Watchdog Plugin

[conachair]

Originally Posted by poiu

I have the sensors, which are basic on/off zero voltage switches essentially. The bilge alarm is a simple switch, the other alarms are zero voltage relay contacts. The interface to turn those outputs into NMEA is the bit I don't have, and I suspect could be done by the SeaGauge device. I would buy something like it if I knew I could do something more useful with the NMEA output, like activate a more purposeful verbal warning, that I could distribute using speakers throughout the boat and on-deck.

Absolutely, there are many ways to do this, it just seemed to me with the NMEA alarm function already pretty much done, it would be easiest this way to improve it a bit.

Have you checked out the openplotter raspberry pi software? It has a lot of what you want built in, including 4 x switch alarms and engine temp which can be configured to do various actions including playing a under file or sending a Gmail. Opencpn is included.


Single handed I use the watchdog plug in the play a sound file as an off course alarm, very useful.

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by conachair

Have you checked out the openplotter raspberry pi software? It has a lot of what you want built in, including 4 x switch alarms and engine temp which can be configured to do various actions including playing a under file or sending a Gmail. Opencpn is included.


Single handed I use the watchdog plug in the play a sound file as an off course alarm, very useful.

This is great, but it is specific to the Rpi GPIO.
I wonder if it could be implemented in a more generic way with all sensors and switches on the OneWire bus ?

[poiu]

Originally Posted by conachair

Have you checked out the openplotter raspberry pi software? It has a lot of what you want built in, including 4 x switch alarms and engine temp which can be configured to do various actions including playing a under file or sending a Gmail. Opencpn is included.

Yes, no doubt it could do the job fine, though just for the I/O. I would rather have everything go through the laptop and have just one screen and one power consumer.

Depending on how it is done there may be a lot of programming work. It also would require breaking out the programming manuals and in my case climbing a steep hill to recover a skill I have lost. For most users it would just not be user friendly enough. It's a similar story with Arduino.

[poiu]

Originally Posted by NahanniV

This is great, but it is specific to the Rpi GPIO.
I wonder if it could be implemented in a more generic way with all sensors and switches on the OneWire bus ?

A perfect scenario for integrating into OpenCPN would be if there were an Open Source software/hardware system to implement. I did a bit of Google searching for an Open Source digital/analogue I/O serial interface for the PC. I found nothing that looked good. There are a few proprietary systems, which are actually reasonably priced. Here is one:
ACCES - USB-IIRO Series Isolated Input and Relay Output Digital I/O Module Page
Again, this does require a separate stand alone program, or for OpenCPN to be extended for a proprietary board and DLL, with all the, work, uncertainty and cost that goes with that.

Extending the exisiting NMEA software and using NMEA for data does have advantages.

[seandepagnier]

The rpi is really easy, you just read from a device to see the state of the io pins.

It would be trivial to write a simple server which polls the device and outputs nmea data over a socket.

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by poiu

A perfect scenario for integrating into OpenCPN would be if there were an Open Source software/hardware system to implement. I did a bit of Google searching for an Open Source digital/analogue I/O serial interface for the PC. I found nothing that looked good.
...

I think 1Wire could be what you are looking for.
Have a look at the open source project OWFS (One Wire File System).

The temperature sensor in OpenPlotter is 1Wire, they use a software driver in the Kernal to handle the 1Wire protocol, but Hardware (USB and I2C) interfaces to the 1Wire bus are also available.

Cheers,
JM.

[rgleason]

Conachair. - Good suggestion. I saw what you are doing on the OpenPlotter thread with others. It looks like there are lots of good ideas germinating in this thread and

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1984196

[conachair]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Conachair. - Good suggestion. I saw what you are doing on the OpenPlotter thread with others. It looks like there are lots of good ideas germinating in this thread.

Thanks. I really think we're on the edge of a fairly substantial offshoot in boat electronics. There are so many sensors available now which cost pennies, I ordered a BMP180 barometer/thermometer yesterday for just over £3 from amazon, today I have a raspberry Pi running openplotter sending highly accurate tweets out to the world. It would probably work fine on a £4 raspberry pi zero. And it's all so low power, it's incredible.
No doubt there will always be a big market for the raymarines etc but so much can already be done by average sailors with just a bit of knowledge, openplotter is great, it just works! I've been messing around for years trying to get a low power plotting set up which really worked and with openplotter/opencpn /rasp pi2 it took about half an hour.

How to get all the bits talking seems to be still a bit up in the air. maybe signalK will take off and take over, doesn't seem to actually do that much yet. Otherwise in sensor land it looks limited to the NMEA XDR sentence.

Watchdog is a great plugin, only really given it a decent test run once but as a singlehander having a soundfile with Homer Simpson shouting "run for your lives" each time the boat headed off course was very satisfying
Asking it to do everything might be a bit much.

Exciting times

Right, I'd better log back on to twitter to see just what the temperature is under the chart table, good to know these things

[rgleason]

Sounds like you're getting really steamed up about pi2 and openplotter. Hope you guys keep good notes & pics somewhere so we can follow later! Cause there's going to be a very heavy learning curve for me. I seem to keep delaying and going in the WMS direction because it seems easier.
Besides what would Windows users do? Best.. Rick

I think Sean is probably looking at some of this right now. --He has a Cruiseplot program on Git that uses raspberry or arduino and he has some electric servos working. I think he has/had it running. And there's another guy that was working on another autopilot..briefly on the forum.

[rgleason]

After a Test of Boundary Alarms. I found the following:

Boundary Exclusion does not work properly, it is acting like inclusion.
We need more selectivity and confirmation that we have the correct GUID.
This link has some suggestions for a dropdown selector listing Name + GUID
Also after the boundaries are selected the Boundary Name should show in Config.
Also in Config the "Options" field should show Boundary then Anchor Inclusive, or Anchor Exclusive, or _____ whatever it is .

There is more on the linked post. Thank you.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1986259

[jongough]

The Anchor alarm is for an Inclusion boundary and the one you are currently in, hence the get GUID. The other alarms are for boundaries you may or may not be inside, hence the type of boundary to alarm on is selectable. The GUID is used to avoid the issue with duplicate or blank boundary names.

I am only coding up the Watchdog to show how it can be used, not as the complete solution to alarms. I have also only put in items that I have used or wanted to use in real life. I think we have to be careful that we don't go overboard on the complexity of the alarms. I can think up many complex situations, but I am not sure how 'real' they are.

As for AIS alarms and Guard Zones, I have not seem anyone respond, apart from Rick, to my questions about such zones, so they have gone onto the back burner until they are answered by the people requesting such.

Jon

[rgleason]

Jon,
I'm sorry, not expecting you to do 2 plugins & understand Watchdog changes are for proof of concept, not UI. Also we are hopefully finishing first Ocpn_Draw & docs...so no more feature creep to Ocpn_Draw, best to wait and see what is needed.

"Anchor alarm" is for an "Inclusion boundary" which contains Own Ship hence the "get GUID".

The other alarms are for boundaries you may or may not be inside, hence the type of boundary to alarm on is selectable. The GUID is used to avoid the issue with duplicate or blank boundary names.

I'm still trying to understand this. What if Own Ship is inside two Inclusive Boundaries? This may not be real life, but then selection of Guid is important too. I have to think more about the other conditions.

AIS alarms and Guard Zones, --no response apart from Rick

Noted here, probably no changes needed in ocpn_draw to have a Boundary Exclusive AIS alert.
FS#1925 : Boundary Alarms -Anchor and AIS - UI Improvements

..have to be careful that we don't go overboard on the complexity of the alarms. I can think up many complex situations, but I am not sure how 'real' they are.

Yes. Agreed.

Also added this as a first simpler alarm.
FS#1926 : Add new Nmea AIS Range Alarm (Radial) to protect Own Ship at Anchor

Should I vote for them?

[rgleason]

Jon is updating WD for OD, compile is here. Effort now is toward AIS alarms.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2002945

[rgleason]

Jon, Reports

Watchdog PlugIn to handle the AIS stream better and allow the alarm to be turned off and on. There is a co-requisite patch, 595, in OD. There is also a small patch for the AIS_Decode routine to provide Ship Names without the trailing '@' signs.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2002681

[Roel Smidt]

I have been working on the Watchdog documentation.
If there's anything you think I should add, change or delete, feel free to bark at me! (Just don't bite please...).

Roel