OpenCPN and Lowrance 4G not working

[cruzrr]

Hello people!

I bought a Lowrance 4G broadband radar to use with my laptop, but I ran into problems. OpenCPN is not plotting any data. I installed Navico Broadband Radar Plugin and connected my laptop to the NETWORK port on my RI10 unit.

The plugin lights up green and Radar sending data is checked. Radar IP [IP ADDRESS] is also checked, but boat position and heading is not checked. I thought that was the reason that nothing was displaying on the screen.

So I bought a RC42 compass and connected it to the SIMNET, but it still doesn't work - heading is still unchecked. OpenGL is working properly because the Emulator mode is displaying data. But I can't get the actual radar to work.

Is the compass necessary to plot data from the radar in OpenCPN? I know that it won't show the ship heading correctly. But is it possible without the compass?

Maybe someone that has a working OpenCPN setup with Lowrance 3G, 4G or even BR24 radar can help me.

Thanks!

[NahanniV]

Yes, compass data is required by the plugin before it will display.

The code that allows heading to be received from Simnet on the RI-10 is very recent, perhaps you need a newer version.

[NahanniV]

You also need Position in OpenCPN, the GPS symbol in the upper right corner of OpenCPN must be green.

Perhaps in the future, there will be an option to display a RADAR image over a blank screen, but for now it is always over the chart, therefore the heading and position are required.

If you want to test your installation before you get the heading and position sorted out you could use the VDR(Vessel Data Recorder and Playback) plugin to supply heading and Position.

Cut and paste this into a text file, then select that text file when you open the VDR plugin:

$AIHDT,010.0,T
$GPGGA,174708.000,4311.8317,N,07934.5014,W,1,07,1.5,82.4,M,-34.7,M,,0000
$GPGSA,M,3,26,15,29,13,21,05,18,,,,,,3.6,1.5,3.3
$GPRMC,174708.000,A,4311.8317,N,07934.5014,W,0.00,015.00,151214,,,A

[Hakan]

Cruzrre....
To continue NahanniV's discussion:
You new fine compass data must be transferred into OCPN.
>Do you see the compass data in your Simnet anywhere.
>Is your Simnet connected to OCPN for NMEA 0183 transmission with either a ....HDM or ...HDT sentences. (Please tell if we should explain this in more details)
>Or is the heading connected to the Radar itself? Then you need another version of the plugin, as said. We can solve that, please tell.
>And of course must also the boat's position be known from a GPS as NahanniV... said.

It's very good you got the radar network connection up and running, no firewall or other obstacles then.

This will for sure be solved as long we all understand what's going on. Hang on....

Håkan

[cruzrr]

Originally Posted by Hakan

Cruzrre....
To continue NahanniV's discussion:
You new fine compass data must be transferred into OCPN.
>Do you see the compass data in your Simnet anywhere.
>Is your Simnet connected to OCPN for NMEA 0183 transmission with either a ....HDM or ...HDT sentences. (Please tell if we should explain this in more details)
>Or is the heading connected to the Radar itself? Then you need another version of the plugin, as said. We can solve that, please tell.
>And of course must also the boat's position be known from a GPS as NahanniV... said.

It's very good you got the radar network connection up and running, no firewall or other obstacles then.

This will for sure be solved as long we all understand what's going on. Hang on....

Håkan

Thanks for all the replies.
> I don't see my compass data anywhere, where exactly should I see them?
> Where can I find out if it uses HDM or HDT sentences?
> The compass is connected to the RI10 unit like this:

How should I connect the compass to make it work? using NMEA2000 or SimNet? Because now it seems like it is NMEA2000.

These diagrams can be found in the Lowrance 4G radar manual on pages 18 & 17 - http://www.lowrance.com/Root/Lowranc...3-003_EN_P.pdf

Do I have something wrong in my setup?

[cruzrr]

Originally Posted by NahanniV

You also need Position in OpenCPN, the GPS symbol in the upper right corner of OpenCPN must be green.

Perhaps in the future, there will be an option to display a RADAR image over a blank screen, but for now it is always over the chart, therefore the heading and position are required.

If you want to test your installation before you get the heading and position sorted out you could use the VDR(Vessel Data Recorder and Playback) plugin to supply heading and Position.

Cut and paste this into a text file, then select that text file when you open the VDR plugin:

$AIHDT,010.0,T
$GPGGA,174708.000,4311.8317,N,07934.5014,W,1,07,1.5,82.4,M,-34.7,M,,0000
$GPGSA,M,3,26,15,29,13,21,05,18,,,,,,3.6,1.5,3.3
$GPRMC,174708.000,A,4311.8317,N,07934.5014,W,0.00,015.00,151214,,,A

Will the OpenCPN not display anything without GPS coordinates? Do I need a GPS module or can I enter the coordinates manually?

[Hakan]

cruzrr...
Let's see if we sort this out.
Compass;
From your picture and descriptions it's clear for me that the compass is connected to a Simnet or NMEA2000 bus. What I know about the 4G is that now the radar has a heading signal from the compass. But NahanniV can verify this. He has a 4G while I have the BR24 where that heading connection is not possible.
No, of course you can't see any heading so far.

OpenCPN;
To have use of the radar on OCPN you need a GPS, heading, charts and the radar signal. The GPS must be there to position the boat on the charts and the heading to point out where the front of the boat is pointing. Now the radar picture can be shown around the boat as a (transparent) overlay on the charts.
A GPS must be connected to OCPN. Please read OCPN wiki: OpenCPN User Manual | Official OpenCPN Homepage.

Compass, Radar 4G and OCPN:
Normally you can use a compass sending NMEA0183 to feed a heading into OCPN. Now your compass is probably NMEA2000 (or Simnet) BUT: Since you've a 4G the heading signal can be transferred from the compass via Simnet to the radar and from the radar via RI10 and the IP-cable into OCPN via the network connection.
BUT(2), the opportunity to let OCPN and the BR24Radar_pi plugin to get use of a heading signal coming via the radar is not implemented in the official plugin, but in a test-beta version where that change is recently developed and tested by Douwe and I think also tested by NahanniV.

Next step:
To be able to serve you that beta version of the plugin we need to know:
Your PC environment, Win, Mac, Linux
Your OCPN version. Must be at least 4.0

I hope my English is understandable enough, else please ask.

Håkan

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by cruzrr

Will the OpenCPN not display anything without GPS coordinates? Do I need a GPS module or can I enter the coordinates manually?

Correct, the Navico RADAR plugin will not display anything until GPS is present; Perhaps a future version could allow it to do otherwise.

The way you have your compass connected should work provided you have the correct versions of OpenCPN and the Navico RADAR plugin. What versions do you have ?

[cruzrr]

I am using OpenCPN version 4.0 and Navico Broadband Radar Plugin version 1.1. My operating system is Windows 8, but I can switch to Linux if needed.

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by cruzrr

I am using OpenCPN version 4.0 and Navico Broadband Radar Plugin version 1.1. My operating system is Windows 8, but I can switch to Linux if needed.

The version of the RADAR plugin you have will not read the heading data supplied by the RI-10. I'm not sure where you can get a version that will work with the RI-10 and OpenCPN 4.0.

If you are OK with Beta software, download the Beta of OpenCPN 4.1.xxx from the main download page and download the RADAR plugin from here:
Plugins for OpenCPN 4.1 | Official OpenCPN Homepage
The plugin that works with the RI-10 will have an option in it's prefrences menu to "pass RADAR heading to OpenCPN"; If you check that you should see a heading line on your ship icon.
You will still need a GPS fix.

[Hakan]

NahanniV, cruzrr..
Nahan... I think the plugin version Pavel created for o version 4.1... and wx-3.0 is the official one, not Douwes change.

I do not have a suitable environment to create a binary for O 4.0 but Douwes code is here: https://github.com/douwefokkema/BR24radar_pi/tree/test2 I'm running that version now and it's fine for BR24.
Nahan... I don't know if you can build from source and have a 4.0 environment?
And cruzrr.., am I right if I presume you can't build from source?

I'll check with Douwe if has the file but I know he's busy with his sail journey departure.

To be continued...
Håkan

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by Hakan

NahanniV, cruzrr..
Nahan... I think the plugin version Pavel created for o version 4.1... and wx-3.0 is the official one, not Douwes change.

I do not have a suitable environment to create a binary for O 4.0 but Douwes code is here: https://github.com/douwefokkema/BR24radar_pi/tree/test2 I'm running that version now and it's fine for BR24.
Nahan... I don't know if you can build from source and have a 4.0 environment?
And cruzrr.., am I right if I presume you can't build from source?

I'll check with Douwe if has the file but I know he's busy with his sail journey departure.

To be continued...
Håkan

The plugin that I linked to reports ver. 1.2 and has the option to "pass RADAR heading to OpenCPN" in it's preferences dialog.

Sorry Cruzrr, the problem is that the plugin that supports the RI-10 is quite new. You could use the older (stable) releases if you can get your heading data into OpenCPN; I think your RC42 has NMEA0183 output as well, perhaps you could temporarily connect that ?

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by NahanniV

The plugin that I linked to reports ver. 1.2 and has the option to "pass RADAR heading to OpenCPN" in it's preferences dialog.

Ok - very good, didn't know.

Sorry Cruzrr, the problem is that the plugin that supports the RI-10 is quite new. You could use the older (stable) releases if you can get your heading data into OpenCPN; I think your RC42 has NMEA0183 output as well, perhaps you could temporarily connect that ?

I've raised a question to Douwe for a OCPN 4.0 version of the plugin, let's await a day or to?

Håkan

[northwestsailor]

I use the 4G radar, with OpenCPN on a Mac, over GoFree WIFI1 and it works fine. Just don't try to use the radar controls on the plotter at the same time. It will crash.

[Douwe Fokkema]

A summary of the versions of the BR24radar_pi:
Last December there was 1.1. On top of that Håkan added the "timed transmit" and I added the "heading on radar" and the "fast refresh". For the fast refresh I made the display process faster, so that the image can be refreshed 25 times per second. You can now see the beam rotating! Kees picked this up, polished it and added corrections and we decided it was good enough for release 1.2. This version is intended for OCPN 4.1 with wx-3.0. But I have also tested it with OCPN 4.0, wx-2.7. In that case the BR24radar_pi has to be compiled with wx-2.7 and the opencpn.lib from OCPN4.0.
However shortly after our release 1.2 I tried to put the software on a very slow Win7 computer and it crashed systematically at radar start. I also tried the old version 1.1 and the crash was identical. See https://github.com/canboat/BR24radar_pi/issues/73. I did locate the problem and the corrected 1.2 sources are now at https://github.com/douwefokkema/BR24radar_pi. Attached is a .dll binary for Windows with OCPN 4.0 (remove the pdf extension). This is the version I am using myself on-board now.