OpenCPN SIMRAD/LOWRANCE Radar Overlay PlugIn

[merrimac]

Originally Posted by la5zo

Well, I have come to the stage where the radar is found by the eth0 port but "radar is sending data" remains. No green light. I turned on the emulator and the test picture was very unstable, looks like it looses sync and just parts of it comes up. Could be my pc is too slow or the display card not good enough. Tried the recommened changes in opencpn.conf but no joy. Looks like my LaTop have to sign on as 1st officer this year.

Geir

If your system is unable to produce a good image with the "checkerboard" test image then it will never be capable enough to produce a fluent radar image.

What is the spec of your Linux laptop, with a focus on the video card?

A nice fault finding exercise would be to install VirtualBox on your Windows machine and run a Navigatrix install under that to see how you fare then.

[franciscocr]

Hello, i have a Simrad 3g Radar with opencpn, i installed opencpn on a laptop with windows 7, receive data from gps and compass without problem.

The problem is i don't receive data from radar is detected with the ip 192.168.1.110 " The radar sending Data" is the only option that do not work.

there is a part of the log
17:22:02: BR24radar_pi: Heading source is now HDM 348.241182
17:22:02: BR24radar_pi: GPS position is now known
17:22:07: BR24radar_pi: detected radar at 192.168.1.110
17:22:08: BR24radar_pi: Listening for radar data on 192.168.1.111
17:22:19: BR24radar_pi: Send TRANSMIT request
17:22:26: BR24radar_pi: Send TRANSMIT request
17:22:30: BR24radar_pi: Send TRANSMIT request
17:22:36: BR24radar_pi: Send TRANSMIT request
17:22:40: BR24radar_pi: Send TRANSMIT request


I use opencpn Version 4.0.0 Build 2015-01-08 with BR24radar 1.2 all the firewalls are disabled, please i need your help . thanks

[Hakan]

franciscorc...
I've a BR24 using the same system although with my own builds from source. But OCPN 4.0 and BR24Radar_pi 1.2 should work and apparently, from your log, everything seems to work except to get the radar to start transmitting. I suppose you've stopped and restarted your system once or twice?
Do you have any other possibility to check if the radar itself is functional?

Håkan

[Shipraiser]

First of all: Big thanks to those who made this possible!

I have finally found some time to do some testing with my 4G radar and can report that overall it works very well. Easy to install, started up right away. The precision is impressive. 1.2 makes a big difference in performance to 1.1 ! The download page PlugIns | Official OpenCPN Homepage should be updated to point at 1.2.

My test setup looks like this;

Simrad 4G radar
Simrad NSE8 (no charts, just for radar testing)
True Heading Vector Compact GPS compass
True Heading Graphene+ AIS Trsp
Windows XP and Ubuntu 14.04 running O 4.0.0
Everything is connected to Simnet/N2K.
Network: Radar->Ri10>NSE->Computer

On Ubuntu the auto-sizing of the radar status/settings windows doesn't work correctly and everything crashes if you go into the main settings while the radar window is open. On WinXP everything was very stable and window sizes correct.

Originally Posted by Douwe Fokkema

NahanniV

I also thought about using the "twin window feature" of the 4G such that the HDS plotter and OCPN would each have their own independent radar window.
...
As my HDS plotter does not support the dual window radar, I can not make a whireshark log to analyse this.
Once the protocol is known, implementation of a dual window (one on the plotter and the other in OCPN) shouldn't be too complicated.

Hi Douwe,

Very good work in getting the heading read from the radar scan lines. I can see a big dfference in stability of the picture when Simnet heading is connected vs not.

I'm very interested in the dual range/dual radar features of the 4G. I will try to help out with the necessary log files. My NSE8 supports dual radar windows and identifies the radar as A and B. The plugin always uses A side and then the plotter and software are in competition about controlling the radar. But I can set the NSE to the B side and then I get 2 almost completetly independent radars in terms of range settings, HU/NU/CU and RM/TM.

It would get REALLY interesting if O could split the chart windows and we could run one radar in each window. My main chart software can do this (but without radar) and I often use one window with north up for an overview, and one with head up much more zoomed in for precision navigation in close quarters. Or if we could get one overlay window and one classic PPI window, with individual range settings like on the NSE.

But until then just being able to lock the plugin to the B side so everyone with a NSS or HDS can independently share a 4G with O would be great.

I will post some other suggestions for improvements later, and also try to catch the correct info in a pcap file.

Originally Posted by NahanniV

Is there anyone else with a multi window capable Navico MFD and a 4G RADAR who could do a Wireshark capture ??.

Originally Posted by Hakan

I trust in OCPN and BR24 only. Kees is out sailing for the summer. Anyone else?

Yes! I'm on it !

BR /Marcus

[nohal]

The plugin download page is updated to 1.2.
@Kees - Please kick my butt hard when you do releases, I have to admit I'm unable to follow the dev process for all the plugins anymore unless I must build the packages myself...

Pavel

[Douwe Fokkema]

In the current version of the BR24radar_pi there is an issue with the guard zones. This may result in guard not working properly and failure to raise an alarm when expected.

This issue is reported in https://github.com/canboat/BR24radar_pi/issues/76
A fix is provided in https://github.com/douwefokkema/BR24...i/tree/issue76

For those not able to compile I attach a dll based on the 1.2 version of the BR24radar_pi for Windows with OCPN 4.0.
Remove the .pdf extension and copy to the directory: Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 4.0.0\plugins

Douwe Fokkema

[BMD21]

I'm curious. The last download of br24radar_pi, from Doug, dated 7/30/15 is 278 Kbytes. The previous one (for me) was dated 5/23/15 and was 405 Kbytes.

I know the version from 5/23 works. I am curious why the new version is so much smaller.

Boris

[Douwe Fokkema]

Hi Boris,
Thanks for your remark. But I just don't know why this size is different. May be it has to do with translations that I have not added. But is is a correction based on canboat/master.
The version in my previous post generates quite a lot of log-file output. Here is another one with the log-output removed.

Douwe Fokkema

[BMD21]

Douwe, I tried loading the latest version you posted. I got the message that this version of br24radar_pi.dll wasn't compatible with OpenCpn and so it didn't load. Suggestions?

Previous versions worked well. what am I doing wrong? And, BTW I think the radar overlay is wonderful. Helps a lot and I appreciate your effort.

boris

[nohal]

Boris...
The plugins are not compatible between OpenCPN 4.0 and 4.1 due to the switch to wxWidgets3. If you get a message instead of a fatal crash, I suppose you are using the 4.1 beta and Douwe's plugin is built for 4.0

Pavel

[Douwe Fokkema]

Boris,
I plan to switch my development system next week to wxWidgets 3.0. After that I will make a version for OCPN 4.1
Douwe Fokkema

[NahanniV]

My RADAR always comes up with "Range Remote" after starting OpenCpn. The initial range is not related to the chart display.

I don't have anything other than the 4G scanner connected to Ethernet.

After zooming it changes to Auto.

[Douwe Fokkema]

I know the problem. The pi performs the first "autorange" before the radar is on, so it is missed. I have a solution which will be in the next release. So long you have to zoom manually the first time.

Regarding the A and B radar, I have the first prototype working on radar A and B, including hot switching over. This feature is considered for the next release.
Using the /p (portable) option with OCPN you can start more instances of OCPN. This way I can get multiple radar windows.
Example attached.

Douwe Fokkema

[NahanniV]

Wow! That's great.

I have been using the RADAR a lot in the last few weeks while on vacation and it has worked well.

Cheers,
JM.

[BMD21]

I used OpenCpn and the 3G radar when we crossed from Ventura to Santa Cruz island and returned to Oxnard, in SoCal. Good experience, radar overlay and AIS were a great asset.


That’s 25 nmi across the Santa Barbara Channel where one encounters container ships going and coming in marked traffic lanes, oil towers and sometimes, fog. All conditions where the radar, AIS and accurate chart plotting is needed. No, not dramatic but a good test. And when we went the winds were up with good wind waves, at least for Journey On. Small light boat, bouncy wet ride. On the way back it was like a pond, sorta.


So, I fired up the PC, brought up the radar, AIS and GPS and left Ventura. Good position and routing (straight line, actually.) The radar showed the sea bouys, oil towers and shoreline all in their proper places, which was comforting. When we got near the shipping lanes, AIS picked up a tanker heading south at 20 knts, which was soon by. A second ship was visible and on AIS, but we waited until it went by. Got to learn to read the AIS better, it was going at about 5 knts and we spent a lot of time waiting. OpenCpn crashed a couple of times, but was easily restarted. Don’t know why.


On the return trip, samo samo. One AIS target from a container heading north, behind us. AIS marker grayed out, don’t know why. Assume because it was behind and couldn’t hit us if it tried. Again, OpenCpn crashed, restarted. One restart required a PC restart.
Adjusted the radar range manually, didn’t follow the chart re-scaling/re-sizing. The boat was bouncing and it was difficult to get the mouse pad to do what I wanted.



Used OpenCpm ver. 4.1.602, Radar plugin Ver. 1.2


Everything worked well and I thank the developers. It’s clear that one needs to practice with OpenCpn, not at home or in a harbor, but out on the open. It isn’t something one would use for the first time in an emergency. That’s true with any navigation program I’ve ever used.


Boris