Tactics Plugin

[tom_BigSpeedy]

Very strange behaviour, it shouldn't happen.
Actually it's working fine for me on Win7, 64bit, no matter in which configuration I start (NMEA on/off). I never expierienced a crash.
I just returned from a week of intense sailing, using the plugin all day...
But I'm not on the latest version of OpenCPN, as 4.6.1 has some chart zooming bugs ( on my machine O hangs up and freezes with full overzoom...)
I guess 4.6.1 makes the difference ...
I'll look into it.

BR,

Thomas

[Alekoy]

It did not crash other than during startup of OCPN, but if I rebooted the PC or shut down and restarted OCPN, it would crash every time, if the plugin was enabled.
But the "unplug NMEA-feed" trick does the job for now.

[FrouFrou]

Hi there, we are using OCPN and discovered tactics_pi, it looks very nice but we have an issue. We have NKE instruments with heel angle but we can't get the right angle on the tactics dashboard. The heelangle is correct on the NKE system for example '<3' and '3>' for heeling port and starboard but tactics makes is '35.7' and '0.3'. We use the NMEA XDR sentence which is made by the NKE NMEA-Output interface. Does anyone has a clue ?

[Canne]

No clue, having only NKE displays, but a text file output from VDR plugin, presenting a short moment of your ship's O life would be helpful for debugging.

[FrouFrou]

Hi Canne,

Here are some pics and a VDR text file with the data.

[FrouFrou]

it looks like the XDR sentense is interpreted wrong, because <3 heel on NKE gives 35.7 (360 degrees minus 3= 357) as <35 heel on NKE becomes 32.5 (360-35=325). As if it calculates with 360 degrees in stead of -180+180 ?

[Canne]

Hi FrouFrou,
It appears to work for me, consistently, when modifying your XDR sentence ROLL from -0.1 (in harbour?) to -35,-13,0,13,35 degrees, respectively. See the attached files and screenshots. Maybe you want to test with the those files to see if you get the same result. I am using 4.6.1 on W10 w/ tactics_pi 1.0005 (see this post of the author, Thomas, to get it).

[FrouFrou]

my heel of 1 degree port is $IIXDR,A,-0.1,D,ROLL*checksum
your heel of gives $IIXDR,A,-1.0,D,ROLL*checksum

Looks like its comming from NKE output, I get XDR from NMEA Output interface, I will try too get it directly from the nmea of the heel angle sensor and see if thats better.

[tom_BigSpeedy]

FrouFrou,
very strange ...
Which sensor are you using?
The program reading the XDR sentence does no conversion at all.
It takes the value as is and assumes ROLL = "Degrees heel" (the unit is in the sentence).
So on the first look I'd assume your sensor is wrong. But then your instruments shouldn't show the correct value.
I'm using the NKE regatta compass which has heel included and it works perfect like this.

Which firmware version is your heel sensor / NMEA export interface ?

BR,

Thomas

[FrouFrou]

Hi Thomas,

I use the Heel Angle sensor 90-60-343 with firmware V1.2 (updated it myself with Toplink software and interface) and a Nmea output 90-60-357 with firmware V1.5. Also tried it with an old heel angle sensor 90-60-129 but it was the same so it must be a problem in the NMEA out. In de development file of the output it says that the RSA and XDR and the PNKEP sentences are added so I presume it is a bug in the NKE firmware. Hope the nmea out from the heel sensor is working better. I will let you know

Joost

[tom_BigSpeedy]

Hi Joost,
do you have a Multigraphic or Gyrographic display ?
If it is set as master, you should be able to monitor your NMEA data
within the instruments, before they are exported.
Just to make sure it's really the output interface. I'm using the same, also with firmware ver. 1.5
and it's working just fine ...
And you don't have a multiplexer or anything else between the NKE output interface and
OpenCPN ?
Of course you already did recalibrate the heel sensor, didn't you ?

Best,

Thomas

PS: I'm out sailing for the next two weeks and have only limited access to my emails ...

[FrouFrou]

Hi Thomas,

I have a GG set as master and I can monitor the NMEA sentences coming from my PC. I initiated autopilot data (XTE) to steer with OCPN and the PNKEP sentences from Tactics to display on my 2timesTL25.

In my opinion you can not monitor the NMEA-out sentences from the 'NKE NMEA output interface' with the 'GG-NMEA console' option? On the pic from OCPN debug display you can see this data.

I use a Shipmodule miniplex to get the NMEA into the PC (W10).

Options to calibrate the heelsensor are 'init' and 'offset' which I performed to calibrate the sensor.

Happy sailing for you next 2 weeks

[FrouFrou]

The result of tonight:
- Tactics displays the right data when I play the VDR file from Canne. So XDR,A,-13.0,D,ROLL*checksum is displayed as <13

- with my NKE data on 13 degrees port heel it displays <34.7 with XDR,A,-1.3,D,ROLL*checksum

- changed the wireing from 'NMEA-outputinterface' to 'NMEA out from heel angle sensor' gives the following result



XDR,A,-2.5,D,Heel Angle*checksum
and a PNKEP,06 sentence with decimal numbers.

Both are not recognized by Tactics (heel angle stays blank)......

I will try to contact NKE.fr and explain this maybe they know a solution

[hasse_A]

Originally Posted by tom_BigSpeedy

Hans,

you don't have a VDR file where I can reproduce this, do you ?

Thomas

Now I do have a VDR file but I am not sure it will show the error. If I run it on OpenCPN it now centers around East and the display is ok.
When the problem acered it was centerd around, I believe North.
The problem has to do with how the program alines the angle data to the display.

/Hans

[Canne]

Originally Posted by FrouFrou

...
XDR,A,-2.5,D,Heel Angle*checksum
...

tactics_pi is a fork of the O built-in plugin, dashboard. How it deals with heel and pitch is explained in this post. But since tactics is a fork, it can be forked for further hacking, too! Because the author, Thomas, was lucky enough to go for sailing but I need to work, I synced the current state of his project and modified it so that it accepts both "ROLL" and "Heel Angle" from NKE-type XDR-sentence. I tested it with the attached XDR-file and with the files from my previous post (I have no other means at home).

If you like, you can download it using this temporary link and see if it works with your heel sensor. You would need to replace the original DLL-file (make a copy of the original) in C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins.

If you confirm that it works for you, I can submit a pull request for this very simple change to Thomas when he will be back. If he likes the idea, maybe he will add this feature in the next version of his plugin.

Note: this is not based on 1.0005 version but is containing all changes since it was built, I have not tested the resulting plugin on my boat but I tested it with some recent real XDR data and it looked alright.