Stuff

[dacust]

Originally Posted by CarCode

Amityangler,

I do not see any fractions of depth numbers in your chart above you are familiar to use.
So what is better? OpenCPN uses an international standard here.

Gerhard

I got confused the first time I saw it this way. But I got used to it.

The numbers with no fractions are easier to read quickly without misinterpreting. But having the decimal gives more information.

The bottom line for me is, if it is a standard, I'd rather get used to it than make something non-standard for someone else to have to get used to.

-dan

[CarCode]

Dan,

I should have added it is a standard for navigation charts although the people here use it also for gasoline prices which are noted in fractions of a cent. So actually the liter is for 1.47₉ (+fraction 9) Euro here.

Another thing however:
Please regard a depth value best in the range of 2 digits and a fraction e.g. at the left side of your screen.
Then scroll horizontal the chart screen so that the numbers goes off and comes back at the side of the window. Can you see the difference?
The numbers are truncated...

Gerhard

[Amityangler]

Carcode
I guess it's just a matter of preference, I don't see the need to know the depth in inches, just seems to clutter up the chart. Icould toggle off the depth display when not needed and that would be fine.
Amityangler

[Amityangler]

All
Thanks for your help and time on this. I uploaded these 2 screenshots to make the issue clearer.

Amityangler

[bhcva]

Would someone speak to the OP's question about the NMEA output.....can it be monitored. I too am having a problem.

Thanks, Bruce

[bdbcat]

bhcva and AmityAngler....

Can you give us more information on the problem you see with NMEA output?

Can you attach the relevant parts of your logfile, showing NMEA port activity?

You may find the location of the log file listed in the OpenCPN help screen.

Thanks
Dave

[bhcva]

Dave,
Thanks for the reply...appreciate it.

I have a Raytheon seatalk to nmea converter which has worked well with Seaclear to get waypoints from the PC to my Ratheon radar screen. I had it working somewhat with Opencpn....it was a little erratic..details escape me now. I had to have my converter repaired and will get back to the boat within the week to do some more testing and documenting. Meanwhile, I have made several log files and can never find any records that might have been output by Opencpn.

My basic question at this point is: should I be finding Opencpn output records in that log? What would the record ID be? The gps data is coming thru just fine.

Sorry to be so vague....I will be more detailed later.

And thanks for a great product.

Bruce

[bdbcat]

bhcva....

The log file does not contain records of the actual NMEA data flow. To do so would overwhelm the logfile....

Information is shown in the logfile regarding opening and closing of NMEA data ports, and errors related thereto.

Often it is useful to connect a PC to the NMEA autopilot output port, and monitor the data stream with hyperterminal, or the like. We have seen no cases where the NMEA output data from OpenCPN does not appear on a hardwired port if the logfile indicates a successful port opening event. We are, however, having some trouble with Bluetooth SPP port emulation output, but you do not mention that in your configuration.

So, to answer your question, you should see lines like this in the log:

05:48:20 PM: NMEA Data Source is....Serial:/dev/ttyS0
05:48:20 PM: OpenPD: 9, new_count = 1 for /dev/ttyS0
05:48:20 PM: AIS Data Source is....Serial:/tmp/aisfifo
05:48:20 PM: AIS input device open failed: /tmp/aisfifo
05:48:20 PM: Using WVSChart datafile: /usr/local/share/opencpn/wvsdata/wvs43.dat
05:48:20 PM: NMEA AutoPilot Port is....Serial:/dev/ttyS0
05:48:20 PM: Re-OpenPD: 9, new_count = 2 for /dev/ttyS0

Here you can see that the NMEA Autopilot port shares the GPS input port, (/dev/ttyS0 in this case) and so is opened twice.

Let me know what you find when you get re-configured....

Thanks for your input
Dave

[Amityangler]

Hello All

I also have a furuno radar (older model 1731) that I cannot interface with OpenCPN. Originally I had it interfaced with a Northstar Loran, but our good old reliable Loran system is no more. I have it interfaced now with my GPS and SeaClear but I have to send it a custom sentence. Also SeaClear is not able to send the "bearing and distance to next waypoint"
signal needed to display the waypoint on the radar screen. I believe it's a NMEA version issue and the radar is not able to sort out a full sentence. It would be great to have some control of the NMEA output, but as the saying goes "beggers can't be choosers"

Tks,
Amityangler

[bhcva]

Dave, I'm finally reconfigured. I can tell when Opencpn is transmitting by one of the two leds on the the serial-usb converter flashing. When opencpn xmits, the log looks like below...just like yours. When Open doesn't work, the log will report that the autopilot port open failed.

When I get the com ports in agreement as below and then terminate the program, the autopilot port will not open when I restart Opencpn. I have to change the a/p port to 'none' and ok it. Then change the a/p port back to comx, ok it, and will be well. That is the confusion I referred to earlier.

So, Opencpn seems to be doing it's thing ok. I used to be able to get the next waypoint delivered to my radar screen via the nmea-seatalk converter, but it no longer works. I think something has gone fluky in the chartplotter and there appears to be no way to bypass it.

I would like to see the nmea coming out of opencpn...can you briefly describe how to set that up...I can read nmea coming in with hyperterminal, but not outbound....I'm a newbie at hyperterminal.

Thanks for your support.

Bruce

12:53:43 PM: NMEA Data Source is....Serial:COM3
12:53:43 PM: AIS Data Source is....None12:53:43 PM: OpenPD: 268, new_count = 1 for COM3
12:53:43 PM: NMEA AutoPilot Port is....Serial:COM3
12:53:43 PM: Re-OpenPD: 268, new_count = 2 for COM3
12:53:43 PM: GPS Watchdog Timeout is: 6 sec.
12:53:43 PM: Initializing Chart C:\Charts\Reg 2-4\12230_1.KAP
12:53:43 PM: NMEA activity...20 bytes
12:53:43 PM: Buffer is: $IIBWC,165341,,,,,,T
12:53:43 PM: NMEA activity...20 bytes
12:53:43 PM: Buffer is: ,,M,,N,*05
IIDBT,1
12:53:43 PM: NMEA Sentence received...$IIBWC,165341,,,,,,T,,M,,N,*05