OpenCPN

[sinbad7]

Hi Dave.. I tried connecting to a live AIS datastream through virtual COM:7 but no targets are shown on the map? I have set up AIS to be received from COM:7.
The top right panel switches to a pale green when the data is being received.
Perhaps this will be fixed soon?

I also notice my cm93 maps are showing very different from for example MaxSea.

Gratulations with an exciting product... You certainly have MY attention..

Regards
Tore

[bdbcat]

Sinbad7:
AIS Data on COM7: I will try to check this out locally. Please describe your configuration. What virtualizer are you using, what IP for the data stream? XP?

Pale green chart info bar means GPS data is received and understood.

CM93 chart presentation: opencpn conforms more closely than many other consumer ECS's to international IMO specification S52 for ENC display. This is a worldwide standard, and promotes portability among watch-keeping officers on all ECDIS equipped ships and boats.

Based on extensive human factors engineering, the main objective of S52 is to reduce clutter and extraneous information. For example, the colors are very carefully selected to produce the most effective viewing under real bridge conditions.

Thus, in high stress conditions at sea (crossings, low viz, etc.), the proper situational awareness is maintained.

Hope this helps
Dave

[fulup]

Obviously I did select gpsd . In fact searching a little more and sniffing exchanged packets in between opencpn and gpsd I was able to move a little further.

• xgps send a "w+x" command to gpsd (see gpsd manual and here after telnet trace)
• opencpn send "OGPSD,O=?" which may work with NMEA but not with my cheap SIRF-3 GPS (by default GPSd try to shift to NMEA mode, but my GPS refused NMEA mode)

GPSd is design to prepare GPS data for the client, unfortunately opencpn does not leverage this mode. To understand how "gpsd" work just enter "telnet localhost 2947" and then type "w+x" and then "enter/return" you should see one preprocessed line for each new info your GPS get. Something like:

# telnet localhost 2947
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.w+x [enter]

• GPSD,X=1244589393.442710,I=SiRF binary GSW3.1.1TO_3.1.00.07-C23P1.00
• GPSD,W=1,X=1244589392.870495
• GPSD,O=GND ? 0.005 47.618571700 -2.761061800 ? 1.280 1.590 ? ? ? ? ? ? 3
• GPSD,O=MID2 1244589394.000 0.005 47.618574892 -2.761060522 11.309 9.000 53.076 322.7381 0.216 0.012 ? ? ? 3

Looking at opencpn gpsd network handler [file=nmea.cpp line=~310] I get the impression that it only waits for raw NMEA [line 379 event.SetExtraLong(EVT_NMEA_DIRECT);] and does not support "GPSd pre-cooked info"

If should not be very hard to make the change, but you this requirer to understand the logic of the code and probably create some EVT_GPSD_DIREC within event.SetExtraLong method, which may take some time.

Question: is there a patched version of openvpn that would support this "gpsd w+x" more ???

[bdbcat]

For fulup....

Thanks for the information on gpsd and SIRF.

It seems that gpsd "watcher" mode is not much different than NMEA mode, so should not be a big problem to implement.

We will try to get this feature implemented in Version 1.3.2. We have quite a list of upgrades going now......

Good job on code and packet analysis, by the way.

Thanks again
Dave

[sinbad7]

Hi Dave..

I'm using a Serial ports emulator to set up virtual COM:7
I am working closely with Siitech of Vancouver and have access to one of their IP/Ports of live AIS data. This is their FREE network: Login
See also my own AIS pages: YACHTMARINE - Live AIS World Ship Monitoring

Using the Serial ports emulator,data is collected from Siitech's IP/Port and output to COM:7
The green info bar proves the data arrives but nothing is displayed on the chart?

I have tried it out on my desktop Win XP as well as my Vista based laptop with the same results.

OpenCPN was designed to work with AIS so what went wrong?
I have read reports in other forums where the AIS is functioning well.

I am using the same 'virtualizers' with Fugawi's Marine ENC as well as SeaClear II with excellent AIS displays on both desktop and laptop running XP and Vista respectively.

I tried emailing you an AIS file as well as an ARPA sentense file for testing purposes but my mail was rejected by your server.

Would be great to have AIS working.

Best regards
Tore

P.S. (retired captain Norwegian merchant fleet and charter skipper 7 years)

[bdbcat]

For Sinbad7

Please tell me exactly the virtualizer you are using, and the IP/Port numbers for the live AIS data stream you are interested in. I'd be happy to try to test and reproduce the problem.

Thanks
Dave

[fulup]

Hi Dave,

Thank you for your quick answer, I hope 1.3.2 is coming soon .

If you need an access to a SIRF-3 GPSd port for your test, let me know I will open my firewall and make this available to you.

Fulup

[idpnd]

Hello,

I am rather impressed with the CM93 implementation (although I haven't been able to get Ed3 files to work, so it's 2001 data - in places it appears to be rather out of date). I have however discovered a quirk, as per the attached images:

From a certain zoom level, some features become invisible. See the port quay on the sample - Ilha Graciosa, Lanzarote - I happen to know this location quite well.

Other points:

> Are there any conversion programmes for Ozimap/WinGPS files to the raster chart format OpenCPN supports? What format would that be?

There's a set of instructions on calibration of raster charts for SeaClear - would this work on OpenCPN? http://www.sping.com/seaclear/chart-making.zip

> Where/how is the tidal data sourced/stored? There doesn't appear to be any data for southern Europe (Atlantic side).

Thanks very much for your attention!

[Wrenna]

I have the same problem with a number of features in CM93 charts, much older than yours. You can make the features reappear by changing the Display Category option in the Vector Charts menu (for example by shifting from MarinersStandard to Standard.) I don't understand. Dave will certainly explain why.

[idpnd]

Couldn't reproduce your solution - changing the display style bakc and forth does not improve matters for me. I also get some weird artifacts at times.

On the plus side, I've gotten a set of CM93/3 (2006) to work..

[sinbad7]

idpnd... HOW did you get CM93/3 to work and WHERE can you get it?

[idpnd]

I borrowed mine of a friend; there's a couple floating around on the relevant filesharing networks however.

> It would be really nice to be able to determine the relative bearing to an object / WP via the properties menu for triangulation

> How would you bring GRIB/weather info onto the screen?

[sinbad7]

The OpenCPN is supposed to be able to display AIS targets on cm93 maps.
I have done 3 separate downloads from different websites and installed on a desktop running Win XP as well as a laptop running Vista and can get none of them to display any AIS targets.

Using the same 'virtualizer' and live IP input source, I have successfully displayed all AIS targets in Fugawi Marine ENC and Seaclear II, so why not in OpenCPN? (Not using cm93) I am reasonably computer literate and have tried all setting alternatives,but no luck.

Out of the four download options I selected the last which should be platform independent. I'd appreciate hearing from someone who's managed to get it to work. Otherwise,fantastic map work...

[bdbcat]

For idpnd....
The two charts you show exhibit the expected behavior. Notice in the chart title bar, upper right on the toolbar. The left chart is CM93 Chart scale E(1/50,000). The right chart is CM93 scale F (1/20,000). As expected, smaller scale charts have more detail, just as in paper charts.

Opencpn automatically chooses the "best" CM93 chart scale to display, based upon the zoom level. This is done for two reasons:
1. Prevent unintentional "over-zoom", which can be dangerous since the underlying chart data will not support such close navigation.
2. Improve program responsiveness, by not requiring such fine detail chart rendering when zoomed out, relatively.

This is in contrast to other CM93 ECS's, which ask the user to choose the desired CM93 chart scale explicitely. We prefer the opencpn automatic method for everyday underway navigation.

Re: Chart formats....
Opencpn supports BSB raster charts. Any conversion program which will produce BSB charts may be used to create charts for opencpn. We have no plans for a scanned chart calibration program as part of opencpn.

Re: French tidal data....Sorry, have no clue. Opencpn uses the same tidal database as most other worldwide tide prediction programs. Coverage is spotty outside of North America. If anyone has a source for more complete world tidal data, I'd be happy to incorporate it into the opencpn dataset.

Thanks for your comments
Dave

[sinbad7]

Here are a few utilities to convert bitmaps to BSB format.
libbsb - Read, Write and Convert BSB charts

Let us know how you get on.