AvNav - navigation in the browser

[Moo]

Originally Posted by BlackSea

the s63 charts are of a different type than oesenc. The latter is supported, the s63 is not. To support this, rad should be redone (port s63 stuff from opencpn).

Ok thanks. Thought they might have been similar enough.

[bcn]

Originally Posted by Moo

Ok another question.

I have permits for s63 charts, the free ones from LINZ, the permits are obtained via o-charts.

Is there any reason I can't use these charts with AVNav? What is the install procedure?

Thanks
Chris

Chris..


there is no S-63 for OCPN Android neither. The LINZ S-63 sets are an argument to port it, but ther eare also other priorities.


Hubert

[wellenvogel02]

Originally Posted by Moo

I'm still struggling with the UI in terms of when a route is displayed, visible, active, when it's in a layer or not etc., etc.. think I'm getting there now.

Yes - terms or names are always something being potentially strange .
I guess for routes it is rather simple:
1. You have the normal nav display. If a route is active - it is visible there. Otherwise no route.
2. To change or create a route you need to enter the route edit mode (I did this intentionally as normally when you are underway you would not like to modify your route accidently when clicking on the map). When done with your changes you go back to normal nav mode - either with a route being active or not...

Only add on:
With overlays you can display other routes on the map - but they are not "active" at all - neither for navigation nor for editing.

[Moo]

I am a marine electronics engineer and probably too familiar with the mainstream commercial fishing applications; so that anything different feels wierd

[Moo]

Ok, So we are back after a 2-week cruise.

I used AvNav exclusively on this trip as an experiment. I used the OpenPlotter 2 image running on a RPi4, that boots from a 32G SSD, at the nav station on my boat with a 15" monitor, keyboard and trackball. In the cockpit I used a 7" tablet and also from my phone when in my bunk.

I pulled data into the Pi from two USB interfaces. The first a NMEA0183 38400Baud feed from my Vespermarine AIS transceiver, this also provides DSC data (when in an area where it is used anyway!) and the second a N2K feed from an Actisense NGT-1 connected to my N2k network.

The N2k network has:

• an Airmar PB200 sensor at the mast head providing Compass, wind speed, wind direction, temperature, barometric pressure, roll, pitch, yaw, position, ROT etc..
• an Airmar DST200 that is now only a DS transducer
• a Furuno GP33 GPS unit.

I configured the GPS input priority in SignalK to give first priority to the GP33, AIS second and the masthead last. That worked well with the GP33 providing very stable SOG, COG etc when underway and the system falling back to AIS (which never gets switched off) when at anchor and the GP33 was switched off.

I tweaked the chart screen info layouts a bit to my taste and also set up one of the instrument pages to be a weather monitor with four history graphs. (see attached images).

I converted the OpenCPN waypoint icons to png format, zipped them and loaded them as described in the handbook. That meant that my waypoints imported from OpenCPN had the correct waypoints. I am happy to provide that file if it is any use.

I also made a set of AIS icons so that different categories of AIS target are shown in discrete colours. I find this useful to work out what can present a hazard or need special rights such as fishing vessels etc.. It would be useful is the AIS information window also displayed a richer set of the information available such as the size and draught of the targets.

I used the free raster charts from LINZ which cover New Zealand. These are BSB charts and after a few false starts and calls for help here it was easy to convert them to GEMF format for AvNav.

Observations
There were a few items that I really missed that are normally found in plotters.

• A measure tool (sometimes called dividers) - a simple tool that allows you to click on the chart to set the first point than read of bearing and distance to a second point.
• Drop a mark - some hot key that allows the placing of a mark at either at the vessel position or by clicking/tapping. Examples of use could be to mark a fishing spot, or an uncharted object.
• A waypoint management system - something that allows you to manage a collection of waypoints
• Look ahead view - being able to position the ownship so that more of the projected route shows ahead of the vessel position.

I found the layers a bit difficult to get my head around but I think I got there in the end. There is a need for a layers management system or set of tools to work with GPX files. One obvious function for this would be so that you could combine daily tracks (which are very handy in themselves) into a single track for a cruise or voyage.

While there is a night view setting you have to leave the chart view to turn it on. I'd like to see that button on the chart toolbar by default. On my tablet there was always a bright line at the bottom of the screen where the swipe area is for the apps, home and back buttons. That is not AvNav's fault but it was a bigish issue.

A few data items were not being presented such as ground/water wind angle and TWS which was probably a SignalK issue I think . One of the history logs that I set up was for ground wind direction and to display that I had to format the Y axis as 'default' as there was no degrees option; therefore my wind direction plot is in radians (OK if you can covert radians to degrees in your head )

My partner had one other observation somewhat related to my measurment tool above : Most plotters have a readout of position and distance bearing to the cursor from your vessel (not always on by default but always available as an option) This is basically a quick and dirty version of my measurement tool but it would require a mode change for a touch display I guess, introducing an extra click.

Whilst there is COG vector option that is somewhat configurable there is no heading information displayed. It would be nice to see heading and COG options available. COG is usually a solid line and HDT a dashed line (from memory it might the other way around, will look that up).

Summary
AvNav is a great too. I runs easily on the Pi is fairly intuitive to use the basic functions and getting into detailed configuration is not difficult with the aid of the manual and the support available here I would like to see some some support for S63 vector charts so that here in New Zealand we could buy a permit from O-Charts and install the free charts from Linz. The pi ran continously for 2 weeks without a hitch, I restarted SignalK and AvNav a few times when I made configuration changes but otherwise it was just there and working.

[wellenvogel02]

Thanks for the detailed review.
I will come back later with some detailled answers....
For all the wishes I would be happy to see some issues on GitHub as this would allow for easy tracking.

[BlackSea]

@Moo
very usefull feedback. thx for your detailed post

I also made a set of AIS icons so that different categories of AIS target are shown in discrete colours. I find this useful to work out what can present a hazard or need special rights such as fishing vessels etc..

would you share your AIS icon set?

[Moo]

Originally Posted by wellenvogel02

Thanks for the detailed review.
I will come back later with some detailled answers....
For all the wishes I would be happy to see some issues on GitHub as this would allow for easy tracking.

I'll get the onto github within the next day or so

[Moo]

Originally Posted by BlackSea

@Moo
very usefull feedback. thx for your detailed post


would you share your AIS icon set?

No problem I can do that. Where is best, Github?

[BlackSea]

No problem I can do that. Where is best, Github?

anywhere you want. desirable would be longer term availability

thx in advance

[Moo]

Originally Posted by BlackSea

anywhere you want. desirable would be longer term availability

thx in advance

Here you go https://github.com/Littlechay/Icons-and-stuff

The file of AIS icons is AISIcons.zip it contains the images.json file that needs to uploaded to the User section (or edited into your own version of the file) and the *.png images that need go in the Images section.

The file markicons.zip can be uploaded into the Layers area if you want to import .gpx files from OpenCPN so that waypoints will display with the correct icons.

[wellenvogel02]

Originally Posted by Moo

Observations
There were a few items that I really missed that are normally found in plotters.

• A measure tool (sometimes called dividers) - a simple tool that allows you to click on the chart to set the first point than read of bearing and distance to a second point.

Not exactly what you required - but the feature info pop up at least gives you bearing and distance to the clicked point/object.

• A waypoint management system - something that allows you to manage a collection of waypoints

At least you can use a gpx file with way points as an overlay. But agree: Still no complete management system.

On my tablet there was always a bright line at the bottom of the screen where the swipe area is for the apps, home and back buttons. That is not AvNav's fault but it was a bigish issue.

Are you running an android tablet? If yes consider using Bonjour Browser with internal browser mode. This allows to switch off the system bars. Should also switch off this one.

A few data items were not being presented such as ground/water wind angle and TWS which was probably a SignalK issue I think . One of the history logs that I set up was for ground wind direction and to display that I had to format the Y axis as 'default' as there was no degrees option; therefore my wind direction plot is in radians (OK if you can covert radians to degrees in your head )

Not sure how you tried to display the missing values. Using the default widget and gps.signalk....?
For the missing formatter:
With a few lines of js code you could add your own history formatter...

My partner had one other observation somewhat related to my measurment tool above : Most plotters have a readout of position and distance bearing to the cursor from your vessel (not always on by default but always available as an option) This is basically a quick and dirty version of my measurement tool but it would require a mode change for a touch display I guess, introducing an extra click.

If you "unlock" the map the CenterDisplayWidget will show distance/bearing to the map center. And (see above) the feature info pop up (map click) also gives you this info.

I would like to see some some support for S63 vector charts so that here in New Zealand we could buy a permit from O-Charts and install the free charts from Linz.

This will be difficult. AvNav needs raster charts. For osenc (vector) charts I use on the fly rendering using the osenc OpenCPN plugin. For S63 there is nothing similar - so it would require a new renderer....

Overall many thanks again for the review + ideas. It's very helpful to get this kind of feedback to further improve AvNav.
Hope to see the GitHub issues (helps me to not forget any of the ideas - and will help to see when/whether they will get implemented).

[wellenvogel02]

Could you maybe add a short readme to your repo? Would be easier for others...

[Moo]

Originally Posted by wellenvogel02

Could you maybe add a short readme to your repo? Would be easier for others...

Done. Will improve it and add more stuff over time

[Moo]

Originally Posted by wellenvogel02

yes consider using Bonjour Browser with internal browser mode. This allows to switch off the system bars. Should also switch off this one.

I was using the Bonjour browser but not sure about the mode. I'll experiment.

Originally Posted by wellenvogel02

Not sure how you tried to display the missing values. Using the default widget and gps.signalk....?
For the missing formatter:
With a few lines of js code you could add your own history formatter...

The attached screenshots should explain.