VentureFarther Satellite Charts - vfkaps plugin

[Rasbats]

Rick,

Not sure if VF would help if the boat does not have a continuous Internet connection. Jon may have some ideas.

Mike

[rgleason]

Yes, agreed that a more elaborate AIS based buddy system would be more instantainious, but perhaps the "Friends and Family" list in VF could have an mmsi field that a group of "buddies" could use as their main "list". Others who have an account can join the list an add their mmsi. We could have an opencpn list. Then somehow that list needs to get downloaded and added as "buddies" to the enhanced opencpn "buddies" list on your boat.

The internet and VF family list would be updated when internet was available and be available for others to join.

I don't know, just an idea.

[rgleason]

Jon

Sorry guys, seems I have not been notified when this thread changes.

Have you subscribed to the thread? ....perhaps this is old.

[Rasbats]

BETA vfkaps_pi version 0.3 is now on GitHub.


https://github.com/Rasbats/vfkaps_pi/releases


#1 Problem with the Linux kap directory is now resolved. Now saved between Linux OpenCPN sessions. Not a very neat display of the directory in the preferences window.


#2 Chart database is updated after a chart download, without user intervention. Two defines had been missed out:
INSTALLS_PLUGIN_CHART
INSTALLS_PLUGIN_CHART_GL


Mike

[cagney]

Here is a linux 64 bits package. Delete the ".pdf" from the filename !

vfkaps_pi_0.3-1_amd64.deb.pdf

Thomas

[cagney]

Thanks for a very useful plugin!

Testing on 64 bits Kubuntu 16.04.

Once the chart has been downloaded, the plugin takes several minutes to post process, with a busy spinner.
The end result is a system where no chart groups works.
No charts can be displayed until I manually run "Scan Charts and Update Database".
I suppose this is not the intended behaviour?

Thomas

[jonturgeon]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Jon


Have you subscribed to the thread? ....perhaps this is old.

Sorry again, man I need to get better at following this. I just replied in the feature request thread but I will paraphrase here.

VentureFarther (VF) already does position reporting with friends and family tracking. These reports can be created online or via email. They can also be edited online, including adding photos. There is also another twist. VF allows users to upload NMEA recordings. My first thought was for depth sharing with satellite chart overlay. Since I also get GPS info I create a position report for the person uploading. Then I did a bit more thinking. Within the NMEA file could be AIS data. Why waste it? So I process those sentences also, if I find a match within VF's member DB on the entered MMSI number, I automatically create a position report for that member also.

One thing I need to mention, I am planning a single page to view all the boats you are tracking, just have not gotten to it yet. Although VF can do a lot, I still have a todo list that is pretty long with even more features planned around position reporting.

[jonturgeon]

Oh yeah, one more thing. If it makes sense I am open to adding more APIs to access VF's data. Just added another one for something that Mike and I are working on which I am pretty excited about.

[Rasbats]

Originally Posted by cagney

Thanks for a very useful plugin!

Testing on 64 bits Kubuntu 16.04.

Once the chart has been downloaded, the plugin takes several minutes to post process, with a busy spinner.
The end result is a system where no chart groups works.
No charts can be displayed until I manually run "Scan Charts and Update Database".
I suppose this is not the intended behaviour?

Thomas

Thomas,

Thanks for testing.

This was an early problem which I had hoped to have resolved. Are you using the v0.3 source code?

Mike

[cagney]

Yes, I'm using the latest code from your git repository.

Thomas

[Rasbats]

On 32 bit Ubuntu 16.04.3 the chart appears in the toolbar almost immediately after the download. What is going on? To be worked on.

Mike

[rgleason]

When I tested geting KAP files from being Signed in on the website, I believe it worked, and I can display the Kap file in my "Chart-Kap" group and when I zoom in enough (you must zoom in a lot!) --Sean, thank you for getting me to use imgkap to see if the kap file was working right, and pushing to figure out what was not working.

But when I try a plugin download, there is a lot of spinning and the screen goes black and then the charts eventually reappear but nothing has downloaded, it appears. But then I go to the download directory and find a small 20kb file which is not KAP (Sean found this out) and it appears to be HTML. Also attached.

I am also uploading two screenshots. Self explanatory. First one is using Kap download from the website. Second one trying to create a kap with the plugin. Third one shows what a Weather-fax-Kap directory that is used to create a Chart Tab

Please take the PDF off the KAPS, you will see one is a real PDF (the one downloaded through the website)

and the other is 20kb and is not a KAP according to Sean.

[jonturgeon]

Originally Posted by rgleason

When I tested geting KAP files from being Signed in on the website, I believe it worked, and I can display the Kap file in my "Chart-Kap" group and when I zoom in enough (you must zoom in a lot!) --Sean, thank you for getting me to use imgkap to see if the kap file was working right, and pushing to figure out what was not working.

But when I try a plugin download, there is a lot of spinning and the screen goes black and then the charts eventually reappear but nothing has downloaded, it appears. But then I go to the download directory and find a small 20kb file which is not KAP (Sean found this out) and it appears to be HTML. Also attached.

I am also uploading two screenshots. Self explanatory. First one is using Kap download from the website. Second one trying to create a kap with the plugin. Third one shows what a Weather-fax-Kap directory that is used to create a Chart Tab

Please take the PDF off the KAPS, you will see one is a real PDF (the one downloaded through the website)

and the other is 20kb and is not a KAP according to Sean.

Not sure if Mike is doing this already but would it be a good idea to log the parameters used by the plugin for the kap request?

[Rasbats]

Rick,

Some things to test:
1. Does the same thing happen with v0.2?
2. Does your opencpn.ini have the following lines (or similar):

ShowvfkapsIcon=1
satsource=2 (Could be 0,1 or 2)
kapdirectory=C:\\Charts\\vfkaps\\test (Windows version)
apikey=alongstringofnumbersand letters
DialogPosX=31 (or similar)
DialogPosY=309 (or similar)

A copy of your log would be useful.

Mike

[tljohnsn]

Hi Folks - Thanks for all your hard work on this. I just downloaded the plugin and entered my api key, however I get a message that I don't have enough credit's remaining. When I login to the website, it shows 20 credits on my account.

Thanks for any help you can provide.