Why Doesn't OpenCPN Send SOG to Autopilot

[balp]

Originally Posted by RhythmDoctor

By the way, I just discovered my Garmin 18x GPS is not currently configured to send out VTG data. Sometime over the next couple of days I will reconfigure it to include those sentences in addition to the RMC data that it is already sending. (Need to wait until I go to the boat.)

The OpenCPN user manual says that it receives both RMC and VTG data from the GPS. Is it possible that OpenCPN would send the VTG data to the AutoPilot? If so, that will fix my problem. If not, I would like to see OpenCPN modified to send either RMC or VTG data to the autopilot port. Either one would all the ST4000+ to detect SOG to assist its operation.

Thanks!

It would be a quite easy change, to repeat the data, to generate a RMC message based on the other data be harder, but still possible.

I pushed code to make it repeat into my github.

https://github.com/balp/OpenCPN/tree/autopilot

I don't have any autopilot to test on at all thou.

[bdbcat]

Folks...

What we really need here, of course, is a nice dialog to allow user selection of NMEA sources, destinations, multiplexing, and sentence handling.....

But we just don't have the resources to tackle this now.
Volunteers?

We could start the process by asking for user input.
Suggestions for functionality? Mocked up (or ripped) screenshots? Intersted users may want to start a discussion thread for this. I'm sure it will be a popular topic....

Meanwhile, I will add code that will allow RMC to be sent to A/P by manual config file editing. This will show up in the next Beta.

Thanks
Dave

[RhythmDoctor]

Thanks, Dave, for agreeing to put this in. I don't have the developer tools to incorporate balp's source.

When the beta is ready, please post a note with the needed changes to the config file.

[RhythmDoctor]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

...Meanwhile, I will add code that will allow RMC to be sent to A/P by manual config file editing. This will show up in the next Beta.

Dave,

I see that a few beta versions have appeared since you posted this message. What lines do I need to add/change in the .ini file to send the SOG info to my autopilot?

Thanks,

Rick

[cagney]

RhythmDoctor
See this announcement:http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tml#post702145
It's also mentioned in the opencpn.org wiki.
Thomas