NMEA Instrument emulation (streaming)

[RonSouthworth]

I'm certain everyone is on the look for applications to emulate instruments so they can test their installation. It is challenging to find non windows based tools.

I have found one simple, multi platform java application (chrome browser plugin app) since the last time I went looking. I've tested it with chrome on, lunux ubuntu studio 18.19, and macOS (Mojave).

Seems to be fairly stable, not a huge number of features compared to the commercial windows only offerings, however it works.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...knlipcll?hl=en

Still Looking for more feature rich alternatives that work on linux and macOS features that include AIS & RADAR.

Smooth sailing waters for you all

[Moo]

Ask a friendly native for a nmea log and play it back with the VDR plugin or similar.

[conachair]

Great find!

[conachair]

Great find!

[Rasbats]

ShipDriver plugin (Beta at the moment)? Works on Linux/Win.

This does AIS.

Mike

[transmitterdan]

Also there is this which is usable on all OS.

https://github.com/transmitterdan/VDRplayer

[svspirited]

I've gotten this to work on Mac as well:



The link to the package to install it is here:

https://github.com/svspirited/shipdr...Plugin_2.1.pkg

Originally Posted by Rasbats

ShipDriver plugin (Beta at the moment)? Works on Linux/Win.

This does AIS.

Mike

[stevead]

In addition to the plugins that have already been mentioned (Shipdriver & Voyage Data Recorder), you could simply pipe NMEA0183 data via a com port.

For example use Com0Com to create a pair of virtual serial ports. One port is used by OpenCPN and the other port is used to write the NMEA0183 data. Assuming Com0Com has created a pair of virtual serial ports named COM5 and COM6, you would configure OpenCPN to use COM6 and the Powershell script listed below is configured to use COM5

$sp=new-Object System.IO.Ports.SerialPort COM5,115200,None,8,one
$sp.open()
while($true) {
  foreach($line in Get-Content 'D:\nmea 0183 samples\sample.log') {
    write-host($line)
    $sp.writeline($line)
  }
}

where the file 'sample.log; contains NMEA0183 data such as the following:

$GPRMC,164547.00,A,4351.46542,N,00758.15624,E,0.006,,240610,,,A*7E
$IIVHW,,,,,5.7,N,10.4,K*7B
$IIMWV,130.0,R,11.4,N,A*0B
$IIDPT,3.0,-0.3,100.0*6E
$IIMTW,25.4,C*10

[RonSouthworth]

Thanks Steve,

I very much appreciate your suggestions and everyone else for that matter.

I’ve used replay tools before, something that does things dynamically makes testing a heap easier.

I have quite a few tools but they are windows based, there are plenty of commercial products, at the moment out of my budget, windows machine is broken, but time is a commodity, I have some...

I had a good look at ShipDriver_pi m and have tweaked it a bit, just one more tweak now to get it to follow the active route to-point which was on Mikes to do list?

Ive got to figure out the API configuration, and hooking the NMEA messaging side of stuff in OpenCPN so the final tweak will take be a while.

Alarms - watchdog does that well


See how mike goes sailing to the Bahama’s next winter is my aim.

Looking at Mikes / transmitter dan Sean et al various code modules reminded me that I wrote something in java in the mid eighties.

it was / (is) I believe used by a few equipment vendors to demonstrate and test installations of their hardware and software. One marine place uses it locally never paid me for it so they are always a bit sheepish with me....

I coded up a basic vessel sim, it generates NMEA messages so stuff attached looks and “sees” a vessel with a gps that has a good fix with a few instruments the minimum for power or sail too look realistic. Had some leeway / current values and even some lag and dynamics around setpoints so the instruments wiggled etc. the spherical model was the simple one not WGS84, and a lot of other things like that i wanted to change....

If only i still had it ...,

The source, i thought was lost but....


i found it! on a very old thumb drive, actually one my children used as a toy for a few years rusty and bent, but still working!


So I am going to see if i can update my code rewrite it really in c++

My idea is to use shipdriver as my starting point and porting my code into the mix from that.


I posted similar above on the shipdriver_pi topic

Most of the fun with U/I so far is getting two throttles (sliders) side by side. It’s about the only thing that is not playing nice. The other configuration and layout styling i have examples to use as a starting point.

WxFormBuilder isn’t intuitive, considering that from XML it creates code for the GUI is handy just the same. I have grabbed a heap of other form layouts and merged them into the form builder.

Merging xml is a lot easier than merging code....

Thanks once again


/Ron

[rgleason]

Dan can you consult with regard to a python script to https read line by line to remove lines and join about 8 xml files and then upload the result to a service using their api? It's for Leamas Plugin Installer. I want to help him with it and he has assigned this task.

But I am finding stumbling blocks. I am learning slowly I am afraid.


1. I can read the files locally, filter xml and then print the file names.
2. I can read an xml file locally line by line, and print the result.
I am having trouble with pathnames and other details.
I have not figured out how to join the xml files nor have I worked on https get line by line and upload.

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

Also there is this which is usable on all OS.

https://github.com/transmitterdan/VDRplayer

[transmitterdan]

Rick,

At the moment I don’t have much free time due to work projects. If you PM me I can give you an email address where you can describe what you want me to help with. I’ll help as I have time.

[rgleason]

Ron, I intended to include a link to Dan's VDRplayer, which I use quite a lot when I have it setup, with 4 or 5 different nmea files in the Launcher_pi program. Launcher_pi is for Windows and allows you to enter the command needed to start the VDRplayer with the file location, speed, etc. It is a delight when you get it set up.
I have been installing so many versions of Opencpn lately, that I have not had it setup yet, though I have kept the opencpn.ini section for launcher_pi which will save some time.


VDRplayer

https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...ents#vdrplayer

You can also use VDRplayer from a simple python command window to run the script and selected file.


Dan I sent a note.

[RonSouthworth]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Ron, I intended to include a link to Dan's VDRplayer, which I use quite a lot when I have it setup, with 4 or 5 different nmea files in the Launcher_pi program. Launcher_pi is for Windows and allows you to enter the command needed to start the VDRplayer with the file location, speed, etc. It is a delight when you get it set up.
I have been installing so many versions of Opencpn lately, that I have not had it setup yet, though I have kept the opencpn.ini section for launcher_pi which will save some time.


VDRplayer

https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...ents#vdrplayer

You can also use VDRplayer from a simple python command window to run the script and selected file.


Dan I sent a note.

Thamks Rick

I will circle around to the VDR at some point in time.

Hopefully this photo might give an idea on what i am aiming to achieve .....

Starting to get my head around form builder.

The underlying XML is interesting, Ive merged a few different forms together so plenty of ideas from it.


Looking forward to gluing it all together.


/Ron

[rgleason]

Very interesting. I did some layouts for Shipdriver and sent them to Mike, he accepted some of the ideas.

Just a note of caution about wxFormBuilder:
1. Always use the most current version when changing things in plugins.
2. Be somewhat careful about using wxFormBuilder because sometimes/often the author has used FB and then hand coded, so you will be changing his settings back to the formbuilder version if you save it. So you want to be sure all menus are working properly and as expected.

3. There are small variations between OS too I believe.

[RonSouthworth]

Hi Rick

Thanks for the advise on wxFormBuilder. In working out compiler errors it was apparent very quickly that people had not kept the form for the given project up to date.

The header warns people not to do that very thing, however people have time constraints. So it happens.

The good news is formbuilder forms are an xml data structure. When you hit compile it creates the code....

I have worked out how to merge form projects and the really painful thing of getting the “display” where and how i want it / finally makes some sense. Usual fun with open source tools and cryptic bread crumbs.

I have some thoughts on a process to convert forms and the GUI code so the form builder can be used again. As i sat the to do list gets bigger

Form builder has the features to accomodate adding code blocks / plugins for form builder but working it out takes a lot of effort i think. I have persisted with it....


A lot of SCADA systems use a similar type of arrangement to get stuff happening

that is some sort of GUI to create the HMI human machine interface, you then have to write code underneath all of that, stuff like fortran COBOL and C++ and some really exotic languages and scripting engines so it is in many ways an all to familiar a process to me.

I have a first pass GUI worked out stuff probably to add to it to help debug features but the building blocks are all there for what i have in mind to do....

I have been working on the rudder indicating and messaging routines, and looking at porting my GPS emulation routines across lots to do


/Ron