Signal K Implementation

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by conachair

Barometer seems to expect maybe hPa instead of SI units?

SignalK has the intention to present all data in SI units. The SI unit for pressure is Pa, Pascal, but that's inconvenient for air pressure so hPa is used instead. Then most "speaking" mBar will recognize the numbers. What's more curious are the numbers in you instrument. What's the source and unit?
I've tested with MDA, unit Bar, since XDR is not (yet?) implemented in SignalK, see shot.

Any specific SigK paths you'd like to check? QUick to set up node-red to send as SigKpretty much anything.

No, not really. I think I've tested all but it may not be so. And there are a lot different sources so please test what you like.

The empty instruments in your shot are all based on the sentence XDR. Let's hope for a common future for that in SignalK. Meanwhile for your own use there's a SignalK plugin to handle the XDR sentence. You may give it a try as I soon will. https://www.npmjs.com/package/xdr-parser-plugin

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Hakan

SignalK has the intention to present all data in SI units. The SI unit for pressure is Pa, Pascal, but that's inconvenient for air pressure so hPa is used instead. Then most "speaking" mBar will recognize the numbers. What's more curious are the numbers in you instrument. What's the source and unit?
I've tested with MDA, unit Bar, since XDR is not (yet?) implemented in SignalK, see shot. No, not really. I think I've tested all but it may not be so. And there are a lot different sources so please test what you like.

The empty instruments in your shot are all based on the sentence XDR. Let's hope for a common future for that in SignalK. Meanwhile for your own use there's a SignalK plugin to handle the XDR sentence. You may give it a try as I soon will. https://www.npmjs.com/package/xdr-parser-plugin

Source of the data is an ESP32 with a BME280, seems to be OK with the other dashboards like KIP, this looks like the sentence >

"pressure": {
"$source": "ESP",
"meta": {
"description": "Current outside air ambient pressure",
"units": "Pa"
},
"timestamp": "2020-02-01T07:24:36.829Z",
"value": 102733.5
}

..which seems to tally up with what the OpenCPN dash is trying to display but units seem wrong >

No NMEA is going in to O, just sigK data.

[Hakan]

conachair...
OK, very good. Here's some mismatch.

The reported unit for "Current outside air ambient pressure" is Pa and for your source "ECP" it's correct.

I'm using the nmea0183 sentence MDA as source and that is sending in hPA!

{"meta":{"units":"Pa","description":"Current outside air ambient pressure"},"value":1012.8760000000001,"$source":"nmea0183.II","timestamp":"2020-02-01T10:28:07.223Z","sentence":"MDA"}

So the SignalK code for MDA would be tweaked I suppose.
@teppokurki are you here?. Correct?
What I can do in OCPN for the moment is to check if the transmitted value is reasonably and try to correct.
Thanks for the catch.
Håkan

[teppokurki]

Originally Posted by Hakan

So the SignalK code for MDA would be tweaked I suppose.
@teppokurki are you here?. Correct?
What I can do in OCPN for the moment is to check if the transmitted value is reasonably and try to correct.

I just released Signal K NMEA0183 parser 3.5.1 that includes fixes in unit conversions in MDA, XTE, VLW, BWC, BWR and APB.

https://github.com/SignalK/signalk-p...commits/v3.5.1

The server won't prompt you for a new version, you need to explicitly pull in the update with

sudo npm install --unsafe-perm -g signalk-server

or just wait for the next server release, its update will include the 0183 parser.

Thanks for testing, let's iron out any remaining bugs! It would be great to have Github issues for verified bugs, but I'll keep an eye here for the near future also.

[Hakan]

Teppo..
Many thanks. MDA is taken care off. I'll correct O code for VLW accordingly but first when a common SK release is rolled out I think. The rest are so far not present in O Dashboard.
Håkan

[Hakan]

conachair.. All..

Tonight, UTC time, an update for Dashboard was made to OCPN master code.
That will fix various barometer pressure units.

Also:
Adjust Barometer gauge scale to show 1013 hPa as middle position.
Test and comment if you like.
@teppokurki..
I tried the SignK patch. Works fine.

O-DB will be updated accordingly once next SignK version is released.
Thanks.
Håkan

[verkerkbr]

I have only an NMEA2K GPS here at home. But caN confirm that the available items work very well.

Using Openplotter 2.0 with Raspian 64 bits. NMEA2K reception via Canable canbus board. Input OpenCPN via SignalK. MXTommy Kip with SK.

Oesenc charts with the dongle.

This is how it looks now:


Bram

[conachair]

Barometer looks perfect now, thanks!


The 'true wind angle & speed' looks like it is seeing the wind speed but not angle, 'true wind dir' does look like it's being read though.
Data getting sent from SkSimfor true >

"wind": {
"directionTrue": {
"meta": {
"units": "rad",
"description": "The wind direction relative to true north"
},
"value": 0.4719967034993915,
"$source": "sksim",
"timestamp": "2020-02-03T10:44:41.438Z"
},
"speedTrue": {
"meta": {
"units": "m/s",
"description": "Wind speed over water (as calculated from speedApparent and vessel's speed through water)"
},
"value": 14.29009040567917,
"$source": "sksim",
"timestamp": "2020-02-03T10:44:41.438Z"
},

What SigK data to use might not be so obvious maybe.... I suspect I'll be like quite a few others and be grateful for ground wind to be calced by SigK in the absence of any nav electronics working it out - creates this >

"angleTrueGround": {
"meta": {
"units": "rad",
"description": "True wind angle based on speed over ground, negative to port"
},
"value": -2.278135806034695,
"$source": "derived-data",
"timestamp": "2020-02-03T10:50:11.450Z"
},
"speedOverGround": {
"meta": {
"units": "m/s",
"description": "Wind speed over ground (as calculated from speedApparent and vessel's speed over ground)"
},
"value": 6.87038337271097,
"$source": "derived-data",
"timestamp": "2020-02-03T10:50:11.450Z"
}
},

[Hakan]

conachair..
Yes, different wind angles are somewhat confusing.

These two are wind angles relative to north. Not very useful for boating. They are also only shown in the "compass" wind instrument as of your shots. Would be feasible for a shore weather station or similar.
"environment.wind.directionTrue"
"environment.wind.directionMagnetic"


For apparent and true wind instruments these two are used: (Angles relative to boat head)
"environment.wind.angleApparent"
"environment.wind.angleTrueWater"
E.g. form MWV (I haven't compared available N2K sentences.)

[Hakan]

conachair..
One more comment:
The "environment.wind.angleTrueGround" is also present in SK if a source for that exists. Unfortunately there are so far no instruments in DB for that. I refer to the discussion for Dashboard tactics.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Hakan

conachair..
Yes, different wind angles are somewhat confusing.

These two are wind angles relative to north. Not very useful for boating. They are also only shown in the "compass" wind instrument as of your shots. Would be feasible for a shore weather station or similar.
"environment.wind.directionTrue"
"environment.wind.directionMagnetic"


For apparent and true wind instruments these two are used: (Angles relative to boat head)
"environment.wind.angleApparent"
"environment.wind.angleTrueWater"
E.g. form MWV (I haven't compared available N2K sentences.)

Thanks, I could have always had a look myself... Appendix A: Keys Reference (Vessel) · Signal K Documentation

Works now ta, just sent environment.wind.angleTrueGround payload (source - derived data SigK app) to environment.wind.angleTrueWater in node-red.

[rooiedirk]

On a local Dutch forum someone came up with the idea of having a dashboard instrument as a html viewer. Then you could show all build in web-app Signal-K instruments.


Don't know enough about Dashboard if this is possible, but I do like the idea.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by rooiedirk

On a local Dutch forum someone came up with the idea of having a dashboard instrument as a html viewer. Then you could show all build in web-app Signal-K instruments.


Don't know enough about Dashboard if this is possible, but I do like the idea.

Been mentioned a couple of times. Would be very handy when using a tablet, no need to switch screens from opencpn to a web browser to check on everything. The KIP SigK app can do it, so you can view influx database graphs inside KIP. Can't really be more flexible, though first things first maybe, great to have it view SigK so far

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by conachair

Been mentioned a couple of times. Would be very handy when using a tablet, no need to switch screens from opencpn to a web browser to check on everything. The KIP SigK app can do it, so you can view influx database graphs inside KIP. Can't really be more flexible, though first things first maybe, great to have it view SigK so far

Dashboard doesn’t have a lot of real estate for a web window. It’s unlikely users would want to give up all that screen real estate to a web viewer. Anyway, there is a native web viewer on all systems except maybe Android.

I could imagine a web viewer plugin. It would be limited because it would be the wxWebview implementation. So it should be tested to be sure it works with the web server and underlying web components. This is an area of unending change these days so would likely need a lot more programming support.

[verkerkbr]

I have looked at the data stream from O back to the SignalK server.

If you look at the Tactic plugin there is the Bearing Compass. Gives the distance and bearing to a waypoint. Don't know what data is used for this the gauge. But it get its data from O. How ?

Looked at the server input but no SignalK data to be seen for this purpose.

Next I did a try with an older setup.

Added in O an outgoing connection: UDP localhost and port 2000 and restricted the output to RMD and RMC. Then opened in the SignalK server an incoming NMEA183 signal: UDP localhost and port 2000.

Then I get the course and bearing from O in SignalK and can show this in the MXTommy SignalK display.

Regards,

Bram