OpenCPN Radar Overlay PlugIn

[Piele]

Hello all,

unfortunately I can not manage to integrate my Garmin GMR 18 radar in Opcpn.

The radar normally runs with a Garmin gpsmap 720.

I want to replace the plotter with a Raspberry 3.

To get to pin5 of the ethenet cable I built the following cable (foto1)

I tested the function of the cable and also measured the continuity of pin5.

After starting the Raspberry I executed the following command according to the manual:

sudo ifconig eth0:1 172.16.1.1 netmask 255.255.240.0 up

In Opencpn I set up the following UDP connection. (Foto 2, and 3)

When the radar is powered and pin5 is connected to battery minus I get the following message. (Foto 4, you can also see the output of ifconfig)

Could someone please explain me what I am doing wrong? I would so much like to switch completely to Opencpn!

Thanks for your help in advance!

[merrimac]

@Piele,

1. You don't have an IP address on eth0, so you do not need to use eth0:1 alias just use eth0 instead.

2. Does it work when you also add the GPSMap to the network? Rig up with a temporary ethernet switch...

3. Try a different net mask, for example 255.240.0.0.

If it still doesn't work, fire up tcpdump and check whether you can see the radar communicating with the GPSmap, find out which IP addresses are used and adjust accordingly. Then, please, for the next person, tell us what you had to do to fix it.

[Piele]

Hello Merrimac,

thank you for your help!

One short question. Do I need the UDP connection in Opencpn and is the connection correct?

First I have to buy a Ethernet hub. When I’ll make a progress I report it definitely in the community.

Best regards

[merrimac]

@Piele, no you don't need the UDP connection. In fact I recommend that you remove this. Such an UDP connection is for receiving or sending NMEA 0183 data.

[SirChaunchy]

Originally Posted by Hakan

Jef..
IP connection:
The radar scanner itself use to have two IP addresses if I remember correct. One like 10.56.x.x and one like 169.254.x.x.

The radar control:
To show that you can use either the tools menu radar_pi icon or the charts right click menu: "Show Radar" or "Show Navico 4G". Don't you see that? If radar_pi is installed it should work.
On the radar control "Window" button click "Info" to see the info window. There you can see if the scanner is connected and if other necessities like OpenGL are present.
For chart overlay you'll also need position and heading as noted on the info window.
Without these the scanner will not start but that's not new for you I suppose?

Mac:
What I know it would work there. So if you go to Options->Plugins-> "Update catalog master". Isn't there a "cartooned" radar_pi to select and install?
Any Mac:er out there?

No there is not a radar plugin in the master catalogue when I go there to download it. I'm running Open CPN 5.6.0 on an M1 chip based Mac and everything works on it pretty well but the radar doesn't show up and it's not in my list of plugins when I go to Options/plugins. I updated the catalog but it still doesn't show up. I tried downloading the plugin from the web and it seemed to install it, but I don't see where it installed it so I can navigate to it using the "Import Plugin" button in Optins/plugins. Does anyone know how to get the plugin back? I have a NAVICO SIMRAD 4G radar and it works perfectly using Open CPN on my Raspberry Pi but I can't get the plugin on my Mac.

[Hakan]

Please test if the Beta version of radar_pi appears in Mac.
In Plugin manager use the button "Settings" and change to catalog "Beta".

You may have to close OCPN and edit your config file as advised to be able to use the Beta catalog.

[bcn]

Solved:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3600957

[SirChaunchy]

Originally Posted by Hakan

Please test if the Beta version of radar_pi appears in Mac.
In Plugin manager use the button "Settings" and change to catalog "Beta".

You may have to close OCPN and edit your config file as advised to be able to use the Beta catalog.

Hakan,
Once I was able to get the "Beta" Catalog to be accessible by finding the opencpn.ini file and pasting the sentence:
[PlugIns]
CatalogExpert=1

Then when I restarted OpenCPN on my M1 chip MacBook Pro on the boat and went to Options/Plugins and pushed the "settings" button, it now allowed me to chose the Beta catalog and I was able to download and install the new beta radar plugin. Once that plugin was installed, the radar plugin showed up in the window where all of the enabled plugins appear and when I pressed that, both the 4A and 4B radars of my SIMRAD NAVICO 4G radar showed up and I could address them as usual. They seem to be working perfectly now. Thank you for helping me with this.

[Gatorbait]

Setup has a Simrad(Navico) 3G radar installed. Using OCPN on 2 pc laptops. Upgraded one of the pcs to OCPN 5.6.0 and radar plugin 5.2.2 +424.be299ce. It no longers shows the radar overlay. The other pc with OCPN v 5.0 and radar plugin v 5.0.0 +9065270 works fine.



The dashboard radar icon shows the radar is transmitting. The radar is not hidden.


Have these messages in the log.


Navico 3G first radar spoke received after 510ms.


Failed to allocate info from Navilocate to a radar.




There seems to be some little checkbox or setting I've missed - any ideas?


Thanks for your help.

[Hakan]

Gatorbaiy..
For radar chart overlay you need a heading and a selection to show overlay.
Open radar control for Radar 3G and enter corresponding controls. (If not on screen right click and select "Show Radar" or "Control 3G"

a) Window->Info-> Check if you've a heading

b) Window->Radar overlay ON/OFF

[Gatorbait]

Hakan,


Thanks so much! It was the overlay checkbox that had been cleared. May you be healthy and have some fun sailing as spring starts.



Roger

[SirChaunchy]

Originally Posted by Hakan

Please test if the Beta version of radar_pi appears in Mac.
In Plugin manager use the button "Settings" and change to catalog "Beta".

You may have to close OCPN and edit your config file as advised to be able to use the Beta catalog.

Hakan,
Today I was able to take my boat out sailing for several hours and got the chance to test the beta radar plugin more thoroughly. I have a SIMRAD NAVICO 4G Broadband radar and it's connected to my M1 chip Mac or to my Raspberry Pi through an ethernet cable. I used the Mac today and in all instances the 4G B radar worked perfectly. Whenever, I activated the 4G A radar, however, it always caused Open CPN to freeze up and gave me the infinite spinning beach ball. Nothing I could do would terminate the radar plugin or get the program running again until I force quit Open CPN and restarted it. As soon as I did restart it, the 4G B radar worked great again, but not the 4G A. I did use the guard zone feature, changed ranges, modified the transparency, tested the radar alarm if something came inside the guard zone, etc. and all that worked great with the 4G B radar. The 4G A, however, froze up the system as soon as I pressed the "transmit" button.

[Gatorbait]

Have just installed the latest OCPN v5.6 along with the radar_pi v5.2.2. Setup is 2 PCs on the network with a Simrad 3G (Navico) radar. Previous version all worked well. Ether pc displays the radar overlay perfectly. When both PCs attempt to display the overlay, the radar displays on both PCs start displaying the sweep but before finishing the sweep the radar display is cleared and picks up again farther on in the sweep.


Tried:
reinstalling radar pi
cleaning all network cables
OCPN is listed in exceptions in the firewall
Checked OpenGL is checked on both PCs


Any help would be appreciated as my monkey method troubleshooting hasn't worked this time.


Thanks,
Roger

[Hakan]

Roger..
I've a 3G but can't so far reproduce this. I'm on Windows. What's your system?
I've though for a long time not tested using two PC so this I can't compare.

Some thoughts for more tests to try to nail the issue:

1. Is it the same interruption of the drawn picture on the PPI window? (radar control->windows->show/hide PPI)
2. If you by-pass the switch and connect direct to one PC, is it the same interruption?
3. Play with different Refresh rates. (Radar control->View->Refresh rate)
4. Switch back to previous OCPN version on one PC to check for a difference.
5. Try radar plugin v 5.3-beta *)

Håkan

*)
To use a beta release you have to close O and edit the config file as advised when you click "Settings" in "Options"->"Plugin manager".
[PlugIns]
CatalogExpert=1

Then restart O and switch to "Beta" catalog and update Beta catalog to be able to update radar plugin.

[merrimac]

@gatorbait, if you keep the info window open (Menu > Display > Info...) you can see the # of spokes formatted like 800/0/0. The first number is the number of spokes received, the 2nd is the # of spokes with an error and the 3rd is the # of missing spokes. The 2nd and 3rd are 0 in a healthy system.

Are you maybe using WiFi? In that case, this is to be expected and cannot be fixed by the plugin.