VDR_pi Enhanced -?

[rgleason]

Someone built an enhanced version of VDR_pi which had controls similar to grib_pi for playing the recorded nmea files, which would allow us to easily speed up or slow down a nmea0183 playback file. It also allowed us to easily pick a certain start point and then restart it at that point again. It also allowed us to easily skip ahead past some spots.

I think there were some plans to allow users to put some filters on the data stream, to exclude certain sentences, or to modify them in some way, much like the nmea0183 filters in Opencpn and in nmeaconverter.

Was it Mike R. [rasbats] who sent me that prototype vdr_pi file? I cannot seem to find it and I wonder where this promising project went, because it sure is an essential testing tool amoung other things.

I think I could use it in its prototype form, right now, who ever it was that created it.

Thanks

[.Paul.]

Rick,

VDRplayer, a Python script by transmitterdan, plays VDR recordings and feeds NMEA 0183 into OpenCPN through a network connection.

https://github.com/transmitterdan/VDRplayer

Paul

[transmitterdan]

My VDR player does not have speed up controls but you can set the player speed when it starts. VDR files are just text. They can easily be edited with any good text editor to get rid of uninteresting sections or to repeat sections using simple cut and paste operations.

[Gilletarom]

Hello,

I had received a prototype from Mike this spring. But, there were too many bugs. Since then, more news.

Gilletarom

[rgleason]

Yes, I've been using VDRplayer and like being able to set the speed very fast or slow!

The other player had some really nice features, I think and was a PI,. does not need python, better for normal users, so I am hoping Mike will be able to make that work better at some point. And I am trying to not let it be forgotten.

[rgleason]

I and many other testers need to play nmea files to test plugins. We have three tools for this:

VDR_pi which has not been touched since Dec 2015 and has two PR outstanding, one essential from Pavel, and needs a few valuable improvements. See Issue #8

• New language files
• Updated configuration and cmake as Pavel does.
• Make cmake setup so it will compile in debug mode on MSVC++
• Time bar selector to restart playing a file from any point in the file.
• Shortcut button to the Nmea Debug window.

This is a lightweight valuable tool that needs to be updated. How do we get that done? Does someone fork it and try to make improvements?


VDRplus_pi
An extension and improvement of VDR_pi which has loads of promise, but is still an alpha version. It works, but is slow to load and still a little cumbersome. I guess I should try using it more, because ultimately this is what VDR_pi should become, however it needs polishing and improvements in performance.

VDRserver
Requres python, command line interface, speed control. Invaluable for MSVC++ Debug Mode because VDR_pi does not compile in debug mode.
Good solid nmea server for testing.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[rgleason]

If I were to create a PR from Pavel's fork of VDR_pi [packaging branch]

https://github.com/rgleason/vdr_pi/c...ohal:packaging

The PR would include a whole bunch of commits back to 2014. I was thinking I should just make a PR and Merge just this commit, but I have not figured out how to do it.

Commits on Nov 16, 2014


nohal
Implement the packaging and out of the tree build system

48e77c6

Ah Ah. Maybe what I should do is make a new branch "Packaging" in my repository and then make a PR from Nohal's packaging, then I can go from there.

That worked
https://github.com/rgleason/vdr_pi/tree/packaging-pavel
Maybe I should have just forked Pavel's version, but it doesn't work because I've forked SethDart's version.

[rgleason]

Then the packaging-pavel branch compiled and it works fine. Subsequently I found out it is the exact same version as is on the downloads page VDR_pi-0.4-win32.exe!

So the exercise was a bit futile, but I learned something about using git.
So the version being used for downloads is Nohal "packaging"

Maybe I can get Pavel's version to compile with MSVC++ in debug mode now.

[rgleason]

An alpha version is available by logging into
Opencpn Beta File Thingie rguser rgpass
Look under 4.2-4.8 Plugins Win for

vdrPlus_pi-0.1-win32.exe

This is a very useful plugin even at this point. Please see Issues
which has suggestions for the interface and operation, but also explains how it works. If you avoid the fast forward button and the Calendar and understand how to startup playing a file by first "Analyzing" it by hitting the Gear button, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I hope Mike will brush it off a little and put it up on the Beta Plugins!

[vannas]

Tried compiling for MacOSX, I was able to compile it with few tweaks but it crashes when trying to list plugins in OpenCPN. Anyone else tried MacOSX?

-Marko