OpenCPN General

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by HappySeagull

Off topic,but you'd think someone would glue on a little solar panel,wouldn't you?There's plenty of little panels for garden lights that'd work...
Likely it's beendone...?

It's not a real problem for me: I do have 2 rechargeable batteries for my puck, a 12 volts recharge unit for the puck and a 100 watts solar panel to charge my 12 volts batteries. Another hint for iron boats: There is also an external antenna available for most GPS pucks, so the puck may be still installed inside the cabin of an iron boat.

[PhilFun]

WOW openCPN is looking good.
i am using linux ubuntu - that is the next best thing - Windows is has simply outlived its usefulness if you are the kind of person who want s to get on with things,

anyway - question in process - this is part of the easy set up - for speed limit the chart loads- exactly where do you set this variable?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.. thanks>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

2. Open chart limit. This is the default mode under Linux, and the default value is 20 open charts at any one time.

Modify this limit by the following:
......
[Settings]
NCacheLimit=yy
......
Where yy is the maximum number of simultaneously open charts.

If you do not enter any memory management specification in the config file, the following defaults apply:

a. Linux... behavior is the same as previous versions, Open chart limit is 20 charts.
b. Windows...Application memory limit target is used. Target limit is 50% of available physical RAM.

[HappySeagull]

[QUOTE=PhilFun;816762]WOW openCPN is looking good.
i am using linux ubuntu - that is the next best thing - Windows is has simply outlived its usefulness if you are the kind of person who want s to get on with things,

anyway - question in process - this is part of the easy set up - for speed limit the chart loads- exactly where do you set this variable?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.. thanks>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
/QUOTE]
...ok.I vaguely remember this...If I get you right,that is.
You would type the whole thing in yourself as in:

NCacheLimit=whatever number

because the default limit is hidden in O's innards.You don't see it written anywhere.


In windows you would type it into the ini file under [settings] and I think it'd be as in mb....?

(would that be in config file for penguinpeople?)
I did try this a long while ago -never in earnest.Memory usage hasn't been any kind of an issue on any of my machines.

aah!Now I see..You are quoting from the help file.GoodMan..
Low Power Systems | Official OpenCPN Homepage
so my memory is ok.. that's good guess, eh?
anyways,yeah.you have to type it in yourself.It IS for low power systems.Mine are pretty low.PIII wih 512 and never noticed,so it's likely a feature for shared ram netbooks?
.

[PhilFun]

Thanks HSeagull, i am not sure if you are using windows or linux? i guess the problem i am having is that linux does swop a lot. i too have just 512Mb ram.

still i had tried entering that line into the .config file but what i am trying to do is find out how to determine if the action has actually worked? as in using the 'free' command in our terminal window.

[cagney]

Try to use he command "top" and look in the %MEM column.
This command gives you a good summary of what's going on.
Use "q" to quit "top"
Thomas

[Rhoel_Asia]

Not sure if this is an existing known bug or a feature request so I'm raising this first in General.

GPX Import.
I imported an old GPX route which contains actual dates (Time Stamps).

I wanted to see how long each leg would take but I cannot find a way of updating the ETE/timestamps. I can see others might need to do this... ie, import old data for use in the planning a new trip.

I played with this to see if there was way to fool the program into updating - I discovered adding a new way-point produced the current time; add two new way-points and I get the elapsed times from the new data, then the count returns to the old timestamps again: All very confusing.

So the question is "Should this be a new feature - a button to recalculate the ETE?"

Since the subroutines already exist to calculate point to point, I am hoping the work to implement the feature would be relatively minor compared the benefits: It would be very useful.

Rhoel

[PhilFun]

Results of command TOP:

top - 15:40:09 up 20 min, 2 users, load average: 0.07, 0.41, 0.36
Tasks: 144 total, 1 running, 143 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 3.6%us, 2.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 94.1%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 508276k total, 491192k used, 17084k free, 1964k buffers
Swap: 1531900k total, 2492k used, 1529408k free, 67432k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
944 root 20 0 39768 13m 6332 S 2.0 2.7 0:09.29 Xorg
1764 phil 20 0 90788 13m 10m S 2.0 2.7 0:01.15 gnome-terminal
1746 phil 20 0 86392 17m 7604 S 1.3 3.4 0:04.52 plugin-containe
1480 phil 20 0 349m 106m 20m S 0.7 21.5 0:39.55 firefox-bin
1787 phil 20 0 2620 1120 832 R 0.7 0.2 0:00.67 top
3 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.3 0.0 0:00.13 ksoftirqd/0
1 root 20 0 2872 1376 976 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.51 init
2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd
4 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0
5 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0

this is only when i have two web pages open in mozilla - before i even start openCPN

[PhilFun]

Rhoel - i think you posted to the wrong thread :-(

[HappySeagull]

Originally Posted by PhilFun

Rhoel - i think you posted to the wrong thread :-(

PhilFun...just kidding but you might be on the wrong forum! looks like a Firefox issue.The ram is all choked up!(But don't ask me,I'm a windoze slacker) ...

[HappySeagull]

Originally Posted by Rhoel_Asia

Not sure if this is an existing known bug or a feature request so I'm raising this first in General.

GPX Import.
I imported an old GPX route which contains actual dates (Time Stamps).

I wanted to see how long each leg would take but I cannot find a way of updating the ETE/timestamps. I can see others might need to do this... ie, import old data for use in the planning a new trip.

I played with this to see if there was way to fool the program into updating - I discovered adding a new way-point produced the current time; add two new way-points and I get the elapsed times from the new data, then the count returns to the old timestamps again: All very confusing.

So the question is "Should this be a new feature - a button to recalculate the ETE?"

Since the subroutines already exist to calculate point to point, I am hoping the work to implement the feature would be relatively minor compared the benefits: It would be very useful.

Rhoel

...not sure if I'm getting you on this and I'm no expert...If I make a route in OpenCPN,I don't see any Date/timestamps.What would I need them for?A route is just a proposal,a guide.In my boat,they're unattainable ideals.The speed is just a rough guess.If I want to arrive at a certain place at a certain time,I tweak the speed 'til it agrees and hopefully can act accordingly when it's activated...

However,a track is different.I want the date and time there.It's a log...and,if I want to make a route from the dated track,I can just convert it to one in opencpn,but the date stamps are stripped out,as they should be....You couldn't expect to travel the same track at exactly the same speed,surely.Still, investigating the track's properties might give me a clue as to how to set the speed....
If you want to see how long each leg takes,isn't it in the route properties dialogue?granted you have to do a little subtraction...but it is just a route,after all-it's just a proposal,a best guess.Only a track is going to tell you how long it really took.
Sorry if I don't get it.

[cagney]

Welcome back Rhoel!
Hopefully PjotrC or nohal will answer your valid question.

PhilFun and Happy, Linux memory management is way smart and it's not at all as bad as it may look to a "windozer".

It's a common dilemma: I just got a brand new Linux machine, loaded it up with lots of expensive RAM, and left it for a day. Now, it's out of memory, or it is swapping! It definitely has enough RAM, so there must be a bug in Linux!

It's not a bug - it's Linux in action using available ram in a very smart way.
For the rest of the story check " Low On Memory - linux-mm.org Wiki".

Nevertheless 500 mb isn't much nowadays! So I suggest that you kill firefox before doing your tests with the OpenCPN low power settings.
Can you notice any change in the %M top reading. Any different "feel" to the program?

Thomas

[HappySeagull]

Thanks Thomas!...my toes are getting wet with PuppyLinux(that can run perfectly entirely in RAM), but I didn't know it was a general attribute of Linux!

[Rhoel_Asia]

Originally Posted by cagney

Welcome back Rhoel!
Hopefully PjotrC or nohal will answer your valid question.
Thomas

Hi Thomas, nice to be back. And thanks to the replies. My apologies for getting into the wrong thread (again :-))

The GPX I was using came from a different (conversion) program - when opened it in text editor, it revealed the Time stamp was the same for all waypoints - my guess it was using the local machine timestamp.

Anyway, enclosed is the first import of the GPX (left), with 3 new way points added: It shows the mix of original timestamp and elapsed times. I then saved it and imported the file again again (right), it now has only timestamps: Its not easy to see what is going on.

So there are two issues:

1: The Time stamp might need to be created/updated (with a new set-able start time?), to erase bad incoming data.
2: It would be good to toggle between the time-stamps and the elapsed route times.

In the real world, being able to see the elapsed time is valuable - when I was in the UK, I departed Southampton for Poole Harbour and tried to time my passage through the Hurst Castle tidal race on ebb: I got it wrong and ended up returning to Southampton as there was no way my 25' was going to get past Hurst Castle on flood. Being able to know the elapsed time to the tidal race might have helped me plan my departure time better.

The Route Properties is a very useful planning tool and I love it; having the actual time or elapsed times for each leg would be extremely useful in planning and preparing deck cards.

Regards


Rhoel

[PjotrC]

Originally Posted by Rhoel_Asia

1: The Time stamp might need to be created/updated (with a new set-able start time?), to erase bad incoming data.
2: It would be good to toggle between the time-stamps and the elapsed route times.

Rhoel...

If your route is a route indeed (not a track), then you might play with Departure Time in the Route Properties. Having it blank gives you the ETE, filling in Departure Time (mm/dd/yyy hh:mm, with an ENTER) gives you the ETA. For extended stopovers within the route you can enter "ETD=<timestamp>;" in Description of some intermediate Waypoint.

If your route is a GPX track, it needs to be converted to a route to erase fixed timestamps contained within.

Piotr

[fulup]

Would be nice to be able to enter only the time "hh:mm" and have OpenCPN to take "today" for its computation.

Currently we have to enter the full "mm/jj/yy hh/mm" which is useless in many cases.