WeatherFax ...

[rgleason]

I have not exercised Wav files very much, but I have done it with many kinds of faxes polar, mercator, etc. Has anyone really done various Wav files? I've done at least 8 wave files over the time testing, but not recently.

[rgleason]

This morning I found that Wav files have lost contrast and are not as readable. Is this possibly because of the change in code location to stop the transparency issue? If someone would try Wav files and confirm this problem? Also I could not get them to overlay on the chart when applied.

Is this due to some syntax error?
Open procedure

Do stuff
Close doing stuff
Do some more stuff
Close that

Close procedure

[seandepagnier]

The wav files are the same for me.

One way you can try to fix this, is by checking out an older commit in git before the problem occured, then use git-bisect to find the bug.


So.. I was thinking I could use a better icon for this plugin. Any suggestions?

[rgleason]

Sean,
This has been a difficult plugin to get working for all of us!
I've been focused mostly on the image files and testing that, but I have tested sound earlier in the process, but not nearly as much, because I could not find a decent sound file to use (searching the internet) and I do not have a receiver yet.

I have gone through all the files I downloaded from various internet sources and sorted them into ones that have an error (Can't load this file because it is not 16 bit) and put them in a folder "Sound Fails not 16 bit". Leaving 3 or 4 files that don't have this message when trying to open them.

I have been able to load these files, set coords, (but can't read them very well because the contrast is not good) so I just set dummy coords in mercator and try to get them to show on the charts. They don't seem to show up... with one exception which was a polar sound that I just treated like mercator. These files are all up in Dropbox if you want to try them, I will send another invitation. It would be very helpful if I had three or four good sound files that I could use to test the Wav aspect. If you had some could you upload them to dropbox please?

So then taking your suggestion I went back to Post 293 and saved the dll which is version 0.5 (currently on 0.6). I am not as comfortable with git as you are, and unwinding and winding up stuff is beyond my capacity right now. Anyway I have tried this 0.5 DLL and am having similar problems with the 3-4 that will open. Do you have any other suggestions? - By the way skew and phase work great. I am not sure what the filters are, but they are probably to take out different types of noise. It would be helpful if we had a contrast slider somewhere early on to darken the images up a little I think.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Sean,
This has been a difficult plugin to get working for all of us!
I've been focused mostly on the image files and testing that, but I have tested sound earlier in the process, but not nearly as much, because I could not find a decent sound file to use (searching the internet) and I do not have a receiver yet.

Yes I appreciate all the testing. I'm a bit lazy about it myself and I would probably get fired from any real job for this type of work.. Anyway it seems to be working better as time goes on..

I have gone through all the files I downloaded from various internet sources and sorted them into ones that have an error (Can't load this file because it is not 16 bit) and put them in a folder "Sound Fails not 16 bit". Leaving 3 or 4 files that don't have this message when trying to open them.

Can probably be fixed easily, I just didn't bother to even attempt anything but 16bit because it was assumed you would be recording and could set the bits, or at the very least just run sox and convert the file.

I have been able to load these files, set coords, (but can't read them very well because the contrast is not good) so I just set dummy coords in mercator and try to get them to show on the charts. They don't seem to show up... with one exception which was a polar sound that I just treated like mercator. These files are all up in Dropbox if you want to try them, I will send another invitation. It would be very helpful if I had three or four good sound files that I could use to test the Wav aspect. If you had some could you upload them to dropbox please?

I can do all of the wav files polar and regular, and map them correctly onto the chart.
the 2001... polar has a non-standard true width ratio of 1.55 or so.. this is what inspired me to add that parameter. I do not have any other files besides those anyway, and some I made with yahfax.. but that isn't really a good test.

I have the dropbox stuff already syncing. Thanks for all the gribs, they have been good for testing that plugin.

So then taking your suggestion I went back to Post 293 and saved the dll which is version 0.5 (currently on 0.6). I am not as comfortable with git as you are, and unwinding and winding up stuff is beyond my capacity right now. Anyway I have tried this 0.5 DLL and am having similar problems with the 3-4 that will open. Do you have any other suggestions? - By the way skew and phase work great. I am not sure what the filters are, but they are probably to take out different types of noise. It would be helpful if we had a contrast slider somewhere early on to darken the images up a little I think.

Can't you get one of those git gui programs where you can just type in a date or click or something? Anyway.. you would do a checkout of a previous commit, it's really not difficult. I just wanted to determine if I had indeed broken the contrast for you at some point.

The filters are basically a hack and not always practical to use for all images. For some it really cleans them up though. It is very simple to add additional filters (see source code) if anyone is interested, I kind of got bored after adding those.

A contrast slider is not a bad idea.

[rgleason]

Here is the most recent Weatherfax_pi.dll (version 0.6) for testing. The wav files need some testing.

[rgleason]

So.. I was thinking I could use a better icon for this plugin. Any suggestions?

-Why not? Current one intends to look like a fax coming out of a printer I think.
Maybe you have a better icon, but perhaps we could fit Wx on the paper?

[SaltyPaws]

Just compiled from source on Ubuntu 12.10, against 3.0 OpenCPN and 64 bits.When clicking the "capture" button I get the following message: "Failed to set stuff up with dsp, this only works on linux."

Since I am on linux would hope this to work

[rgleason]

SaltyPaws, Sean may have a better answer, but do you have SSB etc setup so the sound can be received?

[SaltyPaws]

For now using SSB receiver with line-in to mic on laptop.

Another question: when using files from this site: JVComm32 - sound samples

I get the error "Failure Decoding Fax: samples size not 16 bit" do I need to convert the soundfiles first?

[rgleason]

Line-in to mic on laptop -That 'sounds' like it might work.

I get the same bit notice, and asked Sean about them. Current version reads just 16 bit, Sean has assumed that we can set to 16 bit when receiving. He may decide to expand allowable files later, but I personally think he's been significantly upgrading many plugins in a coding frenzy and needs a break from it. I had a hard time keeping them straight just compiling, don't know how he did it.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by SaltyPaws

Just compiled from source on Ubuntu 12.10, against 3.0 OpenCPN and 64 bits.When clicking the "capture" button I get the following message: "Failed to set stuff up with dsp, this only works on linux."

Since I am on linux would hope this to work

Actually, it may not work on linux, but is pretty much guaranteed to fail on other operating systems. Maybe it works on bsd but I never tried.

Anyway.. it is opening /dev/dsp directly so check the permissions on that and make sure your user has read/write access. (Maybe you are not in group audio) anyway.. this is a total hack and doesn't get timing right so you always have to do skew correction. It would be good to support alsa, or maybe jack or some other libraries, preferably cross-platform.

Originally Posted by SaltyPaws

For now using SSB receiver with line-in to mic on laptop.

Another question: when using files from this site: JVComm32 - sound samples

I get the error "Failure Decoding Fax: samples size not 16 bit" do I need to convert the soundfiles first?

Yes, I only bothered with 16bit.. but by modifying the code (FaxDecoder.cpp) it should be possible to support other bits.. I never bothered. See use of wxInt16. What bit depths do you think are needed? 8 or 32 or both? Is 64 possible? sox can do this externally.

[SaltyPaws]

On ubuntu I have been recording from the command line: rec -G -c 1 -r 48000 -b 16 recording.wav. Reception is not great, and it is too cold to go outdoors... Will post results when I manage to make better recordings.

would it be hard to make the plugin suitable for both 8 and 32? I would not imagine anyone recording weather faxes in 64 bits.

[seandepagnier]

It probably would be easy. With 8 bits you may be losing some useful data. So yeah eventually. Should work much better at night time than during the day.

[dcan39]

Sorry to but in, but I've searched this thread and can't find a solution to my primary problem with the weatherfax plugin. The images I open and edit will not overlay/display in OpenCPN. I am using OpenCPN 3.2 with the current weatherfax plugin (v 0.6) on a Windows 8 machine. Any thoughts?