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franksingleton · 18-05-2011, 07:47

I have been using OpenCPN but find that it crashes my laptop too frequently for comfort. The machine freezes - I cannot even use cntrl-a;t-delete to get to task manager. Sometimes it just stops the touchpad working. I can get out of that fairly easily.

Are there known issues with Win 7?

Any ideas - for a computer simpleton?

I have tried un and re-installing OpenCPN. This led to my next problem. I get the black display with the crude global coast outline. I cannot understand the Help pages that deal with this.

The Help page says -

"If all is just black, with maybe some blue lines, you are viewing the background world vector shoreline chart. You must move to the geographical position of the charts you just loaded. As you come close you will see the outlines of your loaded charts, in red for raster charts and in green for S57 vector charts. Click in the rectangle created by the outlines, to activate, and view the chart."

HOW do I "move to the geographical position of the charts"

Advice, please? It is probably obvious, but not to me.

nohal · 18-05-2011, 08:12

Hi Frank,
no such problems reported AFAIK. Could you post your logfile? On Win7 it should be in C:\ProgramData\opencpn. For more info refer to Installing OpenCPN | Official OpenCPN Homepage - Location of Important Files. Log and config files.

Pavel

Jon Hacking · 18-05-2011, 08:22

Hi Frank - I'm not the right person to answer, but I don't see anyone else doing so. I've been running OCPN 2.3.0 (haven't loaded 2.3.1 yet) on Win7 ever since it came out, with no significant problems, so I can't really help you there. Is your Win7 up to date? I won't go into what other SW you've got loaded, as that's a REAL can of worms (but if you've got a geek friend, you should probably ask them to look for conflicts).

The biggest problem I've had connecting charting programs to GPSs is poor quality Serial-USB converters. NMEA-0182 is 0-5v, where RS232 Serial is +/-9v, so they're NOT the same. A good quality USB-Serial converter will handle this discrepancy OK (although sometimes better when the computer is plugged in & charging) but poor quality ones only want to see RS232 signal levels, & don't know what to do with 0-5v NMEA signal levels. Also, MSFT, in their infinite wisdom, changed the serial port interface in Vista, so your drivers have to be Vista or Win7 drivers, not just XP drivers. FWIW, I've been using a 4-port Serial-USB made by KeySpan for several years. Cost more, but was guaranteed to work with my AIS & it's been trouble free (touch wood).

As far as the charts, what they want you to do is to zoom in to wherever you've got chart coverage. If you're using the CM93 chart database, that should be the whole world, but you didn't say what charts you have. Remember that OCPN won't find your charts by itself - you have to tell it where they are on your hard drive. OCPN will show that black/outline "chart" when it doesn't think it has any other charts to show. Open the Toolbox & make sure your Charts tab includes a valid path to your charts (usually C:\CM93 for the CM93 chart database, otherwise wherever you've stashed your other charts).

Good luck, & sorry I couldn't be more help.

yacht_planb · 18-05-2011, 09:41

I have been running Open CPN on Windows 7 without any issues or problems. It works great. Have you checked your windows event logs? (System and Application logs may go a long way towards solving your problems. Also does it crash with or without the GPS or other devices plugged in?

franksingleton · 18-05-2011, 11:51

Yacht Planb

It can crash with or without the GPS dongle.

franksingleton · 19-05-2011, 01:43

Nobal

I have tried to send you a private email. I am not sure that I have succeeded.

Did you get my log file?

Shall I copy on this forum as a post?

nohal · 19-05-2011, 01:50

Frank,
I did and tried to respond to your @franksweather.co.uk address... No go, so I paste the e-mail text here:

Let's try to clean up the table completely, so that we know there's no hard to trace unrepeatable problem somewhere.
Go to the C:\ProgramData\opencpn\ folder and delete all of it's content.
When you start OpenCPN next time, all will be set to defaults and you will be asked to select a chart location. On the Charts tab in the toolbox, select "C:\Users\frank\Documents\CMAP etc\CM93 Combined" and click "Add Selection" - there will be the path added in the list bellow the button. Click OK at he bottom.
After that you should end up set to 0N,0E with the CM93 chart loaded. If not, send me the log and I will try to have a look why there's a problem.
CM93 is heavily dependent on the directory structure and some of the editions circulating on the internet are broken (probably not your case according to the older logs) - in the working ones, the file C:\Users\frank\Documents\CMAP etc\CM93 Combined\00300000\A\00300000.A should exist. You can check it just to make sure.

Pavel

franksingleton · 19-05-2011, 02:44

Pavel

Many. Many thanks. I am back in business!

I understand a fair amount about weather but am pretty ignorant about the finer workings of computers.

Good sailing.