Feature Requests

[sredna]

While I can appreciate that there may be higher priorities, I think that there is a huge overlap in using any ot the apps suggested for instrument display.

I also do not understand the use of dial displays in those apps, they take up space and are much harder to read than a simple string, maybe except for wind direction.

My conclusion: a plugin or module system would be great

[jonasaberg]

I think links to these sites from the OpenCPN website are justified.

Will/Manimaul: Would you agree a link section is warranted in the Wiki?

Whenever you set up a system in your boat some tweaking will be needed and some links to software that helps with port redirection, virtual instrumentation building RS232 cables or whatever might be neded could be useful.

Comments?

/Jonas

Sredna: I agree to your comments regarding a modular/tunable presentation in OpenCPN if that is agreable to Dave.

[idpnd]

A wiki page about NMEA instrumentation may be in order (with these links)..

[manimaul]

Originally Posted by jonasaberg

Will/Manimaul: Would you agree a link section is warranted in the Wiki?

Whenever you set up a system in your boat some tweaking will be needed and some links to software that helps with port redirection, virtual instrumentation building RS232 cables or whatever might be neded could be useful.

Comments?

I think a hardware section in the wiki is definitely warranted. I've added "supplemntary hardware" and "supplementary software" books into the wiki.

If you have a particluar hardware and/or software setup that you like and would like to share it, wiki.

[oem]

Originally Posted by idpnd

NMEA instrumentation could be a separate app or module, I think the best improvement to OpenCPN development as it stands today would be an infrastructure for modules and a standardised universal overlay such as KML/KMZ.

Instrumentation has been implemented in the closed-source windows-only (but nonetheless widely praised) navmonpc.

Openpilot also implements freely configurable NMEA instrumentation, and it's free software, same as Capcode, which even supports Polars etc.

Good architecture, - to keep things in separate modules, yet integrated but only where integration is absolutely needed.

I recently read about a guy integrating various nmea instruments to a standard (cheap) notebook pc with several programs to receive and display data. Adding 'Virtual Screen Manager' (a shareware program) made him able to switch easily between the output from various programs, weather, wind, radar etc. He also added a touch screen to make it even easy'er to switch. So integration infrastructure might just be Virtual Screen Manager...

A chart portal/integration utility might be an idea for yet annother module, made up of all the bits and pieces in kapgen, mc2bsbh, OSeaM, NOAA and all thats missing etc, - but completely independent from OCPN. KML/KMZ might be part of that..

[idpnd]

Originally Posted by manimaul

I think a hardware section in the wiki is definitely warranted. I've added "supplemntary hardware" and "supplementary software" books into the wiki.

If you have a particluar hardware and/or software setup that you like and would like to share it, wiki.

I've added a new page with "gps devices" for reporting of device compatibility (and added my usb gps, the only one I've used so far )

[sredna]

Originally Posted by idpnd

I've added a new page with "gps devices" for reporting of device compatibility (and added my usb gps, the only one I've used so far )

Good idea! I went there and added my Garmin Foretrex 201.

I have to say that given the number of GPS devices on the market, it could be smart to structure the data a bit I see opencpn.org is using drupal, a system I know quite well. I suggest to create a node type for GPSes, and use the
views module to display the data in a table. Ideas for Columns: Vendor, model, Linux comment, Windows comment, OSX comment.

Anders

[idpnd]

Hej Anders, I've created a table, hope you like it

[sredna]

Originally Posted by idpnd

Hej Anders, I've created a table, hope you like it

Better than before, definately I boldened the header row and set some column widths - hope that is OK?

Using a node type + views table would still be prefereable, because it will automatically sort the data, and make entering them so much more comfortable. Think about how this will look with just 50 devices.

I can offer to create node type and view, given admin rights, assuming drupal 6 or greater, and installation of views module, if you like the idea.

[jonasaberg]

It works well to use Nokia phones with integrated GPS using a third party java based application that get the position from the phones GPS and sends it over Bluetooth via a virtual RS232 port to the computer.

I have tried it with a Nokia E71 using a PC running WinXPsp3 and OpenCPN 1.3.6.

Link to the software http://www.symarctic.com/beta/images/extgps.jar

This link is to Symarctics webforum with some interesting info.
symarctic.com/beta

And this to a site where it is discussed:
Symarctic ExtGPS! - Use your phone as an external GPS module!

It works well in WinXP, however, I have had trouble getting it work under Windows7. Will write a "suspected" bug report in the 1.3.6 thread - I think it is OpenCPN/Win7 combination error and not the ExtGPS software.

Regardless of the problems in Win7 I like the idea of using my phone as GPS as a backkup in our yacht and the possibility to use on-shore.

In the links above are some info regarding the chance of getting different phone models to work depending on the GPS implementation.

Please report your progress in the wiki, I am sure a lot of us have or will soon have GPS in the phone. Make sure it works with OpenCPN before a new purchase!

/Jonas

[idpnd]

Originally Posted by sredna

I can offer to create node type and view, given admin rights, assuming drupal 6 or greater, and installation of views module, if you like the idea.

You may wish to approach Mani about that, but do recall that the point of the wiki (and the compatible devices list) is to be user-contributable..

[sredna]

Originally Posted by idpnd

You may wish to approach Mani about that, but do recall that the point of the wiki (and the compatible devices list) is to be user-contributable..

Using a wiki input format would be a partial solution, since hand editing HTML in a browser sucks badly... :-) There are wiki format filters available for drupal as well, using one of those would be great instead of plain HTML. Hand editing a large table is still no fun though, even in wiki format

Anders

[jonasaberg]

Would be useful with a "Look ahead" feature that creates more chart space in front of the boat than behind.

[idpnd]

Originally Posted by sredna

Using a wiki input format would be a partial solution, since hand editing HTML in a browser sucks badly... :-) There are wiki format filters available for drupal as well, using one of those would be great instead of plain HTML. Hand editing a large table is still no fun though, even in wiki format

Anders

Ehem.. that is a wiki filter, and it's got a WYSIWYG interface?

[sredna]

Hi,
Having thought for a while that I could possibly contribute a bit to opencpn, I dived into the code today, with the goal of making a simple change: allowing for a more finegrained viewport control.

I have added finegrained movement and zoom (the latter only in vector charts for now), so that I can now move in small steps (5px) by pressing ALT + <arrow>, and zoom in small steps by pressing ALT + +/-.

Raster charts does not like the small zoom factor, they skew oddly and waypoints are not correctly placed, so I disabled that.

The fine grained control allows me to optimize the viewport to display the best possible view of for example a costal area or race course.

I enclose patches for the two files I touched.

Is there interrest in adding this to openCPN?