Help / FAQ

[bcn]

The NMEA0183 XDR sentence is a manufacturer dependent "transducer message". Every manufacturer handles it differently.

There is a discussion at SignalK about the issue:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...lk/Q3QnOATXxSI

and the resume is:

Basically its a really good example of why we need SignalK :-) I think its safe to say that XDR is not standard in any useful way, each variant is it own format

[windsunrain]

Originally Posted by nohal

Jurgen...
These sentences can be added to the dashboard plugin (a bit of programming needed, it's not just some sort of configuration), but first we need to know what they are and how they look from some sort of a documentation...

Pavel

It would be nice to add an option to the dashboard plugin to display a number from an configurable NMEA sentence. Configuration: label/title, NMEA sentence and a regular expression capture group to extract the number... something like that.

I'd be interested in working on this.

Other changes I'd like to see in the dashboard plugin:
- Allow configurable background color and remove the title bar. I'd like it to look more like a commercial LCD data display.

- I would like the dashboard to work in such a way that when there is user interaction with OpenCPN, it temporarily hides. 10-20 seconds later it pops back up.

It might also be nice to add a plugin to make the NMEA data stream available to other software on the computer. Probably would be platform dependent though. Then the above could be implemented in language X.

[bcn]

Originally Posted by windsunrain

It might also be nice to add a plugin to make the NMEA data stream available to other software on the computer. Probably would be platform dependent though. Then the above could be implemented in language X.

The multiplexer in OCPN does that already. Including filtering. Just go through the communication settings.

The other question is if the dashboard is the right way to implement a "glass cockpit" including for data not relevant for navigation like engine parameters or liquid levels.
In my opinion approaches like SignalK do fit better for this purpose - but as said, in my opinion.

[windsunrain]

Originally Posted by bcn

The multiplexer in OCPN does that already. Including filtering. Just go through the communication settings.

The other question is if the dashboard is the right way to implement a "glass cockpit" including for data not relevant for navigation like engine parameters or liquid levels.
In my opinion approaches like SignalK do fit better for this purpose - but as said, in my opinion.

Thank you for sharing your insights. I see that OpenCPN can read from and write to a TCP or UDP socket and the NMEA stream can be shared with a listener on the system through a port on localhost (or on a networked machine).

Maybe a useful listener would be a public message queue which could have multiple subscribers, so OpenCPN doesn't need to make multiple TCP/IP connections. But it would platform or language dependent.

I think I'm going to play around with this a little.

Michiel

[bebox]

I have produced .jpg and corrresponding .map file with georeferencing info: I beliweve opencpn can open these - but how? the normal way of showing chart directory where both files are located does not seem to work. many thax for help!

[bcn]

Bebox,

please go through the relevant pages of the manual:
Chart Formats | Official OpenCPN Homepage

You will find answers for your doubts there.

OCPN does recognize raster charts in the BSBv3 format (.kap)

Hubert

[Gilletarom]

Hello Bebox,

Originally Posted by bebox

I have produced .jpg and corrresponding .map file with georeferencing info: I beliweve opencpn can open these - but how? the normal way of showing chart directory where both files are located does not seem to work. many thax for help!

No, OpenCPN do not open ".map" file.

The best way is to use GE2KAP to make ".kap" file

See here : Sample

[dgondouin]

Just compiled Opencpn release 4.2 and installed it on a new computer running ubuntu 14.04. Unfortunately the language selection window only shows english. Hence there is no possible alternative language. Could this be a bug or what should I do to show up the language list?

[nohal]

If you are not using the official packages (any reason for that?), apply https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/pull/600

Pavel

[kutt]

Originally Posted by dgondouin

Just compiled Opencpn release 4.2 and installed it on a new computer running ubuntu 14.04. Unfortunately the language selection window only shows english. Hence there is no possible alternative language. Could this be a bug or what should I do to show up the language list?

Oh my god .. finally I found someone with the same problem. I really did search the web for ages

OK - I have the same problem.

In the *.deb file the locales shall put to /usr/local/share/locale, and they are there. However OpenCPN seem not to find them.

PS: Of cause it is not an official package since I want to get this running on a Raspberry PI
I also fidled around with the ARMF ubuntu packages, but no luck - I can't install it. OpenCPN tells me that it depends on OpenCPN-tcdata, however - when I try to install OpenCPN-tcdata, it tells me that it depends on OpenCPN ... what a fail

If I compile it myself it knows only "English (U.S.)"

[nohal]

Same answer: https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/pull/600

[kutt]

Ahhh - Sorry!

I did read the link, however i didn't notice that there was a change in the source attached

... compiling - even it's a Raspberry PI 3 - it takes a bit longer

[Ribbit]

Just got the laptop (Asus F555L i3 Windows 10 - only 4gb ram at the moment) and done my first OpenCPN install with a BU-353.

Straightforward install, USA Charts went straight in, all seems very good.

I'm impressed, a big well done to everybody involved.

[jpuype]

I'm refitting my boat planning to use OpenCPN as chartplotter, which in turn is supposed to command a Simrad TP22 tillerpilot. As I still have a spare "IN" connection on my NMEA0183 multiplexor I was wondering if rudder angle information is useful to OpenCPN, will it get me a 'better' course? Currently I don't have the hardware to generate the $IIRSA sentence and would like to know if it would be worthwhile to add?

[bdbcat]

jpuype...

OpenCPN does not consider rudder angle in its autopilot control loop.

For reference, there are really two control loops at work here. The "inner" loop is controlling whether the ship is following the commanded heading. This uses the rudder angle reference and heading reference, and is performed totally by the autopilot hardware.

The "outer" loop is performed by OCPN, and attempts to keep the ship on the commanded rhumbline course. This algorithm uses crosstrack error as the loop error term.

Dave