops a marker but no data is visible with it, on screen or in the properties window. This maybe tied to the FS#2712.

I have been advocating showing WP names (numbers) as an option/default when plotting routes instead of having to laboriously edit the "show" property of each WP.

https://opencpn.org/flyspray/index.p...rom=&closedto=

Combining this with the Time / Date as a comment using the functionality of MOB would be a useful enhancement.

[CarCode]

Flyspray seems not to be observed anymore by any developer.

[buckleykr]

I would love to see Iridium Go listed in the Weatherfax plugin Retrieve menu.
I know I can use my Iridium Go to get the weatherfaxes via email and then import them with appropriate scaling but built in support for the Iridium Go would be wonderful.

[rgleason]

Forget that unless you are a programmer and can help with other problems too, then I might consider merging it as a PR.

[skipperearly]

I want to draw attention to my feature request logged in tracker: FS#2754 - Option to use alternatively the engine when SOG is below a user defined set value.

You may wish to vote for it to attract developers attention.

[rgleason]

We have a sample polar file for the engine use, currently set at 5 knots I believe. Also I believe the manual talks about this.


You can put multiple polar files in your boat configuration, for different sail sets used in different winds, including engine polar.


The plugin will pick the best sail set polar for the conditions, including when to power. The optimal route canll show when the polar changes have occurred (check settings).

Originally Posted by skipperearly

I want to draw attention to my feature request logged in tracker: FS#2754 - Option to use alternatively the engine when SOG is below a user defined set value.

You may wish to vote for it to attract developers attention.

[SamH]

Wishlist for trackmode:

When rightclick waypoint in a deactivated route, choice to activate route starting from this waypoint AND Zero XTE.

VMG/speed-adaptive arrival radius, and/or update radius for all waypoints in a route, not one by one.

[Tehani]

Some gateway users have observed that Raymarine MFPs are capable of rendering navigation data coming from OpenCPN, but not the other way around.
I think it would be interesting if O accepts and represents RMB, XTE and APB obtained from the data inputs (avoiding bridging in this case). This is very useful when we have the multifunction in the binnacle, and at the same time, O is in the cabin.

Another observation: I don't know if the content of the APB sentence (field 8 and 9 "Bearing origin to destination, M / T") has been corrected. In my old version of O, that field has the same angle as fields 11 and 12 "Bearing, Present position to destination".

J.L.

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by SamH

Wishlist for trackmode:

When rightclick waypoint in a deactivated route, choice to activate route starting from this waypoint AND Zero XTE.

VMG/speed-adaptive arrival radius, and/or update radius for all waypoints in a route, not one by one.

Why not enter this into Tracker as a Feature Request and Vote for it and get others to vote.