GPS based Odometer

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by LennartG

Release 0.8.0.0 for GPS Odometer is now available

This release is for users of OpenCPN version 5.8.2 and higher and the major updates are:
- Now saving Total distance, Trip distance, Departure time and Arrival time tn the plugins data directory. Parameters are saved when changed and this should, I hope, ensure that data is not lost at power failure or improper shutdown.
- Buttons are now using the Title font for texts.
- Occasional long numeric strings for Speedometer digital speed at startup is now properly taken care of.

The GPS Odometer is, as usual, installed/updated thru the Package Manager found in 'Settings -> Plugins' clicking 'GPS Odometer'. Remember to update the master catalogue for the latest plugins.

Still have to make Android users dissapointed, there is no Android version as i lack both the equipment and skill to make and maintain one.

Thanks. Can I suggest a feature?

Occasionally, I forget to switch the odometer leg on.

Would it be possible to have an option switch to have it start automatically when moving away from a stationary position (=anchorage) for more than say 0.20Nm?

[LennartG]

Franziska, not a bad idea but how should it be applied?

- Leg must be displayed, of course.
- How do one define 'stationary position'? Consider the low quality GPS units that could move around well over 0.10 Nm or, in certain areas even double that.
- Should there be a timer to define 'Stationary position' time? Lunch break, over night ...
- How shall this be combined with 'Start/Stop Leg' and 'Reset Leg' buttons. Conditions or what?

All this is doable but I see that a few options may need be configurable to be useful. That also makes it more complicated for the user to set up and understand. Plus: I'm not to happy to make the setup dialogue bigger, there are already cases with small screens where it does not fit.

Help me find the 'Golden Rules' here and I will take a further look into what can be done.

/LennartG

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by LennartG

Franziska, not a bad idea but how should it be applied?

- Leg must be displayed, of course.
- How do one define 'stationary position'? Consider the low quality GPS units that could move around well over 0.10 Nm or, in certain areas even double that.
- Should there be a timer to define 'Stationary position' time? Lunch break, over night ...
- How shall this be combined with 'Start/Stop Leg' and 'Reset Leg' buttons. Conditions or what?

All this is doable but I see that a few options may need be configurable to be useful. That also makes it more complicated for the user to set up and understand. Plus: I'm not to happy to make the setup dialogue bigger, there are already cases with small screens where it does not fit.

Help me find the 'Golden Rules' here and I will take a further look into what can be done.

/LennartG

Thanks Lennart, perhaps the simplest would be to increase the distance before it auto starts a leg to 0.5Nm.

I don't know of a GPS unit which has that much fluctuations and a log distance of 1/2 a mile shorter should not matter to most cruisers.
So it could kick in then.
Most cruise for several miles on each leg.

A simple tick box called autostart and than an explanation with a tool tip should suffice.
So users have a choice to use it or not.
I surely would:-)

I agree that autostop seems more tricky.
Say you drift for some time while waiting for wind or fishing.
But then again, it would perhaps not matter to most cruisers as no distance is traveled in that time. So autostop could kick in when stationary within a circle of 0.5Nm for longer than 30minutes. Then, once your moving again the next leg starts automatically again.
Maybe give legs within the same day an additional alphabetical suffix?

Agree, keep it simple is helpful.

[LennartG]

Franzisca,

I will test a few ideas and see what I can come up with. Give me some time though.

Not sure what you mean by 'Maybe give legs within the same day an additional alphabetical suffix?', there is no multiple legs function.

/LennartG

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by LennartG

Franzisca,

I will test a few ideas and see what I can come up with. Give me some time though.

Not sure what you mean by 'Maybe give legs within the same day an additional alphabetical suffix?', there is no multiple legs function.

/LennartG

All the time in the world :-)

Regarding naming storing leg info it was just a thought...

When a leg starts at midnight or whenever someone starts moving in a day, that's a leg, correct? Could be called for example leg 11A_2023-08-19.
Now when they stop during the day and restart, autostart/autostop would create a new leg leg 11B_2023-08-19.

[LennartG]

Franzisca, are we having a slight misunderstanding here? There is 'Trip' and there is 'Leg'.

- 'Trip' is when you start e.g. in the morming and stop in the evening, with or without a lunch break. A Trip is zeroed with the 'Reset Trip' button and the distance ilogged as well as added to the 'Total Distance'.

- 'Leg' is the optional distance/time measurement tool located below the 'Trip Reset' button. It is enabled in the settings menu activating 'Shoiw/Reset Leg distance & time'. That is intended for keeping track of shorter legs when e.g. cruising. Leg has two separate buttons, 'Start/Stop Leg' and 'Reset Leg'.

LennartG

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by LennartG

Franzisca, are we having a slight misunderstanding here? There is 'Trip' and there is 'Leg'.

- 'Trip' is when you start e.g. in the morming and stop in the evening, with or without a lunch break. A Trip is zeroed with the 'Reset Trip' button and the distance ilogged as well as added to the 'Total Distance'.

- 'Leg' is the optional distance/time measurement tool located below the 'Trip Reset' button. It is enabled in the settings menu activating 'Shoiw/Reset Leg distance & time'. That is intended for keeping track of shorter legs when e.g. cruising. Leg has two separate buttons, 'Start/Stop Leg' and 'Reset Leg'.

LennartG

Ohh, hmm, you are right.

For me, the trip was the overall measure running like forever (we are fortunate enough to cruise indefinitely). Hence, I never reset it.

Leg was the distance between two anchorages or ports for me.
So, hence, missing to start the leg when sailing from one place to another was a bit annoying. Mind you, a leg could be several days in a row in our case.

[LennartG]

Franziska, no problem!

This makes it a lot easier to define and understand:
- An 'Automatic Trip Reset' tick box that, if active, resets the trip automatically if:
a/ Speed increases above 'On Route' speed and
b/ Arrival time is at least 4 hours ago. Time lap will be configurable in OpenCPN configuration file.

To me that makes sense and no fiddling with position (that I do not use anyway).

I will also then need to add some kind of log handling and log viewer, say 30 days (configurable) old log files. Older logs should be automatically removed.
The line definition would be 'one line per departure' (how about lunch breaks?) and viewable as .txt or .adoc, not sure which one yet. Does every system have a plain text viewer or should I require a web browser?

/LennartG

[Franziska]

HI LennartG, sorry about the delayed response. See my comments inserted below in capitails.

Originally Posted by LennartG

Franziska, no problem!

This makes it a lot easier to define and understand:
- An 'Automatic Trip Reset' tick box that, if active, resets the trip automatically if:
a/ Speed increases above 'On Route' speed and

SHOULD THAT NOT BE LEG RESTART? A TRIP CONTAINS SEVERAL LEGS, NO?

b/ Arrival time is at least 4 hours ago. A USER DEFINED VALUE WOULD BE GREAT AND PERHAPS BETTER
Time lap will be configurable in OpenCPN configuration file.

To me that makes sense and no fiddling with position (that I do not use anyway).

I will also then need to add some kind of log handling and log viewer, say 30 days (configurable) old log files. Older logs should be automatically removed.

WHY DO THEY NEED TO BE CLEARED AUTOMATIC? PERHAPS ADD A CLEAR LOGS OLDER THAN 30 DAYS BUTTON.

The line definition would be 'one line per departure' (how about lunch breaks?)
YES
and viewable as .txt or .adoc, not sure which one yet.
XLS WOULD BE EVEN BETTER OR ARRANGING THE DATA IN THE TXT IN A WAY THAT IT CAN BE EASILY FED INTO A SPREADSHEET

Does every system have a plain text viewer I WOULD THINK SO
or should I require a web browser?

/LennartG

[LennartG]

Franziska,

1/ Trip contra Leg:
- Trip is the basic 'day distance', 'How long did we go today' or 'from start to finish distance' like used in most standard 'Sumlog' systems. Hence the connection to departure and arrival times.
- Leg is intended for e.g sailing when you want to go a certain course a specified distance, then to change course. Also used with fixed speed a specified time. Useful in e.g. foggy situations for 'blind navigation'.
- Most users only use trip distance and not the optional leg functionality so the auto reset will be for trip.

2/ Automatic reset timing: It will be configurable either way, Will keep track of the settings dialog size trying to fit it in there.

3/ Clear logs button: I was thinking about it as an alternative. Just being careful not filling e.g. RPi users memory cards with information they dont even know they have. There must be a maximum limit.

4/ Log file format: Not every user have a spreadsheet reader installed so a comma separated text file should be a resonable alternative. One departure per row no matter of the number of breaks. Break times will also be logged extending the length of the row.
A new departure (generating a new log row) will then be generated for each trip reset, as today.

LennartG

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by LennartG

Franziska,

1/ Trip contra Leg:
- Trip is the basic 'day distance', 'How long did we go today' or 'from start to finish distance' like used in most standard 'Sumlog' systems. Hence the connection to departure and arrival times.
- Leg is intended for e.g sailing when you want to go a certain course a specified distance, then to change course. Also used with fixed speed a specified time. Useful in e.g. foggy situations for 'blind navigation'.
- Most users only use trip distance and not the optional leg functionality so the auto reset will be for trip.

2/ Automatic reset timing: It will be configurable either way, Will keep track of the settings dialog size trying to fit it in there.

3/ Clear logs button: I was thinking about it as an alternative. Just being careful not filling e.g. RPi users memory cards with information they dont even know they have. There must be a maximum limit.

4/ Log file format: Not every user have a spreadsheet reader installed so a comma separated text file should be a resonable alternative. One departure per row no matter of the number of breaks. Break times will also be logged extending the length of the row.
A new departure (generating a new log row) will then be generated for each trip reset, as today.

LennartG

Rethinking my previous postings and simplifying things.

When people start OpenCpn the app should start recording as soon as you start moving more than 0.25nm.
Forget about lunchbreaks, any stationary time does not add miles anyway.

Could you perhaps add total distance traveled summary?
As explained I'd like to follow the overall distance traveled long-term, like over several months if not years.

The other would be total distance traveled per day from midnight to midnight.

That would be closest to a classic log / sumlog.

Guess nothing speaks really against the 30 day log emptying.

[LennartG]

Franziska,

these latest proposals require a complete redesign of the GPS Odometer. That is not in my plans but I will follow the ideas outlined as 2 thru 4 above.
I am not using location but speed, time and signal quality as calculation parameters. Extending the way you propose is a totally new concept.

LennartG

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by LennartG

Franziska,

these latest proposals require a complete redesign of the GPS Odometer. That is not in my plans but I will follow the ideas outlined as 2 thru 4 above.
I am not using location but speed, time and signal quality as calculation parameters. Extending the way you propose is a totally new concept.

LennartG

Thanks. Hmm maybe I'll need to find an external app which can do this than.
I'll keep following your progress though to see if I can use it better.

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by LennartG

Franziska,

these latest proposals require a complete redesign of the GPS Odometer. That is not in my plans but I will follow the ideas outlined as 2 thru 4 above.
I am not using location but speed, time and signal quality as calculation parameters. Extending the way you propose is a totally new concept.

LennartG

Actually looking at it, all I'd need & wish for, as said initially, is a function which starts the leg automatically once the boat moves more than than 0.3nm after being stationary for more than 30 minutes.

[LennartG]

Franziska,
then we are about on the same track even though I would say: Speed over a certain speed limit after a 'specified time' has elapsed. Of course the speed must first be below the same speed limit during the 'specified time'.
- Speed: 'On-Route speed' is per default 2 knots and can be set in the settings menu.
- Specified time: The 'specified time' will be defineable in a way not yet decided and not yet implemented.

Would not that be a usable solution? No absolute postion and no distance from that position. This is the way the GPS Odometer is intended to be used with the Trip functionality plus you get Departure and Arrival times.
The design is already, as standard, halfway there and no redesign required. Just the auto trip reset additions I'm already working on.
/LennartG