GPS Simulation with OpenCPN

[meg23]

I am digging into the OpenCPN source code and I want to be able to simulate GPS location from a local TCP connection. Basically, I would like to be able to generate NMEA GPS sentences without a GPS and have those read by OpenCPN.

Is their a good open source tool to be able to do this?

Thanks, Max

[rgleason]

Yes, you can get the VDR recorder player plugin. Install and activate and then browse to and play a nmea file. There are some nmea files on Opencpn Beta file thingie, stored there for guys like you ti rest

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[meg23]

That could work as well, but what I would really like to do is to write an application that generates a route based on realtime weather and wind direction and then push that as gps data to OpenCPN via a tcp connection.

[nohal]

Max...
Netcat, for example. Or any decent programming language - pretty much all of them have libraries to create network servers with close to zero effort, so as you will have to process your weather info anyway, maybe that is the way to go.

Pavel

[rgleason]

I hesitate to suggest weather_routing plugin because of the emphasis on weather, but that is the most obvious route to go and it does respond to many weather factors.

[PjotrC]

Originally Posted by meg23

what I would really like to do is to write an application that generates a route based on realtime weather and wind direction and then push that as gps data to OpenCPN via a tcp connection.

I recently wrote some Python programs that drive OCPN NMEA input via UDP. You may find the code examples in this thread http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1517589

At least the network communication part should be usable for another project.

I found Python a good tool for this, but of course - as Pavel suggests - any decent language will do...

[meg23]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I was able to cobble some code together in Java to generate GPS sentences and pass them via tcp to OpenCPN. This seems to be working nicely. There is a really nice marine library for Java, which centers around NMEA. See below:

Java Marine API - NMEA 0183 library for Java

Once I get something a little more professional setup, I will publish this on github. Will probably turn into an AWT tool to control speed,direction, bearing of ship at sea.