VDR Plugin

[Gilletarom]

Hello,

A test from the simulation with AIS NavMonPc.

Correct result. Replay : Ok. No problem.

Warning:
The files, obtained by recording the VDR from the file provided by NavMonPc on its site, is it distributable ?

Best regards

Gilletarom.

[Gilletarom]

Hello,

It is 3 weeks that I use Opencpn and the VDR at sea.

Config : GPS 72h, VHF RT 650, netbook ASUS 1001 W XP SP3.

See the wiring diagram : VHF_AIS_Garmin72.gif.

See also a check with VDR. (.zip.doc file)

The recording was made following nav between Plymouth and Fowey on the south west of England.

We note that on this recording, the track has a one-time anomaly unexplained. The ship's position suddenly becomes wrong, here in the western position. She then returns to normal.

Maybe it's a problem with the GPS or in the VHF or OpenCPN. Who knows!

I have other examples of such anomalies.

Is it possible, at the time of registration, to avoid putting in the record this type of anomaly?

In other words, is it possible to test each position relative to the previous positions to validate the identified point and avoid this problem.

Note: The same problem is visible in the trace that had been identified by OpenCPN

Best regards

Gilletarom.

[Gilletarom]

hello,

When we use the VDR for replay a file, the hour which is display on the screnn is the hour of the current time by the instrument "Clock" of the dashboard.

It would be nice if this could be the time (and date) the date the file was saved to be replayed.

See screen copy.

Thank by advance.

Best regards

Gilletarom.

[Gilletarom]

Hello SethDart,

I am in France. And I use VDR with 2.5.0 for play the file that I have recorded during our trip.

Two problem :
1° The time wich is displayed by VDR when I play a file is the current time. And so, it is not possible to play a file with the real time of this file.

2° In case of replay, after a first paly, the boats wich are visible by AIS at the end of first play do not desapear on the screen ...

See attach screenshots.

Best regards

Gilletarom.

[yachtvalhalla]

Originally Posted by Gilletarom

2° In case of replay, after a first paly, the boats wich are visible by AIS at the end of first play do not desapear on the screen ...

I confirm this with XPSP3. But restarting OCPN resets everything OK.

Terry

[yachtvalhalla]

After a few attempts with things not working as they should I discovered I needed to create a folder 'nmea' in the OpenCPN folder in Program Files

Must have missed something in previous postings .. couldn't find that in the manual.

All working fine now ... nice feature

Terry

[SethDart]

I replied to the "persistent AIS targets" behavior previously:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tml#post693928

Unfortunately, there's nothing a plugin can do for this. The plugin inject NMEA data (including AIS) as any input port would do. So this behavior would be the same with aisReplay or any other tool injecting NMEA. There's no "clear" or "reset" switch and I guess there'll never be. IMHO, it's a corner case.

Gilletarom, re: clock ; it's not related to the VDR plugin. The clock instrument currently available in the dashboard plugin is a local PC clock, not related to NMEA input. That's why, when replaying a previously saved stream, the clock doesn't match. A NMEA clock could be added, but would probably be UTC (IIRC, NMEA time input is UTC. I don't remember if date is available as well) Feel free to open a request in flyspray for this (if there's none yet) in the dashboard plugin

[ewitts]

I had VDR working well in the old version 2.** but when I switched to 3.0 it won't load.
I got this error message that makes me think it wants a 32bit processor I am running a 64 bit
See attached screen shots.
Any help?
Thanks
Ed

[nohal]

ewitts...
You just have to copy the dll to the plugins subfolder of your OpenCPN installation. From your screenshots it appears that you are for some reason running OpenCPN with a commandline parameter containing the path to the dll in your temporary location - Could it be, that you selected "Open with..." or something like that while trying to download the plugin?

Pavel

[ewitts]

Sorry again for being such a poor reader. Works perfectly. I am integrating a new radar, chart plotter display and ais with this. Your help is so much better than what I get from the manufacturer of my radar.
I have something strange going on with my heading information. It's solid on my plotter and autopilot but in open cpn it jumps around, I want to see what the sentencing is saying.

Thanks.
Ed

[nohal]

Ed...
Try to play with the COG & SOG filtering setting and try to set the filtering period to something like 5 seconds. The correct value for this depends on how "smart" your GPS actually is, so some experimenting might bring better behavior.

Pavel

[MAS3]

Your heading in the other devices is probably a compass heading (HDM, HDG or HDT).
COG will jump around whenever your vessel has a SOG close to zero.
This is due to the way GPS and COG calculation works.
I haven't come across a way to get compass heading in open cpn yet, so maybe this is a feature to be requested.

[ewitts]

Well, I get it now. It isn't getting heading from compass data?
That seems like it would cause problems with the AIS display as well.
Here is what I get with both displays head up, radar and cpn.
The boat seems to be oriented properly. I thought it was looking at compass data for that. But the jumping around when I am sitting at the dock gives a very unstable COG of course.

[ewitts]

If we get an overlay project going I think radar's work off compass heading data, the charting program should also. Thinking about it, AIS doesn't require a compass heading but it should. Relative bearing relates to the direction the boat is pointed not the direction of travel.

[MAS3]

Well, i'm not (yet) an expert on open cpn, so i could have missed something.
But up untill now, i haven't seen antything in the toolbox relating to compass processing.

I agree with your opinion that compass should be used, and in SOLAS setups compass is mandatory.

Radar doesn't necessarily require compass, but most yachts do use it in order to be able to have north up display.
Having compass data makes radar overlay much easier, but it is possible without it.
You would need a very high quality radar signal and processing for this to work without compass data.
In inland installations, radar overlay combined with AIS requires compass data.