OpenCPN Radar Overlay PlugIn

[SirChaunchy]

Originally Posted by SirChaunchy

I am running Open CPN 5.6.2 on both my Mac computer and on a Raspberry Pi4. I have a NAVICO/SIMRAD 4G radar which allows me to show Radar 4GA and 4GB simultaneously. Some time ago I posted that when I tried to run both radar displays, my Open CPN program would freeze up. I can run either 4GA or 4GB with no problems, but when I try to display them both, it freezes up. In the previous posts (which I can no longer find) someone pointed me to the beta version of the radar plugin which I downloaded at the time and it seemed to fix my problem. Since then radar plugin 5.3.3 came out and was advertised to have included those fixes, but I installed it, and now I have the same problem with my program freezing up when I display both radars. When I go to the Beta catalogue I just see radar 5.3.3 and when I go to the normal master catalogue I see radar 5.3.3. How do I fix this problem?

Since my last entry above, I downloaded the older 5.3.4 radar plugin on all of my computers and my raspberry pi. That partially solved the problem in that I can display both my SIMRAD 4GA and 4GB radars simultaneously and i can even display one of them in the separate window including the AIS targets. So all of that is working as it should. However, if I turn on one of the guard zones and then activate it both radars and the Open CPN program freeze up and the only way to get them going again is to restart the program. So something is still causing issues in the 5.3.4 and 5.3.3 radar plugins.

[merrimac]

Originally Posted by SirChaunchy

Since my last entry above, I downloaded the older 5.3.4 radar plugin on all of my computers and my raspberry pi.

In which world is 5.3.4 older than 5.3.3?

Please try downloading and then importing the latest alpha release, 5.4.1 at the time of writing, from https://cloudsmith.io/~opencpn-radar...able/packages/ for your platforms.

If it persists, please open a bug on https://github.com/opencpn-radar-pi/radar_pi/issues

Note: I try to follow CruiserForum, but the user interface is terrible, the irregular e-mail that stops if you don't go online to check up means I only see 1 update per thread. If that update is irrelevant to me or I cannot answer it, I don't see further questions. If you create a new thread, I don't see anything at all until I go to this forum.

[SirChaunchy]

Originally Posted by merrimac

In which world is 5.3.4 older than 5.3.3?

Please try downloading and then importing the latest alpha release, 5.4.1 at the time of writing, from https://cloudsmith.io/~opencpn-radar...able/packages/ for your platforms.

If it persists, please open a bug on https://github.com/opencpn-radar-pi/radar_pi/issues

Note: I try to follow CruiserForum, but the user interface is terrible, the irregular e-mail that stops if you don't go online to check up means I only see 1 update per thread. If that update is irrelevant to me or I cannot answer it, I don't see further questions. If you create a new thread, I don't see anything at all until I go to this forum.

Merrimac: When I went to the web page you referenced, there are quite a few Radar 5.4.1 versions (e.g., debian, darwin, flatpack, etc.). If I remember right the darwin ones are for people running Wine. I need a version for my Mac computers and one for my Raspberry Pi. Which version should I download?

[merrimac]

Originally Posted by SirChaunchy

When I went to the web page you referenced, there are quite a few Radar 5.4.1 versions (e.g., debian, darwin, flatpack, etc.). If I remember right the darwin ones are for people running Wine. I need a version for my Mac computers and one for my Raspberry Pi. Which version should I download?

Darwin is for MacOS. Darwin is the open source version of MacOS and only shares the letters w, i and n in its name with Wine, and is not technically related at all.

Raspberry Pi is A32 (=arm32/armhf) or A64 (=aarch64). Exactly which one depends on which OS you are running. Choose from flatpak 20.08 on A64/aarch64 and for A32 choose from Debian 10, 11, Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04+GTK3. Do not use the ones without A32/A64, those are for Intel. For A32 make an educated guess and if that doesn't work try one of the other ones. Write down and remember which one works.

[merrimac]

I found two small but irritating bugs, fixed in v5.4.2-alpha on https://cloudsmith.io/~opencpn-radar...able/packages/

- #211: Fix spin loop when guard zone target covers 360 degrees
- #210: Fix memory leak

[merrimac]

@SirChauncy, could it be that your program freeze is not related to having both radars active but that you have a circular guard zone that starts at 0.0 nm/miles/km from the boat?

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

We have a Navico 4G radar. I recently switched my autopilot course computer from Raymarine 400 to Raymarine S3G. This one has a 10Hz fast heading output on NMEA0183.
I understand that feeding fast HDG to openCPN would improve MARPA, that we like to use for tracking tropical squalls.

Regretfully, I have an RI10 radar interface box instead of an RI11, and there is no NMEA2000 in the boat.
I could buy a converter like the Simrad AT10HD to improve Marpa for better heading per spoke. so that the radar insert the fast heading data per spoke transmitted. Or try to find an RI11 radar interface.

Alternatively, would I get the same result if I would feed the fast HDG to my laptop running openCPN? (I would feed the fast HDG to an input of our Shipmodul multiplexer).
In other words, would the radar plugin of OpenCPN use the most recenty received HDG information to process a spoke?

Looking forward to hear from the openCPN team, many thanks

[Douwe Fokkema]

Originally Posted by Jef & Marin, Netherlands

We have a Navico 4G radar. I recently switched my autopilot course computer from Raymarine 400 to Raymarine S3G. This one has a 10Hz fast heading output on NMEA0183.
I understand that feeding fast HDG to openCPN would improve MARPA, that we like to use for tracking tropical squalls.

Regretfully, I have an RI10 radar interface box instead of an RI11, and there is no NMEA2000 in the boat.
I could buy a converter like the Simrad AT10HD to improve Marpa for better heading per spoke. so that the radar insert the fast heading data per spoke transmitted. Or try to find an RI11 radar interface.

Alternatively, would I get the same result if I would feed the fast HDG to my laptop running openCPN? (I would feed the fast HDG to an input of our Shipmodul multiplexer).
In other words, would the radar plugin of OpenCPN use the most recenty received HDG information to process a spoke?

Looking forward to hear from the openCPN team, many thanks

Long time ago I tried to connect the Raymarine EV-1 heading sensor / autopilot to the Simrad RI-10 on NMEA2000. Whatever I tried, the 4G radar did not get the heading. It just does not work. Then I checked on the connected Simrad chartplotter (otherwise never used, OpenCPN is so much better). The plotter sees the EV-1, but marks it as an "invalid device". So it seems that Simrad (Navico) does not like Raymarine, they want you to buy their own make of compass. I have now connected the EV-1 through the Actisense converter NGW-1, delivering NMEA083 to the OpenCPN computer at a rate of 10 Hz. In practice this works good enough. In theory connection though the RI-11 could be better, the radar will insert the heading at the moment of reception of a radar spoke into the spoke data.

So yes, you should be able to feed the NMEA083 directly into you computer.

Douwe Fokkema

[RobbieW]

Originally Posted by Jef & Marin, Netherlands

We have a Navico 4G radar. I recently switched my autopilot course computer from Raymarine 400 to Raymarine S3G. This one has a 10Hz fast heading output on NMEA0183.
I understand that feeding fast HDG to openCPN would improve MARPA, that we like to use for tracking tropical squalls.

Regretfully, I have an RI10 radar interface box instead of an RI11, and there is no NMEA2000 in the boat.
I could buy a converter like the Simrad AT10HD to improve Marpa for better heading per spoke. so that the radar insert the fast heading data per spoke transmitted. Or try to find an RI11 radar interface.

Alternatively, would I get the same result if I would feed the fast HDG to my laptop running openCPN? (I would feed the fast HDG to an input of our Shipmodul multiplexer).
In other words, would the radar plugin of OpenCPN use the most recenty received HDG information to process a spoke?

Looking forward to hear from the openCPN team, many thanks

I'm using the output of an S3G to feed both a Simrad plotter and OCPN with 'fast' heading data. That enabled overlay from a Navico 4G radar head in both devices. That was 8/9 years ago and I cant remember, without checking on the boat, how it was done - all I can add is that it is possible.

[merrimac]

Originally Posted by Jef & Marin, Netherlands

Alternatively, would I get the same result if I would feed the fast HDG to my laptop running openCPN? (I would feed the fast HDG to an input of our Shipmodul multiplexer).
In other words, would the radar plugin of OpenCPN use the most recenty received HDG information to process a spoke?

Looking forward to hear from the openCPN team, many thanks

Hi Jef, I had a quick sync with Douwe and we realised that we did not know how often the incoming HDM/HDT sentence is passed to the plugin, and so I checked this on board. The good news is: every time! I get a heading every ~ 100ms, just as often as received.

So I would say the improvement with receiving it via the RI is going to be very minimal if there is any at all.

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Merrimac, Douwe, thanks for your coordination and answers.
So I will just connect the fast heading to my Shipmodul input #3, which is now used for irrelevant VHF data.
I will have to do some input filter settings to filter the HDG data of Shipmodul input #4, which comes from Seatalk, and replace this value by the 10Hz HDG.

Do you know whether openCPN is actually using the most recently received 10Hz HDG data to display each spoke, and apply Marpa to it? Or is heading just used once per rotation, or at 1 sec intervals, to display and do Marpa?
Maybe this was already clarified in your answers, but I did not understand it?

[Ivanm]

Hello.

My radar overlay just stop receiving info from scanner and show" no radar" popup.... Sometimes it strart to receive again but usually I have to restart Opencpn to get it to work.
I also loose al my Ais targets and fix as it is received from the Mfd display via Ethernet connection.

[Douwe Fokkema]

Originally Posted by Jef & Marin, Netherlands

Merrimac, Douwe, thanks for your coordination and answers.
So I will just connect the fast heading to my Shipmodul input #3, which is now used for irrelevant VHF data.
I will have to do some input filter settings to filter the HDG data of Shipmodul input #4, which comes from Seatalk, and replace this value by the 10Hz HDG.

Do you know whether openCPN is actually using the most recently received 10Hz HDG data to display each spoke, and apply Marpa to it? Or is heading just used once per rotation, or at 1 sec intervals, to display and do Marpa?
Maybe this was already clarified in your answers, but I did not understand it?

The spokes are received in packets of several spokes at a time. These spokes are processed one by one. At the moment of processing a spoke, the most recent heading is used for that spoke.

Douwe Fokkema

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Douwe, thanks for your very clear answer, it means I can just do as I intended by forwarding the fast HDG to openCPN via my multiplexer and forget about feeding the fast HDG to the radar. That saves me a NMEA0183 to NMEA2000 converter.

[Hakan]

Jef...
For info: That's how I've used it for years. And remember the radar_pi (M)ARPA functionality is, thanks to Douwe, created in the plugin and not by the radar scanner.