Radar plugin 5.2.0 beta released

[SoonerSailor]

Correct, I did not know until today, when I am out of town for a few weeks, that there was a 5.2 beta. I should be able to test it when I return in about 3 weeks.

I truly appreciate the effort you and your crew put into this.

Chip

[merrimac]

We've updated the beta channel to 5.2.0-beta3 to include the new Doppler echo to ARPA functionality.

Please report any issues or suggestions.

[Douwe Fokkema]

On the radar target tracking:

There are three ways you can track targets with the OpenCPN radar plugin:

1. On the radar chart overlay click the right mouse button on or close to a stable radar return. The target will be selected by the MARPA system, possibly locked and tracked. Target information (position, speed and heading) will be send to OpenCPN and handled there as if it were an AIS target. In case there is a real AIS target close to the same location, the radar target will not be displayed separately.

2. Set a guard zone and activate ARPA on that zone. The guard zone can be a circle limited by an inner and an outer range or a a segment of this circle, an arc. Activate the ARPA function on the zone selected. All radar returns inside the zone will be processed by the ARPA system. That means that if the return is stable it will be locked and tracked. Further handling as under 1. Land masses often give unstable returns and these return may be above the size of a regular target. Such landmasses may confuse the ARPA system. Better is to configure the guard zone in such a way that land is not included.

Above two methods are available for all supported radar types. For the Navico Halo Doppler radars the beta 3 release adds a new way of getting radar returns tracked.

3. For Halo Doppler radars only. Click the View menu. Try the Doppler button. When you set this on "approaching" all radar returns that are getting nearer to you will show in yellow. These are approaching Doppler targets. Now click the button below the Doppler button, the DopplerAutoTrack button. Put this "On". Now all yellow returns (approaching) will be tracked by the ARPA system and handled as described above. This third function can be used in combination with a guard zone. But if you want to get acquainted with it, or just want to test it, better switch the guard zones off, because you would not know how a target originates.
For the DopplerAutoTrack funcion it is not necessary to switch "Doppler approaching on" (mark targets yellow), as the system will recognize approaching targets anyway. But doing so, makes you image better readable. When a Doppler target is no longer approaching (it has passed), it will no longer be tracked and is marked as "lost target", it will soon disappear as a target but may still be visible as a radar return.
The essence of this new function is that you skip the "trouble" of setting a guard zone. And as only "yellow" (approaching) returns are considered, the discrimination is much better. You should only get targets you are interested in.


Douwe Fokkema

[SoonerSailor]

Got back to the Halo24 radar. This is sitting in my living room, and the RJ45 is plugged directly into my Windows10 laptop. Same thing happens with two Win10 laptops:

The Halo24 will not detect or initialize the scanner when Navico Halo A or Navico Halo B is selected. It does work when Navico 4G A or Navico 4G B is selected.

This is with OpenCPN 5.2.4+6b314e6 and RadarPi 5.2.0-beta3

Chip

[Douwe Fokkema]

Originally Posted by SoonerSailor

Got back to the Halo24 radar. This is sitting in my living room, and the RJ45 is plugged directly into my Windows10 laptop. Same thing happens with two Win10 laptops:

The Halo24 will not detect or initialize the scanner when Navico Halo A or Navico Halo B is selected. It does work when Navico 4G A or Navico 4G B is selected.

This is with OpenCPN 5.2.4+6b314e6 and RadarPi 5.2.0-beta3

Chip

This issue should be solved in the last commit of the beta branch. However this is not yet out as a new beta. To make sure your case is solved in this last commit, could you get me the opencpn.log file of a session in which the Halo is not recognized. I also would like to know the serial # of your radar.

Douwe Fokkema

[SoonerSailor]

Douwe -

Sent the info via PM. Let me know if that works or not. Thanks.

Chip

[SoonerSailor]

The problem RadarPi was having with my HALO24 had to do with the serial number of my unit, which was outside the range that RadarPi was expecting. Douwe provided a modified dll which corrected the problem. This will no doubt find itself in the beta and general releases at some point.

Thanks Douwe!

Chip

[AboardAdventurer]

Any updates on Garmin Fantom integration? My Garmin HD died this fall and I'd like to replace it with a Fantom if the software is ready. If it isn't, ll the Fantom still work if the xHD is specified during setup?



Thanks for all the great work on this. OpenCPN is jaw-droppingly powerful all thanks to the amazing community involvement.



AA

[Karanga]

I am changing boats. My current setup has Halo24 connecting via the LAN socket on a laptop.
The new boat has a Garmin (solid state but unknown model) radar. I will be buying a new laptop to run OpenCPN on this boat. IF (big if?) it is possible to receive data from the Garmin radar into the laptop, what would the connection be?
In other words, is it necessary to buy a laptop with a LAN socket?
Many laptops these days do not have such a socket...
Thank you
Tim

[merrimac]

Originally Posted by AboardAdventurer

Any updates on Garmin Fantom integration? My Garmin HD died this fall and I'd like to replace it with a Fantom if the software is ready. If it isn't, ll the Fantom still work if the xHD is specified during setup?



Thanks for all the great work on this. OpenCPN is jaw-droppingly powerful all thanks to the amazing community involvement.



AA

If you don’t have a plotter we recommend getting a HALO. Not only do we know it best and is the support the easiest, but it is also the best radar we’ve seen so far, technically.

Progress is being made on the Raymarine front but not on Garmin. No technically oriented people with one turning up.

[merrimac]

Originally Posted by Karanga

I am changing boats. My current setup has Halo24 connecting via the LAN socket on a laptop.
The new boat has a Garmin (solid state but unknown model) radar. I will be buying a new laptop to run OpenCPN on this boat. IF (big if?) it is possible to receive data from the Garmin radar into the laptop, what would the connection be?
In other words, is it necessary to buy a laptop with a LAN socket?
Many laptops these days do not have such a socket...
Thank you
Tim

Garmin radars are a pain in the @@@ to get running, old ones required a special signal on one of the 8 Ethernet wires. New ones apparently do not but we don’t have their startup licked and we don’t have support for Doppler etc.

All radars we recommend to attach wired not wireless. USB to Ethernet on new laptops without RJ45.

FYI we are now learning how the wireless quantum radars operate: by sending significantly less data, eg coarser blobs. They seem to use smoothing of these in the MFDs to make it look better than it is.

[Karanga]

Thank you for your reply.
There is an excellent Garmin MFD already onboard, so startup should be fine.
But no MFD is as good as OpenCPN (!) , hence wanting to supplement the display

[Pizzazz]

Are there any plans to release the radar plugin as a standalone app on Android? I think that would be helpful for the following reasons:

1) The radar plugin (I am testing the Raymarine version with a digital some) seems to work pretty well by now, even over Wifi.

2) OpenCPN is great on a laptop with a mouse but the touch interface is still lacking, it could also be a Windows issue. Further, there are no good maps for OpenCPN outside of North America. I have been using the CM93 versions bit they are nowhere as good as Navionics.

Thus, I think a great solution would be an Android tablet, running Nacionics on the left window and a limited version of OpenCPN that has radar, charts and weather in the right window, all with the Android interface. I tried Remote Desktop but it takes a long time to configure well.

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by Pizzazz

2) OpenCPN is great on a laptop with a mouse but the touch interface is still lacking, it could also be a Windows issue. Further, there are no good maps for OpenCPN outside of North America. I have been using the CM93 versions bit they are nowhere as good as Navionics.

?
O-charts?

And I find OpenCPN on my Android tablet works just fine. (It's not bad on my Android phone - - a bit small - - but great on my tablet.)

[bcn]

Originally Posted by Pizzazz

Further, there are no good maps for OpenCPN outside of North America. I have been using the CM93 versions bit they are nowhere as good as Navionics.

As Rick points out: there is a dedicated chart outlet for OpenCPN at o-charts.org
In general licensed charts are not for free (with exceptions like the US, EU InlandENCs, the LINZ S-63 or raster charts from some South American countries).
The charts you will find at o-charts are licensed directly from Hydrographical Offices or in the case of raster charts from other well known editors like Imray or Explorer Charts.
An overview of available charts here:
https://o-charts.org/index.html



For your shore you can get in addition to the US charts the Canadian ENCs and in some weeks the Mexican ENCs.
For Mexico we offer already the Blue Latitude raster charts.


Hubert