Presenting OCPN to the public

[Moo]

Hi All,

I'm going to be presenting an introduction to OCPN and its capabilities to a local sailing group in a couple of weeks time.

I'm just wondering about any feedback that any of you who have already done this kind of thing may have on what the sticking points are that the uninitiated don't get about OCPN.

I have been using it for so long that I take a bunch of stuff for granted and have learnt various tips and tricks that I guess newbies may not struggle with; Anybody noticed anything in particular.

What should I emphasise?

Any advice at all on presenting OCPN to the sailing public?

Thanks

[yachtvalhalla]

Originally Posted by Moo

Hi All,

I'm going to be presenting an introduction to OCPN and its capabilities to a local sailing group in a couple of weeks time.

I'm just wondering about any feedback that any of you who have already done this kind of thing may have on what the sticking points are that the uninitiated don't get about OCPN.

I have been using it for so long that I take a bunch of stuff for granted and have learnt various tips and tricks that I guess newbies may not struggle with; Anybody noticed anything in particular.

What should I emphasise?

Any advice at all on presenting OCPN to the sailing public?

Thanks

Hi Moo,

You are welcome to use any of this from what I use for OpenCPN presentations. Exploring OpenCPN (v3.0)

Terry

[bdbcat]

Moo...

I have done this a few times....

My advice:
1. Answer the top two questions clearly:

a. How do I connect my GPS?
b. Where do I get charts?

These are the two points that consume most of the tech support hours.

2. Don't dive too deeply into specialty Plugins. It can quickly lead to "thousand yard stare".

3. Have some "eye candy", like GE Overlays, ENCs of your local cruising ground, etc.

4. Emphasize the excellent resources available:

a. This Forum.
b. The outstanding user contributed Wiki and support manual, included with every download.


Good Luck, and thanks for stepping up here.
Dave

[Moo]

Originally Posted by yachtvalhalla

Hi Moo,

You are welcome to use any of this from what I use for OpenCPN presentations. Exploring OpenCPN (v3.0)

Terry

Thanks Terry, I'll browse your document and I'm sure find some of it to use

Thanks again.

[Moo]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

Moo...

I have done this a few times....

My advice:
1. Answer the top two questions clearly:

a. How do I connect my GPS?
b. Where do I get charts?

These are the two points that consume most of the tech support hours.

2. Don't dive too deeply into specialty Plugins. It can quickly lead to "thousand yard stare".

3. Have some "eye candy", like GE Overlays, ENCs of your local cruising ground, etc.

4. Emphasize the excellent resources available:

a. This Forum.
b. The outstanding user contributed Wiki and support manual, included with every download.


Good Luck, and thanks for stepping up here.
Dave

Thanks Dave,

I'll have at least two demos set up:

I have a homemade chartplotter running on a Raspberry Pi with touch screen etc. which will be very familar to those with off the shelf plotters from Raymarine or Garmin etc. (the difference being that the cost is one order of magnitude less) with built in GPS, compass and other sensors based on the Openplotter project.

And my presentation laptop with a BU353 GPS connected.

I can also talk about connecting to instrument networks, NMEA 0183 and N2K and could even network my laptop to the plotter to demo Wifi connections.

I'm doing this talk in Christchurch, NZ, and luckily the NZ raster charts are free and available in the chart download menu in OCPN. I have fresh tracks from a cruise in the Marlborough sounds last week and some ocean passages from the last few months too.

I plan on talking for 20 to 30 minutes and having an extended question and answer partially hands on section.

Cheers
Chris

[atoll]

how to identify which serial port your gps dongle is connected and setting the correct baud rate on your computer.
entering this info into the ocpn toolbar interface.

the correct path to use to enter charts manually from previous navigation systems chart directory that may be still be on a computer,ie CM93,which though old give world wide coverage.

chart sources for new charts.
how to load manually
how to load with the chart uploader/downloader.

interfacing with google earth and ge2kap
installing AIS,and other nmea interfaced data

installing dash board for sattelite info,compass and pos
gribfiles and weather overlays

basic functions of the tool bar,plotting,route,tides,ruler etc
basic settings for chart data,ie mariners standard,zooming,quilting,follow,tracking,north up etc
changing pallet,day /night screen

if you can get this far your average cruiser will be looking very confused!
find

[bcn]

- AIS (TCPA, the graphs, tracks) falls under "eye-candy" as well

and if you want more options for confusion:

- the VDR plug-in
- the draw plug-in

and for advanced confusion next introduce:

- watchdog
- weather-routing

[yachtvalhalla]

Originally Posted by atoll

how to identify which serial port your gps dongle is connected and setting the correct baud rate on your computer.
entering this info into the ocpn toolbar interface.

the correct path to use to enter charts manually from previous navigation systems chart directory that may be still be on a computer,ie CM93,which though old give world wide coverage.

chart sources for new charts.
how to load manually
how to load with the chart uploader/downloader.

interfacing with google earth and ge2kap
installing AIS,and other nmea interfaced data

installing dash board for sattelite info,compass and pos
gribfiles and weather overlays

basic functions of the tool bar,plotting,route,tides,ruler etc
basic settings for chart data,ie mariners standard,zooming,quilting,follow,tracking,north up etc
changing pallet,day /night screen

if you can get this far your average cruiser will be looking very confused!
find

I think I've covered a lot of the above here Exploring OpenCPN (v3.0)

Terry

[Moo]

Tks Atoll and BCN,

I will chuck in some eye candy. I have plenty of NMEA data recorded that I can broadcast to my demos and that includes some AIS etc.

I won't be getting to technical or going into the specifics of setting up interfaces and such on this occasion. The idea is to whet the appetite with this short talk and then for those that are interested to run a series of workshops the will go into the details of various plugins and interfacing GPS, Autopilot etc.. along with roll your own systems such as OpenPlotter. I'm thinking three or four sessions.

Cheers

[yachtvalhalla]

Originally Posted by Moo

Tks Atoll and BCN,

I will chuck in some eye candy. I have plenty of NMEA data recorded that I can broadcast to my demos and that includes some AIS etc.

I won't be getting to technical or going into the specifics of setting up interfaces and such on this occasion. The idea is to whet the appetite with this short talk and then for those that are interested to run a series of workshops the will go into the details of various plugins and interfacing GPS, Autopilot etc.. along with roll your own systems such as OpenPlotter. I'm thinking three or four sessions.

Cheers

An item planned for a future revision of my blurb is here.

It describes how to make all USB ports the same COM Port number. Just a little convenience item.

Terry

[Moo]

I presented my talk last night. I incorporated some your suggestions ( I did not go deep into technicalities). There as a good turnout of 30+, at the Naval Point Club LYttleton with a good range of experience from one Dutch cruiser who uses most features including the RADAR plugin to people who have never used OCPN or any other nav software. I gave the talk on behalf of the Little Ship Club Canterbury

I'll post my slides somewhere so that anybody can take them for future use.

Edit: Here is the link http://www.tweedsworld.com/notebooks/ to a page containing another OpenCPN tutorial which is now a bit dated. Or here is the direct download link