FREE AIS MONITORING IN OPENCPN

[sinbad7]

Many of you guys probably already know that you can display AIS targets on OpenCPN simply by downloading a free .kml file from Marinetraffic.

However,it was a surprise to me when I activated the GE plug this morning.

See attached screenshots from my laptop as well as my Galaxy tablet using TeamViewer.

The AIS positions are somewhat delayed but if you subscribe to Marinetraffic they will be in ´real-time´.

Tore

[Capt.Tony]

Tore,
I use Google Earth to view AIS data from both marinetraffic.com and vesseltracker.com, I provide AIS feeds to both providers. You said you view AIS data in opencpn using the .kml file from marine traffic, how do i view it in opencpn without the GE plugin?

[r.fairman]

I think Tore is only saying that the AIS is displayed in the GE plugin not in OpenCpn as well. The free output from MarineTraffic is in kml format only. For an AIS datafeed you need to contribute your own ais . What we need is a kml to ais conversion utility to feed GE and OpenCpn at the same time. any developer takers. or what we need is some who has the raw ais data feed to share it with others.but that might contravene some rights. the only raw available data fee I can find is the the one from SF. If there are others please let me know.

Richard

[sinbad7]

Richard is right,I do of course have the GE plugin.
What we need is an option to overlay own route/ship on the GE screen as well as another option to duplicate the AIS targets as an overlay on the OpenCN part of the screen. With the technology and programing skills which exists in this forum,that should be a possibility.

I was an AIS contributor from Costa Verde for many years but after my NPort Express broke down,I only have data when my PC is on from 08:00 to 23:00 approximately.

Tore

[sailias]

It makes more sense to have the AIS input formatted so that it feeds OCPN directly as then the feed is independent of the plugin as well as platform. The GE plugin is windows only, not available for linux nor macs. I can get the SF feed, and for fun tried to convert the kml to gpx, thats a no go. If you read that file, it has a URL where the data is generated from but as its all windows code, its not not supported outside of GE or the GE plugin. GE on linux is compiled against wine so its not a native port. The feed works on linux in GE. I am not familiar enough with AIS to know what sentences are needed. But if someone understands windows code and AIS statements, it should not be too difficult to write a simple script that pulls that data from the provided URL and transcribes the data into standard AIS statements. Not me Im not a developer.

Best regards

/ch

[r.fairman]

Some progress

You can right click on the folder that contains the ship details which is created in GE by the MarineTraffic kml which updates every 10 mins Save as a kml file. Convert to a gpx file using GPS Babel Then import to opencpn, It takes a while as there may be up to 1500 ships to import, Each ship displays as a waypoint in the last reported position. Its speed and heading are in the waypoint description. Not true AIS but some progress. This process would need to be automated in GE and Opencpn. A neater solution would be to import the kml file directly but not poss at moment ANY TAKERS

richard

[sailias]

If you look at this page....all the data is available in whatever format you want. The issue is that you must be giving signal back. AIS Data Exchange - Protocols and Interfaces