Plugin Planning

[rooiedirk]

Hoi everybody, Dave
I intend to spend some time working on a plugin for OCPN, but still dubbing wich one.
My own idea's are improving the GRIB plugin further to show more different data in more different views,
or a new plugin for working with OCPN without GPS. That is beeing able to make bearings on land/sea marks, add a course and speed, and keep a dead reckoning position.
Wich one is the most needed??
Or maybe something completely different?
grjes
Dirk

[LeaseOnLife]

Dirk

It would be great if you could take the GRIB plug-in a bit further.

To see bugs and feature requests, have a look at

OpenCPN::Tracker Grib - plugin: Tasklist

JP would like to see wind gusts, I would like to see rain (identifies fronts, and who wants to sail in rain...). Then there are wave data (height, period, direction) for wind waves and swell to be shown, not just significant wave height.



Dirk (yep, same name)

[Littlechay]

I'd go for further development on the GRIB plugin first.

In addition to Dirk's comments above it really needs 500mB height isobars.

Then once it is displaying all of that data some controls for stepping though the GRIB times, and perhaps creating animations.

Then last of all an interface that will allow you to request the info from within the plugin. I say last for this because I am quite happy formatting the emails to saildocs or wherever by hand, but I know this is black magic for many people.

[LeaseOnLife]

Originally Posted by Littlechay

it really needs 500mB height isobars.

+1, yes (although 500mb is voodoo!)

And please add cloud cover.

There are more, but less commonly used 500mb vorticity, 1000mb heights, ...

To me, one of the better programs to display these values is ExpeditionLT. It also offers some 5 preset configurations, to help the user select what one wants to see.

One feature I would really like: A "own ship position prediction", plotting a predicted position for the GRIB date/time. Airmail/Viewfax does that: It can use the current position COG/SOG from the GPS, or one can enter numbers manually for planning. Have a look:

[Littlechay]

Originally Posted by LeaseOnLife

One feature I would really like: A "own ship position prediction", plotting a predicted position for the GRIB date/time. Airmail/Viewfax does that: It can use the current position COG/SOG from the GPS, or one can enter numbers manually for planning. Have a look:

I second that. Viewfax is one of the best lightweight GRIB viewers out there. It's what I currently use. It runs nicely under wine on linux.

But if you use the measure tool you can manually project your position, and you can route plan as you flick through the GRIB file. I guess you could take this further and use the route tool (with the new colours) to plot a couple of different options.

Viewfax's features, with the nice charts, combined with the measure tool of OpenCPN and I have all the weather routing tools that I need in one package.

hmmmm well synoptic charts and satellite images would be nice too!

[LeaseOnLife]

Thread drift alert

Originally Posted by Littlechay

hmmmm well synoptic charts and satellite images would be nice too!

Need GRIB over Synopsis?

Have a look at this discussion:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tml#post471859

Pavel/Nohal automated the map creation for the OPC synopsis and forecasts, continuously updated. Download here:

http://opencpn.xtr.cz/opc/

Cheers

Dirk

[Littlechay]

Originally Posted by LeaseOnLife

Need GRIB over Synopsis?

Appologies for the drift, but it's relevant. If we are to bash out what is needed in a weather module.

I sail the southern ocean (mostly) and there are not many synopitic charts available.. Valpariso is about the only useful HF station left on air, and that is only good for the SE Pacific.

GRIBS, cross referenced with the barometer are my usual tools. Synoptics, and satellite images can also be cross referenced. And can all be received onboard easily without access to the internet.

Have a look at this, which I haven't tried yet as I couldn't get the last version to run, but a new version has just been released Marine Weather

Chris

[LeaseOnLife]

Thanks Chris, this is a great implementation, I have to make this work here!

A good example what a weather/grib plugin could do!

Dirk

[mesi]

hello

I work for some months each year as a skipper of s/y at North Sea.
It would be realy nice if opencpn could display in grib plugin arrows of currents.
Some grib files with currents are at sailingweatheronline.com
ftp://ftp.bsh.de/Stroemungsvorhersag...Current_no.bz2

Another thing very important for me this is magnifying glass plugin to zoom in
selected part of map.

I find opencpn very usefull but in my opinion these two things are missing.

sory for bad english

A

[LeaseOnLife]

Originally Posted by mesi

It would be realy nice if opencpn could display in grib plugin arrows of currents.
Some grib files with currents are at sailingweatheronline.com
ftp://ftp.bsh.de/Stroemungsvorhersag...Current_no.bz2


A

I support that! Sometime in the past year or two, we must have lost the display of current direction. I remember way back when we crossed the gulf stream, OpenCPN had just added the feature to display ocean current, including arrows. Not sure what happened... I attached a picture to visualize what A is saying: The current strength is being displayed, but not the direction of the current.

Dirk

Edit: Added feature request to the tracker:
http://opencpn.org/flyspray/index.ph...tails&switch=1

[LeaseOnLife]

Originally Posted by mesi

Another thing very important for me this is magnifying glass plugin to zoom in
selected part of map.

A

A

Feel free to add the magnifying glass as a feature request for opencpn:
http://opencpn.org/flyspray/ (You will have to create an account first).

In the interim, you could use "Virtual Magnifying Glass", opensource, and available for several operating systems: http://magnifier.sourceforge.net/

W7 has something like it included, others probably too.

Screenshot of "Virtual Magnifying Glass" on XP:

Dirk

[mesi]

Yes, You are right.
This Virtual Magnifying Glass from windows 7 works great.
But does it change map scale or shows more details on map when zooming in?
If not, my yacht binoculars works better because they use optical zoom not digital and I do not have to go to laptop to zoom screen
Magnifying glas that changes scale of map and moves focus to zoomed part of
map works fine in maxsea, mapsource and many other chartploters and graphical aplications.
This is very useful when for example You can zoom in your destination or obstacle on your route etc.

Very often in netbook on sailing yacht there is no way to attach mouse with croll for easy zooming. No place on table or only one usb port.

By the way after my post here some months ago in version 2.5.0 google earth plugin works fine now. Many thanks for that. Open CPN is great

sincerely
A.

[sinbad7]

rooiedirk..

If you are up to creating plug-ins for OCPN,I have another suggestion...
More and more yachtsmen are making use of the Globalstar SPOT location system when they are within internet range or at planning stage at home.
Data from your vessel is transmitted to the Globalstar satellite server and is available over the internet via polling the database. The data collected is in XML format and has to be converted to .GPX before it can be imported to OCPN via the Route Manager.

A simple plug-in to perform this task would be very welcome. It could be set to do the polling at given intervals,displaying the vessel's track continuously on the OCPN charts.

A further enhancement could display ALL SPOT vessels within range of own vessel.

It is hoped that in future SPOT versions,it will be possible to poll data via Globalstars duplex satellite interface,making data collection independent of the internet.

Tore