OpenCPN SIMRAD/LOWRANCE Radar Overlay PlugIn

[Douwe Fokkema]

That "why" was puzzling me. And I got it. In the tab "connections" under options there was a UDP network port. When I remove it, the error is back. So if you have the problem I described, add a UDP sending port under connections. I assume this performs a necessary initialisation of the socket system.

Douwe Fokkema

[merrimac]

Hi guys, back from one holiday and flying back to the boat tomorrow to continue cruising. I may do some plugin work there as I will have the laptop with me + access to the radar.

Although I admire the amount of people contributing to this forum, the UI and (lack of) features mean that I don't check it very often -- not when at home with a good internet connection and certainly not when on cell phone coverage.

You'll have better luck posting an issue directly on github @ https://github.com/canboat/BR24radar_pi/issues

On the issue itself:

1. Do not "copy" openCPN installations by just copying files, certainly not onto a fresh Windows PC that did not have any OpenCPN installed. In particular newer windows versions!
2. The plugin will not initialize if no socket can be created, we'll need to improve the behavior -- ie. show an intelligible error message onscreen instead of in a log file.
3. Unable to create socket is possibly related to the plugin not calling WSAStartup() on Windows.

In particular, the latter is probably what you are experiencing. As a workaround, create any TCP or UDP connection in the main OpenCPN connection dialog. If you don't have any TCP or UDP sources then create a "fake" UDP outgoing connection (to a non existant IP address or broadcast address.)


I've heard from Douwe saying that this does indeed fixes his problems.


(In case you're wondering, one thing I don't like about this forum is that people tend to start new subjects in this thread in order to get the attention of the persons interested in just the BR24 plugin. The "proper" solution would be to have a sub-forum for every plugin or at least per group of plugins, with one thread per subject. If you don't visit the forum regularly it stops sending you email, so I don't notice any new updates after I don't feel a need to comment on something. And don't get me started wrt the user interface! Right now I am staring at 15 smilies, 28 icon styles and a tiny box to enter my data. On cell phone coverage it takes too long for the editor to start, so I don't bother. And the "App" is pretty lousy as well. I can't remember right now what is wrong with it, besides not being able to go directly to the OpenCPN forum.)

[Douwe Fokkema]

Regarding the LAN connection of the radar to the computer.

I first connected the radar to a free port of the on-board router (not on the up-link connection). Worked fine but with the inconvenience that the WiFi became disrupted when the radar was running. So then I connected the radar directly to the computer's second LAN port (first LAN port connected to the router). Didn't work. I swapped the LAN ports. Radar works!
Next morning reboot, no radar. I swapped the LAN ports back again, radar works again.
The clue behind this is that the LAN port needs an IP address that it normally gets from the DHCP server in the router. I then configured the LAN port to which the radar is connected manually (network center, change adaptersettings, properties of the adapter, IP4 properties) to a fixed IP address, empty primary gateway address (otherwise it starts searching for it), empty DNS server address. Everything OK now and the WiFi from the router works fine.

Douwe

[Gunga Din]

Originally Posted by RobbieW

1. I think you need either a Simnet or NMEA 2000 backbone connection......
2. You could put an ethernet hub between your PC and wherever the RJ45 connection currently goes. .

Thanks RobbieW !

I will try that !

[Douwe Fokkema]

On the connection of the radar:

Robbie W is right, through a hub or router the connection seems to work always. But I don't want to use a router, so I connect the radar directly to the computer. In that case you have to care about the IP settings of the interface, as in my previous post.
But there may be another issue. Sometimes the computer did not recognize the radar, network connections showed: cable unplugged. In that case go to Device Manager in Control Panel, select the Network Adapter, choose Properties, and under Link Speed change "Auto Negotiation" to "100 Mbps full duplex". Problem solved (in my case).

Radar works magnificently! I attach a screen image of the radar picture of a thunderstorm on the IJsselmeer in Holland.

Many thanks to all contributors.

Douwe

[Tuuletar]

I have a Koden MDS-5x radar which uses the Koden MDS-5S black box unit to convert the analogue signal to a digital so it can go straight into a PC without a hardware display. The MDS-6x system is almost identical I believe. These appear to be marked by different software vendors Nobeltec, Euronav, P-sea and Rose Point as a "RADARpc" system.

I don't like being locked into these software and also I'm gradually moving our backup nav to the advantages of a more robust and low-power, solid-state Linux-based system. Furthermore we are currently stuck in Fiji with engine troubles so I thought I would start to have a go at reverse-engineering the data stream.

It turns out it is relatively simple UDP stream and the transmit commands for range, gain, etc. are also relatively easy to pick out. I can pull out the returned scanline data without a problem also. I've got a prototype script which I knocked up in Python which communicates with the radar pretty well in Windows and Linux. I'm at the stage of starting to translate that into this OpenCPN radar plugin.

I thought I would just advise this thread of what I am doing in case:
a) there is anyone else trying the same and we're not doubling up on work;
b) there is anyone who has a similar system and might be interested in this project; and
c) we can start a discussion regarding merging the soon-to-be three radar plugins together.

I would like to cleanly incorporate the Koden radar into this plugin however as is noted earlier in this thread there are some querks of the two systems that might make that difficult. In order to speed up development I will probably just start hacking into a branch of this code to get something working and figure out later how to clean-and-merger the codes.

Any suggestions, thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. Further discussion on this will probably warrant starting a new thread so if this goes any further I'll start up a new thread and post a link from here.

[rgleason]

Regarding Posting location: Please refer to the Plugin Threads List
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1593496

and advise regarding any corrections needed for Radar Plugins and specifics about posting.

Garmin Radar Overlay p41
Garmin-Lowrance CP Radar
Simrad/Lowrance Radar Overlay p5

[bdbcat]

Tuuletar...

Welcome aboard. R/E of UDP datastreams in the tropics is how this whole thing got started. Good on ya.

I would definitely recommend that you work with the GRadar PlugIn code base. It is more stable, and has had more eyes looking into it. Nice dialogs/integration, etc.

I agree that it would be a very good thing to merge the radar PlugIn code bases into one configurable build. This will be a bit complicated, since no one person has all three radar devices, so far. But we can start.

So, anyway, hack away on GRadar, and see what you can come up with.
I, or ChuckSK will be able to help with the innards of GRadar.


Good luck
Dave

[Douwe Fokkema]

Radar on Android tablet:

As there has been a lot of discussion (and no solution) about radar data over WiFi, it may be good to mention again the possibilities of the remote screen, as for example Team Viewer offers. Enclosed a picture of the OpenCPN radar image (Lowrance 4G) on a Samsung tablet. Very useful indeed.

[Neptune's Gear]

I just "upgraded" to the latest br24 plugin v .41012. I'm using OPCN 3.3.2118 . With this plugin, I get no radar pic at all. When I revert to the previous one (August) it works fine.
Any suggestions??

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by Neptune's Gear

I just "upgraded" to the latest br24 plugin v .41012. I'm using OPCN 3.3.2118 . With this plugin, I get no radar pic at all. When I revert to the previous one (August) it works fine.
Any suggestions??

Matt..
Works fine, well see below, for me on a BR24 running Win7. I've compiled against latest 3.3.2118 if that could be a difference? According to Douwe it also works on 4G.
My Win version could be found here if you like to give it a try:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...24radar_pi.dll

There's at least one issue for the BR24 and 3G which is discussed for the moment. See https://github.com/canboat/BR24radar_pi/issues/36.
Kees is on that but I think he's a busy man so we have to be patience.

Håkan

[Douwe Fokkema]

I had the same problem initially, radar button displayed, but no reaction when clicking it. Turned out to be the firewall, it considers the new version as a new application. I adapted the rules and now works fine. In my case this new version did not work with older versions of OCPN (3.3.1824).

[Neptune's Gear]

Thanks guys, I'll look at the firewall, as Håkan's copy does the same thing....

[Neptune's Gear]

I tried disabling the firewall. no change. I'll take another laptop down and try that, might be some odd config issue. I've already tried removing and re-installing ocpn. No change.
It's interesting that the .dll from august works perfectly, but the one from 12 October doesn't work at all for me. Apparently fine for others though.

[Douwe Fokkema]

You better try the new release (41026) that Kees published yesterday. I tested it today against OCPN 3.3.2118. Works beautifully. Even better and more stable radar picture than before. Also autogain and auto seastate not work fine.