Watchdog_pi - AIS Guard Zone GUID

[PierreFDK]

Hi,

I am having an issue setting an "AIS Guard Zone" in the Watchdog. After creating a path/boundary in OD and "Copy Boundary GUID" into the WD AIS Guard Zone GUID, WD alarm configuration window becomes unresponsive. The WD returns an error window "Error! GUID: does not exist" or the WD window freezes... I believe I have tried every possible combination of boundary type/state and it does not seem to be related to this. "Inclusion Alarm" setup also fails when manually copy/paste the boundary GUID. "Inclusion Alarm" works though when pressing the "Get Boundary GUID" for boundary surrounding the boat.

Anyone having the same issue or able to provide me with some guidance ?

Cheers
Pierre

I am running OpenCPN 4.4.0 on Win7, watchdog_pi-1.9042-win32, ocpn_draw_pi-1.2.0-win32

[jongough]

Pierre,
There are various issues with 1.9.042 of Watchdog one of which can cause the issue you are seeing. Unfortunately this is the latest version which is downloadable from the web site.

I have put up a windows installable (built with debug against OCPN 4.5.0) for 1.9.050 on github. Can you give this version a go and see if it works for you?
https://github.com/seandepagnier/wat...s/tag/v1.9.050

Thanks
Jon

[PierreFDK]

Hi Jon,

I cannot succeed installing the Watchdog v1.9.050 on OCPN 4.4.0. See in attachment. Am I missing something or only compatible with OCPN 4.5.0 ?
Cheers
Pierre

[jongough]

Pierre,
I have updated the watchdog setup file to be the release one, so now you should be able to use it.

Jon

[PierreFDK]

Hi Jon,

I have tested the boundary alarm feature of the Watchdog v1.9.050 release one. This alarm tool is truly impressive ! Overall this release is working and issue with copy/paste of GUID solved. But it seems there is some discrepancy in the naming/presentation in the Watchdog main window and configuration window when there are several Watchdog alarms set. See in attachment.
Cheers
Pierre

[jongough]

Hi Pierre,
I have put up patch 1.9.051 of watchdog which fixes the name issue in the watchdog configuration. You can find a binary for windows install here:
https://github.com/seandepagnier/wat...s/tag/v1.9.051

The boundary type and state are not used by the 'Inclusion' alarm nor the 'AIS' alarm. That is why these radio buttons are above them in the edit panel. The state and type of boundaries is only used by the Time and Distance alarms. Do you need the state and type of boundaries to be used for 'Inclusion' and 'AIS' alarms?

The 'Inclusion' alarm is called that rather than an 'Anchor' alarm to avoid confusion.

Jon

[PierreFDK]

Hi Jon,

I have tested the 1.9.051 of watchdog and indeed the name issue is now solved. I have not re-tested all boundary alarm features with this release though but will in the next couple of days.

I did test if the selection of the state/type of boundary impacted on the "Inclusion" and "AIS Guard Zone" alarms just to see, it was not obvious to me the radio buttons were only for the "Exclusion" alarm .

On the operation side of things I found the boundary alarms become not really effective when the "AIS Guard zone" boundary include multiple AIS targets that are stationary, i.e vessels at anchor or buoys equipped with AIS AtoN transponders. The stationary AIS targets report normally every 3 minutes and every 3 minutes an alarm is triggered for those AIS targets despite the "Repeat Alarm after seconds" setting not being ticked in the Edit Alarm menu. Is it as per design, shouldn't the alarm only be triggered once for the stationary AIS targets? If this is by design the selection of the state/type of boundary could come in handy.

By the way, do we know how many concurrent AIS targets can be handled simultaneously by OCPN ?

Cheers
Pierre

[seandepagnier]

I haven't had the chance to test out the ais alarms, but I think it would be good to enable or disable moving targets as well as stationary ones for each ais boundary alarm.


As far as how many AIS targets, it is a hundreds to few thousand depending on your computer. opencpn is incredibly inefficient at rendering ais targets.

In theory with small modifications we can handle millions of targets, but is this even really useful?

[jongough]

Pierre,
The radio buttons were placed under the items which they affected. Perhaps I should draw a line under them so that it is more obvious, or move them and add the code to handle the conditions that can be set.

The AIS alarm is dependent on the nmea messages being sent from OCPN. If an object occasionally sends a message, then, to the watchdog it would appear that a 'new' contact has appeared, so it will react to it.

Perhaps we need some requirements in a flyspray so that a usable alarm gets built. What you are using is really a 'proof of concept' used to demonstrate messaging around OCPN, and the interaction of plugins, and therefore there have been no 'real' requirements as to how it is supposed to react. Can you raise a flyspray with your ideas in so that at least it gets noted and not lost in the forums?

Thanks
Jon

[jongough]

Sean,
If you can make some performance improvements, even if fairly small, it would be useful particularly for those using a PI as a runtime environment.

Jon

[seandepagnier]

I could optimize AIS rendering and tracking by using a quad tree to break up the targets by area. Then it is important to also test hen there are many overlapping targets (like more than 20 targets which overlap) it can omit rendering some to declutter at that zoom level, thus not traversing the tree any deeper

[PierreFDK]

Hi Jon,

Ok, I will draft some requirements/notes for an AIS Guard Zone usable alarm to be built. Since I am knew to the way you proceed, where shall I raise this flyspray ?
Cheers
Pierre

[jongough]

Pierre,
You can get to it via the main OCPN web page. It shows up there as 'Tracker', which takes you to this site: OpenCPN::OpenCPNAll Projects: Tasklist

As you are new you will need to register to be able to create a flyspray record. Then, for watchdog you will need to 'pi - Watchdog' from the drop down list. Then just add a new task, giving it a meaningful name and put as much detail as you can into it. If it is only one line, that is OK, but the more information the better as it helps to workout what is needed. You can then refer to that task in the forum so that others know about it.

There should then be a 'discussion' on the task to clarify what is wanted, and, if testing, some of the findings. However, at this point you may find a forum thread is running to further discuss. BUT at least there is now a record of what has been requested and it is easy to find.

The alarm you are looking at is made up of two parts, the watchdog alarm process and the drawing of the guard zone. But don't worry too much about that, the main thing is to get your ideas down and let others add their ideas to it as well.


Hope this helps.

Regards
Jon

[PierreFDK]

Hi Jon,

This is understood, thanks for the guidance. I will brew my ideas and create the flyspray.
Cheers
Pierre

[PierreFDK]

Hi Jon,

I have created a flyspray record as a feature request for adding a set of condition parameters and improve message box information for the AIS Guard Zone boundary alarm. I put a copy of the request in here too. I see my request encompasses the request FS#2003 - Alarm triggered when boat is going out from inside to outside of a boundary.
Cheers
pierre