OpenCPN Version 5 Released

[marex]

Hi bdbcat,
USB serial on com 3
run Visit my Harbour chat stick on USB serial com 1 as well

[bcn]

You are sure about the USB COM port? Having plugged off and inserted the USB device?
Any other program listening to the device?

Do you have some program from AMEC to configure and test the AIS unit? Does it work and does it release the device correctly?

[marex]

Yes oom is correct and working with both Amec softwear and Open CPN version 4.4.0

[Franziska]

Not sure why it's not working, but for info, we have a similar setup, same Amec Camino AIS and OpenCPN 5. It's working fine.
GPS comes from AIS, but via a Shipmodul Miniplex.

Be careful if you connect the Camino directly to the USB while the PC is attached to the same ships battery (with a 12v to 18v car style converter).
I accidentally killed/roasted one Camino AIS this way. The Camino is not optoelectronically decoupled.
A Miniplex or similar in between prevents that. When configuring the Camino I use the laptops own battery now when it's connected to the USB. I never run Camino and PC directly from the same ships battery when it's connected to the USB.
In operation I connect the Camino to the Miniplex which also delivers the other Navdata to the PC but has an optoelectronic decoupler built in.

Check if the AIS still transmits by looking at the diodes on the unit.

Good luck.

[yacht.asia]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

I haven’t tried this but can you not create a link that begins with “file” instead of “http”. Will that not work for locally stored html data?

Hi

Sure you can you use file:// as mentioned in my post but the whole point is this is not transferrable from one computer to another.

Say for example you write a cruising guide comprising of a set of waypoints with links to html files and images on your computer. Now you want to put this online so that others can use this information.

Anyone else who downloads your helpful guide cannot use it as the file:// links used in the waypoints refer to the specific file structure on YOUR computer. In order to use the guide they would have to go through every waypoint and edit the links to point to the right place (where they had downloaded the html and image files).

For large information databases hand editing every waypoint in this way would be unrealistic and a horrible waste of time.

[yacht.asia]

Originally Posted by phiggins

yacht.asia,

Think you forgot to upload the .jpg file.

You may want to consider using Sat2Chart, it has a feature to create charts from multiple maps in one run from SasPlanet.

Hi Paul

I tried uploading the jpg but as it's 1.4MB it is over the file size limit of 400KB for this forum. Instead of the original file it acutally uploaded a thumbnail of the image. I have asked if this size limit can be increased but no response as yet from whoever runs this forum.

I have tried using SAT2NAV for pulling charts and images off SAS Planet but found it better to directly save mbtiles from SAS Planet. I ran into a problem with SAT2NAV with larger image files as it wants GDAL. The various links to your GDAL download are no longer on your website and I couldn't make it work with an external download (yes I did set the environment PATH). Admittedly I didn't try very hard as for our specific purpose (we run 2 large displays next to other - 1 showing a chart, the other showing a high res. satellite image) having seperate mbtiles files suits.

I am using SAT2NAV to georeference my own charts which are drawn on top of a satellite image and then georeferenced off the KML file that can be automatically produced as part of an area download on SAS Planet.

[yacht.asia]

Originally Posted by rgleason

yacht.asia,
You've got a lot of enthusiasm and ideas in your post. They need to be distilled into more complete and thoughtful requests that are illustrated (or specifically described) so that they can be understood by everyone. Then they need to be reviewed on the forum and if they have merit they should be added to tracker and voted for.

So my suggestion is to learn more about the capabilities available and really whittle down your requests to the bare minimum, present them here, and see how others respond. If the response is positive, then post them on Tracker (one feature request per item) and vote for it.

What's Tracker?

It looked like this forum was a sensible place to provide OpenCPN feedback. Is there a more structured means of doing this? Page 23 of a post about the release of OpenCPN v5 did not seem like the best option - but it did look like this was the ONLY option.

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by yacht.asia

What's Tracker?

It looked like this forum was a sensible place to provide OpenCPN feedback. Is there a more structured means of doing this? Page 23 of a post about the release of OpenCPN v5 did not seem like the best option - but it did look like this was the ONLY option.

Yacht.asia
Tracker is in the main menu bar of opencp.org upper right.
https://opencpn.org/
Tracker is where good ideas and improvements and bugs are recorded.
Tracker leads to here https://opencpn.org/flyspray/
where you need to register. Then make a Feature Request that is detailed enough for the programmers to understand. Then vote for it!
The Feature request can be set for the current version of Opencpn or one of the many plugins.
Hopefully the idea will not be lost then.

[reflectionsv37]

Originally Posted by yacht.asia

Hi

Sure you can you use file:// as mentioned in my post but the whole point is this is not transferrable from one computer to another.

Say for example you write a cruising guide comprising of a set of waypoints with links to html files and images on your computer. Now you want to put this online so that others can use this information.

Anyone else who downloads your helpful guide cannot use it as the file:// links used in the waypoints refer to the specific file structure on YOUR computer. In order to use the guide they would have to go through every waypoint and edit the links to point to the right place (where they had downloaded the html and image files).

For large information databases hand editing every waypoint in this way would be unrealistic and a horrible waste of time.

This is a very good suggestion! I've created a number of waypoint files to accompany cruising guides in the Thailand, Malaysia area.

I tried to request this feature a few years ago but couldn't explain the situation well. I've used the file:// for links to PDF files. Since I was setting them up for Windows I simply used c:/ and instructed people to copy the PDF files there so my link could find them. Of course this doesn't work for other software platforms.

Here's what I would suggest. Agree on a directory/folder name within Opencpn that will be used to store documents associated with layer files. I'd suggest layers/documents. Change Opencpn to recognize an entry in the links so that it knows to translate the location of the file to the correct path for the layer/documents folder. Perhaps we could specify opencpn:// to indicate opencpn should translate the path correctly for the platform Opencpn is running on. All we would need to specify in the link is opencpn://document name.pdf and Opencpn would supply the correct path to the layers/documents folder.

And just a note that if you need to make bulk changes to the waypoints you have created for a document, like changing all the link names, export all the waypoints to a fox file and then open the gpx file and change them all with a find and replace.

When you get this setup in tracker, post the tracker number back here and I'll certainly vote for it!! Thanks for suggesting this.

Gene

[fgd3]

Learn to use relative paths rather than absolute paths.


Fabbian

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by marex

thanks for the reply yes tried all baude options

What is the NMEA debug window showing?

Have you used the ProAIS software to check that your AIS is set correctly and transmitting / receiving?

[marex]

Hi All thanks for the input, managed to get version 5 to recognise my Camino-108, I had to reinstall version 4.4.0 on a different drive importing settings and log and behold v5 works fine.

[RhythmDoctor]

Hi all,

I am not sure if this has been reported already, but I noticed that the new "more general version of the old Look Ahead mode" (boat icon with green dot) does not work properly when the display is set to "course up". When the chart rotates (because the boat is turning), the boat location moves instead of staying in the place that you set it.

If this is the first report of this problem, let me know and I'll provide additional details to further describe the problem.

[Hakan]

RhythmDoctor..
I can see what you mean. Haven't noticed this before since course up mode isn't the first choice for me. If I set the boat of-centered in auto follow mode, green icon, the program tries to keep the distance to screen edges constant. In course up mode are the screen edges related to so to say shifted when course change say 180°. A strange and not desired effect I suppose. You have to drag the boat symbol to a new screen location when course change much. But on the other hand that's the same in north up mode. If you then place the boat symbol in the lower left corner to see more ahead and starboard and change course 180° you have to drag the boat symbol for the same effect.

In Look Ahead mode, blue icon, more chart is always shown ahead even in course up mode.
So when using course up and change your course frequently you may have the boat centered in auto follow mode, green icon, and use look ahead mode, blue icon, otherwise?
Håkan

[RhythmDoctor]

Originally Posted by Hakan

RhythmDoctor..
I can see what you mean. Haven't noticed this before since course up mode isn't the first choice for me. If I set the boat of-centered in auto follow mode, green icon, the program tries to keep the distance to screen edges constant. In course up mode are the screen edges related to so to say shifted when course change say 180°. A strange and not desired effect I suppose. You have to drag the boat symbol to a new screen location when course change much. But on the other hand that's the same in north up mode. If you then place the boat symbol in the lower left corner to see more ahead and starboard and change course 180° you have to drag the boat symbol for the same effect.

In Look Ahead mode, blue icon, more chart is always shown ahead even in course up mode.
So when using course up and change your course frequently you may have the boat centered in auto follow mode, green icon, and use look ahead mode, blue icon, otherwise?
Håkan

Yes, that is an accurate description of the problem that I am seeing.

As it exists, the new lookahead mode is practically useless. The whole concept of "lookahead" is to be able to keep the boat's course vector pointing up and aligned with the window's aspect ratio without having to constantly readjust the boat's position in the window while in course up mode. On the other hand, in north up mode the concept of "ahead" is not nearly as important because your boat's course vector is going to be changing direction anyway when you change course, and even with the icon frozen in one spot on the screen, you may still have to move it if you have a rectangular window.

For this reason, I think it's pretty important to fix this feature to make it work properly in course up mode. If the team can't fix it, they might as well remove the feature.