OpenCPN Radar Overlay PlugIn

[KevinWalters]

Thanks for you response Haken


I am using Windows 10 Enterprise Version 1709 on an Asus Pc with intel graphics on the processor.

Ive set my system up I'm in Greece until tomorrow evening and do not have any charts at the moment, so I'm just using the default baseman.

My NMEA data is coming via the internal WIFI in my NSS evo3 Display and I have my network cable plugged into my laptop directly from my RI-12 Radar interface module. This is currently unplugged from the evo3 until I get a router or switch.

Everything seemed to work well at first, I could get both A & B working at different ranges.

But:

If I zoom out the range to 3 Nm or more the display becomes corrupted. In the case of Halo Radar A their is also overdraw on the underlying chart widow.

The program then crashes within about three seconds.

The attached file Halo.pdf shows both radars Halo A and Halo B working at different short range

The second picture in the pdf is the corruption to Halo B with a range over 3 miles.

The third picture shows the corruption with Halo A and the associated corruption on the chart.


PC & Graphics Specs


Report Date: Thursday, January 11, 2018
Report Time [hh:mm:ss]: 12:23:33 AM
Driver Version: 20.19.15.4835
Operating System: Windows* 10 Enterprise (10.0.16299)
Default Language: English (United States)
Physical Memory: 3871 MB
Vendor ID: 8086
Device ID: 22B1
Device Revision: 21
Graphics Output Protocol (GOP) Version: 8.0.1033
Current Resolution: 1366 x 768



Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU N3700 @ 1.60GHz
Processor Speed: 1600 MHz
Processor Graphics in Use: Intel(R) HD Graphics
Shader Version: 5.0
OpenGL* Version: 4.4
OpenCL* Version: 1.2

Thanks.

[KevinWalters]

Hi Haken

I've attempted to capture a Wireshark file of both my wireless internet with NMEA 183 and my Ethernet Port with the radar data.

I slowly (about once every seconds ) went up the ranges from 91metres to 6 miles before the program crashed.

The problem at 3 Nm seems to coincide with a change of speed of the antenna.

the Halo Radar adjusts its speed when on auto according to the range. Even if I set the speed to slow on both displays the speed still changes to an extent and the problem is just the same.

I have also tried closing Halo B and just using Halo A = same problem.

I'm unable to upload the Wireshark file as an attachment due to size. Have you any suggestions?

[Douwe Fokkema]

Hi Kevin,
The new radar_pi is designed to support the Halo radar. Basic settings for the Halo have been done, but as the team has no Halo radar, it has never been tested. So it is not surprising it does not work straight away.
Earlier I worked on a prototype of the Halo radar plugin. This version was based on the older br24radar_pi. It is found at https://github.com/douwefokkema/BR24radar_pi/tree/halo. This version was tested and worked OK, except an error on the largest range. But is was not meant for production, only to investigate the differences between Halo and 4G.
I think the range tables in the new radar_pi still have to be updated and tested for the Halo. The working version mentioned above could be used as an example. I will not have the opportunity to look into this coming weeks, I will be out in the Canaries without development systems. So this is a nice opportunity to start developing yourself, Kees should be able to help you understand the structure of the required halo.h file if you don't manage yourself.

Cheers, Douwe Fokkema

[Hakan]

Kevin..
Very good, it think your investigations will be useful to complete radar_pi development for the Halo scanner.
I suggest we continue this discussion using the Github for radar_pi. The developers Kees and Douwe will for sure be interested in your findings. The Wireshark capture file would be possible to upload. If not we can use a Dropbox storage.
If you not have a login to Github please create one.
We look forward to meet you at: https://github.com/opencpn-radar-pi/radar_pi/issues/78

Håkan

[KevinWalters]

Thanks Douwe and Hakan

I will join the discussion on Github.

Douwe, I assume you are referring to the ranges in the file haloatype.h and halobtype.h in the latest build.

I am only in Greece with my radar until tomorrow. Then back out here in the middle of February when the boat will be out of the water. I should be able to do some further testing then

Late March we are sailing it from Greece to England.

[Jubilee39]

I am having the same problems as did helmsmatt. I had Garmin radar working on my Win7 computer on ocpn. I had some other issues pop up and eventually reformated reloaded windows and restoreing all programs. I have 4.8.8 cpn works fine but now gradar doesn't work. The log file seems to indicate radar is accessible, get various readings of variation in log file, have log entries eve.ry time I try various controls but the transmit button does not seem to respond, nevr goes green. Interestingly when I close open cpn I get a message in the radar log file of TX off. Don't know how the configuration changed but its software more than hardware. The radar is connected to the computer lan port and I am using another lan adapter for internet which I have disconnected .
Any ideas

[Hakan]

Joe..
This may be a little confusing but there are a number of radar plugins for a Garmin radar.
gradar_pi for Garmin HD
gxradar_pi for Garmin XHD
The latter plugin soon fully replaced by:
radar_pi for Navico and GarmXHD

So what's your radar type and plugin used?

[Jubilee39]

Hakan,
I am using the GXradarpi with a garmin XHD dome on CPN 4.8.8. Everything worked when I installed the dome last Sept, I had a few post at that time trying to get the LAN connection right. I developed problems in my computer leading me to believe I had a virus or something in my computer which I finally reinstalled Window7, Clean install. Now as I said the radar control seems to work, it finds the radar, allows me to switch to master; the buttons give me indication on the log file that they are responding but the transmit button doesn't respond. However when I close opencpn I get a radar log file entry of TX off
This is the second garmin dome I have installed on this boat. The first worked for a couple of years from Borneo to Thailand but failed due to a shorted cable. I am fairly sure I have the setup right the changes from when it last worked are fresh install of win7, new version of openCPN so I am a bit lost.
Thanks,
Joe

[Hakan]

Joe..
Unfortunately I've not details knowledge of the Garmin XHD. I'm most involved in the Navico types. Hopefully someone like Hasse A shows up here.

But basic rules to get a radar to work with OpenCPN are:
UDP IP connection, you've to see a IP connection without Internet.

No firewall blocking. If I remember correct for W7 both internal and external need to be opened for, at least, concerned ports.
OpenGL activated in OpenCPN
Position from a GPS.
Heading from some compass. True or corrected by WMM plugin.
The rest is XHD specific and I've not much to add there.

[hasse_A]

Joe.....

What is shown on the buttons is what is received as status information from the radar dome. I.e. if the command is not recognized by the radar there will never be a change in the status and thus no change of info on the buttons.
Are you able to send other commands to the radar where the button info is altered as it should ? For example bearing alignment or what ever it is called.
I no longer use the GxRadar plugin. I am now using the new radar_pi under development so I don't have GxRadar readily accessible but if we can't solve this I will get it up and running.

I also wan't to ask you if you in the log-window get
"Successfully added to multicast group" ?
This should turn up as the 3-5 line.

You should not get
"Failed to add to multicast group"

/Hasse

[Jubilee39]

I get the message successfully dded to multicast, when I try the other buttons in radar control I seem to get a response, at least I get a message in the log file indicating the action such as range changed, dome status etc. What I don't get is any thing happening when I push the transmit button. It used to turn green or give me a countdown. I will be off the boat for a month and will probably take the dome to a service center to see if this is a hardware problem. Only other thing I can think of different is to try an earlier version of \open cpn as I had just updated to 4.8

[daniel58]

Using the newest version of Opencpn and Radar plugin, together with 4G Raymarine.
My OpenCPN Radar PlugIn worked well for a time, but now the chart overlay doesn't work anymore. I have got the same issue on my Windows 10 PC and on the Mac. The Radar plot works put not the overlay. I might have done some wrong settings. Does anyone have had the same issue?

[Douwe Fokkema]

Originally Posted by daniel58

Using the newest version of Opencpn and Radar plugin, together with 4G Raymarine.
My OpenCPN Radar PlugIn worked well for a time, but now the chart overlay doesn't work anymore. I have got the same issue on my Windows 10 PC and on the Mac. The Radar plot works put not the overlay. I might have done some wrong settings. Does anyone have had the same issue?

Daniel,
I guess that with "Raymarine" you mean one of the Navico brands.
Not having an overlay is normally caused by a lacking heading or position. Can you do the following: Get the menus shown for both 4GA and 4GB. On both menus click "Window". On one of the two click "Info". Then make a screen print and get it to us. The opencpn.log file might be useful as well.

Douwe

[daniel58]

Thanks for the spontaneous answer. Yes, you are right, I have the Navico compatible 4G radar with the RI10 black box.

As you pointed out: “Not having an overlay is normally caused by a lacking heading or position”, I went to the settings and checked the “Enable COG as heading”, and it worked!

So far I have only tested the radar in the harbour, while I am waiting for my electronic compass (imu hat mpu9255 for the Raspberry Pi with Openplotter). With this it should be able to get the chart overlay correct. They told me it should have a fast enough update rate for a sailing boat going up to 7 knots.
Another issue was with the Mac that didn’t communicate with the radar at all, until I tried it over a ethernet switch. The PC tolerated obviously the crossed ethernet, but not the Mac.
I wonder if the compass should be connected to the RI10 box, or alternatively direct via USB to the OpenCPN interface. Do you have any experience with this?

[Douwe Fokkema]

Daniel,


If your compass has a NMEA2000 interface you might connect it to the RI10 interface box. But only if Navico considers your device as "valid". For example the RI10 refuses the fast heading from the Raymarine EV-1, this device is considered invalid by Navico. If your compass has USB, connect directly as a com port to the OpenCPN machine.
In theory the connection through OpenCPN should give a slightly delayed heading compared with the connection to the radar. But I don't think one could notice the difference.



Douwe