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Old 21-09-2009, 10:32   #31
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Originally Posted by EOB View Post
OpenCPN handles BSB2, but as I said, probably it was outdated...
EOB, I think you misunderstood. A group of people in this forum is very interested to scan paper charts (raster-image) or use other available raster images of charts. We are looking for an easy to use tool which allows to add geo-reference information to the image, plus identify boundaries on the chart, therefor making the raster-image a raster-chart. We either need to create a raster-chart format opencpn can read, or we need to expand opencpn to read more formats.

BSB up to version 3 is just one raster-chart format opencpn happens to read.
Writing / creating BSB files has not been accomplished, at least not announced here in the forum. Writing BSB files could create a whole new set of copyright issues.
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Old 21-09-2009, 12:21   #32
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Libbsb and the graphical frontend Raster2Bsb works as a geo-referencing tool, creating .kap files that can be used by OpenCPN.
Proof of concept.
Starting with a 3.9 mb tif file (to big for this forum).
First picture shows the tif pic displayed in Raster2Bsb for geo-referencing. The button "Save as BSB file" creates a template.kap the first time you press it and the real .kap file the second time. The template.kap can be used as a template file with libbsb as a command line tool
The second picture shows the created .kap file displayed in OpenCPN.
Libbsb works with tif and png files. I know there are a lot of details that needs sorting out, but as I said "Proof of concept". It does work. Sorry, "nix" only.

Thomas
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Old 21-09-2009, 12:58   #33
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Thomas...
Now THIS is very interesting.. I know other people have tried the 'Raster2bsb' but without luck. Somehow they never managed to figure out the 'create' part. I still feel there is more to the conversion than can be mastered by the average sailor,but there again isn't that what Open software is all about,using the joint skills of our fellow members.

In search of low cost map solutions I found this site: A small company in the Ukraine producing maps from scanned raster images in various formats. Perhaps a cooperation would be possible? Anyway,the list of charts they offer are very resonable at Eur 3.80.
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Old 21-09-2009, 13:12   #34
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Thomas..
As a sample,could you without too much work,convert this 1MB raster map to BSB readable by OpenCPN? Or,does it have to be the original 3.8MB raster map?

You can collect either from my dropbox:

For those not familiar with 'getdropbox.com',I would recommend installing it for future exchanges of maps etc. You get 2 GB of FREE storage to start with.
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Old 21-09-2009, 13:52   #35
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Thomas..

Is the raster2bsb conversion program only available in Linux or for Mac?
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Old 21-09-2009, 14:18   #36
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Raster2BSB is an improved version of/GUI for lib2bsb made by barcosoft (register to the forum and select downloads at the top right of the screen), who also happen to be one of the few companies publishing linux-compatible navigation software- with encrypted BSB support even!

Quote:
This new release adds BSB version 4 & 5 chart support to SeaFarer. There have been several other enhancements and bug fixes.
Funnily enough, this is one of the few times where no windows version seems to have been compiled. The source code is published on the site though, so it may well be possible to compile it for windows. Alternatively, you could probably run it from an ubuntu livecd without installing linux.

I just took another look into it- unfortunately I haven't really got any non-georeferenced charts, so I'll have to trust cagney on his proof of concept above..
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Old 21-09-2009, 14:44   #37
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Thomas, thanks for the proof of concept. Next time I have better internet I will try this on my Gentoo machine (need ssh and vnc to work...). Great find!

Now, how do I get Raster2BSB without registering? PM me if you could, I send you an email address...
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Old 21-09-2009, 17:29   #38
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cagney View Post
Libbsb and the graphical frontend Raster2Bsb works as a geo-referencing tool, creating .kap files that can be used by OpenCPN.
Proof of concept.
Starting with a 3.9 mb tif file (to big for this forum).
First picture shows the tif pic displayed in Raster2Bsb for geo-referencing. The button "Save as BSB file" creates a template.kap the first time you press it and the real .kap file the second time. The template.kap can be used as a template file with libbsb as a command line tool
The second picture shows the created .kap file displayed in OpenCPN.
Libbsb works with tif and png files. I know there are a lot of details that needs sorting out, but as I said "Proof of concept". It does work. Sorry, "nix" only.

Thomas
WAY COOL!

OK, we got a way. But still that produces charts that have a copyright problem. Someone might be willing to do it for themselves, but I would not be willing to freely distribute charts made that way.

But, still, I am excited!

So, question: Can it take a chart with a world file and create the .KAP? If you want one to try, I can put a few examples on my site. One .jpg and one .tif, at least. If it can, should be able to just load it and create, with no georeferencing required.

-dan
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Old 22-09-2009, 05:05   #39
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[QUOTE=cagney;335339]Libbsb and the graphical frontend Raster2Bsb works as a geo-referencing tool, creating .kap files that can be used by OpenCPN.
Proof of concept.

Thomas,
Could you, please, send the .kap file?
How many reference points did you use?
Did you see that the paper chart is in transverse mercator an raster2bsb is using mercator projection?

Eloi
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Old 22-09-2009, 09:10   #40
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Originally Posted by sinbad7 View Post
Thomas..
As a sample,could you without too much work,convert this 1MB raster map to BSB readable by OpenCPN? Or,does it have to be the original 3.8MB raster map?

You can collect either from my dropbox:

For those not familiar with 'getdropbox.com',I would recommend installing it for future exchanges of maps etc. You get 2 GB of FREE storage to start with.
No luck with converting your chart picture. I can make .kap:s of small files. With bigger files my old box seems to run out of memory. You pointed to a 3.6 mb jpeg. Raster2Bsb created an 76.9 mb tiff file as a temporary, before creating an 8.4 mb .kap file, that OpenCPN reported as corrupt. Not even with small files, is success guaranteed every time.
I don't know much about Mac, but as it is UNIX under the hood, it should be possible to compile libbsb and Raster2BSB from source.
I would not be surprised if you need to do some tweaking of for example the "make file".

Thomas
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Old 22-09-2009, 09:42   #41
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WAY COOL!

OK, we got a way. But still that produces charts that have a copyright problem. Someone might be willing to do it for themselves, but I would not be willing to freely distribute charts made that way.

But, still, I am excited!

So, question: Can it take a chart with a world file and create the .KAP? If you want one to try, I can put a few examples on my site. One .jpg and one .tif, at least. If it can, should be able to just load it and create, with no georeferencing required.

-dan
I agree with your opinion about .kap's. In the long run it is much better if a totally free file format could be established, for example based on S57 & kml, as was discussed in the monster thread.

Raster2Bsb is only a front end to libbsb, that makes it easier to establish a template file containing georeferencing + bits and pieces.
The template file is necessary for libbsb, and must be to a certain format, much like a bsb file or the text in the beginning of a .kap file. So I don't think that the pic + wordfile will cut it with libbsb.
It is worth mentioning that both libbsb and Raster2Bsb are licensed under the GPL.

Thomas
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Old 22-09-2009, 09:53   #42
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[QUOTE=EOB;335617]
Quote:
Originally Posted by cagney View Post
Libbsb and the graphical frontend Raster2Bsb works as a geo-referencing tool, creating .kap files that can be used by OpenCPN.
Proof of concept.

Thomas,
Could you, please, send the .kap file?
How many reference points did you use?
Did you see that the paper chart is in transverse mercator an raster2bsb is using mercator projection?

Eloi
For reference points I use the four corners of the chart, starting at the lower left (SW) corner and proceeding clockwise.
Yes I did notice that the chart was in Transverse Mercator, but there was no choice in the Raster2BSB. You could probably change this manually in the "template.kap" file generated, provided that libbsb supports it( which I havn't checked). To proceed after such a change you would have to use libbsb directly, check out "man tif2bsb". Anyway for such a small chart there is no practical difference between the Mercator projection and the Transverse Mercator.
PM me for more info.

Thomas
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Old 23-09-2009, 18:36   #43
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Calling an AIS target, programming the DSC-VHF automatically

I would like to make this a feature request but don't really have enough solid info. A couple of manufacturers do this in fully integrated systems.

I presume it goes somewhat like this:
  • An AIS target shows up on the chart, MMSI number is part of the minimum info transmitted by an AIS transmitter.
  • User clicks on it and selects "call via VHF", then selects a VHF channel to talk to the bridge of that ship
  • The own VHF receives a NMEA sentence with MMSI number and a preferred channel to talk to the ship, the VHF sends out the DSC request on channel 70
  • The own VHF switches to the selected channel
  • The bridge of the ship hears the phone ringing, and (maybe) accepts the call, their VHF switches to the pre-selected channel.
  • Voila, a direct connection to the ship's bridge
I have only tried this with fellow cruisers, programming their MMSI number into my Icom M504. It works, but it is horribly cumbersome.

Wouldn't it be great to have a way to right click on the AIS target on the chart and say "Call" ?

I am fuzzy about all needed technicalities. It needs a serial port connection from opencpn to the vhf, for sure.

Please add any insight to this, correct any wrong assumptions or mistakes! I think this would be a killer feature!
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Old 24-09-2009, 11:45   #44
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Calling an AIS target, programming the DSC-VHF automatically
I would think the VHF equipment would have to be modified to respond to such commands.

There is already such an approved way of sending text messages between ships using the AIS transponder and appropriate software. Siitech has such a function in their Web VTS Pro versions.
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Old 24-09-2009, 11:50   #45
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I would think the VHF equipment would have to be modified to respond to such commands.
I tend to disagree. A DSC capable VHF can be called by the MMSI number programmed into it. Done it. Most people see the DSC caability only to send an emergency message. But a DSC capable VHF can also receive DSC messages, including a selective call to just this one VHF unit, selected by MMSI.

Dirk
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