Weather Routing

[rgleason]

For other Windows users who want to try this plugin, you must make a new Opencpn environment, and copy a special version of opencpn.exe into it.

Then under plugins you need to make a weather_routing folder, then inside that a data folder and place WeatherRoutingInformation.html under the Data folder and take the doc off.

Then copy the grib_pi.dll.doc and weather_routing_pi.dll.doc into the plugins folder and take the doc off.

These are too big. I am going to have to upload to a website and leave a link to each file.

[rgleason]

Opencpn.zip
Grib_pi.dll.doc
Weather_routing_pi.dll.doc
WeatherRoutingInformation.html.dll.doc

Right Click and Save File as.

[rgleason]

Sean, its late, but I am happy Very happy.
Congratulations, you did it!

I'm going to bed.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by rgleason

I got it to complete a route out into the atlantic.
When it completed I got multiple Computation complleted. Destination Reached.
Could hit break, take Call stack.
Hit Continue, breaks by itself, Tack call stack.
So there are two files.

I think maybe I fixed the timer problem. Too bad wxwidgets timers behave different on windows.. I consider that a bug in wxwidgets.

pull both branches, and let me know if you can resize the grib window to fix the horizontal scroll bar.

Also, try setting time step to a higher value, and max diverted course to 180

[rgleason]

Did from run cmd prompt
cd opencpn-git (change directory)
git fetch --all
git checkout sean/grib_enhancements
git pull sean grib_enhancments
cd plugins (then delete the weather_routing_pi directory)
git clone git://github.com/seandepagnier/weather_routing_pi.git
cd..
cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build .
Worked like a charm.
Set Time Step to 1500
Set Max Diverted Course to 180
Got a recently downloaded grib and set it up (Grib_pi resizes nicely and shows the dropdown without a horiz scroll now!)
Set up boat location and entered destination waypont lat long.
Started and its been running for some time cycling from Wed Ap 10 to Sun Ap 14.
Seems to be improving the route, ...later, now I think the routing is finished and the grib_pi is just cycling through the selected grib, so I turned off playing the grib. Machine is taking a bit of a rest now (high cpu and disk before, fans running)

Now reset, route and isochryones disappear. Set max diverted route to 120 degrees. Don't start playing grib, just make sure it has the right grib selected. Then hit start in wx-rte. It starts and is drawing isochryones and route now. Grib does not need to be playing, just selected. The isochryones are being added, but at a certain point they seem to stop adding and the route does not make the destination because the grib is not long enough. The wx-rte does not seem to end it automatically, although the machine seems to be doing something (fans are running and computer is warmer). Do I just stop it now? The destination goto is blinking. Ok here is a message popup "Failed to obtain grib for timestep" Hit OK. Now the wx-rte "Stop" button has turned to "Start" and the computer is taking a break now... This time I think it may have gotten closer to the destination.

Anyway, it works great!! Good job Sean. I need to learn more about this remarkable plugin now. I am going to try increasing the isochryones step first.

I will update the four Release version links above (opencpn.exe.zip, weather_routing_pi.dll.doc, grib_pi.dll.doc, weatheroutinginformation.html.doc) with new files compiled with the above 'git" for those who want to try the wx-rte plugin and opencpn.exe. Keep in mind this needs to be a special version of Opencpn, create this separate one from your normal opencpn program...copy and call it something else for the directory then place the above files in the proper directories.

Thank you Sean for adding mightily to our toolset!!!
Awesome.

[rgleason]

Increased Timestamp to 5000 and set the MaxDiverted Course to 180 again. It ran very fast and clean. Sometimes a message popped up early in process with "Failed to find next grib within timestamp" "ok" where the "Stop" button changes to "Start". So I would change nothing and just hit "Start" again, and it would run past that point using the grib. (Some timing error with reading the grib data? Maybe it needs to retry before the message pops up?) Anyway after about 3 times "Start" the wx-rte ran the grib to the end of its data.

See this Post for the links to the files
Right click save link as....

[George64]

Awsome work you did! Looking forward to give it a try.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Increased Timestamp to 5000 and set the MaxDiverted Course to 180 again. It ran very fast and clean. Sometimes a message popped up early in process with "Failed to find next grib within timestamp" "ok" where the "Stop" button changes to "Start". So I would change nothing and just hit "Start" again, and it would run past that point using the grib. (Some timing error with reading the grib data? Maybe it needs to retry before the message pops up?) Anyway after about 3 times "Start" the wx-rte ran the grib to the end of its data.

See this Post for the links to the files
Right click save link as....

I normally use an even larger step size, 20000 or more.. is significantly faster. You can start to determine what size to use when doubling it gives you a much different route. Anyway, The small step size caused one of the remaining bugs to appear which really slows things down. Eventually I can fix that. As far as not having grib.. When you click reset, it sets the start time to whatever the current grib time is on the timeline. If it gets to the end and there is no more grib data it stops (unless you enable deficient data) So to get the longest run, click reset when the timeline is at the start.

[George64]

Would it be helpfull to the users to set a default value (and help according) to every parameter?

[George64]

BTW, if I can be of any help in making a Dutch translation, please let me know by pointing me to the language file or posting it on the forum.

[rgleason]

Sean or Pavel,
1. How do we get these plugins adequately tested, particularly the Weather_routing which depends on the grib_enhanced, and they both depend on a special branch of opencpn? Users wanting to try this and test it need to make a special version of opencpn with a new opencpn.exe and the two plugins plus the 'weather_routing/data/weatherroutinginstructions.html'. This presents some problems getting users to test it. Any ideas other than to ask them to take the extra effort?

2. How can we get these features into Opencpn when they are fully tested.
The plugins cannot simply be copied into the plugins directory. We also need a new version of Opencpn.exe because Sean needed some hooks and modifications. This is not a simple matter I'm guessing. ...

I guess I am asking what the next steps would be.

========
INSTRUCTIONS

Using a 5 day grib, going about 500 miles a time step of 25000 is a good start.
Time Step 250000
Max Diverted Course 120 or 180
Max Wind Knots 30 or 40
Max Swell Meters 8 or 20
Max Latitude 70-80
Tracking Time 0

1. Download and Select a current grib.
2. Start Grib_pi, set the start date and time with the grib. Just pick the time, but it is unnecessary to "play" the grib the wx-rte plugin will do that behind the scenes.
3. Start the Weather_Routing plugin and set the Start and Destination Lat/long.
4. Utilize Move boat here and a waypoint or Goto Here if you like. Then right click on the waypoint, pick properties and copy and past the Lat Long into the appropriate boxes in Wx_Rte plugin.
5. Set the configuration file settings.
6. The pick Start and see what happens.

[cagney]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Sean or Pavel,
1. How do we get these plugins adequately tested, particularly the Weather_routing which depends on the grib_enhanced, and they both depend on a special branch of opencpn? Users wanting to try this and test it need to make a special version of opencpn with a new opencpn.exe and the two plugins plus the 'weather_routing/data/weatherroutinginstructions.html'. This presents some problems getting users to test it. Any ideas other than to ask them to take the extra effort?

2. How can we get these features into Opencpn when they are fully tested.
The plugins cannot simply be copied into the plugins directory. We also need a new version of Opencpn.exe because Sean needed some hooks and modifications. This is not a simple matter I'm guessing. ...

I guess I am asking what the next steps would be.

The current plan looks something like this, as far as I understand:

A short 3.2.1 beta series leading to a 3.2.2 bugfix release.
After that the 3.3 beta development series will be launched, where the current Grib development will be merged into the mainstream OpenCPN. At this stage testing, including the routing plugin, can proceed as usual.

So unfortunately it's a waiting game for many users, who are eager to test the new grib & routing development.
It is however, very important with a reliable stable release. So a bugfix release is more important, than an immediate start of 3.3, and we do not have resources to do both, at the same time.

Thomas

[George64]

Would a parallel way be an option? Release a working version with the weather PI for testing purposes and meanwhile continue with 3.2.1. and 3.2.2 No support by the regular developers for the intermediate version, and make use of the experiences with the PI-version of Opencpn.

[rgleason]

I think George64 has a pretty good idea.

Is there an easy way to build a package exe for Linux and Windows, that users could download and install separately? Where would this reside? Perahaps should be listed as Beta Weather Routing version.

Then when updates apply to just the plugins we can simply attach those, and when updates requiire the full package exe we would ask users to reinstall the entire package.

I think Sean will be guiding us on this too.

[George64]

To reside a possible version, maybe a seperate menu on the Opencpn.org site?