Plugin: DashBoard

[rgleason]

Don't let this overwhelm, but there are lots of feature requests centered around what you are working on. - Making a useful sailing tool that enables us to sail better and faster (good for cruising or racing).

"Sail ....." Feature Requests in Dashboard_pi Tracker
So I gathered all the requests related to this that I could find, put them under Dashboard and started the Title with "Sail" There are some good ideas and documentation in these requests, and I found it useful reading them again.

OpenCPN::Tracker 8 - pi - Dashboard: Tasklist


There are also
Dave Coweld TacknLay_pi
Sean's Sail Trimplot_pi
Ptulp and Konni Polar_pi
Polauto French website (Windows only) Record polars & read files. (Scroll down)

plugins which can augment the sailing tools.
I wish I understood Sean's Trimplot better and maybe I will when I get it hooked up to a nmea real data feed, also TacknLay unfortunately does not work in Windows yet.

[rgleason]

Here is the Google Translate Link to the Polauto software. Scroll down and read, it will become clearer to you how this software works.

https://translate.google.com/transla...-text=&act=url


Here is Patrick's own website.
http://patricktiercelin.wix.com/logi...-polauto/c17b1

You will note that he has also been doing some Nmea Instruments with Arduino

[tom_BigSpeedy]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Here is the Google Translate Link to the Polauto software. Scroll down and read, it will become clearer to you how this software works.

I have no problem with Polauto, my French is not so good, but good enough to understand it.
I created my own boat polars with it.
The biggest advantage IMHO is the averaging of the max values...

Thomas

[rgleason]

BigT thats great. So you really have used it in the field so to speak. I have only run files with it for testing as I did not have nmea stream. Have gadgetpoole seatalk converter now which I hope to get connected and tried before we haul the boat. Noticed there is a new version 7.1 in english on his website.

[tom_BigSpeedy]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Thomas I am in favor of your idea to adapt Dashboard. I would like very much to work on this this winter in whatever way I can help, no matter what format you decide, because it will be an improvement for sailors. By the way I have not been able to get laylines working in win but I believe it works in linux.

Rick, Hubert,

just another teaser ...



Please note the lower right corner ... "predicted speed on other tack" dropped out of the current calculation for free ...

* AWA and TWA included (not the standard needles as they're too big and cover too much),
* Laylines (red green) should work now.
* Red dot is the bearing to WP.

I'll verify this on my boat next weekend (or in 2 weeks) ...

Next steps :
* Load polar file and output a target speed / percentage value based on polar. I'm also thinking of a graphical instrument like wind history, having one horizontal "100% boatspeed" line (continuously based on current polar output for wind speed / TWA), and a second line showing your current boat speed. With this you should easily see, if sail trim changes are effective ...
* include TWA/TWD calculation (if not present) in the system. Easy, I did this already in the past, and compared to real life (instrument given values). It was pretty accurate, so easy enough...
* Improve the instrument above to be able to input heel based on windspeed/TWA.
And later on :
* plot those laylines directly on the chart. Then you directly see, if you make it around the next corner, without using a WP.


Concerning dashboard :
Currently I cannibalized a copy of dashboard, and made a separate plugin out of it, as I thought it would affect the original dashboard pretty much...
But actually it doesn't. Just a handful of variables and 3 routines to calculate Current, Leeway (boat drift due to wind), and TWA/TWD,
and the new instrument, which does the rest.
I will need to add some settings dialogue though (smooting constants, polar file load, manual heel angle input ...)

From my point of view, it would be a petty to split this up into a new plugin, as it is a huge duplication of code, and will run out of sync sooner or later...
On the other hand, in the past Dave and Jean-Eudes didn't like the idea of calculating data (like TWA/TWD), and so I never continued that TWA/TWD calculation project (as I have it anyway on my instruments) and it never made it to dashboard.
If the latter is still the case, I'll do it in a separate plugin, otherwise try to include it in dashboard (actually Hdt is now already calculated out of Hdg + mag. variation... ).

Let's see first how much the deviation will be in the end ...

Thomas

[Baikal]

It looks great!
What sensors do you use?
Current is the flow or drift along? where does it come?
As this plugin will behave with the parameters of the metric system?
I would like that this functionality was in a standard plugin dashboard.
But I think if we impose this information on the position of the ship will be more clearly

novelty from raymarine
Panbo: The Marine Electronics Hub: Raymarine LightHouse 14 sailing features, as good as they look?

[tom_BigSpeedy]

Baikal,

everything starts at post 316 ...
I have NKE instruments with a heel angle sensor.
Since years NKE calculate internally the boat drift based on heel and boat speed. Plus an adjustable factor that shall meet your boat characterics. They call this boat drift "Leeway".
About a year ago, NKE started with that current calculation/display in their instruments. But only numbers, no graphics. And of course no export to NMEA, just internal display. I checked it during the last year, and surprisingly it worked quite well, at least if you don't take it too serious ...

Anyway, I got annoyed with the number display, always thinking e.g. "Where is 153° now ???" Current sets in ..., whereas wind is blowing from ...

So I started the idea to re-program a graphical display for O ...

Lately I found my training books from the days when I made my sailing licence years ago :
In the old days, before GPS came up, they did course calculation, including Leeway and influence of sea current. Leeway based on estimation, current (I think also called "Set" in english) based on tide tables. They did it on paper, drawing simple current/set triangles ...

And that's what I implemented here ...
We have "true heading" (=HDT)/STW + COG/SOG.
The difference between HDT & COG is Leeway + Set
Once you have your Leeway, the rest is set.
And the speed difference between STW & SOG is the influence of the current.
Then you can do a simple triangle calculation, which gives you
the current direction + speed.

Having current in direction & speed , you can include it into the layline calculation ...
Standard layline calculations (at least those I know) do not include the set, and that's actually the problem. Leeway is equal on both tacks, but set differs ...
If you check the screenshot above, it's sideways at the momentary tack, but will be aft after the tack ...

You have to take this current thing as experimental, an aid to improve the layline calculation and a nice background info.
There's a lot of variables in the system. If they're wrong, you will see only crab. **** in, **** out !
In other words : your compass and speedo/log should work as accurate as possible.

Thomas

PS: NKE has a similar instrument since mid of September included in their Multigraphic display. That's, where my ideas come from ...

PSS : from my previous email to this one, I implemented the true wind calculation ...

[TBillings]

So if I understand this correctly, "leeway" is the boat's drift due to being blown by the wind? How on earth can you calculate that based on heel? Or is there some testing done on your specific boat (like a polar diagram or something like that)?

[tom_BigSpeedy]

Originally Posted by MatthewDurst

So if I understand this correctly, "leeway" is the boat's drift due to being blown by the wind? How on earth can you calculate that based on heel? Or is there some testing done on your specific boat (like a polar diagram or something like that)?

You're right, in reality that's 3dimensional (at least) ...
heel, boatspeed, windspeed
Either you have a polar (which noone of us has, I guess) or use that simplified approach :

See here, page 51
http://www.nke-marine-electronics.co...phic_UK_22.pdf
or here, page 23/24
http://www.nke-marine-electronics.co...0036132_01.pdf

As you see, they have foreseen an adjustable factor that reflects your boat's characteristics ...


Thomas
PS : currently I have set the factor = 6 on my boat.

[tom_BigSpeedy]

Just to keep you updated ...


Polar upload is integrated and working, at least for the OCPN/QTVlm/MAXSea/CVS type polars (I don't have an Expedition type polar for testing).
I created a simple text style instrument "Polar-/Targetspeed", giving me the theoretical speed / percentage based on the polar at the momentary TWA (see at the bottom)
This is not yet the "target VMG" (=optimum speed towards a WP, with possibly a different TWA)...

I did a routine that calculates TWA/TWS/TWD in case they're not available.

Laylines can be displayed on the chart (but using OpenGL only).
I'm planning to do a context menu "Show/Hide Laylines".

Currently I'm reading a RMB sentence from the NMEA data stream, to show the WP (red dot) in the "Bearing Compass" dial instrument. Maybe I can alternatively do another context menu "Set Waypoint", which creates a mark (WP), and use this for the bearing.
The width of each layline "triangle" is now depending on how much you're yawing (due to wave), the better you can keep course the smaller the angles are(=the thinner the laylines are).

This screenshot was a F7/F8 day with 2 meters of wave at that point, so they're pretty wide ...
I'll stick on that Leeway/Heel input issue next, for those who don't have a heel angle sensor.

Thomas

[TBillings]

Originally Posted by tom_BigSpeedy

...for those who don't have a heel angle sensor.

For those who don't have a heel angle sensor, I wrote up a guide on how to make one for pretty cheap (~$100) with an Arduino and the MPU-9150 using the SHR NMEA sentence (it's also a tilt-compensated compass/rate-of-turn indicator too). It's pretty easy to make, as long you don't mind getting your hands dirty with hot glue and solder. I think linking to personal blogs is frowned upon here, so just PM me and I'll send you the direct link.

But Thomas, in response to my other thread about the VDR plugin, I think what you're doing is pretty much what I'm looking for, with the current direction/speed on the compass rose. Definitely keep us all updated with your progress!

[rgleason]

I just got my gadgetpoole.de Seatalk Link connected and working with my ST60 instruments. I am recieving MTW water temp, VHW speed thru water, DBT depth, MWV wind angle and speed, however I am not receiving HDM heading compass from the fluxgate even when I turn on the autopilot. Why isn't this data on the seatalk bus even though it has nmea output sent to autopilot nmea in ports? Don't I need this data for the true boat heading?
Is the RMB from gps?

I'm very interested in BigT's improvements and want to be ready to help & test.

[bcn]

Originally Posted by MatthewDurst

For those who don't have a heel angle sensor, I wrote up a guide on how to make one for pretty cheap (~$100) with an Arduino and the MPU-9150 using the SHR NMEA sentence (it's also a tilt-compensated compass/rate-of-turn indicator too). It's pretty easy to make, as long you don't mind getting your hands dirty with hot glue and solder. I think linking to personal blogs is frowned upon here, so just PM me and I'll send you the direct link.

But Thomas, in response to my other thread about the VDR plugin, I think what you're doing is pretty much what I'm looking for, with the current direction/speed on the compass rose. Definitely keep us all updated with your progress!

Matthew,

a question: where is the complete SHR message described? Is this a proprietary one ($Px...)? Or part of the NMEA standard? You are padding a Talker ID of $IN(strument).

Searching I found a Sonar (WASSP) using it. Plus a Si-tech GPS/gyro sensor.
Other Sonar manuals are mentioning it but no reference or definition.

Hubert

[rgleason]

I did a routine that calculates TWA/TWS/TWD in case they're not available.

That's good because Seatalk assumes that that will be calculated. at each instrument and does not include it on the bus, only apparent.

[GWB]

This is good news as, if using the antisense ngw on a seatalkng network true wind is not available.
Any idea when this plugin might be available?

Originally Posted by rgleason

That's good because Seatalk assumes that that will be calculated. at each instrument and does not include it on the bus, only apparent.