Feature Requests

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by nohal

Are you sure you can't go to the toolbox, and set it on the Display -> Units tab?

oh thanks .. the dropdown was not functioning correctly. now I have feet.

[rszemeti]

Would it be possible to have "mouse wheel press" => "drag chart" when in create route? this would make it very easy and similar to other commercial apps.

[Hakan]

rszemeti...
Everything is of course possible but I wonder for what reason. While you create a route and the cursor is close to a screen edge the chart will move in that direction. That's similar to a drag. The different zoom tools are also still working in case you need a bigger distance move.


By the way: OpenCPN is not a commercial app. It's something completely different and much more valuable.

[rszemeti]

The "close to the edge of screen" seems to work, not as nice as a proper drag, but acceptable. The "mouse wheel to drag" is a common theme of very many applications now, it is how people expect things to work. Everything from Google Maps, Windy.com to my PCB layout software use this UI feature. Try it on Google Maps, it works nicely.


If Google maps and Windy.com are usuing it, you should at least consider that it is a feature worth investigating, as these guys have spent millions on UI design.

[nohal]

FWIW holding the scrolling wheel and moving the mouse does nothing at all for me in Google Maps.
It does exactly the same as holding the left mouse button and dragging the mouse in Windy.com, just is less convenient (with my mouse and my hand).

We sure will evaluate and probably also accept a pull request implementing your beloved behaviour.

[rszemeti]

I could certainly give it a go ...

[bokakob]

I am new to the OpenCPN and this forum. As I was exploring the software, I noticed that it would be very cool to have angular heading shown on the display while laying out measuring dimension. It could be set in options as magnetic or true or both. JMHO thanks.

[nohal]

Originally Posted by bokakob

I am new to the OpenCPN and this forum. As I was exploring the software, I noticed that it would be very cool to have angular heading shown on the display while laying out measuring dimension. It could be set in options as magnetic or true or both. JMHO thanks.

Unless you mean something completely different by "laying out measuring dimension", this is what I see. As far as I can tell both the true and magnetic heading are there.

If you do speak about something else, please explain more specificaly.

Thanks

Pavel

[bokakob]

Sorry my mistake

[Tehani]

I would like to open a discussion on how to transfer the data of engines, gears and fluid levels from NMEA2000 to NMEA0183.
There are no sentences in NMEA0183 that contain that information, and I think it would be interesting for OpenCPN to be able to visualize it in its dashboard in future versions.
My proposal is to expand the sources in the XDR statement, although it may be more appropriate to establish one or two new proprietary sentences. For example IIENG, IILEV ..., with 2 or more instances each.
As example, Pitch (PTCH) and roll (ROLL) from the the Gyro are already implemented in XDR in the current version of OCPN.

Thanks

[nohal]

Tehani...
The only sane way to do this is not to do it at all and implement real modern protocol support, be it directly N2K or it's superior, opensource, but also lacking in some aspects, counterpart SignalK.

Pavel

[Tehani]

Nohal,
It is clear, but the problem is that both PC and rapsberry do not have the CAN bus hardware support. I understand that it is easier to slightly extend the NMEA0183 protocol, so that any multiplexer / gateway can cover it.
OCPN is a reference application. Surely the manufacturers of that hardware will quickly adapt their software.

[nohal]

I unfortunately can't share your optimism as manufacturers won't change anything until it's standardised by NMEA and NMEA0183 standard will not change because of OpenCPN at all.
- Both RPi and a PC have ready made CAN interface for a couple of dollars.
- You already have such hardware if you talk about doing what you talk about doing anyway.

Feel free to submit a pull request implementing this idea, but I simply think it is not a good solution for any future at all (For reasons that should be obvious from for example this thread: https://groups.google.com/d/topic/si...xSI/discussion).

Pavel

[Tehani]

Nohal,
Well, OpenCPN will then have two options: Manage the ISO 11783-3 protocol completely with this device, or do what I say, include some small additions equivalent to the PGN's that I propose.

In my opinion, NMEA0183 over 4800/38400 baud is dead, but not over TCP / UDP.
On the other hand, I think that SignalK is operative on WAN networks, but at the moment it is not viable for microcontrollers to handle it in direct communication with transducers and pilot. It would be necessary to develop all that hardware and software from 0.
Or is there a pilot that is directly controlled by SignalK ?. (including buttons and navigation modes). I do not know...
I believe that things have to be done progressively, it is possible that transducers that "speak" directly in SignalK are appearing, but as far as I know, there are not any. That is, you do not get rid of a gateway anyway.
At physic level, I think that CAN BUS topology is, at the moment, the best choice for its connection simplicity. A Ethernet network requires switch devices (IP68) and a lot of long wires with also IP68 connectors. In other words, I dont't see a boat installation speaking in SignalK over Ethernet. may be throught radio, WiFi...
SignalK can´t work over CAN BUS because it does not have a simple message identification structure and low level implementable priority control. RS485 for SignalK as option?.
At the moment SignalK is used by instrumentation manufacturers, its "Open Source" concept may be jeopardized because that dependency would be created that we want to avoid. This topic is very delicate.

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by Tehani

.............
In my opinion, NMEA0183 over 4800/38400 baud is dead, .............

In my opinion it's in no way dead. Some rather new more or less luxury pleasure boats use a NMEA2000 alike bus.

But so many older pleasure boats will for sure use NMEA0183 for another ten or twenty years. My own is from 1974 and no serious degeneration is seen.
And the majority of all commercial ships still use NMEA 0183 and I think a N2k bus is far away from being common on that market?