Watchdog Plugin

[bcn]

Rick..

here still debating with Garmin support about data on the serial port of the Striker. No sure conclusions yet.

Hubert

[Rasbats]

Cannot find an NMEA connection listed for the Garmin Striker 4. I am using an old model Lowrance Mk 4 with a data cable for the NMEA feed. Have you thought about the Lowrance Hook -5x?

ftp://software.lowrance.com/Document...1012-002_w.pdf

Mike

[bcn]

We have a Lowrance Elite 4, one of the previous small systems with GPS and sounder. With NMEA0183 output. Not available anymore.
And double of the price of the Striker. The Hook 5 is also in the 250+ range, the less expensive Hook 4 doesn't have serial output.

[crayiii]

Okay. How much do I need to send?

[rgleason]

Ok, we need better advice for Sean for an instrument with nmea0183 output of depth

[rgleason]

Cray, this is a joint effort, and many should lend a hand, I am sending Sean $25 towards a depth sounder, but each person should decide. This watchdog improvement is much needed and Sean has made it known for years that he needs a depth sounder to do it, so this is long overdue. I have no doubt that Sean will come up with other clever integration software using the depth sounder, so I am quite happy to help get him this long overdue tool that he needs.

[rgleason]

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?fa...5I3hDoL4fhXFd9

This Garmin support document appears to confirm Striker export of nmea data, but the usefulness of this data should be confirmed with Garim, before purchase.

Does anyone have a Striker? Can they save a file and upload it here?

[bcn]

We contacted Garmin support and they don't want to confirm anything about the interface but "it allows to share waypoints and routes between different Garmin devices".

Other support documents from Garmin talk about "NMEA0183 high speed", i.e.38400
Given the evasive replies from Garmin, the only way to have trustworthy information would be to test the device or that somebody with a Striker can confirm or deny a 0183 data streaming and contained sentences on the interface.

Hubert

[rramsey]

Not sure if someone has already done this … I am a fan of modern airplane cockpits speaking to you, e.g. "Terrain! Terrain! Terrain! Pull up! …". You get the gist. Great if WD could do that too and it can! It requires a little vbscript (this solution only works for windows!) that can be written with windows notepad (you can copy and paste it into notepad):

'say.vbs
set s = CreateObject("SAPI.SpVoice")
s.Speak Wscript.Arguments(0), 3
s.WaitUntilDone(3000)
s.Speak Wscript.Arguments(0), 3
s.WaitUntilDone(3000)
s.Speak Wscript.Arguments(0), 3
s.WaitUntilDone(3000)

Save this somewhere easy as "say.vbs" (make sure on saving you select "All files" at "Save as type" to prevent it from turning into a .txt file). I then copied that into the opencpn/sounds directory for easy access (requires admin rights on my laptop, cannot save it there from notepad, needs copying).


In the WD dialog check "Çommand" and enter

cscript sounds/say.vbs "Terrain"

or whatever you want it to say. Say.vbs will then say it three times.

The alarm sound can also be used as can 'repeat alarm'.

As an example when closer than 3.000 miles to land (Landfall) I have it ring two bells and then say "Landfall" three times. Now at least I know what the alarm is about without having to get to my laptop. Deadman makes my laptop say "Touch me please"

Seems easy to implement in WD … why not perfect a wonderful plugin even more? Thanx to Sean, Rick & Ron.

Oh … if your speech is cut off, simple increase the 's.WaitUntilDone' number (three times of course).

[rramsey]

Hey Rick … is there a way to donate to Sean? And you? Y'all put so much into this … and I use so much of it … I feel I'm leeching a little.

[hasse_A]

Originally Posted by rramsey

Not sure if someone has already done this … I am a fan of modern airplane cockpits speaking to you, e.g. "Terrain! Terrain! Terrain! Pull up! …". You get the gist. Great if WD could do that too and it can! It requires a little vbscript that can be written with windows notepad.

Sounds like a wonderful idea. Since OPN is multilingual you would need to implement this in several languages. Any idea how to do that easily ?

/Hans

[rramsey]

Hans … The thingy I posted uses windows speech, so whatever language your windows is speaking your WD will speak - I think. Be it Chinese or Latvian or … English. Well … American, not really English is it now

I envision WD allowing me to enter my own text for speech … I would not presume to come up with standard texts. Maybe a checkbox, a number for the number of repeats and a text box.

Can be done for a Mac too (using errr … 'SAY' …) but I have no idea how to do it on other Linux variants. I'm not a decent programmer … just a dabbler.

[rramsey]

Oh … and if you allow the user to enter text for speech you might as well use that text for the message box!

[rgleason]

Ramsey,


Thanks for the clever addition to Watchdog. It is ideas like this that keep improving Opencpn Plugins.


Sean would very much like to purchase a good depth sounder with nmea0183 output that he can use to improve watchdog with a depth alarm. I believe he has some other depth mapping ideas as well. I am very certain that he will welcome any contribution you can make towards this worthwhile purchase. Last year he tried to make his own depth sounder, but it's resolution was not good, so I think it would be an excellent and worthwhile contribution.


Sean has been the instigator and mastermind behind many of the plugins that I have been compiling for Windows. Without Sean there would be none of these plugins: weatherfax, weather_routing, statusbar, rtlsdr_pi, pypilot, autopilot_route, etc and the list goes on!



His website: About

His Paypal: Paypal


Thank you Ramsey!


I think he needs something like a Lowrance Hook 5 which costs something like $250-$300 and he will need a data cable. So that is the goal for this much needed item.

Originally Posted by rramsey

Hey Rick … is there a way to donate to Sean? And you? Y'all put so much into this … and I use so much of it … I feel I'm leeching a little.

[bcn]

A Garmin Striker shall arrive today for testing. We shall see if it is fit for purpose..