Plugin: DashBoard

[fastm]

Hello All,

Re #59:
In my understanding the Heading in the VHW message represent the compass heading (magnetic or true) and so the orientation on the bow; for this reason it should be considered to drive the Heading indicator on dashboard

The apparent wind should be managed both from MWV and VWR, while the true wind should be managed from MWV (I have no info on MWD and VWT)

Thanks

Stefano

[HunterWanderer]

I love the dashboard.

Choice of background colour and tranparency though would be icing on the cake.


Richard

[Islander]

Really like this new feature, however I'm having some issues with it.

Some data (e.g. GPS position, depth) works fine while other data (e.g. wind speed, GPS status) is blank. I see a good, constant NMEA stream from my multiplexer.

Another blank one is the compass rose (stuck at zero) while my boat is shown in the correct orientation on the chart (in its slip).

Any help appreciated!

Cheers.

[Islander]

Nothing?

Well, can someone point me to the NMEA sentence source definitions so I can see how they match, or not, what's coming out of my multiplexer?

Thanks.

[SethDart]

Originally Posted by Islander

Some data (e.g. GPS position, depth) works fine while other data (e.g. wind speed, GPS status) is blank. I see a good, constant NMEA stream from my multiplexer.

Another blank one is the compass rose (stuck at zero) while my boat is shown in the correct orientation on the chart (in its slip).

Hi,

Can you provide an extract of your nmea stream? Either directly from your com input port (with hyperterminal or any other tool) or enable DebugNMEA in OpenCPN (see Troubleshooting | Official OpenCPN Homepage) and send us you opencpn.log file (remember to rename it as .doc to attach it on this forum)
I'll try to debug and find what's wrong with your input stream.

Thanks,
Jean-Eudes

[Islander]

Hi Jean-Eudes,

Thanks for getting back to me. I'll go to the boat later this week and get some of the NMEA stream for you.

Cheers.

[Islander]

Hi Jean-Eudes, so here are two attachments, the relevant part of the log with the NMEA stream and a PrtSc of how things looked at the time.

I recently upgraded to 2.3.1 and my PC to Win 7. Wind speed and direction are now working properly (as were depth and lat/lon), but not compass heading or GPS status.

I have a Garmin GPSMap76, Raymarine instruments connected via a Brookhouse mux.

I can reconfigure the dashboard contents and try various combinations if you like. If you need any more info, let me know.

Cheers
Paddy.

[SethDart]

Originally Posted by Islander

Hi Jean-Eudes, so here are two attachments, the relevant part of the log with the NMEA stream and a PrtSc of how things looked at the time.

I recently upgraded to 2.3.1 and my PC to Win 7. Wind speed and direction are now working properly (as were depth and lat/lon), but not compass heading or GPS status.

I have a Garmin GPSMap76, Raymarine instruments connected via a Brookhouse mux.

Hi,

Thanks for the sample and screenshot.

The compass is displaying COG, not heading. COG is taken from NMEA sentence VTG or RMC. I checked your NMEA sample, COG is 3.4, that's also what OpenCPN shows on the status bar.
You can display HDG (heading) but text only, not as a compass rose. In a future version, I'll provide an option to the compass dial to choose either COG or Heading.

GPS enhanced status display require GSV NMEA sentence, I can't find it in your NMEA sample. You can add "GPS in view" to see how many sats are used by your GPS.

Regards,
Jean-Eudes

[Islander]

Thanks, Jean-Eudes, that clears it up.

A great addition to OpenCPN, thanks again.

Cheers.

[CarCode]

SethDart,

the Dashboard is an essential needed tool for OpenCPN. It even should replace the right most GPS status gadget in the toolbar which is not needed anymore using Dashboard.

But does the user really needs several Dashboards?

Please look a little bit at PolarCOM which is comparable to Dashboard and is very user friendly in my opinion.

My personal wish-list for Dashboard is:
- Transparency like PolarCOM
- User definable color settings and thickness of lines or instruments drawings

Anything else is great and OK.
And why not shift the code for connection of external devices (GPS, Autopilot, AIS etc.) from OpenCPN main code into Dashboard? When users are seeing their external devices works with PolarCOM but not with OpenCPN then there is something wrong in OpenCPN.

As you pointed out already, it is difficult to work with wxWidgets.
There seems to be severe differencies between different operating systems and also the different wxWidgets versions. Someone even told me that it is impossible to use a newer wxWidgets version for Linux. I am not a professional programmer and work only a little bit with Mac OS X, so I don't know all the internals. Regarding the wxWidgets samples the transparency feature works here, see the "shaped" sample of the wxWidgets distribution.

So please think for the user and help him.

Gerhard

[nohal]

Transparent success!
And it didn't hurt that much...

In OnToolbarToolCallback()

if (pane.IsFloating() && pane.IsShown())
      pane.frame->SetTransparent(128);

does the trick at least on Windows

Docked windows are a different story and need a totally different approach of course.

Pavel

[hoolie]

Another approach, on Windows anyway, is to install Autohotkey. I have a transparency script (alt-shift-t) that makes the active window semi-transparent. Works well with both the Dash-board and the Google Earth plug-ins.
And the system remembers the transparency setting when the plug-ins are switched on and off.

[CarCode]

I second this, when it is implemented into the Dahboard code, a checkmark should give the user the ability to switch transparency off or on.

Gerhard

[nohal]

Of course, this is just a proof of concept code... I'm personally not a big fan of transparent windows at all.

Pavel

[Sailing Hanse37]

I follow the remark of carcode: actual work on dashboard is not what i expect from a dashboard. If you want i can post my actual (not fully finished) program which builds further on the polarcom concept with some evolutions:
- secondary and easily switchable displays (e.g. difference between motoring & sailing)
- real-time gauge comparing to polars. Analog & digital.
- top compass band, which better simulates a normal chart plotter.
- configurable borderless or with border dashboard per channel.
- full triprecorder with ability to play back on the dashboard & on OCPN at variable speed.
- logbook generator: generates logbook entry based on triprecorder loggings.
- Opencpn is automatically loaded and position and size are adaptable to dashboard. On next loading everything will pop-up again as it was.
- For those who are using VSPE: automatic loading of program and configuration. But i'm now reprogramming to avoid VSPE and redirect the NMEA data stream from my program to OCPN, which seams a logical option.
- I guess i'm forgetting things but what the heck: just plat and discover...

of course what exists in polarcom continues to exist:
- fully configurable, multi window dashboard.
- of course size can be determined per dashboard panel.
- transparancy (which is easy but doesn't add value)
- all instruments as configurable in polarcom
I won't release the source at this point, since it's work in progress...
But dashboard, triprecorder, and most of the items are now fully functional.
You can play with logbook, but this is clearly not finished.

If interested have a look at Free File Hosting Made Simple - MediaFire
Just download, place on your desktop and play with it. Doc & helpfile still need to be written...
No installation needed as far i know . Anyway no registry entries etc... If not interested, just delete...