OPCPN not outputing autopilot sentences

[StuartGunn]

Thanks dbcat and rgleason,

The possibility of the Options dialog blocking output seemed promising but I have run into even more trouble while trying to test your suggestions. I am now getting a partial crash of OpenCPN even when I try to activate a route or change to an output. If I start OpenCPN from terminal then at this point I get a terminal message:

(opencpn:1514): Gtk-CRITICAL *.*: IA_gtk_widget_set_size_request: assertion 'width >= -1' failed

OpenCPN does not crash completely but the incoming stream seems to close (grey ship and nothing in nmea monitor).

Looking at the logbook the main thing that appears is that it is trying to load the World Chart every second. I think this is the main problem as the activity is blocking other things.
Later:
After a frustrating morning with performance much worse than yesterday I now suddenly see EC messages streaming through KPLEX on my multiplexer RPi though the ship on OpenCPN is greyed out.

I will try reinstalling from scratch and will come back to you when I am back up and running. Visitors coming today so I can't get it done today.
Even Later:
When I installed OpenCPN 4.2 I only loaded a few test charts and I have now found that the loading World Chart problem occurs while the screen is zoomed such that part of the world chart is visible. Zooming in to exclude the World Chart seems to clear the problem.

I have to do a bit more testing and I'll try to send a copy of my log file but got to go now.

Thanks again for the help

Stuart

[StuartGunn]

Thanks dbcat and rgleason,

The possibility of the Options dialog blocking output seemed promising but I have run into even more trouble while trying to test your suggestions. I am now getting a partial crash of OpenCPN even when I try to activate a route or change to an output. If I start OpenCPN from terminal then at this point I get a terminal message:

(opencpn:1514): Gtk-CRITICAL *.*: IA_gtk_widget_set_size_request: assertion 'width >= -1' failed

OpenCPN does not crash completely but the incoming stream seems to close (grey ship and nothing in nmea monitor).

Looking at the logbook the main thing that appears is that it is trying to load the World Chart every second. I think this is the main problem as the activity is blocking other things.
Later:
After a frustrating morning with performance much worse than yesterday I now suddenly see EC messages streaming through KPLEX on my multiplexer RPi though the ship on OpenCPN is greyed out.

I will try reinstalling from scratch and will come back to you when I am back up and running. Visitors coming today so I can't get it done today.
Even Later:
When I installed OpenCPN 4.2 I only loaded a few test charts and I have now found that the loading World Chart problem occurs while the screen is zoomed such that part of the world chart is visible. Zooming in to exclude the World Chart seems to clear the problem.

I have to do a bit more testing and I'll try to send a copy of my log file but got to go now.

Thanks again for the help

Stuart

[muttnik]

Taking on board what Hakan posted, presumably if there's no "EC" messages in the OCPN debug window then the first thing to suspect rather than a network problem is that the sentences aren't being produced.

Stuart if you could post your kplex config, ifconfig -a output on each pi and a screenshot of the OCPN connections you have we can take it from there.

[rgleason]

Thankyou, Muttnik,
He isn't out of the woods yet, but there is some progress.

After a frustrating morning with performance much worse than yesterday I now suddenly see EC messages streaming through KPLEX on my multiplexer RPi though the ship on OpenCPN is greyed out.

I think Stuart might want to make sure his gshhs is a fresh copy too as it might be corrupted for some reason.

[StuartGunn]

Thanks again for invaluable help.

I think I have it working now. I am receiving ECXTE and ECRMB with the ship red. The two problems were the world chart (need to find out why it couldn't load it) and the bug that stops transmission while the Options window is open. I will go to the boat today and try it out for real. I'm not sure why I'm not getting EC APB

In the meantime I don't know what gshss is.

Also below I am attaching the screen shot and files of my home setup. I have had to shorten ifconfig files to meet the size limit

Stuart

[Hakan]

Stuart..
Nice to see your progress, well done.
And thanks for the reminder about OCPN not sending messages when options window is open. That's vital, I forgot to mention that. So for trouble shouting an AP connection the tip would be to:
- In options window establish the connections and accept the changes.
- Open NMEA debug window.
- Close options window (OK)
- Activate a route, for example a "Navigate to here"
- Check outgoing messages in the NMEA debug window
- Activate navigation mode on the AP.

[rgleason]

https://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2...he-gshhs-data/
Chart Files Tab | Official OpenCPN Homepage
Chart Installation | Official OpenCPN Homepage

Background Map (GSHHS Low Res) - The initial rough background map that OpenCPN uses.

High Resolution Background Map (GSHHS 230 mb) here We suggest this should be used if Watchdog Landfall alarms are being used.

Yours might be corrupted?

[StuartGunn]

I got on quite well today at the boat but stuck at the stage of getting EC messages through the nmea/seatalk translator back to the Raymarine instruments and then managed to corrupt the config file so that the screen I was using to view the multiplexer didn't work.

I'll have another go tomorrow once I have soirted out the mess of multiple SD cards..

Stuart

[muttnik]

Sorry for not reading the question properly before.

Is the rate limiting for EC messages in the kplex config a hang over from the loops you were experiencing or does OCPN produce updates more rapidly than you'd like?

Did you say you tried a bi-directional tcp connection and it didn't work? It *should* work, and not only would it simplify things a little, it reduces the amount of filtering you might want to do because kplex won't send a sentence back down a connection it was received from. Consequently the EC*** messages you get from OCPN wouldn't be sent back to OCPN if you were using a single bi-directional tcp connection to the server created by kplex.

[StuartGunn]

OK I'll try the bi-directional TCP again tomorrow.
Thanks.

[StuartGunn]

I've tested bi-directional TCP at home and it works perfectly. The trouble is that when you hit one problem you start going in different directions to sort it and end up with a confusion. Also the openCPN website suggests that in and out should be different connections. I am now seeing ECRMB,RMC,APB and XTE: fantastic!

I'll test it on the boat this afternoon but I now feel I am almost there. Just the SeaTalk translator to master in the other direction.

By the way, there seems to be a bug in my current copy of KPLEX that I hadn't seen before (I've been using other versions for several years). The ifilter seems to only work on the second and subsequent items on the line and ignores the first. This is why I seem to be specifying some things twice.

I'll let you know how it goes finally.

Thanks,

Stuart

[StuartGunn]

Forgot to say, yes the filtering of EC was because of loops. Now data is coming through at a sedate pace.

Stuart

[muttnik]

Originally Posted by StuartGunn

By the way, there seems to be a bug in my current copy of KPLEX that I hadn't seen before (I've been using other versions for several years). The ifilter seems to only work on the second and subsequent items on the line and ignores the first. This is why I seem to be specifying some things twice.

Would you mind posting that on the kplex google group or raise an issue on github? Trying to get the boat ready for a trip tomorrow but will try and investigate that

[StuartGunn]

Dear MUTTNIK, RJLEASON & HAKAN,

Thanks to your help today my boat setup worked perfectly. I am getting GPS, AIS, Depth (from SeaTalk), and Wind (from NASA NMEA mast-top) into OpenCPN and exporting autopilot information and Wind to the Raymarine instruments. My comms are now quite simple with a bi-directional TCP through ethernet cable between the chartplotter and multiplexer.

Next steps will be to wire in autopilot to the tiller-pilot and get my barometer readings into the chartplotter (I think that is just a simple issue of starting the python code at boot). It works at home so there should be no reason why I can't get it going on the boat.

Sailing tomorrow instead of looking at a screen.

Thanks again and signing off.

Stuart

[rgleason]

StuartGunn,
Please don't just sign off! It would be very helpful if you would write a short report about your setup, what settings you use for Opencpn and Keplex, with a few screenshots, and what the several solutions were to get it all working.

This would be very helpful to others, and I will make sure it is posted in the user documentation as an example. Thank you. Rick