OpenCPN

[bdbcat]

For Sinbad7

Lets clarify some things here, and be reminded of the goals of opencpn.

1. The AIS data source you are using is a proprietary TCP/IP data stream, not available to the general public. Is it true, accurate AIS data? I don't know, since neither I nor anyone else on this forum can access it. I'd be happy to debug and correct problems with opencpn and this data if I could.

2. Anyway, the data seems to be a composite feed of many AIS receivers worldwide, producing many thousands of "targets". It requires an active internet connection, and is delayed an unknown and uncontrollable amount.

This TCP/IP AIS data stream is, in my opinion, of limited usefulness, and perhaps dangerous, to an at-sea shipboard navigator. Accordingly, it is a low priority for opencpn development.


Regarding opencpn AIS performance:
I think you must be using an older version of opencpn, perhaps 1.3.0?

Opencpn works just fine with live AIS data from a shipboard receiver. The current beta release processes and displays all of the AIS data message contents, and accurately positions all detected targets. CPA incursions are alerted with visual and audible alarms. Try it and see.

Ship icon colors are selected based upon the status of the target, especially whether it is a collision risk. Type of ship (passenger, cargo, tanker, etc) is surely secondary to immediate notification and action in a CPA incursion situation.

Similarly, a screen-wide list of AIS targets is not present in opencpn, as it seems of little use in active AIS collision detection scenarios.

Opencpn concentrates on chart presentation and collision avoidance. The rest is secondary.

Finally, as you say, it seems that there may be many other programs which are optimized for shore-side worldwide AIS target monitoring. Perhaps you should stay with ShipPlotter, since it seems to provide the functions you need.

Thanks for your interest in opencpn
Dave

[bdbcat]

Cagney. et al

Fix for Truescale problem in mid-Pacific identified. It involves math error around transition from positive to negative longitude at International Date Line.

Also, implemented overzoom limits for CM93 charts, as you suggested.
Mostly working reasonably, but some anomalies yet....

Also, please note that True scale varies with latitude. These are Mercator projections, so chart scale depends on latitude, just as in paper charts.
The scale shown is the effective scale at mid-screen, latitude-wise.


All these changes available on CVS and in Windows beta link now.

Thanks again for the input.
Dave

[cagney]

Thank you Dave.
I have compiled the latest CVS and your changes seems to work just fine.

While on the subject of CM93. One of the problems is the inconsistency, you never know when to expect E, F or G scale charts. Is it possible to show the outlines of these larger scale CM93 charts, when viewing the smaller scale CM93 charts?

Thomas

[Viking Sailor]

Dave,

I'm very happy with the way OpenCPN works with CM93 charts. Thanks a million for all the effort you and the team have put into providing the rest of us with a great navigation tool.

Best regards,

Paul

[sinbad7]

Dave.
I thought the whole idea with OPEN system developments were based on constructive suggestions from the participants and users.

If the aims of OpenCPN is to facilitate desperate sailors hanging on to their tillers in an exposed cockpit,then I understand the desire to curtail the bells and whistles. If, on the other hand the aims are to develop a sensible navigation system for all,then no available navigation feature should be held back in order to provide the watch keeper with the sum or intelligence available to his decision making.

Siitech's system is provided in 'real-time' from many sources with direct feeds over internet. Using well known and proprietary navigation programs,all targets are shown as accurately as is possible with any AIS based system.
You can easily compare here for FREE: Login

With regards to the un necessary color coded targets, I think it is VERY important to know whether the target is a huge supertanker,a pleasure vessel or someone under sail you must give way to.

I can see no danger in having the option to view traffic and targets outside of your normal range providing the data is correct and displayed correctly by the software.

I think it would be prudent to listen to inputs from users with a lifetime of navigation experience.

In conclusion I want to thank Dave and his team for developing this very promising piece of software and look forward to seeing it's further development.

[sinbad7]

Mysteriously, OpenCPN is now displaying ALL the relevant information in the Query box,BUT,only if you are lucky enough to do the query EXACTLY when the message arrives. If not,you will view an empty box. Seems the message is not retained until the new one arrives. Another problem is that the Query box often displays the info from the PREVIOUS target queried and not the current one. At least I am happy to see more complete contents in the Query box and no doubt Dave will iron out the remaining problems.

[bdbcat]

News:

Opencpn Version 1.3.2 was released today, 10 July 2009.

This release contains numerous enhancements and bug fixes.

Highlights include:

1. Improved AIS target depiction and collision detection alerts.
2. Hot keys and scroll mouse support.
3. Help File.
4. Various display speed and quality optimizations, especially for CM93 charts.

This release may be downloaded from the following link:
OpenCPN | Get OpenCPN at SourceForge.net

We thank you for you continued interest in Opencpn, and look forward to your comments and ideas.

Dave, and the Opencpn authors.


p.s.
Special thanks to all the Forum contributors for helping us scrub out some gnarly bugs, and define and implement some really useful new features.

pps.
This release restarts the clock. Bug list and Feature Request list is now empty.

[cagney]

Dave -- Congratulation to the new release.

I, and many others, really appreciate all the dedicated work put into the program by you and all other developers . OpenCPN has come a long way since I first encountered it a year and a half or two, ago.

Let me start with a few things to fill the clean slate.
First two bugs.
1.

Brazilian chart colors: This is concerned with the color palettes embedded within the charts. The Brazilian charts contain very odd looking color selections for "Day", "Night", and "Dusk" operation. Why? I do not know. The default ("RGB") palette is what is expected. On most charts, the "Day" palette is very similar to the "RGB" palette. Not so on the Brazilian versions. Opencpn chooses to use the "Day" palette if present. In future, I suppose we must allow the default "RGB" palette as well.

2. The distance between the radar rings is 1 (mile or km) whatever setting you have in "Distance between rings".

As the slate is (almost ) clean I will repeat my request from a few posts ago, for the record:

While on the subject of CM93. One of the problems is the inconsistency, you never know when to expect E, F or G scale charts. Is it possible to show the outlines of these larger scale CM93 charts, when viewing the smaller scale CM93 charts?

Thomas

[idpnd]

Pleased!

I've just compiled from CVS. I dug out the phiggins AIS simulator to test the improved ais features. I still have above sound system problem where I just hear an odd whistling noise instead of the .wav I have put into the opencpn/sounds dir.

From a purely aesthetic perspective, I feel that the entirely different boat icons and COG arrows give the programme a messy look (although no doubt facilitating visibility). The (close-up) boat icon looks more like a coffin or oil tanker than the bdb or anyone else's yacht.

The scale for the COG arrow of the AIS targets can be set (expected location in x minutes). How is the COG arrow for the boat itself calculated? Would it not make sense to have both operating at the same scale?

Couldn't the boat itself be a simple black triangle like the AIS targets in shape and the COG arrows be the same?

This is of course of minor importance in the grand scheme of things.

Thanks for your attention.

[Rhoel_Asia]

Oh my, I have the hot keys back and best of all, the scroll wheel working in Vista - makes life soooooo much easier.

Spent most of the afternoon playing with the route planner (instead of working - hey, I can only get fired once :-) ). Really like the way its working now.

Three quick requests for the Route Planner.
1: (minor) Can the displayed hours be extended to include days? For my tiny brain, 26 days 4 hours is easier to understand than 628 hours.

2: (Important)Can an import/export (save/load) of the Route to hard-disc be incorporated: Today I was playing with three route option to see which was shortest/best etc. It meant deleting the ones I wasn't using, It turned out the best route I had already killed off. For a bigger trip, being able to load in each leg will be easier, and if the data is held in a text-based file, then it ca be loaded into other programs for printing out for future reference, addition of chart numbers etc.

3: (minor) Can the clicked data in the route list be colour highlighted on the chart route - a couple of times I wasn't sure which waypoint I was looking at.

Love the development OpenCPN has already achieved; Congrats to Dave and all the contributors: As a programmer, I know how long this stuff takes to do, the midnight+ hours put in and the hair tearing involved to get anything working, let alone working right. Grand stuff, its appreciated.

Rhoel

[Rhoel_Asia]

Addendum:
two bugs in Route Properties.
1: The start point, marked --- in the Route Properties.waypoints list has a distance of 8186.39nm, and a heading of 098T. This 8k of miles doesn't affect the total run distance but is confusing. Clearly should be 0.

2: If I add a name of the port or add an anchorage sign, removing the route leaves the marks behind. Yet if I move the mark, the route follows the mark. Not sure of the solution - is this an edit of the track data (which I think its designed to be, or a placement of marks on the chart? My thinking is the mark is part of the route and should go when the route is deleted.

Rhoel

[sinbad7]

Gongratulations Dave, great work on the new version. Even my Brazilian BSB charts are working now. Only problems are with the Query boxes information,especially when connected to one of my heavy data IP connections. In these cases they are either empty,showing random data from entirely different areas or repeat the contents of the first query. Probably because of overflow when receiving massive data.
There are also several empty query boxes even in a light datastream,probably because data is not retained until arrival of the next sentence. The box should ALWAYS have data. Thanks again Dave and the team, you are creating a great product.
Regds Tore

[scotte]

The mousewheel zooming feature works great - how about an option to zoom at the pointer location instead of center of the screen?

Also, when I installed this version it overwrote all my previous settings and I had to register all my charts.

I added both of these to the tracker at sourceforge.

Great work, thanks for the continual development of OpenCPN!

[sinbad7]

Dave..

The increased info in the Query box is great.. could you please also include:
1. Ship's geo position
2. Date/time of the observation instead of 3450 seconds ago.

Thanks

[bdbcat]

Scotte....

Thanks for the input.

How would the scroll zoom at cursor position instead of screen center be signaled? Holding a control key, for instance? What key?

Dave