OpenCPN - Search AIS targets

[Donixon]

Morning all,

We are experimenting with OpenCPN to use with our AIS-transponders located in the Port of Rotterdam. I managed to add 3 AIS-antennas to OpenCPN over TCP. (RaspberryPi with AIS-antenna, serial-input in NodeRED, TCP-output on port 2947).
We have around 20 boats that we would like to track and "highlight" in OpenCPN. Some questions:
- Is it possible to highlight the AIS-targets we want so they are easily to find?
- Is there a "search function" in OpenCPN to find our boats? Couldnt find it in AIS-target list

I searched the forum, but couldnt find what i was looking for. Hope someone can help me.

Kind regards,
Don

PS: image of part of the chart we are looking at, a mess if you want to find our boats :^)

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by Donixon

- Is it possible to highlight the AIS-targets we want so they are easily to find?

No. But in next OCPN release targets market as "Followers" will be having a slightly other symbol but not so much different it's easily found in a crowd.

- Is there a "search function" in OpenCPN to find our boats? Couldnt find it in AIS-target list

No search function but once located in the AIS target list you can "Center to" the target. The AIS target list can be sorted alphabetically.


For a search function I think Marinetraffic or Vesselfinder would be the best tool.

[teppokurki]

Have you considered a web map? If you bring your AIS data into Signal K server and use the included webapps to display a targets map the map can be accessed also from other devices, like tablets and phones.

If you have somebody handy with JavaScript a cudtom webpage that does exactly what you want is doable, access to targets’ data is trivial.

The concept of ’favorite’ vessels is interesting enough to add to Signal K, I can get back to that after the sailing season.

A word of warning: SK VesselPositions webapp may choke on large ais volumes. Mea culpa, need to do a bit of optimisation there.

[muttnik]

If you want to *only* track your boats (ie filter out all other targets except a list of MMSIs) had you considered running the datastream through a filter, ie on your raspberry pi where you collect the data, run the sentences through a filter which will discard all but data relating to a set of MMSIs you're tracking and output what remains over tcp. There seem to be AIS libraries in a variety of languages.

Obviously with an external-to-ocpn solution like that you'd not get other targets showing which may or may not be what you want.

[rooiedirk]

Inside OpenCPN you can only add tracks to certain ships. that would make them easy to find while sailing, but not when moored.


For filtering you need something external. I think NmeaRouter is a good candidate.
https://arundaleais.github.io/docs/ais/nmearouter.html

[Donixon]

Originally Posted by muttnik

If you want to *only* track your boats (ie filter out all other targets except a list of MMSIs) had you considered running the datastream through a filter, ie on your raspberry pi where you collect the data, run the sentences through a filter which will discard all but data relating to a set of MMSIs you're tracking and output what remains over tcp. There seem to be AIS libraries in a variety of languages.

Obviously with an external-to-ocpn solution like that you'd not get other targets showing which may or may not be what you want.

Thanks for your reaction. Considered this, but we would like to see our boats AND other boats on the river. Was looking for a different color scheme for the boats or something.

[Donixon]

Originally Posted by rooiedirk

Inside OpenCPN you can only add tracks to certain ships. that would make them easy to find while sailing, but not when moored.


For filtering you need something external. I think NmeaRouter is a good candidate.
https://arundaleais.github.io/docs/ais/nmearouter.html

Going to look into this, but don't think were going to use it. We wanted a solution with less applications then we do have now. Thanks for the reply!

[Donixon]

Originally Posted by teppokurki

Have you considered a web map? If you bring your AIS data into Signal K server and use the included webapps to display a targets map the map can be accessed also from other devices, like tablets and phones.

If you have somebody handy with JavaScript a cudtom webpage that does exactly what you want is doable, access to targets’ data is trivial.

The concept of ’favorite’ vessels is interesting enough to add to Signal K, I can get back to that after the sailing season.

A word of warning: SK VesselPositions webapp may choke on large ais volumes. Mea culpa, need to do a bit of optimisation there.

This sounds pretty cool! We have devs indoor, and were using Mendix to make applications. If we can manage to get the boats in Mendix, we can do whatever we want with it. If we make something, ill keep you guys up-to-date!