WeatherFax ...

[rgleason]

The RtAudio Home Page
??

[cagney]

Originally Posted by jackdale

Not a linux user and not a programmer.

You don't need to be a programmer, it's more like having some System Administration skills, including being able to do small changes in existing scripts. The big advantage is that access to exactly those NOAA faxes you need, can be totally automated, as long as you have an Internet connection.

Let's see what the upcoming plugin brings. Hopefully easy access for those who don't fancy scripts etc. !

The real challenge for a plugin, is how to display wx faxes like the one below in OpenCPN.



NOAAs faxes are easy. They use the Mercator projection. Unfortunately most other wx offices use other projections. To re-project these wx maps to Mercator, is not a trivial task!

Thomas

[stara]

would it be possible to build an automatic software defined radio HF receiver to capture the weather faxes (and navtex and sitor forecasts), and control it directly from OpenCPN?

rtl2832 DVB-T stick for USD20 and a HF upconverter/transverter for maybe USD25, some software magic and then there would be automated weather information layed over the chart without a need for expensive hardware. Would that work? Could it run on a Raspberry Pi?

http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGQK10svOzg

http://www.dgkelectronics.com/hf-con...or-sdr-radios/

[rgleason]

Had not thought of this option. See this thread.
Fast cheap AIS using $20 rtl-sdr DVB-T SDR Dongles
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...les-84234.html
There may be a number of SDR (Software Digital Radio) users with experience with these dongles. RTL SDR RTL2832 who can advise.

From a practical aspect first cut of the plugin will probably be more focused on getting Fax images into Opencpn and then work on the software digital radio part, but this will be determined by boat alexandria's plans.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by stara

would it be possible to build an automatic software defined radio HF receiver to capture the weather faxes (and navtex and sitor forecasts), and control it directly from OpenCPN?

rtl2832 DVB-T stick for USD20 and a HF upconverter/transverter for maybe USD25, some software magic and then there would be automated weather information layed over the chart without a need for expensive hardware. Would that work? Could it run on a Raspberry Pi?

I think yes is the answer to all the above. What you are looking at might be able to work for both AIS and weather fax. Could someone please send me one? I'd be happy to work on integrating it with opencpn.


Anyway. I finished the initial release of the weatherfax plugin. At least it works with image or wav file inputs and compiles and runs on my ubuntu system, but it probably will break on windows. I will investigate rtAudio to see if maybe I can integrate it and allow for directly reading from the sound card.

The UI is a bit cludgy, I didn't spend much time on it, so I look forward to comments and suggestions for improving it, bit should at least be functional in the current state.

Everyone, please, clone build test and report back:
https://github.com/seandepagnier/weatherfax_pi

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by cagney

NOAAs faxes are easy. They use the Mercator projection. Unfortunately most other wx offices use other projections. To re-project these wx maps to Mercator, is not a trivial task!

Thomas

Agreed. My initial plugin only deals with mercator as it only allows to reference points which give it both offset and scale. For a projection like that you would need either 3 or 4 reference points. I haven't determined which it actually is, maybe someone can explain it to me. I wish opencpn _could_ do this form of projection in addition to mercator for all the charts and things, but it needs the ability to convert charts. It can be done on the video card (using glsl) which could potentially be very fast, or a slower software implementation for systems that don't support it, but this is ok too because it only needs to be done once, and would probably take less cpu than decoding the fax anyway. So yes.. it is my goal to support such images.

[rgleason]

Dear Boat Alexandra. That was fast. I have git fetched and git pullled the current version of Opencpn 3.1.1405 and compiled a release version. I know I cannot test plugins with a debug version (jesperwe), however the only git operations I've done have been for Opencpn master. I have not done commits because I haven't written code. Using your link, do I create a new directory, say "weatherfax" and pick "Run" then enter "Cmd" then navigate to that directory using Change directory "CD ___ " then execute a command (from git basics)

"git clone [url]"

"git clone https://github.com/seandepagnier/weatherfax_pi

which will download a copy to my hard disk directory. Do I need to sign in and validate somehow first?

Then I need to compile the plugin which will also be a first for me. So I think I use MS Visula Studio 2010 to do this. Do I need to have the plugin repository in a particular location under my opencpn-git directory to have the comple work? Should I compile the plugin as Debug or Release?

Sorry for all the questions. PS. I am using Win7 OS

[rgleason]

I should have looked at the link. Found this note.
Compiling
=========
You have to be able to compile OpenCPN itself - Get the info at Developer Manual | Official OpenCPN Homepage
* go to the plugin subdirectory in your OpenCPN source tree
* git clone git://github.com/seandepagnier/weatherfax_pi.git
Build as normally:
* cd ..
* cd build
* cmake ..
* cmake --build .

[rgleason]

I will investigate rtAudio to see if maybe I can integrate it and allow for directly reading from the sound card.

That would be awesome. I caution that rtAudio was the first reasonable one I found, but I really know nothing about it, so perhaps others are more knowledgeable and can make suggestions.

[rgleason]

Ok,
1. Used Start > Run > "cmd' > navigated using "cd [ ]" to opencpn-git/plugins
2. Entered at prompt "git clone git://github.com/seandepagnier/weatherfax_pi.git"
it downloaded the repository 100% resolving deletas 35/35 done.
3. Typed: cd .. to go to the parent directory "opencpn-git"
4. Typed: cd build to go to the subdirectory "build"
5. Typed: cmake [space].. [two periods] says found openGL, found wxwidgets, debug etc, "***Building weatherfax_pi *** -- writing spec file... -- configuring done, -- generating done -- build files have been written to opencpn-git/build

Ok, now what do it do? Move a weatherfax_pi.dll into plugins?
Should I be starting OpenCPN in debub mode or not?
Thanks.

[rgleason]

From MS VC 2010+ tried opening opencpn.sln in Debug mode and as expected there were no plugins available. I can see the weatherfax plugin under opencpn-git / build / plugins and the commands in the help file have been executed successfully.

From MS VC 2010+ tried opening opencpn.sln in Release mode and it compiled and executed with some errors in the attached txt files (changed to doc files because of size.)

Is there something I am doing wrong here?

[rgleason]

When I go back to the command prompt and go to the build directory as in README
and execute * cmake --build .
I get lots of errors. 170 warnings and 330 errors. I cannot seem to copy the cmd error messages.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Ok,
1. Used Start > Run > "cmd' > navigated using "cd [ ]" to opencpn-git/plugins
2. Entered at prompt "git clone git://github.com/seandepagnier/weatherfax_pi.git"
it downloaded the repository 100% resolving deletas 35/35 done.
3. Typed: cd .. to go to the parent directory "opencpn-git"
4. Typed: cd build to go to the subdirectory "build"
5. Typed: cmake [space].. [two periods] says found openGL, found wxwidgets, debug etc, "***Building weatherfax_pi *** -- writing spec file... -- configuring done, -- generating done -- build files have been written to opencpn-git/build

Ok, now what do it do? Move a weatherfax_pi.dll into plugins?
Should I be starting OpenCPN in debub mode or not?
Thanks.

That is the correct thing to do. There is a new version in git now hopefully fixes msvc stuff.

[rgleason]

Ok. boat alexandra I git cloned the new version. Then commented out the libaudio in cmake file as you asked (problem in Windows). Then ran cmake build and it all seemed successful. Then opened MS VC++2010 Express, loaded the Opencpn project and in dropdowns selected "Release" and "Win23". Then picked Debug command and selected "Build". It built without errors.

1

>------ Build started: Project: ZERO_CHECK, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
2>------ Build started: Project: NMEA0183, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
3>------ Build started: Project: i18n, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
4>------ Build started: Project: dashboard-i18n, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
5>------ Build started: Project: weatherfax-i18n, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
6>------ Build started: Project: grib-i18n, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
7>------ Skipped Build: Project: dashboard-pot-update, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
7>Project not selected to build for this solution configuration 
8>------ Skipped Build: Project: grib-po-update, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
8>Project not selected to build for this solution configuration 
9>------ Skipped Build: Project: po-update, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
9>Project not selected to build for this solution configuration 
10>------ Skipped Build: Project: pot-update, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
10>Project not selected to build for this solution configuration 
11>------ Skipped Build: Project: weatherfax-po-update, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
11>Project not selected to build for this solution configuration 
12>------ Skipped Build: Project: weatherfax-pot-update, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
12>Project not selected to build for this solution configuration 
13>------ Skipped Build: Project: dashboard-po-update, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
13>Project not selected to build for this solution configuration 
14>------ Skipped Build: Project: grib-pot-update, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
14>Project not selected to build for this solution configuration 
3>  i18n: Done.
4>  dashboard-i18n: Done.
2>  NMEA0183.vcxproj -> C:\Data-Dart\Up-Soft\Navigation\opencpn-git\build\Release\NMEA0183.lib
5>  weatherfax-i18n: Done.
6>  grib-i18n: Done.
15>------ Skipped Build: Project: dummy, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
15>Project not selected to build for this solution configuration 
16>------ Build started: Project: ALL_BUILD, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
16>  Build all projects
17>------ Skipped Build: Project: PACKAGE, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
17>Project not selected to build for this solution configuration 
18>------ Skipped Build: Project: INSTALL, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
18>Project not selected to build for this solution configuration 
========== Build: 7 succeeded, 0 failed, 7 up-to-date, 11 skipped ==========

Now how to I use the Weatherfax plugin? I need better directions because I have never tested PLUGINS and do not know what is required. Sorry.

[rgleason]

Found weatherfax_pi.dll in ...\opencpn-git\build\plugins\weatherfax_pi\Release
along with weatherfax_pi.exp and weatherfax_pi.lib.

I copied just weatherfax_pi.dll to the c:/programfiles(x86) /opencpn/plugins directory for version 3.1.1224

Started Opencpn 3.1.1224 and went to Options Settings > Plugins. Found Weatherfax 0.1 Enabled it. Preferences showed active and audio decoding options (which have been commented out earlier in cmake) including Image width, bits per pixel, carrier, deviation etc. Close that. Close setting after making Weatherfax active.

Click on weatherfax plugin icon. Popup to select fax file with file browser. Pick "NEW" Browse to downloaded weather faxes from Noaa. Select a supported image file. Then enter lat long coordinates and for first and second point and then try to display the fax on the Opencpn screen and Opencpn hangs up and I have to close it.
Done this twice.

A. Would like program to remember the weatherfax directory selected the last time! This could get tiresome.

Moved weatherfax_pi.dll to a compiled Release version of 3.1.1405 and put in the plugin directory... Enabled the plugin. Picked the weather fax Icon Popup with "New, Edit and Delete" Picked "New" and browsed to the weather faxes. Selected one fax . Set coordinates (might be better to have the two coord points each selectable and showing blanks for values. Then when each one is completed the selected values are indicated with N / S and E /W. If they are seen as inaccurate by the user they can be changed. Then once that is done, select "OK" at bottom left to finish setting coordinates. The fax window closes, the gif file shows up in the Fax box, but Opencpn is now displaying my browser image for some reason! and it seems to be frozen. When I move the Weatherfax box with the mouse grab the box leaves multiple boarder images. I try canceling the Weather Fax Popup "New, Edit, Delete" and it takes awhile to close. The image in Opencpn is still corrupted with Firefox browser stuff for some reason. I close Opencpn 3.1.1405.

End of first test