Feature Requests

[LeaseOnLife]

Originally Posted by JesperWe

Unfortunately there is no features in wxWidgets for a user configurable toolbar, and creating support for this is a lot of work.

This is unfortunate.... The hide-able "print", "track", and the plug-in icons made me believe otherwise.

However, in the next release (and the current beta), you are able to use my UI Style features to hide certain icons in a style. So given that you don't need to modify it too often you can now do this. (See [3.1 Beta only!] User Interface Styles | Official OpenCPN Homepage)

Thanks, I used the <hide-in-toolbar/>tag to hide tide and current (not needed in the Great Lakes).

Not a nice way of doing it, and having to restart opencpn, but it works.

Good enough for me... Thanks!

Dirk

[LeaseOnLife]

Originally Posted by steve232

Great software, I've been running it in along with a commercial package.

But, I'm having trouble getting my head around the lat/lon thing. Fishing in the NE USA, we use Loran TD's. It's a hard habit to break after 40 years of "fishing the edge of the ledge around the 13520".

It would be nice if the loran display feature could be added. We likely will use them until the MFG's stop offering the option in the equipment they sell!

Thanks
Steve

Not exactly what you want, but maybe still helpful...

Most NOAA raster charts for that area do show Loran TDs. This screenshot is from chart 13325_1.kap and does show TD 5930-X-13520.

Charts available (free) here:
Chart Downloader for NOAA RNC&#174

Dirk

[JesperWe]

Originally Posted by LeaseOnLife

This is unfortunate.... The hide-able "print", "track", and the plug-in icons made me believe otherwise.

Thanks for spoiling my evening

Of course that sounds really ugly, doesn't it... So I decided it had to change and did it better. Button visibility will become configurable through a context menu. But don't come asking about moving buttons around next.

And BTW, <hide-in-toolbar> dies as a consequence of this.

[LeaseOnLife]

Originally Posted by JesperWe

Thanks for spoiling my evening

Of course that sounds really ugly, doesn't it... So I decided it had to change and did it better. Button visibility will become configurable through a context menu. But don't come asking about moving buttons around next.

And BTW, <hide-in-toolbar> dies as a consequence of this.

[JonPan]

I have been developing additional features for personal use on top of OpenCPN for a couple of years mainly because I developed some hardware to consolidate all the NMEA/Seatalk data on a network aboard my boat.

Since the communications changes are unique to me I have never bothered trying to roll it back in to the main build but my changes are dotted all over. Having worked on this and through a few version updates of OpenCPN it strikes me that it may be worthwhile moving the comms side of things, autopilot support etc to plugins. This would mean that adding support for a particular product or manufacturer would never interfere with an existing one and that we would not have to pile them all on top of each other in one module.

Let me know what you think, I would be happy to do/participate in the dev work if needed.

Regards


Jon

[bdbcat]

jon....

Welcome aboard. I'm glad you have been able to adapt O to your particular environment, and you can get some value from it.

We are shortly going to roll out a major rework of the comm's interface to OpenCPN. Probably break all your work.

But, that would be a good time to incorporate some of the modularization that you indicate. Please stay tuned as this come up in the next week or so. We would be more than happy to have you join the dev team.

Thanks
Dave

[Jon Hacking]

Hi Jon. I, for one, would LOVE to have a SeaTalk interface in OCPN. The silly SeaTalk to NMEA converters from Raymarine seem to be extremely sensitive to RF (or something) as I've blown up 2 of them now (@$180 each...) despite ferrites on all lines.

[JonPan]

Thanks Dave,

I have sailed over 400 miles using O and my electronics, a great combination.

I will keep an eye out for posts on this subject.

Regards


Jon

[hellosailor]

Jon-
Unlikey that RF would blow out a converter, but simple electrical spikes would do that. A normal starter can throw 600 volt spikes, a bigger diesel over 2000 volts, during normal starting. Ferrites won't help that, you might look into spike protection on your electronics.

[LeaseOnLife]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Jon-
.....you might look into spike protection on your electronics.

Yeah, Raymarine should have done that. I also killed two seatalk<->nmea converters (E85001). Then I bought a brookhouse nmea multiplexer with seatalk. Works since 2008.

We might be slightly off-topic... To get back to it: I would love to see seatalk, seatalk-ng, seatalk-hs/nmea2000 integration into opencpn. For some we will need some extra HW.

Dirk

[JonPan]

Originally Posted by Jon Hacking

Hi Jon. I, for one, would LOVE to have a SeaTalk interface in OCPN. The silly SeaTalk to NMEA converters from Raymarine seem to be extremely sensitive to RF (or something) as I've blown up 2 of them now (@$180 each...) despite ferrites on all lines.

I have one but haven't installed it yet, good info that they are sensitive, I will check that there are some surge devices that might protect that a bit more.

[cagney]

Originally Posted by JesperWe

Thanks for spoiling my evening

Of course that sounds really ugly, doesn't it... So I decided it had to change and did it better. Button visibility will become configurable through a context menu. But don't come asking about moving buttons around next.

And BTW, <hide-in-toolbar> dies as a consequence of this.

I don't think it's a good idea to allow the MOB button to become invisible, for obvious reasons.

Thomas

[JesperWe]

Originally Posted by cagney

I don't think it's a good idea to allow the MOB button to become invisible, for obvious reasons.

Good point, but I can also see many installations where this button has no use what so ever. So I made it a little stickier:

[cagney]

Originally Posted by JesperWe

Good point, but I can also see many installations where this button has no use what so ever. So I made it a little stickier:
.......

OpenCPN ....

is designed to be used continuously at the helm station of an underway ship or boat.

I can't see any good reason, from this perspective, to even make it possible, not to display the MOB button. When you need it, you may have very little choice, and the button must be instantly accessible.
Thomas

[jlsail]

Hi
Do you think its possible to have a connection from the raymarine lifetag system to trigger the MOB function in Opencpn? would have been great since all other Mob systems is a little to bulky for my likeing, You can wear a lifetag pendant even when you are of watch. For the personal ais system you need to wear the lifejacket.

cheers
Johan