Help / FAQ

[rgleason]

How familiar with OpenCPN are you?
Have you tried updating the Database?
Are your chart paths correct?
I suggest reading this post and the links
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3821061

You are going to have to be more specific to get decent help.
.

Originally Posted by bcboomer

I have version 5.8.2 on a Windows 11 laptop.
I've installed the Canadian o-charts.
When I go to charts I only get 1 chart and, when I zoom out or pan off that chart I get an error message stating:

OpenCPN has stopped working

Collecting information about the problem...

Taking desktop screenshot
Creating crash dump file...
[creating_dump]

___________________

This flashed on screen for such a short time I had to video it and freeze the frame to read it.

What am I doing wrong?

[bcboomer]

Thanks for your reply.
I had looked at the chart instructions and missed the requirement to select "all" under "Display Category".
Uwe at O-charts pointed me in the right direction.

[Glaspar_fan]

I'm a very new user; just installed Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS and then OpenCPN 5.6.0. I got some charts downloaded and can pan around, zoom, etc. Very nice! Then I got a USB GPS receiver, Stratux Vk-162, plugged it in and wow, it seems to be working great with three green bars in the satellite indicator. I'm actually impressed with how smoothly this all went just by reading tips from the manual and forum.


The problem is, I don't know how to get the ownboat icon to show up or the charts to center on my location. I thought it would just happen. I'm in Southern California but if I click on the boat icon in the lower right corner I'm taken to a spot off the coast of Africa. Does the position have to be changing? I'm doing all this at home (inside the coverage of the charts) so the position never changes.


[edit] Looks like there may be a config issue. The position for the boat is shown as 0N 0E, which just happens to be off the coast of Africa. This has got to be user error. Any suggestions how to get the position updated?



John

[Jon Hacking]

Hi John. First, welcome to CF! We hope we can help you.

I don't know Ubuntu, but I assume the OpenCPN UI is similar to Windows. The reason you're showing up at 0/0 lat/lon is because the GPS isn't actually getting through to OpenCPN. Click on Options (looks like a gear icon) on the left, then select the Connections tab. In there, you have to match the Serial (RS232) port of your GPS.

In Windows, I'd open Device Mangler to see which COM port activates when I plug in the GPS, but I don't know how to do that with Ubuntu. Hopefully, you do.

Set that COM port to 4800 baud, & note the number of the COM port. Then enter that COM port into the Connections tab of OpenCPN.

Then Check the Show NMEA Debug Window on that Connections tab. This should bring up a window that should then show the stream of data coming in to OpenCPN. If you're not getting a stream of GPS sentences, then you might need to reboot the computer, so the COM port settings take effect.

Once you start seeing data in that Debug window, your GPS position should correct itself. Note that the GPS itself may need several minutes to get a decent fix.

Also, a Windows limitation is that a serial device (COM-port) can only talk to ONE application. So if your GPS came with software (you mention 3-green bars) then that means that the GPS SW is sucking up the COM-port stream, & it's not getting through to OpenCPN. Make sure that this GPS software is NOT active when you start OpenCPN, or the data-stream won't get through.

OpenCPN doesn't center on your position until you click on the Boat icon in the lower right corner. Otherwise, you're free to wander around to look at whatever you want.

Finally, if you're planning to go offshore, I can point you to some excellent sources of downloadable charts for the Pacific or the Caribbean. There are also worldwide tides available for download (but not tidal currents that I know of).

Hope this helps!

[Glaspar_fan]

Thank you for the reply, Jon. It looks like the GPS really is connecting with OpenCPN though. Here (hopefully) is a screen capture showing the connection and the NMEA data. Is this what the data should look like?


I've attached the screenshot as a PDF.



John

[nohal]

John...

On your screenshot, there are no NMEA sentences actually containing position at all. It sure might be just because there are only a very few lines visible, but make sure that your GPS actually does produce position. If you are trying your setup at home, it is pretty possible that the signal is simply not good enough to derive position although some sats are actually "visible". Take it outside or at least stick the GPS out of the window....

[Glaspar_fan]

Thank you, Nohal, I'll try that as soon as I can get back to it.


John

[nohal]

In the NMEA Debug window you are looking for RMC, GLL or GGA sentences, or some combination of these - most of the current units produce more than one for compatibility reasons. https://gpsd.gitlab.io/gpsd/NMEA.html is your friend.

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by Glaspar_fan

I'm a very new user; just installed Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS and then OpenCPN 5.6.0. I got some charts downloaded and can pan around, zoom, etc. Very nice! Then I got a USB GPS receiver, Stratux Vk-162, plugged it in and wow, it seems to be working great with three green bars in the satellite indicator. I'm actually impressed with how smoothly this all went just by reading tips from the manual and forum.


The problem is, I don't know how to get the ownboat icon to show up or the charts to center on my location. I thought it would just happen. I'm in Southern California but if I click on the boat icon in the lower right corner I'm taken to a spot off the coast of Africa. Does the position have to be changing? I'm doing all this at home (inside the coverage of the charts) so the position never changes.


[edit] Looks like there may be a config issue. The position for the boat is shown as 0N 0E, which just happens to be off the coast of Africa. This has got to be user error. Any suggestions how to get the position updated?



John

Many GPS receivers will output 0N 0E while they are acquiring the location. While this is happening, your boat will move to that location. It would sure be nice if OpenCPN filtered that, but it doesn't.

It can take more than 10 minutes for a GPS to determine its location after it has satellite lock. Location can't be determined if the GPS doesn't have the Almanac, which takes 12.5 minutes to download. So if you have green GPS bars, you might only need to wait for the almanac to download. I'm not sure how the cheaper pucks work, but usually the almanac would be stored in memory so you don't need to wait the full 12.5 minutes every time you turn it on, only if the unit has been turned off for a long time.

[Glaspar_fan]

I'm beginning to think there is something wrong with this Vk162 and have emailed Stratux with a support request. I stuck the unit out the second story window and even after almost two hours still didn't have a non-zero position.


I've attached a photo of the NMEA data and a picture of the test setup for your entertainment.


John

[Glaspar_fan]

I noticed in the ZDA (time) field, the local time zone is 00. As I recall, California is in time zone 8. Is this something that is sensed and generated by the GPS, or is it picking that up from OpenCPN? Did I miss setting a UTC timezone during setup?

[Hakan]

OCPN does what's received: Lat = 0.0 Lon = 0.0. See your GPRMC sentence. If he have no position fix the correct message would be nothing (,,,) and not zero.

[stevead]

<rant>I wish people would stop sending screen shots of text output. It makes it impossible to review or paste into any form of diagnostic/parsing tool. Just copy the text from the NMEA debug window as text</rant>

The fixes you are displaying are so f....d up. I don't know if it is a problem with your GPS receiver, whether it is a problem with GPSD or a combination of both. Perhaps start by eliminating GPSD and connect the GPS receiver directly to OpenCPN.

From the first capture, there is a sentence

$GPGSA,A,3,3,4,7,8,9,10,26,27,39,46,,,1.5,0.8,1.2,*0B

The second field with the letter 'A' indicates the GPS receiver can switch automatically between 2D & 3D mode. The third field with the number '3' indicates it has a 3D fix. (If it didn't have a fix the value should be 1). The following numbers are the satellite ID's used for the fix, there are ten in total.

The subsequent sentences with the prefix "GPGSV" provide details of each of the satellites used for the fix (Azimuth, Elevation, Signal to Noise ratio). There are groups of four sentences, however these report 14 satellites, which differs from the number reported in the preceding GSA sentence. It is unclear whether your GPS receiver tracks more satellites than it uses to obtain a valid fix.

In your second capture, firstly the GSA sentence only shows eight satellites while the GSV sentences indicate 16. I would have thought it would have used a larger of number of satellites for a fix, especially given that it is tracking 16.

Secondly the GGA sentence indicates that the GPS Quality (seventh field) has a value of '2' which indicates 'Differential GPS Mode, Valid Fix) even though it shows a position of 0S, 0W. (unless that is really where you are!). If it didn't have a fix, the value for the GPS Quality indicator should be '0' and the value of the latitude and longitude fields are normally set to null (empty)

Finally, the RMC sentence, the third field with the letter 'A' again indicates a Valid fix, yet shows your position as 0S,0W, gives you SOG & COG both as zero (probably correct as you are just testing) and shows your magnetic variation as -4.5W. Variation is always a positive number with the direction given as East or West. If it didn't have a fix, the third field should have the value of 'V' (Invalid) and the latitude & longitude values are normally set to null (empty) The sentence also omits the Mode Indicator field which is odd for a modern GPS receiver.

So something is really screwed up.

[Glaspar_fan]

First, I agree entirely about posting graphics instead of text! Unfortunately I am unable to select the text in the NMEA Debug window. Seems like it should work, but it doesn't. If the data is getting logged somewhere or if logging can be enabled, please let me know where. (Recall that this is on Ubuntu, not Windows.)


The big news is that it is working now. I unplugged the GPS to see if the data stream stopped and it did. That at least verified that the bad data was coming from the Vk-162. When I plugged it back in, bang! it was immediately producing the correct location and the ownboat icon is right where it should be.


Thank you everyone for your help and comments. This has been and will continue to be a learning experience. One last comment, the support from Stratux was disappointing. I sent an email to their purported support line and all they said was to check their Slack channel. I don't use Slack and when I tried to install it, no luck. I'm glad the Vk162 is working now, but I don't trust it since I still don't know what the problem was and why it started working.


John

[ThatSailingGuy]

I am sorry I am late AF with this, but... Here is the log file. I have since upgraded to Ubuntu 23.10 because allegedly my hardware is too new to work well on 22.04 LTS... And that is true for the most part, but Open CPN is still doing the same thing.


Lets see if this works:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yYP...ew?usp=sharing