Currents: Scroll Through Hour-by-Hour Chart View

[prjacobs]

Hi,
I'm new to OpenCPN and this forum. I sail out of Pedder Bay (near Victoria BC in the Pacific North West) and have a question about the current arrows.

I know I can open a current window for any particular location, and move fore or back a whole day at a time, but is it possible to scroll through the current arrows display on the chart, hour by hour, for a 'big picture' of what's happening current-wise?

I find OpenCPN very easy and intuitive to use, and especially like the AIS feature.

Peter.

[idpnd]

I don't think there is any support for currents at the moment? Are you seeing arrows?

[prjacobs]

Yes, I'm seeing all the current arrows for the day and time that I click on the "Show Currents" icon.

What I was dreaming about was a way to move forward, one hour at a time, to view how the arrows change size (speed) and direction. I have no idea if it can be done, or how, but it would be a great tool for trip planning in the Gulf Islands.

Here's a screen shot of my area, with the current arrows for 7pm pdst.

[Netsurfer]

Peter,

Originally Posted by prjacobs

Yes, I'm seeing all the current arrows for the day and time that I click on the "Show Currents" icon.

What I was dreaming about was a way to move forward, one hour at a time, to view how the arrows change size (speed) and direction.

as the currents display depends on your system time (and date) just change it and you see the result immediately.

Gunther

[idpnd]

Ah that would be part of NOAA/xtides data?

I suppose there is a time slider in the grib display which could be adapted for this purpose (setting general opencpn time for grib and currents)?

[prjacobs]

Netsurfer: the program has to be restarted to recognize time and date changes, but good idea, anyway!

idpnd: a GRIB-type menu would be perfect. It certainly works well for the wind vectors. As I'm not an able programer (just an able seaman) I'll have to let someone else do the programing. If that kind of data is widely available, I think it would be a good feature to add.

[Netsurfer]

Peter,

Originally Posted by prjacobs

Netsurfer: the program has to be restarted to recognize time and date changes, but good idea, anyway!

not with Windows 7.
If I change the systems date/ time settings OCPN recognizes this without restart (with a short delay of about 1-2 seconds).

What OS are you on?

Gunther

[prjacobs]

I'm using XP

[David Stenglein]

Originally Posted by prjacobs

Hi,
I'm new to OpenCPN and this forum. I sail out of Pedder Bay (near Victoria BC in the Pacific North West) and have a question about the current arrows.

I know I can open a current window for any particular location, and move fore or back a whole day at a time, but is it possible to scroll through the current arrows display on the chart, hour by hour, for a 'big picture' of what's happening current-wise?

I find OpenCPN very easy and intuitive to use, and especially like the AIS feature.

Peter.

I want to second this request! I'm glad I spent a little more time searching. I discovered opencpn recently after looking for a linux solution for s-57 data every couple of years.

I'm a kayaker in the NYC area and I'd love to have this feature for planning trips. In particular, circumnavigating Manhattan involves a varying set of currents throughout the trip. The typical trip involves going counter-clockwise around the island in about 8 hours, with the currents flowing with you most of the way around.

A much trickier course involves racing around Manhattan clockwise. This requires very careful timing to avoid a terrible slog up the Hudson river at the end.

When I first did this trip solo years ago I spent hours transcribing coordinates from the maptech online charts into a list I could load into my handheld GPS. I could now do this in about 5 minutes with opencpn, it seems. :-)

Having the currents would make the timing much easier. What would be the most awesome would be to have a track with times and pacing information. My 305 has a time/distance virtual partner, but an app for my android phone showing my pace related to specific waypoints would be best.

But, I digress. ;-) I would love to see some sort of time slider for controlling current display.

-Dave