The XO Computer for Navigation

[phiggins]

agkirk,
Yes I don't know either how the activity icons are arranged, must be magic.

Could you do me a favour and test the ais simulator I wrote. I think its pretty neat. To make it real easy, I put everything into zipped exe file which is attached.

Just Download it, rename to AIS_SIMULATOR.EXE and
execute to unzip to a directory on your SD card. Then read the README.TXT.

I didn't include the chart for PUGET SOUND. You will have to get from NOAA.

Thanks

Paul

[tyrntlzrdking]

OLPC is coming out with various ways to charge the batteries in the XO.
There is a cool Freeplay hand crank for gererating power, and some very inexpensive solar panel blankets. I copied the specs and prices for the solar panels from the OLPC website below.
I am amazed at these prices. Hope I can buy a few.
I was going to buy a Sunlinq 6.5Watt/12Volt blanket for $89.00!

5Watt/14Volt panel

• Complete Charge time @ rated output: 5 hours 15 minutes
• US$12.00 ex-work plus US5.50 S&H charge

7Watt/14Volt panel

• Complete Charge time @ rated output: 3 hours 45 minutes
• US$16.80 ex-work plus US$7.70 S&H charge

10Watt/14Volt panel

• Complete Charge time @ rated output: 2 hours 40 minutes
• US$24.00 ex-work plus US$11.00 S&H charge

• 60W/17Volt blanket panel to be used with Multi-Battery Charger DC-DC version

Solar Panel Blanket

• • Cost estimate for 60W blanket: $150

[agkirk]

Paul, I'd be happy to give it a whril. Was going to ask about it yesterday and got distracted. Noted today the icons have moved back to the left of OPERA, so the magic is still in there.
Alan

[phiggins]

Thanks Alan,

After looking at the simulation for awhile I decided the ferry was just too erratic so I decide to change the simulated boat to a freighter, the Polar Texas, that is going up the strait. It provides a better simulation and quite a few CPA alarm scenarios. So its attached. Again download, rename to AIS_POLARTEXAS.exe and execute. Read the README.TXT.

This version of the simulator also works on Windows, if you have all the prereqs. I ran the simulator against both SeaClear and Fugawi and both work. Running on XP highlighted how important it is to have the sound working so you can hear the alarms. I'll have to look into why the sound doesn't work using wine under Linux. Has anyone figured this out yet?

Paul

[phiggins]

Made some enhancements to my program:

If anone would like to test their navigation program's GPS / AIS interfaces to see what they look like, I have written a program (free) that does this. It works on both Windows and Linux. I've tested it against SeaClear and Fugawi on XP and against SeaClear running under Wine in Linux on my XO computer. Think it should work on any navigaton program.

You need to have the Python program language installed buts its free too.

It allows you to see AIS targets and see what happens when an CPA alarm is tripped.

Its called AISGPS_SIM You can download it at:

phiggins

It comes with instructions and an AIS script file but you should be able to use any AIS script with it and assign your boat to any boat in the script.

Paul

[agkirk]

Paul, I installed your POLARTEXAS AIS simulator and found it worked just fine. I ran the sim for quite some time but got no alarms. I see numerous boat entries in the AIS pull down list as they are detected. Occasionally one of these targets appears to get stuck and the after 10-20 seconds it takes a big jump. This could also be a feature of SeaClear or more likely my setup of SeaClear.

I found it quite interesting to watch the Texas Polar sail up the Puget Sound and watch the ferries cross, some I have even traveled on. Thanks for publishing this neat piece of SW.

Alan

[phiggins]

Alan,
Thanks for the feedback. The reason you didn't get any alarms is because the sound doesn't work on SeaClear when it runs under wine, at least it doesn't on the XO computer. I've tried to find out why without luck. You probably were getting CPA/TCPA alarms but didn't know it.

If you look very carefully you will see the neat way that SeaClear shows an AIS target that trips the CPA/TCPA. It draws a red dashed circle with a diameter of the CPA with its centre where your boat will be at the CPA. It also draws a red dotted line from the target boat to the point it will be at the CPA and draws a small circcle at the end of the line that has a diameter equal to the length of the boat. If it knows the name of the boat it will label the small circle. So you can actually see where the most dangerous point will be. Its realy hard to see this on the XO unless you've seen it before but its very unique.

I think the reason you see the targets jump is that an AIS message was not receved from them for awhile so they moved quite a bit by the time the next message comes in. This would be true in real life.

If you try the new version I posted on the weekend, you can pick any of the AIS targets to be your boat.

I'm writing a GUI frontend for the program to make it easier to use.

Paul

[digiital]

I don't have a XO laptop, but none the less, very interesting thread.
Is there a distro out there for sailer/boaters? Or anyone have thoughts about making one? I'm no pro in linux, but more then willing to join in on a project like a "boating linux distro"

Now to add alittle to this thread. For those who are hams and would like to do mail but don't want to spend the big bucks on a Pactor modem, have a look at PSKMAIL(Linux).
pskmail » home

[Kerry]

WOW
what an impressive thread. I registered just to thank you. I was anticipating many frustratrating days trying to do what you have already done. THANKS. Any other ideas for marinizing my XO?

[agkirk]

Paul, Got the red box around two of the northern most CPA targets but SeaClear seems to have missed one of the southern ones. I'll have to run the sim again to get the name of the vessel which seems to have passed about .5 mile from the PolarTexas. You are right about having to look carefully to see them. Hope you have luck in finding the audio problem. I'm back home now and have tried a NEMA GPS via a USB to RS-232 converter without luck. Do I need to run any special setup before I get the SeaClear to recognize the comm interface? I tried the previously mentioned usb to ttycom assignment but no luck. What instruction do I use to review the USB assignments via terminal? Thanks for your help.

Alan

[phiggins]

Alan,

I just finished my GUI version of the simulator. Besides the GUI interface it displays a list of all the boats with all the AIS information plus it calculates the CPA and TCPA and allows you to alert on it. It also provides sound so even though SeaClear doesn't have sound this progarm substitutes for it. I've asked my friend Dan to post it on his site. So it should be there soon. phiggins

As for running with your GPS did you enter:
from your olpc user (not su):
cd ~/.wine/dosdevices
ln -s /dev/ttyUSB0 com1

If you've done that, then when you bring up SeaClear does it give the popup that says it couldn't open the com port?

Also, some USB serial cables don't work. I have 3 and one doesn't work. Try this from normal oplc user:
with the USB cable unplugged enter:
ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0
it should say cannot access....
then plug the cable in and repeat this command. Now it should
crw-rw---- i root uucp ....


Let me know .

Paul

[phiggins]

Alan,

The new simulator is not yet on the download site. I should have given it a version number to identify it. The new one is about 753K the old one is less than 300K. If you want to get it sooner, PM me with your email address and I'll send it in an attachment.

Paul

[agkirk]

Paul, It appears "something"is connected to the USB port as I receive a "cannot access" without the USB to serial adapter and I receive crw-rw---- 1 root uucp 188, 0 2008-03-19 20:05 when I attach the adapter. SeaClear still gives me the com1 not connected error. I use a Garmin 76CSx with a NEMA cable. If I wanted to use 'terminal'to view the NEMA how would I do that.

I'll PM on the new simulator and GUI.

[phiggins]

Alan,

Well if you sure the ~/.wine/dosdevices is set properly:

ln -s /dev/ttyUSB0/ com1

then create a file called ttusb.py with this in it:

import serial
ser = serial.Serial('/dev/ttyUSB0', timeout=1)
while True:
line = ser.readline()
print line

To make it work you have to get pyserial

yum pyserial (or yum python-pyserial)

Then with your USB serial cable in, from a terminal enter:
python ttusb.py

It the program starts, your cable is OK, then connect your GPS and you should see GPS messages being printed.

If it doesn't open, your cable is probably defective.

You'll have Ctrl-C to stop the program.
================================

I sent you the new simulator, use either the .EXE if you are downloading to Windows or the .GZ if you are downloading right to Linux.

Paul

[agkirk]

Paul, Thanks, the script worked and data from the Garmin 76 NEMA cable appears, but is different than I expected. When set to NEMA IN/OUT and 4800 baud, it must be binary as there appearer to be few ASCII equivalents and the XO terminal get triggered into displaying weird characters. When the Garmin is set to text, I get precise ASCII strings looking like what I thought was NEMA format. I suspect the cable is OK. Alas, SeaClear still gives me the Communication Port 1 error. Your sim works OK, so SeaClear understands when your sim sends data. I'm missing something simple.