OpenCPN Radar Overlay PlugIn

[nohal]

Matt...
if you have no MFC, we are probably out of luck as the bare scanner is probably not producing the NMEA itself (http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1200755 ). Radars, even some analog ones, can track targets and produce TTM (Tracked target message - metadata like speed etc.) and TLL (Target lat/lon) messages. That's what I'm currently working at, but without sample data can't get much further...

Pavel

[Neptune's Gear]

Yep, had a look. no nmea output present.
AND the orientation of the chart is not right with my 3g lowrance. Even with the hdg sentence available. The boat icon is correct, but the radar is not (approx 180 deg out). Yes the unit is installed the right way around with the cable outlet facing astern. Radar is still wrong with COG rather than HDG.
Any assistance would be appreciated.
Matt

[Neptune's Gear]

OK, and Dave C and Kees have been working on this. There are still a few issues to sort, but it's basically working on my system. It's a Lowrance 3g Radar with no MFC or Hub. Radar straight to the laptop (except for power connections of course!). Here are a couple of sample screenshots.

Thanks Kees and Dave for all your hard work! We are really close now to a working basic radar system...

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by NZ8720

OK, and Dave C and Kees have been working on this. There are still a few issues to sort, but it's basically working on my system. It's a Lowrance 3g Radar with no MFC or Hub. Radar straight to the laptop (except for power connections of course!). Here are a couple of sample screenshots.

Thanks Kees and Dave for all your hard work! We are really close now to a working basic radar system...

Well done!

[spiv]

Well done guys!!!

So, will I be able to use my Furuno radome (and get rid of my MFD) or shall I get rid of the whole Furuno stuff and buy a Garmin radome?

[Neptune's Gear]

Sorry, no Furuno one yet. Currently supported are the Garmin ones, and the BR24/3g/4g ones from Simrand, Lowrance & Navico.

Please be aware that this is not (yet) a finished solution. Functionality is basic - no guard zone, no ebl etc. The gain/seastate/rain filters are not properly stable yet (at least on my 3g one).

It's still a work in progress.

For Furuno, it will probably take a developer who wants it to contribute to this development...
Matt

[bdbcat]

Ahoy Radar Dudes....

Thanks to a significant packet snooping and programming effort by Chuck Skerry, we have a major new update to the Garmin Radar PlugIn for OpenCPN.

Chuck has added many new user controls to the radar interface, including:

-Manual Range control
-STC (Sea Clutter) control
-Rain Clutter control
-Manual Gain control
-Antenna rotor speed control, if available on the scanner.
-Antenna heading offset control
-etc, etc....

Take a look at the attached capture for an idea of what is going on here.

You may download the new source code from
https://github.com/bdbcat/gradar_pi.git

I know what kind of an effort it is to probe raw network packets and deduce content meaning without documentation, and I sincerely applaud and respect Chuck's work on this PlugIn.

Thanks, Chuck

Dave

[rgleason]

Thank you Chuck. You're awesome. You recently helped us to get Climatology (for windows) Tabs and Cyclones working, all the while doing this!

Wish I had your skills so I could get Weather_routing reading Climatology data again. Sean started to implement plugin major and minor version checking in Weather_routing (not done in Climatology yet, I assume that was the reason it stopped working) and also I found some reference to two types of Climatology Data (ClimatologyData and ClimatologyData1) but I can't find the code location right now. It's my problem, I guess, but you've been a great help on Climatology too.

Anyway, thank you for this and all you have done.

[rgleason]

Is there some location where there are some radar data that we could try with this?
Our 20yr radar isn't compatible (yet)..
Thanks.

[seamount]

Thank you Dave and Chuck (and all other contributors) for this fantastic software. I think all sailors must thank this team for it's work building the OpenCPN plus Gradar (and also all the plugins), to share with everyone.
Personaly I have been using OpenCPN for some years, and it's evolution has been stunning. After the last upgrade on Gradar I was able to set a friend's system to work with a Garmin radar - it looks amazing!

Thanks again Dave, you're the best!

[jonasaberg]

It is really cool how this is progressing.
I wonder whether it is time to create a new heading under supplementary hardware on the web page.
It seems Dave uses a Garmin GMR HD 18.
Is this correct? Did Chuck use the same model? Which other models are tried?
Which other models are likely to work out of the box?
Is it advicable to get only the Radome or should you get the cheapest console to be able to control some of the settings?
Maybe with a little more documentation more users would take the step and acquire an antennae...

Thanks for all the effort you have put into this! Great work!

/Jonas

[ChuckSK]

Jonas

I have a GMR HD 24. Since most Garmin domes work with most Garmin displays, it is likely that many Garmin domes will work with GRadar. Downloading a user manual for one of the Garmin chartplotters should prove helpful.

A Garmin chartplotter as a back-up would be prudent.

Chuck

[rgleason]

Sorry, to have missed Dave, Nohal and others in my thank you... truly a collaborative cooperative effort. Kind of incredible no display works.

[BluegillBoy]

Is there a compiled version ready to go for Windows? I'm not savvy enough to work with source code. Can't wait to give it a run. Lowrance 3g setup.

[Neptune's Gear]

I sent you a private message...
Please note that the plugin is still under development, and only offers basic functionality at this stage...