Is VNC Viewer my best option here?

[Ryban]

I'm running OpenCPN on a micro PC near our nav station. It gets various data through a combination of WiFi (AIS), Ethernet (Radar), NMEA 0183 to USB converters, NMEA 2000 to USB, etc.

In the cockpit, I have an android tablet running VNC Viewer to mirror the display down below. It works OK, but can be a little cumbersome at times. Am I really operating this system in its optimal way?

Other things I've thought of maybe doing instead are just configuring a stand-alone SignalK server to collect all the data, and re-broadcast it over WiFi. Then I could use OpenCPN running on the tablet in the cockpit directly. However, I'd be missing the Radar data (Garmin 18 xHD), as I don't think I can transmit this over wifi.

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by Ryban

I'm running OpenCPN on a micro PC near our nav station. It gets various data through a combination of WiFi (AIS), Ethernet (Radar), NMEA 0183 to USB converters, NMEA 2000 to USB, etc.



In the cockpit, I have an android tablet running VNC Viewer to mirror the display down below. It works OK, but can be a little cumbersome at times. Am I really operating this system in its optimal way?



Other things I've thought of maybe doing instead are just configuring a stand-alone SignalK server to collect all the data, and re-broadcast it over WiFi. Then I could use OpenCPN running on the tablet in the cockpit directly. However, I'd be missing the Radar data (Garmin 18 xHD), as I don't think I can transmit this over wifi.

If your PC and tablet are in the same WiFi, you can configure a connection inside OpenCPN to rebroadcast all NMEA over WiFi, so that the tablet can receive it too.
No need for extra hardware or software.

Than install the Android OpenCPN and charts and tablet and use the data in there too.
AIS is transmitted too, Radar unfortunately not, as it requires a lot of data & speed.

https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...twork_repeater

[barcoMeCasa]

What not install signalk on your pc down below as well as opencpn? Then you look at either on the tablet and have all the benifets of signalk . The send waypoint /track /route is very quick too, so you can send a new route done on the pc to the android opencpn in a moment. I like having both on the tablet, with the vnc as more of just a viewer, the dashsk is very handy for viewing signalk data without leaving opencpn but doesn't work on android. Yet...

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by barcoMeCasa

What not install signalk on your pc down below as well as opencpn? Then you look at either on the tablet and have all the benifets of signalk . The send waypoint /track /route is very quick too, so you can send a new route done on the pc to the android opencpn in a moment. I like having both on the tablet, with the vnc as more of just a viewer, the dashsk is very handy for viewing signalk data without leaving opencpn but doesn't work on android. Yet...

Btw. you can send routes and waypoints also directly from OpenCPN PC to OpenCPN Android, for that you don't need to setup SignalK.

SignalK surely has some good to it, it's just not necessary in this case though.

[Ryban]

I do have SignalK running anyway because I have a Grafana dashboard setup to track various boat systems (tank levels, battery charge, solar input, etc), so it might end up making sense to just have SignalK just broadcast all the data, rather than OpenCPN.

For the Radar, it's not really critical that it be available in the cockpit the more I think about it. Perhaps there is a way for me to send it to a tablet still, but it would probably take some doing.

[barcoMeCasa]

Originally Posted by Ryban

I do have SignalK running anyway because I have a Grafana dashboard setup to track various boat systems (tank levels, battery charge, solar input, etc), so it might end up making sense to just have SignalK just broadcast all the data, rather than OpenCPN.

For the Radar, it's not really critical that it be available in the cockpit the more I think about it. Perhaps there is a way for me to send it to a tablet still, but it would probably take some doing.

Makes far more sense to let signalk take care of all the data IMHO, it's what it does for a living

Then with the tablet you can have both vnc looking at the down below opencpn with radar and android opencpn, which is easier to use,running at the same time.
Coming into anchorages radar is just so useful imho

[Ryban]

I'll play around with it this week and see what I end up liking the best as a solution. Pretty sure I'll start with everything talks to the SignalK server (except the radar, and SignalK broadcasts the data to multiple OpenCPN listeners.

For the Radar, I'll probably settle on switching to VNC viewer when its needed.