Autotrackraymarine

[dwynalda]

All

I had the opportunity to install the autotrackraymarine plugin in OpenCPN this week as I am currently on the great loop and needed to fulfill my geek needs.

First I tried to install the plugin in open plotter. It installs and can see the ngt1 (and control it) but there's a bit of updating needed to display the status properly. The buttons work and the plugin does what it's supposed to do... But the display is something Douwe is now working on.

Since I'm a geek and had Linux and Windows on board I installed standalone OpenCPN (still using signalk server from open plotter) and in Windows the app works exactly as expected. Actually even better than I expected.

Be warned... When I first turned on the autopilot to track with a route in OpenCPN it navigated like a drunk sailor. Turns out my calibrations in my Ray Marine evo autopilot were not good. After a couple of hours troubleshooting that, I found the autopilot bearing differed from OpenCPN by 4 degrees. Once I got everything talking on the same standard (and configured a compass adjustment on the autopilot to match) I had very good results.

Even better I decided to go to the next step. I booted my tablet and opened Navionics boater app. I picked a point up river a bit from me and a point 100 miles downriver. The app calculated a route (in the center of the channel) the whole way. I saved this route in gpx format to Google drive and then grabbed the file with my PC. I imported the file into OpenCPN and activated the route and then when I drew near to the first point on the route I double clicked AUTO and saw the plugin go into tracking mode.

I then sat back for HOURS marveling at the miracle that is this plugin. My boat stayed near center channel waypoint after waypoint running a few meters left or right at major turn angles - but literally staying right near the middle of the channel. Yes, I literally navigated 50+ miles of the Illinois River and only had to standby when oncoming barges needed us to run near the edge of the channel to make room.

Exceptional. Nice work Douwe. I look forward to the day when a version is released that works in Linux/Open plotter (it already *works* but the status fields don't show XTE, Bearing, status etc). I'm sure that's actually a minor thing as the +1-1+10-10 buttons change color when the status changes.... so it's probably an xWindows thing.