Tactics Plugin

[tom_BigSpeedy]

Originally Posted by RonSouthworth

All three plugins, Dashboard_pi Tactics_pi and dashboard_tactics_pi don't co -exist well for me the only way I have had any success has been to change some code.

Ron,
I constantly run tactics_pi and dashboard_pi togehter on my system. And I do this since ever ...
I cannot talk about the combined dashboard_tactics_pi. Maybe a naming conflict ...

Originally Posted by RonSouthworth

It looks like some work in the code is in progress to have more than one tactic's point?

I started working on a second "temp. Tactics WP" last year, but it's not yet finished and not yet active ...
I created this "TWA to Waypoint" instrument in tactics_pi, giving you the TWA from the current position to the "Tactics temp. WP".
I use this mainly downwind to determine which gennaker to use ...
Once you know at which TWA your gennaker starts working, where it has its optimum performance and where it drops in performance, this is quite handy to make the right choice...
Example :
Code5 : starts at 105° TWA, performs best 110-120°, drops out at 130°
Reacher: starts at 115° TWA, performs best 120-135°, drops out at 140°
Runner : starts at 120° TWA, performs best 125-145°, drops out at 155°

Easy enough to decice, but it works only from the current boat position to the WP ...

The idea of the second temp. wp was :
I have to sail another 2 or 3 miles around that island, and then I will change course to the next WP. The question is :
Which TWA will I have from there on the next leg, which sail to use then
In this situation, the display of "TWA to Waypoint" does not reflect what I want to see, because it shows TWA from my current position, and I'm still way off the next leg ...

But that's still work in progress and will take a while ...
BR,
Thomas

[mikedefieslife]

Since most catamarans don't have a heel sensor, though the compass most likely puts out pitch, yaw etc..., what are catamaran owners using to calculate leeway? I find the figures absent in my Tactics setup.

[rgleason]

Canne and Thomas

please look at David Burch's comment in Features
about XDA



http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2932365

[rgleason]

PS:
PS: David corrected me as follows
not sure if posts can be edited but your note on the NMEA sentence has a typo which might be misleading.


my note was about MDA vs XDR
and not XDA.
not crucial, just a note.



Sorry, I had my wifes laptop completely dissected, and was perhaps not focused.

[AedanC]

Hi Petri,

I have been testing Dashboard-Tactics both at sea and on land and I haven't found any problems for quite a while now. Yesterday while replaying a file for something else I found that the TWS in the "True Wind Direction and Speed" gauge is not working for me. See the two sections marked in blue in the attachments. Note that the calculation appears to working correctly as it's displayed in other panes just fine.

Preferences are also in the attachments and a sample nmea trace that shows the issue is attached.

I'm using Windows 10, all updates applied. OpenCpn 5.0.0 and dashboard_tactics version 3.003.

Thanks again for all the good work!

Aedan

[juancho38]

Hi,

A quick question :
Is there any possibility to display the port and starboard bearing proposed tacks to the tactics temp. WP in the following image (red and green lines to the waypoint from the boat).
I hope to be clear enough in my question ... not sure !

Thanks anyway
J.

[rgleason]

I think having that information in some effective way, would be very useful.
Here is one version of this kind of interface from B&G Sailsteer. Not suggesting that Tactics must mimic this, but it helps to see how others do it.

B&G Sailsteer

[Canne]

Originally Posted by rgleason

please look at David Burch's comment in Features
about XDA http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2932365

Hi Rick,

The sentence looks well formed:

$WIXDR,P,1.01254,B,BARO,*5D

But if you look at https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do..._sentences#xdr you will see an example:

$IIXDR,P,1.02481,B,Barometer*29

There is no extra comma after "Barometer"-name. If you look at the definition in the above link and in https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/b...ea0183/xdr.cpp line 69, you will see that the extra comma could be interpret as a start of a new quadruplet for another instrument and that - that's my interpretation - the last quadruplet should be finished without comma. Otherwise one would fail at
https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/b...shboard_pi.cpp (line 1089).

My barometer Bohlken Westerland (seen in IMOCAs) is clever and it sends two type of sentences, like this:

$WIXDR,P,1.01823,B,BG,*4C

and

$WIXDR,P,1.01823,B,*65

And this way the latter, perhaps, is the one which is shown by Dashboard since it actually has four fields (the name of the instrument being empty in this case). Maybe this manufacturer has had compatibility issues...

Dashboard https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/b...shboard_pi.cpp understands both XDR (line 1099) and MDA (line 766).

If the "extra comma" "feature" request is accepted for Dashboard, fine. If not, he can always fix it easily with NMEA Converter and change it either to a MDA or even to a XDR (without a comma).

Agreed, it should work. But personally, seeing the testing effort, the XDR base class https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/b...ea0183/xdr.cpp is used in so many places and instruments that by changing it just for one comma would not justify the massive need for retesting all of those instruments sending XDR in well formed manner.

Best regards,

Petri

[Canne]

Originally Posted by juancho38

...display the port and starboard bearing proposed tacks to the tactics temp. WP...

Hi, not sure what is the difference between your requirement and the implemented target-TWA laylines? See section 3.6 in the manual https://github.com/tom-r/tactics_pi/...tactics_pi.pdf .
Cheers,
Petri

[Canne]

Originally Posted by AedanC

...I found that the TWS in the "True Wind Direction and Speed" gauge is not working for me. See the two sections marked in blue in the attachments. Note that the calculation appears to working correctly as it's displayed in other panes just fine...

Hi Aedan,

Thank you for your precious work and feedback! In my test use case for the true wind calculations I did not test Dashboard instruments, little I knew that actually this particular instrument shares TWA with all other instruments but has is own, dedicated TWS... Wonder why, could it be that that the speed value actually is different? Anyway, with calculated values certainly no reason for that and now it receives its TWS as well if the values are calculated (and from NMEA sentences if available as "TWS2", did not touch Dashboard).

Bug report: #52

Fix: 63464a6411e6409084f89a553f8b1e037ceab9b8

Test report: test_run_TCR370_use_case_TC48_test_plan_TP5_2019-07-22.pdf

I am currently testing Tactics functions requiring polar files - if no big bugs I'll make a v0.3.005 b3 release which includes the above fix end of this week, hopefully a release candidate soon after that.

Cheers,

Petri

[rgleason]

Thanks Canned re http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2936540


I sent David Burch a link to your review, so he can try to fix it.

[DavidBurch]

Thanks Petri and Rick for notes on sentence XDR. I will check this out. Thank goodness of NMEA converter!

[tom_BigSpeedy]

Hi,
Petri won't like it (more work !), but there's a new feature on the original tactics_pi plugin.
I added data export for WindHistory, BaroHistory & PolarPerformance.
The data is exported to a flat text file with a selectable separator (via opencpn.ini).
You'll find a new '>' button in the top left corner of each of the 3 instruments.
Once you click it, you'll be asked for an exportrate and a filename.
If the file exists, data is appended, otherwise the file is created.
When an export is running, the button changes to 'X'.
To stop the export, click the 'X'-button.

The 3 files always contain Date, (local) Time and the instrument data.
PolarPerformance also exports the TWA angle + the percentage based on your currently loaded polar.

For details see chapter 3.9 Data Export of the manual.

This is a first shot of the export !

On Petri's request, enhancements are in work (clockticks + UTC time).
He's thinking about connecting the exports to influxDB and grafana ...

To be honest, I couldn't really test the BaroHistory export as I don't have NMEA with pressure data. But as the code is similar on all 3 exports I'm confident that it is working as expected. At least the headline of the file is written correctly.

BR,
Thomas

[juancho38]

Originally Posted by Canne

Hi, not sure what is the difference between your requirement and the implemented target-TWA laylines? See section 3.6 in the manual https://github.com/tom-r/tactics_pi/...tactics_pi.pdf .
Cheers,
Petri

What I meant is to be able to check the heading of the proposed tack (red and green lines to the temp WP when not possible to go straight as in my previous picture) At the moment I use the "measure" tool.
Do you see what I mean ? Did I miss something ...?

Cheers.

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by juancho38

What I meant is to be able to check the heading of the proposed tack (red and green lines to the temp WP when not possible to go straight as in my previous picture) At the moment I use the "measure" tool.
Do you see what I mean ? Did I miss something ...?

Cheers.

It is interesting how we all understand things differently. Juancho, I thought I understood your point, but what is the best way to do it? Perhaps you can explain further...
IE: Port heading text aligned with the port layline, same for starboard?
Or because of legibility problems, heading text horizontal on left and right?
Or because of legibility problems, perhaps some other way of doing it?
Or a Port and Starboard Layline Heading Instrument?
Many ways to handle it.


"able to check the heading of the proposed tack (red and green lines to the temp WP when not possible to go straight.."
So what would be the best way to do this? Hoover over the layline and have a yellow popup message as ocpn_draw does sometimes?

Quite frankly I haven't thought about it much, nor has Petri (I think).