Navico radar plugin v2.0 released

[merrimac]

I'm glad to announce that v2 is finally ready for general use. 2.0 can now be downloaded from github.

As testing has been limited to 5 users (albeit with a wide range of OS and hardware) I expect that some smaller issues will crop up, and we'll have to follow up with a better set of translations, so this may not be a very long lived release.

We still suggest that you try this release out, if you are using a Navico radar with OpenCPN.

This is a major release with the largest difference in functionality since the very first release.

* Support for two extra separate radar windows. Experts call these PPI displays, which stands for Plan Position Indicator.
* Support for radar trails in both true and relative motion form.
* Support for OpenGL shader code as well as vertex code. The shader code, contributed by Sean d'Epagnier, will improve performance on systems with slow CPU but fast GPU such as low power ARM SOCs.
* Improved performance and stability. The radar has been tested for 70 hours continuously during the 2016 CAM race, without a single crash.

This wouldn't have been possible without Douwe (true motion code and testing), Håkan (translations and testing), Marcus (testing) and John (testing).

Here's a small glimpse of what the plugin can do now. It shows two PPI radar windows, with the top window in "True motion trails" and the lower window with "relative motion trails". Note how buoys show no trail in the top window, and it is clear that the ship coming from the lower left is going to pass in front of us. On the other hand, the relative motion track has the benefit of showing that we're going to pass right down the channel between the buoys.

[merrimac]

For those of you working from source -- the radarwindow branch has been copied to master, and updates for v2 will be done directly to master, so that is the branch to follow.

This should also mean that the Ubuntu PPA will be updated. I don't know whether that happens automatically, but will ask @bdbcat and @nohal.

[bdbcat]

merrimac...

Nice work. The new PPI displays look great

Next step, if anyone wanted to tackle it, would be to abstract the hardware interface and backport to the Garmin series.

Thanks again
Dave

[ve7mdl]

Great work!

Which PPA will it be posted in - if it gets posted?

Cheers, ....Erik.
Home

[merrimac]

Both the production and beta PPA channels now carry the 2.0 code, thanks to quick work by Pavel.

Dave, thanks for the flowers. If somebody steps up for the Garmin code, please talk to me as we have had to circumvent lots of wxWidgets nastyness (AUI and thread management in particular.) Maybe we should stick to one code base and do compile-time or even run-time radar type selection? 90% of how these things works is identical.

[Neptune's Gear]

Guys, thanks for your work!
I'm back up working now - had to replace my 3G unit, which failed just out of warranty. :-(
New version still seems to have a heading bug
- if I use no heading correction, the radar window shows the correct picture, but the overlay is roatated, and if I correct the overlay with angle offset, the heading on the radar window is out by the same angle. See attached Pic...
Thanks
Matt

[Hakan]

For info is there a slightly updated POT file in Crowdin connected to this version.

@Matt
I think your issue is reported and a fix is ongoing.
Håkan

[Shipraiser]

Originally Posted by Neptune's Gear

- if I use no heading correction, the radar window shows the correct picture, but the overlay is roatated, and if I correct the overlay with angle offset, the heading on the radar window is out by the same angle.

Fixed correction is really only meant to compensate for alignment error in installation, normally +- 5° or so, and as you see also affects head-up mode before any heading corrections are done. (If you mount the radome sideways you could maybe use 90°... :-)

In your case there is a problem with heading input.

What is your heading source? Is it connected to the radar using the RI10/11 or only to the computer ? Or both ?

See related issue: https://github.com/canboat/BR24radar_pi/issues/196

Try using Preferences and set the new “Ignore heading from radar”.

/Marcus

[merrimac]

Hi Matt,

Would you mind joining in at https://github.com/canboat/BR24radar_pi/issues/196 so that we can get to the bottom of it? Especially as you have a 3G, we're trying to add the previously-4G-only feature of using the radar's heading data.

[merrimac]

Heading issues have been fixed and will be included in 2.1. We now also support the use case of a GPS compass only that has only True heading, no Magnetic heading at all, and the use case that Matt has (no RI10/11 and no heading from radar) will work out-of-the-box again, instead of needing to toggle a setting.

[Neptune's Gear]

Marcus, as mentioned above, I have no Ri10, 3G goes direct to the PC Ethernet port.
Heading source is currently a Simrad RC42 rate compass on nmea 2000.

Merrimac I have joined the GitHub , thx.

Matt


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Baikal]

For a window with the radar is not enough buttons on the full screen.
You have to stretch the radar screen on the second monitor. This prevents the top line and the name of the Close button.
Do not use the night mode to the radar
The menu button is not convenient.

window with the radar disappeared and is no longer included - Night mode radar screen on a second monitor, hidden radar switched the radar does not appear on the daily mode. Helped cleaning config

[merrimac]

Baikal,

If you have issues with data fitting on the screen please understand that (a) we don't speak Russian and (b) we can't guess what circumstances you use. Also, it's mostly just me doing the coding with help from Håkan and Douwe, so I need all the help I can to make it easy for me to understand what is going on and provide a possible fix.

So if you want us (me) to be able to help you, you need to explain in more detail what you are using (OS, screen resolutions, zoom factors in OS) and you need to reproduce with OpenCPN running in English. For instance, in your screen shot I see what I guess is the Russian word for Menu printed outside the arranged area. Is this also true in English? If so, there is a bug triggered by something in your environment (probably font size). If not, it is a bug in the translation.

Furthermore, and I know this is a pain, I much prefer bugs to be reported on Github. This is not like OpenCPN itself, I know, but it is so much easier for us as we get proper notifications (unlike here at CF) and allows me to track which issues are fixed and which are not. And please use one issue per problem!

To cover what I think your points are:

Originally Posted by Baikal

For a window with the radar is not enough buttons on the full screen.

I don't understand. English screenshot?

Originally Posted by Baikal

You have to stretch the radar screen on the second monitor. This prevents the top line and the name of the Close button.

I don't understand. English screenshot?

Originally Posted by Baikal

Do not use the night mode to the radar

The plugin uses wxButton to draw buttons, and these don't draw well in dark or night mode. This is a known issue. Feel free to code something better, or wait for someone else to do it.

Originally Posted by Baikal

The menu button is not convenient.

Your picture looks wrong. Have you tested in English?

Originally Posted by Baikal

window with the radar disappeared and is no longer included - Night mode radar screen on a second monitor, hidden radar switched the radar does not appear on the daily mode. Helped cleaning config

Not sure what you mean here. If you have closed the radar window you can click on the radar toolbar icon or use the context menu to get the menu back, and in the menu there is a "Hide/Show window" button (which morphs into something more complicated when using 4G dual radar, so you can also get texts such as "Show both windows" or "Show other window".) It could also be that you pressed the radar icon in the toolbar with everything visible (radar + menu) in that case it hides all radar windows (to focus on chart work.) Just press it again and the radar windows should all come back, in the previous position.

You can also "dock" the radar window in the main OpenCPN window so that you don't have multiple windows floating around. This is what I use personally.

[merrimac]

Originally Posted by Neptune's Gear

Marcus, as mentioned above, I have no Ri10, 3G goes direct to the PC Ethernet port.

Hm, one of the reasons for the RI-10/11 is increased electrical noise insulation, maybe it is a good idea to use one if you have radar failures. At the very least it's likely to protect your laptop better from damage when the radar is subjected to high current in the case of thunder.

Note that your old radar has (IMO) always been a bit dodgy when it didn't want to transmit < 1NM.

[Baikal]

The problem with inscriptions display in the window of the radar in Cyrillic (Russian) confirmed. Menu button also does not correctly displayed. Screenshot attached. Labels and Menu in ENG displayed normally. He made a full translation plugin on crowdin.

Wishing to add the Menu button "full screen" that would remove the Title bar and expand the window to full screen. It would be useful when using the second monitor. Screenshot attach

Wishing to reduce the brightness of the radar picture when you change the color scheme. Screenshot attach