Twocan - a new Plugin

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by Baikal

Yeah!
Dashboard is obsolete! both in design and in functionality!
I have Windows, on the CoastalExplorer program a functional dashboard.

Baikal, you are becoming a troll here (in my mind), wish it weren't so...
Perhaps you just use openplotter and coastal whatever.
BTW this thread is about TwoCan, not Dashboard. ..Also I do agree that Dashboard needs improvements, but can you and I do that? ...in short no.

[stevead]

Hi Rick,

I guess I need to clarify some terminology for the TwoCan plugin.

For Windows versions, to connect to the NMEA 2000 network or to replay existing log files it uses a plugin driver model. These plugin drivers currently support three hardware adapters (Axiomtek, Canable & Kvaser) and four software log file formats (twocan raw, candump, kees and yacht devices).

I call these "TwoCan plugin drivers", and they are implemented as Windows dll's. The TwoCan settings dialog searches for these plugin drivers in the directory <opencpn directory>\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers where <opencpn directory> is the path where opencpn is installed.

On my vanilla Windows 7 x86 machine it is C:\Program Files\OpenCPN , on your machine with your current build of OpenCPN it appears to be C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05

So on my machine, these seven dll's are present in C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers

For the installation package you have built it must install the plugin driver dll's in the directory <opencpn directory>\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers

If the drivers directory is not present the TwoCanplugin will log an error in opencpn.log. If the directory is present the twocan settings will attempt to load each dll present and display in the drop down list. All of this is logged in opencpn.log.

10:53:39 PM: TwoCan Settings, Driver Path: C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\
10:53:39 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\Axiomtek.d ll
10:53:39 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\candumplog .dll
10:53:39 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\cantact.dl l
10:53:39 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\filedevice .dll
10:53:39 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\keeslog.dl l
10:53:39 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\kvaser.dll
10:53:39 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\yachtdevic eslog.dll

If no plugin driver dll's are present the drop down list will be empty and the opencpn.log file will not have any entries of the form "TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver:"

For each of the four software log file formats the plugin drivers are hardcoded for both the log file path and the log file name. For Windows users, the log file path is the "My Documents" folder. The hardcoded log file names are twocanraw.log, candump.log, kees.log and yachtdevices.log.

There are samples of these four log file formats on the github twocandrivers repository in the samples directory. If I recall, if the TwoCan plugin is configured to use one of the software log file plugin drivers and the associated log file is not present, it should log a "file not found" error in opencpn.log.

Not sure if you have bothered to package the sample log files, if not then the simple instruction for Windows users is to copy them to the "My Documents" directory,

The TwoCan plugin can also log received NMEA 2000 messages. This is enabled through the settings dialog and represented in the opencpn.ini file. These log files are hardcoded to use the twocan raw format (12 paIrs of hex digits). For Windows users the log file is stored in the "My Documents" folder and is named twocan-YYYY-MM-DD_hhmmSS.log (eg.twocan-2018-12-31_210735.log)

Finally an explanation of the twocan plugin ini settings (found in opencpn.ini)
[PlugIns/TwoCan]
Adapter The full path to the Windows DLL implementing the plugin driver. Eg. (C:\\Program Files\\OpenCPN\\plugins\\twocan_pi\\drivers\\filed evice.dll) or None
Log Whether to log received NMEA 2000 messages, 0 do not log, 1 log (in default twocan raw format)
PGN integer representing a bit mask of what PGN's to convert
Mode 0 = Passive, 1 = Active (participates on NMEA 2000 network)
Heartbeat if an Active Device, whether to send PGN 126993 Heartbeats, 0 Don't Send, 1 Send
Address=2 If an Active Device, the current NMEA 2000 network address for the plugin

For example:

[PlugIns/TwoCan]
Adapter=C:\\Program Files\\OpenCPN\\plugins\\twocan_pi\\drivers\\kvase r.dll
Log=0
PGN=511
Mode=1
Heartbeat=1
Address=2

[rgleason]

So on my machine, these seven dll's are present in C:\Program Files\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers

It does this. I will remove the other path and files under "data". Yes I do have the seven dlls in the correct directory.

Your path is "C:\Program Files\OpenCPN" -- You are installing into 64 bit programs? Strange. Opencpn is 32 bit and uses Program Files (x86).

"If the drivers directory is not present the TwoCanplugin will log an error in opencpn.log. If the directory is present the twocan settings will attempt to load each dll present and display in the drop down list. All of this is logged in opencpn.log.If no plugin driver dll's are present the drop down list will be empty and the opencpn.log file will not have any entries of the form "TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver:"
--Yes, I've noticed this.

"For each of the four software log file formats the plugin drivers are hardcoded for both the log file path and the log file name. For Windows users, the log file path is the "My Documents" folder. The hardcoded log file names are twocanraw.log, candump.log, kees.log and yachtdevices.log."
"There are samples of these four log file formats on the github twocandrivers repository in the samples directory. If I recall, if the TwoCan plugin is configured to use one of the software log file plugin drivers and the associated log file is not present, it should log a "file not found" error in opencpn.log."
"Not sure if you have bothered to package the sample log files, if not then the simple instruction for Windows users is to copy them to the "My Documents" directory, "

---Yes, here they are https://github.com/rgleason/TwoCanPl.../master/Sample

---I will include them in the package, but I don't think I can make NSIS install copy them to "My documents"

---Is this so that it can be writable?

Thank you for the explanation about the ini Settings, very helpful and confirming.

[ooo]

Discovering TwoCan exists was very exciting. Thank you for creating this plugin! Once I am able to get it running I am happy to help test.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get it to read anything from the network. I'm on Windows 10 and am using a Canable Pro cantact type device running the candlelight firmware. I can read the network using Cangaroo so I know I'm connected properly and the Canable works.

For my latest tests I am running the TwoCan plugin linked in post #45.

Here is the excerpt from the opencpn.log file:

11:31:14 AM: PlugInManager: Initializing PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi.dll
11:31:14 AM: TwoCan Device, Found driver C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\cantact.dll
11:31:14 AM: TwoCan Device, Driver Manufacturer: Canable
11:31:14 AM: TwoCan Device, Driver Name: Cantact
11:31:14 AM: TwoCan Device, Driver Version: 1.0
11:31:14 AM: Error: TwoCan Device, Error opening driver: 1680211968
11:31:14 AM: Error: TwoCan Device, Error loading driver C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\cantact.dll: 1680211968
11:31:14 AM: Error: TwoCan Plugin,  TwoCan Device Initialize Error: 1680211968
11:31:16 AM: TwoCan Settings, Driver Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\
11:31:16 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\axiomtek.dll
11:31:16 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\candumplog.dll
11:31:16 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\cantact.dll
11:31:16 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\filedevice.dll
11:31:16 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\keeslog.dll
11:31:16 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\kvaser.dll
11:31:16 AM: Error: TwoCan Settings, Invalid DLL Handle Error: 126 for C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\kvaser.dll
11:31:16 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\yachtdeviceslog.dll

Any pointers to help me get TwoCan running would be appreciated.

[stevead]

To answer Rick's questions first.

Regarding my installation directory, I think you missed fully reading

On my vanilla Windows 7 x86 machine it is C:\Program Files\OpenCPN

, so to correct your inference, it's not a x64 machine !

Regarding the sample logs, for me the natural place for a user's personal files is under My Documents. It is the one directory that can be relied on to exist for each user, irrespective of their permissions/privileges. The sample logs are only opened in read mode.

If the user elects to log received NMEA 2000 messages, then by default they are written to My Documents, again for the same reason; it is the one directory that exists for all users and for which they have both read & write permissions.

To answer the last post regarding the use of the Canable Cantact on Windows 10, the current Windows TwoCan plugin driver for the Canable Cantact uses the device as a serial device. Could you please reflash the Canable Cantact device using the slcan firmware that can be downloaded from https://canable.io/updater/

At present I don't have the time to write a Windows TwoCan plugin driver for the candlelight frmware, the current serial implementation seems to work. Although I still have to update both it & the Axiomtek plugin driver with a write function to support the TwoCan plugin version 1.4 Active Mode feature.

Not that it is directly related to this specific question, but if a user wishes to use the Canable Cantact device with Linux (including Raspberry Pi), it can be used either as a serial device using Serial Line SocketCAN (slcan) or as a native device using the native SocketCAN (can) the latter which will require the candlelight firmware. For Linux users I would recommend the candlelight firmware and native SocketCAN interface as I have observed that when used with the TwoCan Plugin in Active Mode, the slcan firmware for the Cantact device has some performance issues and appears to drop frames, especially multi frame NMEA Fast Messages.

[rgleason]

Dear Steven,
We are indeed lucky to have such an expert in Nmea2000 as you, sometimes you are way ahead of me. Your posts are quite pithy and brimming full for the uninitiated like me.

Thanks for correcting me about the machine, had not thought of that.

I read this with interest and relief:

Regarding the sample logs, for me the natural place for a user's personal files is under My Documents. It is the one directory that can be relied on to exist for each user, irrespective of their permissions/privileges. The sample logs are only opened in read mode.

If the user elects to log received NMEA 2000 messages, then by default they are written to My Documents, again for the same reason; it is the one directory that exists for all users and for which they have both read & write permissions.

This is perfect. Would it be possible to put both the "drivers" directory and "samples" directory under the "data" directory? The reason I ask this is NSIS will properly handle and package those directories if they are located there! Otherwise it will become a PITA. Also this is the way the other plugins work.


I realize that this may mean that some path changes may need to be made in the plugin. I will wait to make those changes until you approve.

[ooo]

Thanks for the quick reply Steve. I'm still having no success. Am I missing a step?

I flashed to the slcan firmware. I have the Cantact driver installed and the Canable shows up in the device manager as "CANtact USB/CAN Device" on COM3 under Ports.

I uninstalled TwoCan and then reinstalled just to be sure I didn't have any junk from my previous attempts to build the plugin from scratch.

I'm getting the same error opening the driver in the opencpn log file.

This is definitely low priority but maybe solving this will help others, and of course I would be excited to have NMEA 2000 integration in OpenCPN. Thanks for your work on this.

7:43:48 PM: TwoCan Plugin, Settings Saved
7:43:49 PM: TwoCan Device, Found driver C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\cantact.dll
7:43:49 PM: TwoCan Device, Driver Manufacturer: Canable
7:43:49 PM: TwoCan Device, Driver Name: Cantact
7:43:49 PM: TwoCan Device, Driver Version: 1.0
7:43:49 PM: Error: TwoCan Device, Error opening driver: 1680211968
7:43:49 PM: Error: TwoCan Device, Error loading driver C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\cantact.dll: 1680211968
7:43:49 PM: Error: TwoCan Plugin,  TwoCan Device Initialize Error: 1680211968
7:43:50 PM: TwoCan Settings, Driver Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\
7:43:50 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\axiomtek.dll
7:43:50 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\candumplog.dll
7:43:50 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\cantact.dll
7:43:50 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\filedevice.dll
7:43:50 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\keeslog.dll
7:43:50 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\kvaser.dll
7:43:50 PM: Error: TwoCan Settings, Invalid DLL Handle Error: 126 for C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\kvaser.dll
7:43:50 PM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\yachtdeviceslog.dll

[rgleason]

Steven,
This morning I am going to move the folders "drivers" and "samples" to be under the towcan_pi/data directory. With them in this location, NSIS will copy these folders to its temporary build/ location and then package them in the exe. I hope you can make thee necessary adjustments so this will work.


This change has been added to PR
Cmake, version & filename #6


To be perfectly clear, when the exe is completed, the drivers and samples folders will be installed into the "data" directory

C:\Program Files (x86)\[Opencpn]\plugins\twocan_pi\data




twocansettings.cpp adding line 300

adapterDirectoryName.AppendDir(_T("data"));

[rgleason]

Haven't found where the path for samples directory is located. ...yet


But I have tried this appveyor file and installed twocan and

plugins/twocan/data/drivers
plugins/twocan/data/sample
are installed as above.


and I can select the drivers from the Dropdown under Options> Preferences.
However no Twocan Icon shows in the main toolbar where plugins are shown! (not a new problem!)

Opencpn.ini
[PlugIns/TwoCan]
Adapter=C:\\Program Files (x86)\\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\\plugins\\twocan_pi\\data\\drivers\\ keeslog.dll
PGN=0
Log=1
Mode=1
Address=0
Heartbeat=1
[PlugIns/twocan_pi.dll]
bEnabled=1

opencpn.log

8:35:01 AM: PlugInManager: Loading PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi.dll
8:35:01 AM: PlugInManager: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi.dll
API Version detected: 108
PlugIn Version detected: 104
8:35:01 AM: TwoCan Device, Found driver C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\cantact.dl l
8:35:01 AM: Error: TwoCan Device, Invalid DLL handle: 126
8:35:01 AM: Error: TwoCan Device, Error loading driver C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\drivers\cantact.dl l: 1813250048
8:35:01 AM: Error: TwoCan Plugin, TwoCan Device Initialize Error: 1813250048

8:35:18 AM: TwoCan Settings, Driver Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\data\drivers\
8:35:18 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\data\drivers\axiom tek.dll
8:35:18 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\data\drivers\candu mplog.dll
8:35:18 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\data\drivers\canta ct.dll
8:35:18 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\data\drivers\filed evice.dll
8:35:18 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\data\drivers\keesl og.dll
8:35:18 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\data\drivers\kvase r.dll
8:35:18 AM: Error: TwoCan Settings, Invalid DLL Handle Error: 126 for C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\data\drivers\kvase r.dll
8:35:18 AM: TwoCan Settings, Attempting to load driver: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\data\drivers\yacht deviceslog.dll
8:35:35 AM: TwoCan Plugin, Settings Saved
8:35:36 AM: TwoCan Device, Found driver C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\data\drivers\keesl og.dll
8:35:36 AM: TwoCan Device, Driver Manufacturer: TwoCan
8:35:36 AM: TwoCan Device, Driver Name: Kees Logfile Reader
8:35:36 AM: TwoCan Device, Driver Version: 1.0
8:35:36 AM: Error: TwoCan Device, Invalid Write function: 127
8:35:36 AM: TwoCan Device, Loaded driver C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi\data\drivers\keesl og.dll
8:35:36 AM: TwoCan Plugin, TwoCan Device Initialized
8:35:36 AM: TwoCan Plugin, TwoCan Device Thread Created
8:35:36 AM: TwoCan Device, Driver read thread started: 0
8:35:37 AM: Changing NMEA Datasource for IIXTE to (Priority: 0)
8:35:37 AM: Changing NMEA Datasource for IIXTE to UDP:127.0.0.1:2947 (Priority: 1)
8:35:39 AM: Metrics: m_display_size_mm: 344 wxDisplaySize: 1920:1080
8:35:40 AM: Metrics: m_display_size_mm: 344 wxDisplaySize: 1920:1080

8:35:52 AM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\twocan_pi.dll
8:35:52 AM: TwoCan Plugin, TwoCan Device Thread Delete Result: 0
8:35:52 AM: PlugInManager: Deactivating PlugIn: C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\plugins\vdr_pi.dll

[rgleason]

Drivers Summary: It appears that yachtdevices.dll and candumplog.dll, and filedevices.dll work, the others do not. See attached.


I think we should only have working drivers in here if this is to be released as a Beta.




Even when I use the yachtdevices.dll in the dropdown, no twocan bird shows in the main toolbar after closing options.

[rgleason]

This part of opencpn.ini appears to be correct to me, and yachtdeviceslog.dll shows no errors:


[PlugIns/TwoCan]
Adapter=C:\\Program Files (x86)\\OpenCPN 5.0.0+20c9a05\\plugins\\twocan_pi\\data\\drivers\\ yachtdeviceslog.dll
PGN=0
Log=1
Mode=0
Address=0
Heartbeat=0
[PlugIns/twocan_pi.dll]
bEnabled=1


however the Twocan Icon does not show in the main toolbar even when Opencpn is restarted.

[stevead]

In reply to ooo (Post #52),

The error code in opencpn.log:

7:43:49 PM: Error: TwoCan Device, Error opening driver: 1680211968

is generated when the TwoCan cantact driver cannot find the adapter and it's serial port from the Windows registry. (The driver tries to automagically retrieve and configure the serial port settings, without the user having to do any extra configuration).

As I only have a standard Canable Cantact Adapter and not the Pro version and have only tested under Windows 7 x86, I think the problem lies in retrieving these settings from the registry.

Would you be so kind to send a copy of the .inf file that you used to install the device and also the following Windows registry entries (and subkeys) ?
HKEY_LOCALMACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\enum\US B\VID_AD50&PID_60C4
and
HKEY_LOCALMACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Ports

Thanks very much.

[bcn]

Steve...

some logs from our N2K network via the Actisense NGT-1.
AIS data and data from tan Airmar PB200

The logs are in the Actisense EBL format. Hope that helps...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/emvpspoy9pwze5m/N2K.zip?dl=0

Hubert

[stevead]

Thanks very much Hubert,

I've had a brief look at both Canboat & Openskipper's Actisense NGT-1 code, and may for convenience sake see if I can get access to the Actisense Comms SDK. However not promising anything yet. I also have a sneaking suspicion that my "kees" log file reader actually uses some form of the Actisense log format.

Seems like the plugin has take on on a life of its own (which is a good thing), I'm just struggling to keep up with Rick's efforts to get the code integrated with OpenCPN version 5, and problems other users' are encountering. Kind of scary that some users are actually using this !

Cheers.

[bcn]

The Actisense EBL reader has the option to output in txt format IIRC...

https://www.actisense.com/media/?pro...type=downloads