Radar plugin v5.0.0 released

[hoolie]

Raymarine products are much the same and can only be updated via a Raymarine MFD. I suppose this approach was taken as few general marine products have a suitable PC interface.

[Franziska]

So why does one want to update it?
New features?

Never touch a running system :-)

[merrimac]

For 3G/4G there is no reason to upgrade the firmware, certainly if you have a recent one (post 2014). There were some radar signal improvements early on though (especially for the pre-2014 hardware version).

For HALO, again, if you have one of the first (2019-2020 ~) there were 2 updates that actually improved the radar picture, so you might want to upgrade the firmware. Anything recent, don't bother, the latest upgrade fixed compatibility with new MFDs and improved the MARPA tracking but we don't use the in-radar tracking.

[akopac]

Originally Posted by merrimac

For 3G/4G there is no reason to upgrade the firmware, certainly if you have a recent one (post 2014). There were some radar signal improvements early on though (especially for the pre-2014 hardware version).

For HALO, again, if you have one of the first (2019-2020 ~) there were 2 updates that actually improved the radar picture, so you might want to upgrade the firmware. Anything recent, don't bother, the latest upgrade fixed compatibility with new MFDs and improved the MARPA tracking but we don't use the in-radar tracking.

It’s a halo 20+. What I saw that was interesting in the update was power saving features. Like I had on previous systems you could set the radar to come on every 10 minutes for a few sweeps. I think I’m so used to keeping up with updates having done IT for so long I thought it was a good idea. The system is a Halo 20+ purchased Nov. 2020 from Defender. Not sure of manufacture date.

[Hakan]

If the power saving feature is the main reason for a possible antenna dismantling and carrying to a MFD it may not be worth the job? Not less since the "Timed transmit" function is as you may know already present in the radar plugin. Such an inbound function does also need a plugin development before it can be used.

[akopac]

Right on
Thanks

[merrimac]

Hi all,

I've implemented some changes that add full HALO mode support, for the Harbour/Offshore/Weather/Bird modes. Also, a threshold setting has been added. In Harbour and Offshore mode this is automatically set to 30% and in Weather and Bird mode this is automatically set to 0%. The radar takes care of the radar internal settings.

Also, I made it easier for us to analyse the data reports coming from the radars which is necessary when a radar does(n't) support a feature that we are mis-reading and we would previously ask you to send us a .pcap file. Now, stop O, edit the opencpn.ini or Conf file and set "VerboseLog" in the Radar section to "64". This will produce all reports sent by the radar.

If you want to try it out, download a tarball (.tar.gz file) from https://cloudsmith.io/~opencpn-radar...able/packages/ marked 5.4.0-alpha and import it manually. Please report back. If you find a bug, please open a new issue on https://github.com/opencpn-radar-pi/radar_pi/issues

[CK Shearwater]

Hi,

I've been using the plugin for a year or two now and it's been working well but now both the radar and options windows have disappeared. The toolbar icon indicates the radar is in standby but I can't find any way to get the windows back. I've reinstalled the plugin from the cache and restarted everything a couple of times.

My radar is a Garmin xHD 18 and I'm running openCPN on a Windows 10 machine. Both Windows and the plugin are current.

Sure would appreciate a little help with this.

Thanks,

Lee

[Hakan]

Lee..
Since you have the plugins installed:
Did you tried the OCPN canvas mouse right-click menu?
There is the menu "Show radar" or maybe "Control Garmin..." dependent of the actual state.

[merrimac]

If that doesn’t help, stop OpenCPN, edit the ini file and find the AUI section and remove it. This resets the position of the dockable windows. Make a backup first in case you ruin the file.

[CK Shearwater]

Thanks Haken and merrimac. I didn't know about the context menu or the ini file. Good to know about both but what finally ended up working was to check the Garmin HD radar type in addition to the xHD type I had checked before. My radar is the xHD type.


When only the xHD type is checked the context menu item "Control Garmin" will get me the control window but the item "Show/Hide Radar does not the result in a radar window.


I'm sure I only had the xHD type checked until now and all was well but I just returned from a several month cruise and fully updated my Windows machine a few days ago so maybe that accounts for the change.


Anyway, unless there's some reason not to use the workaround I found I'll call it fixed.



Cheers!

[merrimac]

Originally Posted by CK Shearwater

what finally ended up working was to check the Garmin HD radar type in addition to the xHD type I had checked before. My radar is the xHD type.


When only the xHD type is checked the context menu item "Control Garmin" will get me the control window but the item "Show/Hide Radar does not the result in a radar window.


I'm sure I only had the xHD type checked until now

It doesn't fix it, it "fixes" it -- aka a workaround.

Actually I think this proves it was the AUI settings causing the window to be hidden. I guess you can now undo the HD radar selection. Let us know if that works, if it does then we can tell anyone else to add the Emulator (the first radar in the list) and then remove it again, when this happens again.

And if it doesn't please still try the removal of the [AUI] section in the ini file, so that we know that fixes it.

[merrimac]

Originally Posted by merrimac

Hi all,

I've implemented some changes that add full HALO mode support, for the Harbour/Offshore/Weather/Bird modes. Also, a threshold setting has been added. In Harbour and Offshore mode this is automatically set to 30% and in Weather and Bird mode this is automatically set to 0%. The radar takes care of the radar internal settings.

Also, I made it easier for us to analyse the data reports coming from the radars which is necessary when a radar does(n't) support a feature that we are mis-reading and we would previously ask you to send us a .pcap file. Now, stop O, edit the opencpn.ini or Conf file and set "VerboseLog" in the Radar section to "64". This will produce all reports sent by the radar.

If you want to try it out, download a tarball (.tar.gz file) from https://cloudsmith.io/~opencpn-radar...able/packages/ marked 5.4.0-alpha and import it manually. Please report back. If you find a bug, please open a new issue on https://github.com/opencpn-radar-pi/radar_pi/issues

A new alpha release has been created, this fixes a number of things that were still wrong on Halo like sea clutter, scan speed and other settings on the "advanced" page that did not work completely like the plotter.

You can download it from the above link, the version is 5.4.1-alpha and you need the files marked with commit ID "bdc1ea2".

Thanks to svScoots for pointing out the Sea Clutter + Sea State issues.

The Sea State on HALO is now a separate button as it got too complicated to keep this in the Sea Clutter button.

[badadim]

Originally Posted by merrimac

• New major features in this release:
  • Support for four simultaneously active radars. Multiple brands can be mixed.
• Radar support
  • Garmin HD and xHD radar support
  • Navico “new” 3G support. Older 3G radars are still supported via the BR24 type
  • Navico HALO-3, HALO-4, HALO-6 and HALO24 support

Hi merrimac, about this old 2020 question here with respect to the release notes bullets quoted above: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3106357


Is the latest version of plugin can be used as a protocol/brand adapter or it is still "hell no"?

[merrimac]

Originally Posted by badadim

Hi merrimac, about this old 2020 question here with respect to the release notes bullets quoted above: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3106357


Is the latest version of plugin can be used as a protocol/brand adapter or it is still "hell no"?

Yes, of course it is still NO, as I told you there.