Route Upload to Furuno GP32

[AndreHuizing]

When I upload a route from OpenCPN 3.2.2 to my Furuno GP32 the GPS does not react and/or receive anything (OpenCPN gives its normal Send OK message).
When I do the same thing in the latest beta (1824) it works fine...however I cannot use this for extended cruising as it often stops working.
Any ideas/solutions to this?

Thank you in advance
Andre

[bcn]

Originally Posted by AndreHuizing

When I upload a route from OpenCPN 3.2.2 to my Furuno GP32 the GPS does not react and/or receive anything (OpenCPN gives its normal Send OK message).
When I do the same thing in the latest beta (1824) it works fine...however I cannot use this for extended cruising as it often stops working.
Any ideas/solutions to this?

Thank you in advance
Andre

Waiting for further development of the beta - it will getting more stable.
Normal development cycle...

So please stay tuned!

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by bcn

Waiting for further development of the beta - it will getting more stable.
Normal development cycle...

No, that is not a normal development cycle anymore.
In the middle of the sailing season there is no new stable version nor a stable version of the S63 plugin.
Too much time spent for a few people with Raspberry Pi and disregarding the majority with Windows, Linux and Mac. Many users are disappointed.

Gerhard

[bcn]

We have now about 30 users with S63 plug-ins. Adding one about every other day.

Just got the feedback from somebody who has been 10 days in the German bight. Working with S63

Others are running installations with aprox. 50 S63 cells (Northern tip of Australia).

You remember the user with the MAC who is cruising happily the Med (Malaga-Balears)?

Since last week we are working with Australian S63 charts. (AUSenc).

etc.

Of course there are bugs in the beta. But it seems that there a different usages as well.
And beta testers often want and should stress the software.
I don't see any reason to be inpatient.
And following up the German forum I can't detect the "claim of the masses" neither.
Is there a deadline we have to meet?

It is possible that there are different priorities for different users, who would like to see "their" favorite point released. The OP here for example.
But that's obvious, isn't it?
And if one can't/does not want to add to the development process actively there are just two things one can do: testing & reporting and waiting

BTW.: code revisions as a quality check are counting for me as a proactive and supporting point as well. As 4 eyes are seeing more than one....


BTW2: we are highjacking the tread - not well done

[AndreHuizing]

was more wondering how to make this work in 3.2.2 ? That must be known as it works in beta.
thanks

[bcn]

Backporting - yes. Possible in theory.

Taking into account that
- the Connection/COM parts of settings has undergone a lot of changes
- the limited coder capacity
it will most probably be more efficient (and faster) to invest energy in getting the beta stable than to backport code.

But if somebody has fun to do so - all the code is there.

Hubert

[CarCode]

Hubert,
I like to speak with facts and not with assumptions or speculations.
There is no S63 plugin released right now.
There is no newer OpenCPN than 3.2.2.
The german site opencpn.de is outdated and abandoned by the maintainer.
Several times a new OCPN was promised for a next week but what we see each day is a bug fix of these ugly "optimizations".
So please keep with the facts.
Gerhard

[bcn]

Originally Posted by CarCode

Hubert,
I like to speak with facts and not with assumptions or speculations.
There is no S63 plugin released right now.
There is no newer OpenCPN than 3.2.2.
The german site opencpn.de is outdated and abandoned by the maintainer.
Several times a new OCPN was promised for a next week but what we see each day is a bug fix of these ugly "optimizations".
So please keep with the facts.
Gerhard

Gerhard,

- the S63 site / o-charts.org states that the pi is a beta version, and that we feel that it can be used (what is done) for "production", like a lot of people are using the 3.3.x beta series. Others 3.2.2 or even 3.0 or earlier.
- the forum I'm referring to is Segeln-forum. de where you are playing a quite active (much appreciated) role. I'm not aware of any other forum in German language that does give similar room to OpenCPN.
- another time: do we have a deadline?

[AndreHuizing]

I'm sorry but I'm new to OpenCPN and this forum. Did not mean to open this can of worms this thread is leading into. Just looking for a solution to download a route from OCPN 3.2.2 to my Furuno GPS? I cannot imagine it is not supposed to work in that version as the GP3x are very common and popular GPSes?
The system even has a special tagbox to indicate Furuno GP3X?

Cheers,
Andre

[nohal]

Andre...
Imagine it or not, it is a fact that there is a bug in 3.2.2. Install a 3.3 beta in parallel and use it just for uploads if you don't trust it for day-to-day use. Problem solved.

Pavel

[bcn]

Originally Posted by AndreHuizing

I'm sorry but I'm new to OpenCPN and this forum. Did not mean to open this can of worms this thread is leading into.

Cheers,
Andre

André,

I beg your pardon - it has not been our intention to confront you with our darker side

Hubert

[AndreHuizing]

May the force be with us!
How can I run 2 versions in parallel in the most convenient way? (preferably with same settings etc.)

Thanks,
Andre

[nohal]

Andre...
Just use the advanced settings of the installer and choose a different folder for one of the versions. Then run whichever version you need at the particular moment. They will share the same data automatically. (You can run only one at a time, of course)

Pavel

[reflectionsv37]

Andre,

I helped debug the Furuno upload feature and it does work in version 3.2.0. I did not realize that there was an issue in 3.2.2. I regularly use beta versions for real navigation although always upload and test a version when I'm in a place where I have internet connections.

About 6 months ago my uploads would no longer work on my main navigation computer. I've spent countless hours trying to resolve the problem to no avail. They will not upload correctly with an onboard COM port or ports via a Digi Edgeport USB converter. Both worked perfectly in the past, but none will allow me to upload now. They still transmit perfectly, both GPS and AIS data.

In the meantime, I've been creating a route, saving it on my backup laptop and use my existing Edgeport connected to the laptop to upload to the GPS. It ain't pretty but it works.

I'm convinced something in the software that deals with COM ports has changed or become corrupted. At least I was convinced of that until recently. I did a complete reinstall and upgraded Windows XP to Windows 7. I was certain that would correct the problem. Much to my surprise, it still doesn't work.

Out of curiosity, did the uploads work on other beta releases before 1824? When you say you cannot use 1824 for extended cruising because it quits working, are you saying the uploads only work intermittently on 1824?

I'm now beginning to wonder if the problems I've been having are related to my computer or Opencpn software?

There are some quirks with the Furuno GPS that will cause uploads to fail. Waypoint names cannot be longer than 6 characters. They cannot contain a lowercase or special character as part of the waypoint name. A maximum of 24 waypoints is supported by OpenCPN although the GPS manual says 28 are supported. I have had several instances where I have inserted an additional waypoint in the middle of a route. Opencpn names these waypoints differently. The current version preferences them with "NM" and then a sequential number. These use to upload to the Furuno, but they would not be in the correct order once the route was created in the GPS. For whatever reason, the Furuno sorts the waypoints by waypoint name. Your route in the GPS will not have those waypoints in the correct order. Whenever I have to insert a waypoint in a route, I go back and make sure that all waypoint names are in sequence. I use the default names, so I make sure they are number sequentially 001, 002, 003 etc.

To admins reading this, the upload routine to the Furuno GPS needs to be changed to automatically rename the waypoint names numerically and in sequence. I don't think there is any other way to ensure that the waypoints are uploaded correctly and in the proper sequence unless this is done.

Now I think I'll go back and see if I can find a 3.2.0 version and see if my COM port problems go away.

[reflectionsv37]

Andre,

Thanks very much for posting this thread! Looking back at my laptop the first route I was forced to upload using my laptop occurred around Dec 7, 2013. That's when my problems started. I don't recall the issue being related to the installation of a new release of Opencpn, but now I'm very quickly thinking it was.

As I said, I spent countless hours trying to resolve this and retest the upload every time I install a new Beta release. In remembering back, I do recall a time where I had thought I had finally resolved the problem as I had an upload that succeeded, but all subsequent attempts failed.

Pavel, what is the know bug that was in 3.2.2? Would that same bug still be causing problems? I'd love to not have to transfer files to a laptop and do uploads as I cannot do uploads with any of the Beta releases.