ais - showing targets... help

[flopresti]

No passing ships show up??? I'm using 4.8 and keep following the instructions to show ais targets. (tools > ships> ais targets). I'm doing this from my laptop (not on boat). I'm on the internet so I can open a ais site and get the ships of the world. I'm at home without gis antenna. Display remembers where my boat is but I get no "big ships" showing up.... thank, Flopresti

[AedanC]

Go into connections, enable the nmea debug window and post a screen shot here.

[flopresti]

Hi ... I'm running opencpn from home... but I'm connected to internet... I have gone thru tools > ships > ais targets... I thought I'd be able to see ships via ais as if I logged into an ais page via the internet? thanks for your feedback... Frank.lopresti@nyu.edu

[flopresti]

Is my thinking wrong about getting opencpn to show ais info. I know the ais info is available over internet so I assumed that if my laptop was on the internet, the opencpn would be able to display ships using ais?? frank.lopresti@nyu.edu

[nohal]

Originally Posted by flopresti

Is my thinking wrong about getting opencpn to show ais info. I know the ais info is available over internet so I assumed that if my laptop was on the internet, the opencpn would be able to display ships using ais?? frank.lopresti@nyu.edu

Yes, your thinking is a bit wrong. a) There is no free source of AIS data feed on the internet with global coverage and b) The data from these sources are delayed by an unknown, very often dangerous amount of time - you probably don't want to be run over by a ship that is displayed half a mile away...but actually was there five minutes ago.

If you want to play in front of somebody else's house, you may try to connect your OpenCPN to

Host: ais.exploratorium.edu
TCP port: 80

If you are looking for a real entry level solution, the dAISy AIS receiver can be had for under USD 60.

Pavel

[St. Elsewhere]

If you just want to see vessel traffic, why not just use your browser to connect to marinetraffic.com? You can see ais traffic in most places in the world.

[rgleason]

Flopresti,
To test ais and see how it works,You can download a nmea ais file from Opencpn Beta File Thingie, https://tgp-architects.com. and use rguser, rgpass. to login. Go to the nmea folder and pick one of the larger sized AIS files and download it.

Then install VDR_pi, follow instructions and enable it. Then use the player icon to load the ais file. You will have to find where Own Boat is located and where the AIS signals are coming from in the world. Use right click center boat, zoom in.