List of Antenna only Radars which work with Opencpn under Windows?

[Franziska]

Hi,

is there somewhere a list stating precisely which Radar antenna units work directly with OpenCPN (=without additional hardware)?

I'm looking into buying a used radar but am not sure which one to get.

Preferably I do not want a separate piece of hardware, only the windows nav laptop I have already linked to a radar antenna.

I keep an identical secondary laptop onboard as backup.

If there is no such list maybe those who have it running successfully can just list their antenna here?

Thanks.

Franziska

Welcome to the Woods Mira 35 - Catamaran Lady Rovers Website!

[ewitts]

lowrance 3g

[Hakan]

Franziska..
There are two makers of radar scanner that works directly to OCPN using a suitable plugin.

Garmin 18 HD radar. (Garmin xHD is not fully supported yet but there is a functional plugin)

Navico/Simrad/Lowrance broadband radar type: BR24, 3G and 4G. (All three trade names use an equal gadget.)

See also: Radar Overlay Plugins | Official OpenCPN Homepage

Håkan

[Franziska]

Thanks Hakan,

so I need to save up for a new unit.No used ones around of these modern models.

Thanks anyway!

www.ladyrover.jimdo.com

[rabbi]

if you want a used one, join the line and wait for your turn! I was here first!!

I have been monitoring the local german market for almost a year. There were maybe three or four compatible radars on the market and all were ridiculously priced.
Like the one that is on ebay now. He is asking 1900 euro for a 4g that is 1.5yrs old. If you buy new its 2050 with full warranty, money back, support, etc..
Cheapest 3g I found was around 1500 new.

[a64pilot]

The Garmin is under rated, I had one and it performed excellently, I would think quite a few of them ought to be available used

[rgleason]

Simrad, B&G, Lowrance BR24, 3G & 4G
Garmin 18HD

Of course going to the User Manual > Plugins is a good place to start
External Plugins | Official OpenCPN Homepage
Look under AIS / Radar Overlay

[Hoghead]

Any updates to this post?

I am thinking of getting out of the Ray planned obsolescence loop and going open source using tablets and a laptop running Open CPN.

My Ray radar seems the stumbling block and I would rather buy a new radar than another Ray MFD

[Hakan]

Hoghead..
No not really. But there's ongoing work to fully support also Navico Halo and Garmin xHD. Meanwhile you'll have to stick to what's now available, Garmin HD and Navico broadband.
Håkan

[rabbi]

Earlier this year I bought a 2008 Lagoon which came with a Navman radar & 8120 MFD. I never heard of this brand before. I was confused to find a crisp radar image, excellent short distance performance and very low power consumption. Just like the broadband radar...

Later I found some tiny evidence on the internet that a guy at Navman called "Greg" was the original inventor of the Broadband radar technology. Navico bought Navman in late 2008 or so and sold the broadband radar as BR24 (the Navman 8120 MFD became the Simrad NX45).

Seems Navico hasn't changed much of the Navman technology in the first years. The latest Simrad NX45 firmware still fits my Navman 8120 MFD.

Because of this I suspect the 2008 Navman broadband radar should work with OpenCPN just as the Simrad BR24 but I haven't had the time to try (I use OpenCPN only on Android so no radar plugin).

Maybe someone else has already tried to access the original Navman broadband radar from OpenCPN?

[Hoghead]

Originally Posted by rabbi

(I use OpenCPN only on Android so no radar plugin).

I was hoping to use OCPN on my laptop and Android tablet both with the new radar.

Not having played with radar on OCPN, I was unaware that Android version does not support radar.

Not having radar on OCPN Android sends me back to the starting gate. I really do not want to go back to a dedicated MFD when open source and open hardware seems the way of the future.

[Olly75]

Originally Posted by Hoghead

I was hoping to use OCPN on my laptop and Android tablet both with the new radar.

Not having played with radar on OCPN, I was unaware that Android version does not support radar.

Not having radar on OCPN Android sends me back to the starting gate. I really do not want to go back to a dedicated MFD when open source and open hardware seems the way of the future.

Can you not set your tablet up as a slave and just project the laptop screen to it to get around the android issue?

(Im hoping to do this and hope its feasible otherwise Ill be back to scratch as well!)

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by Hoghead

I was hoping to use OCPN on my laptop and Android tablet both with the new radar.

Not having played with radar on OCPN, I was unaware that Android version does not support radar.

Not having radar on OCPN Android sends me back to the starting gate. I really do not want to go back to a dedicated MFD when open source and open hardware seems the way of the future.

In that case I would just get a cheap Windows tablet from China as a dedicated onboard device. These are starting around 80 USD for an 8inch version, and ~100 USD for a 10inch tablet. Sometimes half of that for a used one on ebay.


With regards to remote access:
I remember I once tried VNC on Android to remotely access OpenCPN running on a windows machine via Wifi connection. That was before OpenCPN for Android became available.
It worked OK but was kind of slow to refresh the screen so I doubt its a good solution for radar on the tablet.


Another approach is:
Install some linux in a chroot environment on aan Android tablet. PpenCPN runs on this linux, and you use an android VNC app to connect to it. There is no wifi connection as both are running on the same machine, so screen refresh rates are much better.
I tried this a few years ago and it works, but had its own drawbacks and limitations. The linux OpenCPN was made to run on linux desktops, not tablet with tiny screens. Maybe this has changed in the meantime.


However, with cheap windows (or linux) tablets available from china I don't see a point to go into any complicated direction.

[Hoghead]

Windows tablet - why did I not think of that.....
And I bought an Android tab for this very application!

What sort of spec should I need in regards to processor(s) speed, memory capacity, and RAM?

[Hakan]

For info I'm using a dated Win-PC for OCPN and br24radar_pi. To see the same picture at cockpit I use VNC (TightVNC) and an old Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 (A ver 4.0) Works fine and no performance issues while cruising. Mouse movements from the Samsung are though not very fast. I use to have a Logitech Wireless Trackball direct on the PC instead.
Håkan