Tactics Plugin

[RonSouthworth]

Originally Posted by Canne

Thanks, Ron, looks like a great tool for a developer!

For Tactics, there is a need for ROLL and PITCH XDR-sentences to test its active functions

if you happen to be able to give feedback to its developer.

Hi

Apologies if the other reply reappears the forum has been a bit odd here for the last few days loosing things etc.

The developer is me.

It is a commercial program i developed in 1985 I found the source code thought id lost it forever till recently. Been giving it a birthday. It is in written in Java.

The messaging routine code is very straightforward so adding message types is fairly painless

the GUI is fiddly to sort out.

I am porting / rewriting the code into C++ using ship driver as a starting point, working towards creating a test suite that is open sourced, something that isn’t too complicated to use.

The wx forms GUI is a lot easier to get something sorted but i need to figure out the protocol interfacing.

when it has enough features to be useable i will certainly let you know.

The opencpn screenshot hopefully will make comparisons easy, Rick had done an excellent job capturing things.

I can record some streams if that will help

Happy to test things if that helps as well

/Ron

[Canne]

Hi Aedan,

Originally Posted by AedanC

...I also tried deleting the old version of dashboard too. No change. I tried replaying a different file into OpenCpn using a python player over UDP instead of VDR and that also made no change, it crashes as soon as the data comes into OpenCpn...

This makes me to ask the question have you removed completely the tactic_pi.dll if it is the "official" one from the O site? If it is loaded and the button appears in the toolbar, it starts to deal with incoming NMEA sentences, in parallel with other plugins. I am suspecting a NaN or a pointer error triggered by the incoming sentences of your data set.

What about OpenCPN itself, there is no crash if the famous trio Dashboard, Dashboard-Tactics and Tactics are all disabled?

Originally Posted by AedanC

Can OpenCpn be started in a debugger? I have a small amount of experience some years ago with gdb,

Perhaps there is now when MS has embraced Linux. I prefer the real thing and that's why test runtime always on Linux with gbd. Like you suggested, even if there is no debug symbols available, the call stack gives you a good hint where the issue is in case of a crash. For Windows I don't know anything else but mingw which contains gdb but I have some doubts what it will show other than a huge number of DLLs.

Let's try something else, first: when (and if) you have confirmed that it is the official OpenCPN v5.0.0. which crashes even with no active plugins, it does not help to reinstall it. It will reproduce the same thing. Rick explained how to get sneak preview builds from my GitHub repository, right?

You can get the latest build for OpenCPN the same way: here ! Same way, get to Appveoyr created artifacts and get your installer. Like this. It may or it may not work. But if it does work without crashing, you've gained something and can wait 5.0.*-something to come out!

[AedanC]

Petri,

Originally Posted by Canne

Hi Aedan,

This makes me to ask the question have you removed completely the tactic_pi.dll if it is the "official" one from the O site? If it is loaded and the button appears in the toolbar, it starts to deal with incoming NMEA sentences, in parallel with other plugins. I am suspecting a NaN or a pointer error triggered by the incoming sentences of your data set.

What about OpenCPN itself, there is no crash if the famous trio Dashboard, Dashboard-Tactics and Tactics are all disabled?

At that time I had removed dashboard_pi and tactics_pi by deleting their dll files and their subdirectories and it still crashed.

There is no polar performance since no STW (or it is 0.0). I hope you're looking for true wind active calculations only.

I had no polar features enabled, is that what you mean?

Let's try something else, first: when (and if) you have confirmed that it is the official OpenCPN v5.0.0. which crashes even with no active plugins, it does not help to reinstall it. It will reproduce the same thing. Rick explained how to get sneak preview builds from my GitHub repository, right?

I wiped the OpenCpn installation directory completely clean and rebooted. Then I installed official OpenCpn and the VDR plugin. - No crash.


I installed the latest dashboard_tactics as of approx 20:00 UTC but did not enable it. - No crash.


I enabled dashboard_tactics in the Options/Plugins menu but did not start it in the menu on the left. - No crash.


I started dashboard_pi by clicking the menu on the left. Only the position, GPS Compass and GPS status displays were shown. -No crash


I added the True Wind Direction and Speed display. -No crash, direction 0, speed 0.


I ticked the SOG button. -Crash!!


I started OpenCpn again but this time I added just the True wind speed and did not tick SOG. - No crash.


I ticked SOG. -Crash!!


I went back to just the position, GPS Compass and GPS Status displays, ie nothing that uses the wind. No SOG, -No crash.


I ticked the SOG button, -Crash!!


So basically as soon as I tick the SOG button I get a crash, even if no true wind data is being displayed.


I took a look in the event viewer and got the details below, I don't know if its any use.


I have not tried the appveyor build of OpenCpn yet and I've run out of time for tonight. I might get to try that tomorrow if you don't have any other suggestions to try first.


Aedan



Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: 10/06/2019 9:48:57 PM
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: (100)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: SKEAM
Description:
Faulting application name: opencpn.exe, version: 5.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5c958e09
Faulting module name: dashboard_tactics_pi.dll, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5cfe7b92
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000420aa
Faulting process id: 0x1eec
Faulting application start time: 0x01d51fcda418e7e9
Faulting application path: D:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\opencpn.exe
Faulting module path: D:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\dashboard_tactics_pi.dll
Report Id: b1e3b0d4-4630-4a56-8352-5cf24c1e946a
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Application Error" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>100</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2019-06-10T20:48:57.679906100Z" />
<EventRecordID>29467</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>SKEAM</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>opencpn.exe</Data>
<Data>5.0.0.0</Data>
<Data>5c958e09</Data>
<Data>dashboard_tactics_pi.dll</Data>
<Data>0.0.0.0</Data>
<Data>5cfe7b92</Data>
<Data>c0000005</Data>
<Data>000420aa</Data>
<Data>1eec</Data>
<Data>01d51fcda418e7e9</Data>
<Data>D:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\opencpn.exe</Data>
<Data>D:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\dashboard_tactics_pi.dll</Data>
<Data>b1e3b0d4-4630-4a56-8352-5cf24c1e946a</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

[RonSouthworth]

Hi

I will have a look at the changes today on macOS once i am back in the office and sort out what i have done...,

I forgot to back up my ini file so that is probably a bit messed

[Canne]

Hi, a quick word of warning for not install the latest Appveoyr exe's until I'm finished debugging an issue in Dashboard window resizing. The issue appears only in final build and I need multiple Appveoyr builds for debugging and they would probably just be an annoyance for you if you test them (everything before #1425-messages). Maybe it is a "feature" revealed by run-time and Appveoyr build which creates the issues with Aedan's installation? I will test that right after now when I am in the real-time debugging... Sorry for the inconvenience.

[RonSouthworth]

Originally Posted by RonSouthworth

Hi

I will have a look at the changes today on macOS once i am back in the office and sort out what i have done...,

I forgot to back up my ini file so that is probably a bit messed

Tried latest build No logged errors but the gauges wont load

[RonSouthworth]

I don't mind testing at all,
I have things set up to roll forward and backwards with any given change.
Sorting out the INI file isn't too problematic ....

I have out one sentence format that the tactics_pi accepts for Pitch and Heel..

A static version of the sentence in Java looks like ......

sentence = "$IIXDR,";
sentence = sentence + String.format("A,2.1,D,PTCH,A,-0.1,D,ROLL,");
nmeaServer.sendMessage(sentence + "*" + getNMEAChecksum(sentence) + "\r\n");

equates to 2.1º Nose Up Pitch and 0.1º to Port Heel ....

Adding it to the GUI and making a simulation of the values still to be done of course....

/Ron

[Canne]

Ron, thanks, but you're wasting your time with my latest commits; I am trying to find a solution for the Dashboard bug #1425 myself. I need AppVeyor box for that since I don't have a VS 140 compiler. If you plan to test for yourself or debug Aedan's issue, you need to take commit f41c6df54170af6524a6a0845d1e418aa5e130a6 or older which was the last one before wxWidgets trial and error session started... Or you can wait a couple of days until it stabilizes. Your XDR etc. sending stuff would be an awesome tool for a developer, keep on going!

[RonSouthworth]

Hi Canne

All understood

I’ve had some progress with the stand alone simulator

just some math in the background to tweak,

calculating leeway with pitch and heel in the mix and “fixing” the spherical model so position calculations are not just based on a simple sphere but reference the WGS84 model.

I want to ponder about how i implement these, the impact is to make it more realistic, so that can wait a little. The important thing is the number you dial up is what the message is sending so testing and debugging plugins is easier.


I will start on the plugin now and see how i go with incorporating the NMEA messaging into what i have built (mostly the GUI), it has the ship driver AIS messaging working so if i get the apparent wind instrument messages and sow going first that will help with what your doing i suspect.

Lots of stuff to figure out and document. I want to figure out how to grab the waypoint data so that can be fed into ship driver to simulate it having an autopilot, since I am using that as my starting point i think that is a nice way to say thanks for the help










All the best.

[Canne]

Ron, I am speechless!

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by RonSouthworth

Hi Canne

I’ve had some progress with the stand alone simulator
... The important thing is the number you dial up is what the message is sending so testing and debugging plugins is easier.
...go with incorporating the NMEA messaging into what i have built (mostly the GUI), it has the ship driver AIS messaging working so if i get the apparent wind instrument messages and sow going first...

... grab the waypoint data so that can be fed into ship driver to simulate it having an autopilot...

This sounds like a great simulation tool which runs standalone.

[RonSouthworth]

Originally Posted by rgleason

This sounds like a great simulation tool which runs standalone.

Hopefully the plugin will be just as useful, it will be something I can release to open source, i cannot do that with this java tool mostly because of my TCP/IP stack.

I am aiming to have something useable for you guys within a couple of weeks, it depends on how quick the rewrite goes.

Sounds like you would also like a stand alone version ? Might have a look at that in a longer time frame.

I am working on the plugin development documentation of course once i have it sorted out I will submit it for “official review”

It certainly makes testing easier

/Ron

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by RonSouthworth

Sounds like you would also like a stand alone version ? Might have a look at that in a longer time frame. /Ron

Ron, we beggars can't be choosers. Anything plugin, or standalone that works will be a big help I think. Perhaps other users will be able to test and learn more about Opencpn and Plugins by using it with Shipdriver, etc.

[RonSouthworth]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Ron, we beggars can't be choosers. Anything plugin, or standalone that works will be a big help I think.

Perhaps other users will be able to test and learn more about Opencpn and Plugins by using it with Shipdriver, etc.

Indeed Rick

Exactly my thoughts.

[cianclarke]

Loving this plugin! I've been playing around in MaxSea and Expedition lately, and still prefer the OpenCPN interface - performs better too. This brings the offering even closer!

Alas, the laylines & polars aren't rendering for me on OSX. Only the wind barb shows. Any ideas?

Reading back in the thread, I saw reports of latest build having this fixed, but could only find an exe on the Ci/Cd server. My endeavors to build locally (I guessed make create-pkg?) have dead ended in:

Description:

Unable to copy item at path '/workspace/data' to '/private/tmp/whJ29jlU/501/DashboardTactics/SharedSupport/plugins/dashboard_tactics_pi' because the item could not be found

Step:

Project > Distribution > Package 'DashboardTactics-Plugin_.' > Payload > Assemble

Can anybody point me towards a recent PKG / how to build locally??