Radar plugin v5.0.0 released

[jaapbood]

Let me share some good news.
I recently bought the Garmin 18HD+ (had to, because the 18DH is no longer supported), and I wanted to know if it works on OpenCPN (with the radar-pi).
Well, it basically works!
What did I do?
First of all, the physical connection on my stern-pole was no problem; the 18HD connection and the 18HD+ connection are the same.
I cut both the power cable and the network cable, to avoid drilling large holes.
Power cable to my panel, network cable to the chart table, with a new RJ45 connector. This needs to be a connector with shield!
I realized that I need a special switch, to connect pin-5 (blue/white) with the shield. Used the MRJ-578 (F-F coupler) to do so.
Than the settings. Too many variables!
In the end, I used the following on the PC (Windows-10).
- fixed ip address of my OpenCPN PC: 172-16-1-1
- subnetmask 255.255.240.0
The OpenCPN settings
- radar-pi-v5
- connections: ip address 172.16.1.0 (the radar dome), port# 24 (not sure if this is important or not)
Now, the radar type Garmin HD, does not work!
I switched to Garmin XHD.
Finally, I took a new tcp cable between the MRJ-578 and the PC, the first one did not work
And yes, after switching on the radar, I heard the radar dome started to spin!
Finally got a radar window

Now, I'm still not sure if everything works as it's supposed to work.
- I cannot get the radar window to cover the whole screen
- I cannot get it overlay the chart & AIS window
But the good news is, the basics work, so Garmin HD+ looks like Garmin XHD.
Thanks for the help so far.

[jaapbood]

Meanwhile, made some more progress. Overlay works! Setting the window properties to “float” (instead of docked) helps.
Remaining are two questions -
- how are the scales of both charts matched to eachother? Do you do this manually, or is there some magic?
- I keep seeing a rader-pi window, that pops up now and then, and does not disappear if I close it. Doing something wrong?
Thanks for any help.

[NGLabs]

Hello,
I have installed a brand new B&G Halo 20 and I use OpenCPN on Win10pro. Both program and plugin are a fresh, last release installation.

It runs correctly, but the plugin change itself the radar type after a while, from 3G to Halo.
3G is the right type to use the Halo 20 radar, while the Halo A/B type, probably referred to the open-array series, don't work at all ("radar not found").
Do you know this issue?
Somethink to check / do?
If can be useful for the developer, I can offer the remote access via AnyDesk or Teamviewer to my system.


Thank you, ciao from Italy
Toni

[merrimac]

Originally Posted by NGLabs

Hello,
I have installed a brand new B&G Halo 20 and I use OpenCPN on Win10pro. Both program and plugin are a fresh, last release installation.

It runs correctly, but the plugin change itself the radar type after a while, from 3G to Halo.
3G is the right type to use the Halo 20 radar, while the Halo A/B type, probably referred to the open-array series, don't work at all ("radar not found").
Do you know this issue?

HALO is the accepted type for HALO radars. It will take a few seconds for the HALO to be recognised as we wait for a broadcast message from the radar to auto-detect its IP address etc.


In fact, this is what you are seeing: you specified 3G but we still listen for the broadcast message and overrule your incorrect setting.

[merrimac]

Originally Posted by jaapbood

Meanwhile, made some more progress. Overlay works! Setting the window properties to “float” (instead of docked) helps.
Remaining are two questions -
- how are the scales of both charts matched to eachother? Do you do this manually, or is there some magic?
- I keep seeing a rader-pi window, that pops up now and then, and does not disappear if I close it. Doing something wrong?
Thanks for any help.

Sorry, but I don't understand the first question. The plugin does not do anything with chart scales. It does control radar range. If you use a radar as chart overlay and set the range to Auto, it will follow the chart scale. That is the only "magic".


If you use a Garmin display as well, both devices can control the range.


If your conditions for overlay are not satisfied, and you have overlay enabled, the "info" window will pop up with the unsatisfied conditions. Is this what you mean?

Please, be very precise when you ask a question. We cannot guess what is on your screen and what you see.

[jaapbood]

Indeed, it looks like the radar is following the chart scale. I only use OpenCpn, so no Other Garmin controls.
The pi window that was popping up all the time, seems to have disappeared; I don’t see it anymore.
All in all, it looks like the overlay mode works pretty well now. Starting to learn how to use the radar in different conditions.
Thanks.

[sylinea]

I have just installed a B&G/Navico 3G, with a RI10 interface box. Red & yellow power cables are combined and connected to fused +, black to battery -.
I had to cut the RI10 end of the connection cable and crimp a new RJ45 following the pin out in the manual . The crimp looks good but i can't use my tester to check as the dome end of the cable isn't RJ45.
Foolishly i didn't spot the pin out info in the Navico Plugin manual do spent E50 on the Navico ethernet adapter cable which connects to the ethernet port on my laptops, one running windows 7, the other Win10 with open CPN 5 and Radar_Pi v5.0.4 I have firewall disabled on both.
All i get when i run Radar in Open CPN is a radar dialog box saying "Intializing".
I have increased the level of logging and found the following in the log files "5:06:24 PM: radar_pi: messagebox radar window needs not met: SHOW_NO_NMEA".
Anybody got any pointers as to how i should proceed?

[rgleason]

Try reading this Installation from an earlier manual for BR24
https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...e_installation


There are more photos etc.

[Hakan]

sylinea..
There's also a manual here: https://github.com/opencpn-radar-pi/...lation-(Navico)
You may want to follow the link there to a radar manual.
The RJ45 connection can be tricky. Do you have the correct tool and are sure all wires have a proper connection?
The first thing that must work before the radar scanner and radar_pi will work is the IP-connection to the PC. When the wiring is correct and the scanner has power there should show up a "Unknown connection" "No Internet" for the network status. If so radar_pi would work. If not - no radar_pi function.
Håkan

[wefleenor]

Hakan,

Just bought a new Simrad 4G scanner that I found at a great price. Installed it and the cables. Hooked it up to my Raspberry Pi 4 that I already had using OpenCPN. It worked right out of the box. Now I have some reading to do to set it up properly. Understand I have a PhD and have spent multiple decades writing code to solve partial differential equations for hydrodynamic and water quality models. Can't even imagine how complex the code is to run the scanner. Please advise where best to donate to be sure it supports this work. Thanks.

Bill
Double-Wide

[Hakan]

Bill..
Many thanks for your positive report. Very good "to hear".
All code and more are available here if you like to see: https://github.com/opencpn-radar-pi/radar_pi.

The radar_pi group says many thanks for the donation offer but will instead suggest a donation to the OpenCPN project. Radar_pi would have been totally useless without the core OpenCPN function. https://opencpn.org/OpenCPN/info/supportopencpn.html
Thanks
Håkan

[SCarns]

Håkan,

Any updates on Raymarine development? I'm happy to test on my system, if needed.

Steve

[Douwe Fokkema]

Originally Posted by SCarns

Håkan,

Any updates on Raymarine development? I'm happy to test on my system, if needed.

Steve

Progress is being made. The radar is recognized, display is working, and we just got the first buttons functioning. As quite some testing will be needed, we could indeed use some additional testing resources. It would be nice if you can help. Please mail me directly at: df "at" percussion.nl

Douwe Fokkema

[merrimac]

I had a chance to test the plugin with a HALO20+ and it works just fine with the radar set to HALO A and HALO B.

[Odysseus7]

Dear Hakan; many thanks for your software development and very informative posts throughout this forum and on OpenCPN. Thanks to you, I hopefully soon will have set up what I believe will be a nice system at quite an affordable price. I purchased a used B&G 4G radar, came with the RI10 interface, scanner cable & network cable as well.

Now for my questions; would be great if you could be so kind as to answer them:

Info: I have a modem/router on the boat as well; and a Sitex heading sensor on the autopilot system from which I believe I can source the heading data for overlay/MARPA. Running it all on a Win10 Pro. Also running Navionics on a separate monitor on the same PC.

My scanner cable setup alternatives as I see it are:

* The scanner ethernet goes directly to the PC
* The scanner goes to RI10, which goes to the PC
* The scanner goes to RI10, then to the router, then to the PC
* the scanner goes to the router, then to the PC

And the alternatives for the heading data are:

* The heading data is routed via USB to the PC
* The heading data is routed via ethernet to RI10
* The heading data goes to the router, then to the PC

Now, given that I:

* would like to see map overlay and MARPA on OpenCPN
* & that I would like to be able to send routing data to the autopilot
* & that I would like both OpenCPN and Navionics to receive Heading Data

Which scanner cable connection and heading data setup alternatives do you believe will work best for me?

Again, thanks a lot for everything.