Please do not put any content on this page (Other than the
Authors).
The diversity and range of the OpenCPN Plugins is quite remarkable.
Users should appreciate the time these authors spent to create this
resource. Plugins have been developed for some time now. There is a
very healthy collaboration, so that at times it is truly impossible to
determine "who's" plugin it is, and since this is one of the major
strengths of Open Source we will not attribute. However it should be
noted that there are a number of authors who are quite prolific. As the
authors come to mind they will be noted below. If you are one of the
authors and your name does not appear, please advise.
Pavel Kalin, Sean Depagnier, Dave Register, Jean Pierre Pitzef, Dave
Cowell, Dirk Smits, Jon Gough, Mike Rossiter, Salty Paws, Transmitter
Dan, Peter Tulp, Konni, Hakan, Wally Schulpen, Kees Verruijt, Douwe
Fokkema, Deave Dellear
Many thanks to those who have helped the authors of these plugins.
Included
Plugins
These
are the Plugins included with the standard download.
Install and Enable
Plugins
General Information about plugins.
Plugins included in
OpenCPN
Dashboard Plugin
Plugin to display navigation data. Included in the OpenCPN installation.
Grib Weather Plugin.
Plugin to display Grib weather data files. Included in the OpenCPN
installation.
WMM Plugin
A plugin to display the magnetic variation, based on the World Magnetic
Model.
Chart Downloader
Manager for chart downloads.
Dashboard
The Dashboard plugin is able to show
quite a few instruments.
The Dashboard plugin is always distributed with OpenCPN, no
separate download is required.
If the data is available to OpenCPN in the NMEA0183 data stream the
different instruments will display relevant data; but the plugin don't
tell what is available. It is assumed that the user know what is
connected. It is of course possible to activate all instruments and see
what works.
The Dashboard in action, two Dashboards, one vertical and one
horizontal.
Grab the top Caption bar with the cursor and drag the Dashboard as far
as possible to the right or left. Let go the cursor, and the Dashboard
will dock, the chart display will adjust, no part of the chart will be
hidden. Horizontal Dashboards can in a similar way be docked top or
bottom.
This process is reversible. Just grab the Dashboard dialog bar with the
cursor, an pull towards the middle of the screen, and the Dashboard
will become floating.

The same Dashboards docked left and bottom.

There
is a grab handle in the SE corner of each Dashboard. Use it to
resize each dialog.
The graphics will change size, but not the text, which is handled
separately. See further down.

The
Dashboard Tab
Once the Dashboard plugin is activated in the plugin tab, the Dashboard
Icon will be available in the ToolBar and will work as an on/off
toggle. The Preference button works exactly the same as described under
"Dashboard Settings" below.

The
"Enable" Button activates the plugin and shows the icon in the
ToolBar.
Once enabled, the "Disable" Button is displayed, as show above.
If you press the "Preference" Button the Dashboard preferences dialog
becomes available.
Dashboard settings

Right
click anywhere in a Dashboard and a few options are displayed, in
a small dialog.
Above we have clicked on the vertical Dashboard. Make this Dashboard
horizontal by clicking the "Horizontal" radio button. Stop displaying
it by un-ticking the box in front of the first "Dashboard" line. Get it
back by right clicking on the other Dashboard and tick the same box
again.
Preferences

The Dashboard Tab
The
Icons in the narrow pane to the left, represents the available
instances. Click on an instance and the configured instruments shows in
the "Instruments" pane.
"+" and "-" Add or delete a Dashboard instance. Note,
that an active Dashboard can not be deleted as the "-" will be grayed
out. Configure a new instance by "Add"-ing instruments in the
"Instrument" pane.
Show this Dashboard If ticked just that Dashboard is
shown. Toggling the icon displays all Dashboards.
Caption changes the name of the DashBoard from the
default "Dashboard" to the Caption value.
Due to a wxWidgets bug, this change is not instant, and requires
docking the Dashboard or restarting OpenCPN, to work.
Orientation A dash board can be either Vertical or
Horizontal.
Vertical can be docked left or right, Horizontal can be docked top or
bottom.
The "Instruments" pane. Shows the Instruments that are
"active", that will show up in that particular Dashboard .The
instruments are selected with the buttons to the right.
Add. This button brings up the "Add Instrument" dialog
where the available instruments can be highlighted and added to the
Instruments Window.
The
available 40 instruments are:
Position (text)
SOG (text) -Speed Over Ground
Speedometer (dial)
COG(text) - Course Over Ground
GPS Compass(dial)
STW(text) Speed Through Water
True HDG(text) Heading
Apparent WindAngle & Speed(dial)
App. Wind speed(text)
App. Wind speed(dial)
True Wind Angle & Speed(dial)
Depth(text)*
Depth(dial)*
Water Temp(text)
VMG(text)- Velocity Made Good to a waypoint.
VMG(dial)
Rudder Angle(text)
Rudder Angle(dial)
GPS in view(text)- the number of satellites detected*
GPS status(dial)**
Cursor, shows the position of the cursor.
Clock, showing UTC from the NMEA stream, in most cases this is the gps
time.
Sunrise/Sunset
Moon phase
Air Temp
App. Wind angle
True Wind angle
True Wind direction
True Wind Speed
True Wind Direction and speed
Magnetic Hdg
True Compass
Wind History
Trip Log
Sum Log
Barometric Pressure (dial)
Barometric Pressure (text)
Barometric History
From Ownship. Shows the vector from Ownship to the cursor.
Magnetic COG
*The DPT sentence is used, and transducer offset will be added to depth
value, if available.
**Linux note: GPS satellite info is not available if using gpsd.
The same informations is however available through the "xgps" command.
Delete. Highlight an entry in the
Instrument Window to delete it.
Up
/ Down. Highlight an entry in the Instrument Window
and change the order between the selected instruments.
This order will also be the order between the instruments in the
Dashboard dialog.
The Appearance Tab

Use
this tab to set fonts.
These controls together enables the user to adjust the view of the
dashboard to suit individual needs.

Units
Ranges and Formats
Set the units to use, and the range of the speed dial.

Wind
History
The Wind History Instrument needs some further explanations.
The "wind history" instrument is meant to be run as a
standalone (vertical) instrument.
Just define a separate dashboard and add it as the only instrument.

You
can resize the Instrument it with the mouse.

In real conditions, it monitors around 40 min of wind direction (red),
as well as wind speed (blue), showing a vertical time line every 5 min
(the example screen shot is a full-speed VDR replay).
The text on the top shows the current values, as it is displayed in the
standard instruments (blue = wind speed data, TWS=True Wind Speed, red
= direction, TWD = True Wind Direction).
Here is an explanation of the text line, left side (see screen shot):
TWS 7.5 : true Wind Speed currently 7.5 kts
Max 22.3 kts since 18:50 : this is the max Wind speed in the visible
graphs, i.e. the last ~40 mins
Overall 22.3 : the max wind speed since OpenCPN was started.
Right side above :
TWD 357° : True wind direction currently 357°
The thin red/blue curves are the real direction/speed values, the
thicker curves are smoothed values. Makes it easier to see trends.
There is some logic included :
The instruments re-zooms automatically as much as possible, always
trying to show the whole visible curve;
Wind speed curve:
if your max (visible) wind speed is 10 kts, then your scale is from
0...11 kts (rounded upwards to the next full knot).
In the screen shot we had a max of 22.3kts --> scale is 0...23
kts.
Wind direction :
The instrument scale shows +/- 90° of the currently visible data
values, but is limited to a total of 360°.
If the wind is shifting through North (from 350, 355, 359, 002, 010,
...) we're shifting the curve as well, meaning that there is NO
vertical jump in the data from 360° --> 0°, and we do NOT loose
all
the
continuity in the smoothed curves !
If you should happen to have more than a full 360° cycle of wind
direction in the recorded data (if you sail through a couple of dust
devils ), I limited the max scale to 360°, meaning that the curve will
run out of the visible area on bottom or on top of the instrument.
Please note that you don't have to have the instrument "open" all the
time.
Once activated as initially described, you can close it, and simply
reopen it on demand. You don't loose the curves, the instrument
continues to collect the data.
To make it visible again simply right click on an existing
standard-dashboard, and click the "Wind History" Dashboard.

Night
time Mode
In Windows, Night, F5, mode. The title bar on the floating dashboard
window is a bit glaring (this mode is controlled by windows by way of a
theme and is not possible to change from an application) . Dock the
Dashboard into "docked mode" it will be less glaring. The best solution
is to simply "dock" the dashboard window at night, either left or
right. This brings the window decorations back under OCPN control, and
we recently added logic to dim it in this mode.
Go to
Table
Of Contents
WMM
The "
World Magnetic Model PlugIn for
OpenCPN"
implements the NOAA World Magnetic Model.
More information: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/WMM/DoDWMM.shtml
The bundled WMM2010 model expires on December 31, 2014.
After then, if a new version of the plugin is not released in time, you
will have to get a new WMM.COF from NOAA and place it in the location
you can find in the OpenCPN logfile.
A Quick-Start Guide
This plugin is all about the value of the magnetic variation. The value
at your boat position, at the position of the cursor, and the rest of
the world.
Download and install the plugin. Go to Options-->Plugins. Press
the
"Enable" button.

Then
press the Preference button, and copy the settings below.

Press OK twice.
The WMM icon will now be found in your ToolBar. The numbers in the
button is the variation at your position.

Press the Toolbar Button and the small dialog below will appear on the
screen.
The first value is the same as in the button, the variation at your
boat (gps) position.
The second value is the variation at the position of the cursor.

That
is all you need to know to get started, and for most of your daily
use.
Need more details? Read on!
The
Details
World Magnetic Model Plotting allows users to cross reference the
magnetic deviation values printed on many raster charts.
Variation is the angle between true and magnetic north.
Inclination is the vertical angle of the magnetic
field.
A compass is adjusted for the inclination in the intended sales region.
If you buy a compass in Europe; it will not be level in Australia, for
example.
Field Strength is the magnetic field in nano tesla
from 20000 to 66000.
Currently the total field strength is shown, with no immediate
practical use. Hopefully this will change to show the horizontal
component in the future, that has an impact on whether the compass
works or not, near
the magnetic poles.
The plotted lines are similar to a topographic map. The space between
them can be adjusted; more space takes less time to calculate.
The Step size and Pole accuracy sliders allow a trade off for speed vs
computation time.

With
the extended Radio-button, this dialog will show on the screen

F - Total Intensity of the
geomagnetic field
H - Horizontal Intensity of the
geomagnetic field
X - North Component of the
geomagnetic field
Y - East Component of the
geomagnetic field
Z - Vertical Component of the
geomagnetic field
I (DIP) - Geomagnetic Inclination
D (DEC) - Geomagnetic Declination
(Magnetic
Variation) |
Click "Settings" and adjust the display of the graphical plot.

Show
variation only.

Or
all options together.

Grib
Weather
OpenCPN
has a grib weather file viewer plugin, aimed at being useful
while under way.
The grib plugin is always distributed with OpenCPN, no
separate
download is required.
What
is a grib file?
- If
you are not familiar with grib weather files, make sure you
understand the basics, before you start to use them. It is
essential to understand the limitations of weather forecasts that are
distributed in the grib format. It is also worth pointing out
that gribs are not reliable near tropical systems.
Send a blank mail to GribWarning@saildocs.com.
Read the mail you get back carefully.
- To get started with gribs and to find sources for
downloads,
check Franks-Weather.
- A very good, up to date book, is "Modern Marine Weather,
second
edition" by David Burch, with a thorough treatment of the subject.
- A few files including lectures on tropical weather and
gribs are
available here.
Get
started
- To
display grib files as an overlay on your normal charts you
have to first activate the grib icon

- Go to
find
the plugin tab. Click on the Grib
plugin, then the "Enable"
button. The "Preferences" Button brings up a small dialog. The settings
in this dialog rarely needs changing after the initial setup.

Grib
Preference
- Use
High Definition Graphics. The setting only
concerns the barbed wind arrows.Tick the "Use High Definition Graphics"
box, unless you are on old hardware. Not ticking the "High Definition
Graphics" box can help to speed up the grib display, in such cases.
- Use Gradual Colors. This setting applies to all
colored overlay maps. On many installations the difference in rendering
is very small. The overlay maps built in color variation plays a part.
- Copy First Cumulative Missing Record. This is
about rainfall and cloud cover records .
As these records are "cumulative" , the first one does not exist in
files from zyGrib and Saildocs. With this parameter unchecked, there
will be neither rainfall and nor cloud cover displayed for the first
date/time of the file. Ticking the box fixes the problem.
- Copy Missing Wave Records. This only concerns
wave records from zyGrib delivers files from two models ; FNMOC
(WW3-...)
for waves and GFS for all other parameters. These two forecast models
does not have the same time spacing. For some dates/times, the wave
data do not exist.This parameter allows this missing data to be
reconstructed and avoiding the overlay (if set) to flicker.
Load
File Options
- Load
the More Recent File in Directory. Loads
the newest file in the grib directory on start.
- Load the Last Open File. Loads the grib file
used last time.
Start
options
- Start
at the first forecast in GRIB file
- Start at the nearest forecast to current time
- Authorize interpolation to start at current time.
Time
Options
The
Grib Display Controls
The
Standard Display Control
To start the Grib plugin press the

button in the tool-bar. The
"GRIB Display Control" then pops up.

Hide Data at Cursor
This is a smart and compact dialog. For a quick start press the "Open
File" button and navigate to your grib file directory and press the
file to be displayed.
- Previous/Next Go to the previous or the next
record in the gribfile. This corresponds to the time "interval" chosen
when the grib file was downloaded.
- Data valid at The time of validity for all grib
data on screen.
- Open Grib file The name of the grib file in use.
- Now Displays the record, nearest in time to
"now"
according to the Start option you have selected: ("Start at the nearest
forecast to current time" or "Authorize interpolation to start at
current time").
- Select Geopotential Height If grib data for
geopotential height is available, selection will be between Std, 500.
- Zoom to Center This button will home in on the
loaded area that the loaded grib file covers.
- Play Goes through all records in turn, with the
animation speed controlled in the "Grib Settings" dialog.
- Hide Cursor Data Hides Grib which normally
appears in the data windows. Data windows are hidden.
- Progress Slider Just to the right of the "Play"
button is a slider that is just another way of going through the grip
records.
- Open File Activates the operating systems
standard file selector dialog to select a grib file. The plugin
remembers the
directory of this grib. This is used next time you start OpenCPN and
activates the Grib plugin. See settings in the "Grib Preferences"
dialog above.
- Settings is where to control how the different
grib data will be displayed. See more below.
- Request Download grib files via email. More
below.
- GRIB Data at Cursor. This is where the "smart"
part kicks in. Only entries for the data contained in the
active grib file will be displayed. For example, if there is
no wave data in the current grib file, there
will be no signs of wave data at all. In the case above, where the the
wave data is N/A, the grib file includes wave data, but not for the
area where the cursor is. Compare with the picture below, where the
grib
only contains current data. The tick boxes next to each data entry, are
used to activate the data-display on the screen. Exactly what will be
shown is controlled in the "Grib Settings" dialog, which is reached by
pressing the "Settings" button. Don't activate to many display features
at the same time. The display quickly becomes very cluttered.

The
"GRIB Display Control" loaded with a grib file only containing
current data.
Advanced GRIB Data at Cursor. The display
options
for all the data shown, can be reached by right.clicking on the little
squares where the "ticks" are shown. For the meaning of all these
options, read on.

Right-clicking
the "Air Temp" option square.
The
Advanced Display Control
The plugin has an advanced mode were altitude data can be displayed.
This mode requires some more knowledge than plain gribs. A good start
is to read
"Mariner’s
Guide to the 500 – Millibar Chart".
If a grib file includes altitude data, the control will automatically
include more options. See below.

If
the dialog looks normal except for an extra selection box under
"GRIB Data at Cursor", like this,

then the grib file contains altitude data. Selecting one of the
altitudes, for example 500, changes the dialog to what you see above.
The advanced data are displayed against a yellow background.
Wind. These are the wind data valid for the selected
altitude level.
Grib Data at 500 hPa. The values at the selected level.
Weather
Tables
Once a grib file is loaded in the current session, the "Weather table"
appears in the right click menu.

Click the entry, and a Weather Table, valid at the cursor point, pops
up. All available data in the current grib file, for the whole time
span, are shown.
Settings
Settings controls how the grib files are displayed on the screen, and
units
used in the Grib Display control. Thing like Overlay colors, animation
time interval and speed and much more.
The basic dialog looks like this.
Typical DATA TAB

Note
the Fixed or Minimum Spacing (pixels) selection. This is a typical
setting.
Typical GUI TAB

Typical PLAYBACK TAB

Playback
The Loop Mode controls what happens when "Play" is pressed in the Grib
Display Control.
- Loop Mode. Sets the "Play" function into a loop
mode. Otherwise, playback will stop when reaching the end of the file.
- Loop Start. Were to start the loop. The option
"Current time forecast" makes sure that only data now or in the future
are shown
- Updates per Second. Controls the speed of "play".
- Loop Start. The loop can start either at the
start of the grib file or from the current time forecast.
- Interpolate between gribs. If you select this
option, you will be able to choose your own time interval, but you have
to consider that it can decrease data accuracy. To remind you, this
info will pop up.
- Time
Interval. This is the time interval used
for
interpolation. The entry is only visible if "Interpolate between gribs"
is ticked. This is connected tho the chosen time interval when
requesting a grib file.
Display
The lower part of the Grib Settings Dialog, under the Display heading
is really 10 different controls. The controls are activated by the
choosing one of the items in the selection menu below.

Many of the entries are repeated, so let's first have a closer look at
the the most important one, the Wind. Entries on the same line are
connected.

- Units
refers to the choice of units for the
selected record.
For wind speed the choices are.
- Barbed
Arrows. Display the traditional barbed
arrows, showing wind direction and wind speed. Range
refers to the distance between displayed arrows ( not working
3.3.1117). Default Color / Controlled Colors Default is dark brown
while "Controlled" varies from blue for very light
winds to red for very strong winds
- Always
visible This option only exists for
"Wind"
and "Pressure". When ticked the object is shown regardless of what is
ticked in the "Settings Control". The idea is to be able to Show wind
and/or pressure at the same time as other options. Use with Rainfall,
for example, to help identifying fronts.
- Display Isotachs shows contour
lines connecting points with the same wind speed. Spacing controls
which wind speed Isotachs will be shown. Use knots for units and 10 for
spacing and isotach contours will be shown at 10 kts, 20kts and so on.
- OverlayMap Depending on your system
capability,if you use "Accelerated Graphics (OpenGL)" (see General
Options/Display/Advanced ), the overlay will be visible at all scales.
But if you don't, the overlay will only be visible at small scales. A
small yellow pop up at the bottom left of the screen
will inform you.
Zoom out to a scale of 1:13 millions, or smaller to see them.
- Colors is another selection menu containing
pre-set color schemes. The idea is to use the scheme with the same name
as the control, but this is just a hint, nothing more.

- Numbers
shows the wind speed in small square
boxes. Minimum Spacing refers to the spacing between
these boxes.
- Particle Map is a kind of animation of the wind
field. It is created by letting "particles", or dots, move in the wind
direction and leave a trail. The trail is colored after the wind
strength, and each particle has a limited "life span". The
Density slider creates particle trails that are shorter but
closer together with
increased value, which is the same as further to the right. The
particle Map below clearly shows a convergence zone with stronger winds
(red). This is probably a cold front. Performance Warning:
Note that high density Particle Maps on Low Powered Machines and Large
Files may slow your machine to a crawl. First test on small files.

- Overlay
Transparency works as expected.
All the controls for Wind Gust, Rainfall and Cloud Cover, have similar
entries; only the units differs.


The
pressure display has no overlays, only the options of isobars and
numbers.
Overlay Transparency is redundant.


Waves
and Current have a more or less similar display. A Particle Map
is available for currents. See the description above for wind
Particle
Maps. Once again different units.
There is a choice between three different display arrows shown in two
sizes.
If wave height, direction and wave period is present in the grib file
it will be displayed in the Display Control like this:



Air
Temperature and Sea Temperature looks the same.


Convective
Available Potential Energy (CAPE) has these settings


Altitude
and Relative Humidity have a simple one choice entry.
- Grib
files can be requested directly from the plugin. The request
is in the form of an email to SailDocs or ZyGrib. The requested grib
file is also delivered via email.
- The area for which data is requested defaults to the area
visible
on the screen, but the request area can be selected by other means as
well. More below.
- It's possible to request gribs from 4 different Grib
prediction
models when using Saildocs GFS, COAMPS, RTOFS and indirectly WW3. When
you request "Waves" in GFS, Saildocs merge wavedata from WW3 into the
delivered grib.
- The ZyGrib option can only deliver GFS gribs, which is the
"standard" model for gribs.
- RTOFS gribs only contains current and water temperature
data.
- COAMPS delivers wind and pressure with a higher resolution
than
GFS
- The minimum time between grib records are 3h for GFS and 6h
for
COAMPS & RTOFS.
- GFS can be requested for 8 days ahead. An extended GFS
request up
to 16 days ahead is possible. This warning will pop up.
- The
same value for COAMPS is 3 days and RTOFS 6 days.
There are two layouts of this dialog, depending on whether it is a
request to SaiDocs or to ZyGrib. Some alternatives are only available
from SailDocs, and some are only available from zyGrib. Alternatives
not available are grayed out.
The SailDoc Request looks like this.

Compose
the request by picking parameters and data. Not all data are
available for all choices of parameters. For example, in the picture
above "Wind Gusts" and "Current" are grayed out, as the are not
available with GFS from SailDocs.
When selecting "Moving Grib" the dialog expands and
makes i possible to choose a speed and course. The selected grib
forecast area will move, using these values, for each grib interval.
The idea behind this is to minimize the download while still covering a
longer passage.
Moving grib files are incompatible with interpolation, so if a "moving
file" is detected a warning is displayed. Interpolation, if set is
deactivated, but only for moving file, the settings as such, are not
modified.
Resolution The choices are 0.5, 1.0 or 2.0. A recent
upgrade to gribs makes it possible to download even 0.25° resolution.
This is not yet an alternative in the plugin and requires editing the
email manually before sending. In the picture above ...|0.5,0.5|...
should instead look like ...|0.25,0.25|...
The default geographical coverage of the requested grib file is the
area you can see on the screen. A manual Selection Mode is also
available.
When the Area Selection -> Manual Selection box is
ticked the dialog expands

Choose the limiting Latitude and Longitude for the grib-file manually
or press "Start graphic Sel." button.

Press
the left mouse-button and draw a rectangle around the required
area.
When selecting "Pressure Altitude" and the GFS
forecast model, the dialog expands and makes i possible to choose
forecasts for
different altitude levels. The SailDocs dialog only supports the 500 mb
altitude, while zyGrib supports all options.
When you are ready press "Send".
This message will show in the "Mail" window instead of the "send"
request:
Your request is ready. An email is prepared in your
email
environment.
You have just to verify and send it...
Save or Cancel to finish...or Continue... |
As stated, a mail is composed for you and ready to send with your
normal mailing program.
This is the standard way of getting a new grib in Windows and Linux.
(Mac ??)
There is an advanced alternative for Mac OSX, Linux
(and BSD). Install and configure a mail server. Instructions on the
Mail Servers page. This
will enable
automatic transmission of a grib request to SailDocs.
After installing and configuring a mail server, there is one more step.
Open "opencpn.conf" and ad the line below. As always, do not run
OpenCPN when editing opencpn.conf.
[Plugins/GRIB]
SendMailMethod=1 |
Setting "SendMailMethod" to "0" restores the default.
To get a grib, just press "send", and wait for a return mail.
The zyGrib Request looks like this.

More
to know
- ZyGrib
is a free and open-source software (FOSS) dedicated grib viewer. Grib
files can be downloaded by ZyGrib and then opened in OpenCPN.
- QtVlm
a FOSS weather routing program, combines a grib file with boat polar
data, and produces an optimized route. More here Weather-Routing or the Weather Routing Plugin.
These are very
good tools to use in routing decisions, but has the same limitations as
all grib-data.
Go to
Table
Of Contents
Mail
Servers
Warning!
This
is an Advanced subject, that is not necessary for
running the grib plugin.
Do not try these setups unless you are familiar with your operating
system, comfortable with handling the command line interface and
editing configuration files.
Do not expect these instructions to work without some customization.
This page contains detailed instructions on how to set up mailservers
to automatically send grib request mails to Sail Docs.
"Ptizef" has compiled the instructions for Windows (XP or
XP)/Thunderbird
"Ptizef" has compiled the instructions for Linux/SSMTP.
"Cagney" has compiled the instructions for Linux/Exim4.
"CarCode" has compiled the instructions for Mac OS
X/PostFix .
WINDOWS
1) Windows(Vista or XP and Thunderbird)
- Outside OpenCPN there is nothing more to do except
to ensure that there is a mail system (mine is thunderbird) correctly
configured and set as "main" on the device.
also verify if the mapi32.dll is present in c:/windows/system32 (or
equivalent for 64b) (otherwise an error message will be the result).
- Inside OpenCPN, there is nothing to do; the sender
mail address can be entered, but will not be used. Just don't forget to
enter the zyGRIB login and password.
When clicking on "send" button :
if the "main" mail system is not open, OpenCPN opens it and the waiting
messages are received.
remark : if there are many waiting messages, it could take a while.
That is why it would be better to create a specific address for this
purpose.
Then a new mail page is opened with all mail elements already written
thus ready to be sent.
Linux
Using SSMTP
How
to install and configure sSMTP:
- 1) Install the ssmtp package.
If another MTA is already installed, it could be requested to uninstall
it before installing ssmtp
once it's done you could test by typing this command:
"whereis sendmail"
the answer should be something like that :"/usr/sbin/sendmail"
use this answer in the next command:
"ls -la /usr/sbin/sendmail"
If everything is OK you should get this answer: "/usr/sbin/sendmail →
ssmtp" showing that Sendmail function is now connected to ssmtp
- 2) Now there are two files to set:
the first file : /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf ( with root rights )
The typical setting should be:
root=postmaster
AuthUser=yourlogin to your ISP access
AuthPass=yourpassword to your ISP access
mailhub=yourISPserveurname.yourdomain (for example smtp.orange.fr)
rewriteDomain=yourdomain
FromLineOverride=YES
hostname= the full host-name ( normally automatically entered, but if
not you can type the command : "hostname" to get it)
For ISP requiring a TLS connection , it could be necessary to add the
line UseTLS=YES or UseSTARTTLS=YES
the second file : /etc/ssmtp/revaliases (with root rights)
Enter this line.
root:yourlogin@yourdomain:yourISPserveurname.yourdomainport
the default port was 25 but now many ISP refuse it and use 587. If you
have a mail system, you will find the right value in it.sudo
dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config
Sendmail/Postfix install for Mac
- Inside OpenCPN :You must enter the sender address : your entire mail
address, the one you will use to send mails and receive answers
When you click on the "send" button, the mail is directly sent. You can
find the log here : /var/log/mail.log
Using
Exim4
First install Exim4
$sudo apt-get install exim4
then configure it (again).
$sudo dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config
This is a very simple setup where exim is just used to forward mail to
the ISP:s smtp server. Local system mail is also available.

It's
important to use the choice above.

I
just use "localhost".

We
have no incoming connections.

We
are not using this.

We
are not using this.

This
is important. It must point to your Internet Service Providers
SMTP server.

Your
choice!

RTFM
and make up your mind. Not a big deal for this simple setup.

RTFM.

Your
Choice, but no point in splitting this simple setup.
Edit
/etc/exim4/passwd.client so it contains your username and password
to your ISP:s mail server.
# password file used when the local exim is
authenticating to
a remote
# host as a client.
#
# see exim4_passwd_client(5) for more documentation
#
# Example:
### target.mail.server.example:login:password
# for OpenCPN you can use *:login:password
*:fakexyz123:madeupXYZ123 |
(Re)start
Exim4
$ /etc/init.d/exim4 {start|stop|restart|reload|status|what|force-stop}
Start testing
Mac
OS X
Using
Sendmail/Postfix
It is not so easy to install this on a Mac since you will need some
experience with terminal using. The example below uses an googlemail
account and nano as editor:
Step 1
Type in terminal these 6 lines one after another with return:
sudo mkdir -p /Library/Server/Mail/Data/spool
sudo gzip
/usr/share/man/man1/{postalias.1,postcat.1,postconf.1,postdrop.1,postf
ix.1,postkick.1,postlock.1,postlog.1,postmap.1,pos
tmulti.1,postqueue.1,postsuper.1,sendmail.1}
sudo gzip
/usr/share/man/man5/{access.5,aliases.5,bounce.5,canonical.5,cidr_tabl
e.5,generic.5,header_checks.5,ldap_table.5,master.
5,mysql_table.5,nisplus_table.5,pcre_table.5,pgsql
_table.5,postconf.5,postfix-wrapper.5,regexp_table.5,relocated.5,tcp_table.5,t
ransport.5,virtual.5}
sudo gzip
/usr/share/man/man8/{anvil.8,bounce.8,cleanup.8,discard.8,error.8,flus
h.8,local.8,master.8,oqmgr.8,pickup.8,pipe.8,proxy
map.8,qmgr.8,qmqpd.8,scache.8,showq.8,smtp.8,smtpd
.8,spawn.8,tlsmgr.8,trivial-rewrite.8,verify.8,virtual.8}
sudo /usr/sbin/postfix set-permissions
sudo chmod 700 /Library/Server/Mail/Data/mta
Step 2
Type in terminal another command to start the nano editor with this
file:
sudo nano /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
Type into the nano editor:
smtp.googlemail.com:587 YourAccountname@googlemail.com:YourPassword
Substitute YourAccountname and YourPassword with your data.
Save the file in nano with Ctrl-O and exit with Ctrl-X.
Step 3
Publicate the new file in terminal with this command:
sudo postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
Step 4
You have to edit the main config file and add at the end the following
lines with
this command in Terminal:
sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf
This to add:
# Minimum Postfix-specific configurations.
mydomain_fallback = localhost
mail_owner = _postfix
setgid_group = _postdrop
relayhost=smtp.googlemail.com:587
# Enable SASL authentication in the Postfix SMTP client.
smtp_sasl_auth_enable=yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps=hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_sasl_security_options=
# Enable Transport Layer Security (TLS), i.e. SSL.
smtp_use_tls=yes
smtp_tls_security_level=encrypt
tls_random_source=dev:/dev/urandom
Save the file and exit nano as in step 2.
Step 5
Now you can start postfix in terminal with:
sudo postfix start
If an error occurs correct main.cf and start again with:
sudo postfix reload
Step 6
Now you can test your work in terminal with:
date | mail -s test
YourAccountname@googlemail.com
Done.
Supplemental
If you want to have started sendmail/postfix each time you start you
start
your machine you can add these lines to the launch daemon:
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
Do this with this command in terminal:
sudo nano /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postfix.master.plist
After that this file should look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label<</key>
<string>org.postfix.master</string>
<key>Program</key>
<string>/usr/libexec/postfix/master</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>master</string>
<string>-e</string>
<string>60</string>
</array>
<key>QueueDirectories</key>
<array>
<string>/var/spool/postfix/maildrop</string>
</array>
<key>AbandonProcessGroup</key>
<true/>
<key>OnDemand/lt;/key>
<true/>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>
Instead of googlemail in this example you may use any other mail server.
Go to
Table
Of Contents
Chart
Downloader
Please go to the Chart Downloader documentation on this page:
Click on the link above.
Please do not put any content on this page. Put it on Toolbar_Plugin
page.
External
Plugins
Also refer to
Install and Enable
Plugins
General Information about plugins.
External
Plugins not included in Standard Installation
Visit the Plugin Download Page
to see ALL plugins that are regarded as stable.
A selection of plugins. OpenCPN has over 30 Plugins.
List
of other useful 3rd Party Plugins Without dedicated
pages.
Cruising Destinations
Plugins
Display thousands of great sailing destinations worldwide
right on
your chart.
sQuiddio
Global user-sourced and user-maintained repository of sailing
destinations (marinas, anchorages, yacht clubs, docks, fuel stations
etc.) available as waypoints in OpenCPN through a plugin.
GoodAnchorage
GoodAnchorage links it's crowdsourced data via an OpenCPN plugin.
Mariners can now have all the relevant Good Anchorage information
available, even offline.
Radar Overlay
Plugins
Overlay the Radar picture of Garmin or Navico on OpenCPN
Garmin
Radar
The GRadar plugin works with modern Garmin (Ethernet capable) radar
scanners only.
Navico Broadband Radar
The Navico broadband plugin will work with a Simrad, Lowrance or
B&G broadband scanner. All three models -- BR24, 3G and 4G --
are
supported.
S63 Vector Charts
A plugin that makes it possible to display standard commercial charts.
This plugin has a totally different display format and is integrated in
the main program.
BSB4 Charts
A plugin which makes it possible to use MAPTEC encrypted BSB4 charts
for which encryption certificates have been purchased and registered on
the computer running OpenCPN.
NV Charts
The NVC charts are purchased
only from the
German publisher NV Verlag This plugin runs NVC Charts.
ODraw
Drawing tools, Boundaries, EBL & VRM, link to Watchdog for keep
in
& out alarms.
Watchdog
Alarms including AIS, links and communicates with ODraw.
Weatherfax
Read weather fax encoded data as audio or image and Overlay on top of
charts.
Climatology
Manage and view monthly gridded Climate data.
Weather Routing
Establish an estimate of optimal weather routing using Grib Plugin and
Climatology.
For additional information about weather routing see
QtVLM page.
Polar
Read, modify and export Polars
oBabel
Uses GPSBabel to transfer waypoints and routes to a Garmin chartplotter
Logbook
Plugin for creating and maintaining many types of logs for your boat.
Find-It
A stowage Manager
DR Dead Reckoning
Add DR positions to a GPX file exported from OpenCPN
Route Great Circle
A short introduction to to the Great circle part of the Route Plugin.
Celestial Navigation
Plugin to record Sextant Sights and show Circles of Position to obtain
a Fix
SAR
Creates Search and Rescue patterns with
desired
parameters. See the link please. No dedicated page.
NMEA Converter
Useful plugin to convert incoming NMEA Sentences
VDR Voyage Data Recorder.
Plugin to record and play NMEA data files. Allows simulation of AIS.
Calculator
Plugin to carry out scientific calculations.
Rtlsdr USB
Use a low-cost USB DVB-T (digital TV) receiver to receive AIS messages
from ships.
oTCurrent
Display tidal current arrows for times other than the present.
Cruising
Destinations
There
are a number of plugins using
general available information and "crowd sourcing" to present
navigational and other information to Cruisers. Currently there are two
such programs with a plugin interface that works with OpenCPN.
sQuiddio
GoodAnchorage
sQuiddio
Find
thousands of destinations right in your Opencpn chart
sQuiddio.io
makes its global
user-sourced and user-maintained repository of sailing destinations
(marinas, anchorages, yacht clubs, docks, fuel stations etc.) available
as waypoints in OpenCPN* through a plugin.
The waypoint Properties box shows basic information about the
Destination, such as the Destination's average user rating, address and
phone number (where available) and a link to the Destination's page on
sQuddio.
* OpenCPN version 3.3 or greater required
Share
your
seafaring knowledge with others.
By following the link in the waypoint, registered sQuidd.io
users
can post comments about the Destination, as well as rate the
Destination on attributes such as beauty, service and quality of wi-fi
access (where
applicable).
Can't find your favorite anchorage or marina? Report new
destinations not yet available in the database.
Follow
your
cruising friends on your OpenCPN Chart
(version 0.4 or greater)
Share your position, SOG and COG with boats in your sQuiddio follow
list ,
and display their current position and heading on your OpenCPN charts
View
AIS Aids to Navigation (ATON) on your OpenCPN Chart
(version 0.5 or greater)
Plan your cruise ahead by locating AIS ATONs
along your
itinerary, before they come into your AIS range.
Use of the plugin is free of charge. (Free registration
is required
for certain functions).
Installing
the plugin
- Look for the sQuidd.io icon
in
the Plugins for OpenCPN 3.3 and later section of the plugins download
page.
- Select the architecture and platform of your choice,
download and
install the relevant installation package.
- After successful installation, the plug in should be
available in
the Plugins tab of your OpenCpn Options dialog box.
Using
the plugin:
- In OpenCPN, go to the Options
-> Plugins and enable the
sQuiddio plugin (no settings are required).
- To view destinations in
an area:
- Right-click on the area of the chart for which you want
to
view available Destinations.
- Select Download local sQuiddio destinations from
the contextual menu.
- To view additional
information about the Destination, and a link
to the sQuiddio Destination page, right click on Destination's
waypoint,
and select Properties.
- The
waypoint dialog box includes a link to the Destination page
on
sQuidd.io. If you have an Internet connection, click the link and your
browser should soon display the Destination's page on sQuidd.io.
- You can hide all
Destinations for an area from the
charts by
right-clicking on the chart and selecting Hide local sQuiddio
Destinations from the contextual menu. You can make the
destinations visible again (without downloading them anew) by selecting
the Show sQiddio destinations.
- To submit a new
destination, position your cursor on
the new
Destination's exact location in the OpenCPN chart, right-click and
select Report a Destination at this location from the
contextual menu. (Note: you must have a free user account to report new
Destinations.)
About
sQuidd.io
sQuidd.io is a service designed and developed by boaters
for boaters.
We love the sea and believe that the best way to enjoy
and protect
this wonderful gift of Mother Nature is to facilitate the sharing of
information among boaters. This is why most of the content you find on
our site is generated by other users. We encourage you to contribute
your seafaring knowledge to sQuidd.io by creating destinations, rating
your favorite ones and by providing information and feedback. Thanks to
users like you, squidd.io is quickly becoming the most complete,
comprehensive and up-to date source of cruising information in the
world.
GoodAnchorage
GoodAnchorage (www.GoodAnchorage.com)
crowdsources
anchorage data from all over the globe. The GoodAnchorage plugin makes
this data available to OpenCPN users as Way Points. Once
downloaded, the data is available offline.

Documented
anchorages are indicated by the icon
. Every anchorage
that you see on
the screen is also stored locally. If you review anchorage details,
then those are stored as well.
To use this plugin you will need to register on the website (free) and
get a user name and password to be entered in the plugin.
To register go to: http://www.goodanchorage.com/
To download the GoodAnchorage Plugin go to:
http://opencpn.org/ocpn/downloadplugins
After successful download, click on the .exe file. The
plugin
will now be available in the Plugins tab of your OpenCpn Options dialog
box.
Operational Description
1.
Options > Plugins >GoodAnchorage> Enable.
2. Click on GoodAnchorage icon

to activate. The icon will turn from
blue to
green.
3. Double left mouse click in area where you wish to view anchorages.
The icon will become a clock. When the database is loaded the icon will
return to a green anchor, and the anchor icons will appear on the
chart.
4. Anchorages are stored as waypoints and will appear in the Route and
Mark Manager>waypoints.
5. Right-click on an anchorage icon and select Waypoint>
Properties
to view the anchorage details.

6.
To turn off Good Anchorages simply left click the Plugin Icon. The
waypoints will disappear from the screen and the waypoint list in the
Route and Marks manager.
The anchorages are maintained in
a
separate file and may be restored by activating GoodAnchorage (left
click on the icon) and a double left click to the chart area..
7. Later while offline, left click the Good Anchorages Icon, it will
turn green,
8. Then double click in the area
where you wish to view
anchorages. The anchorages will reappear.
There
are several methods to add an anchorage.
The easiest way is to Add
and
Anchorage via Good Anchorage
Another method is to email us all the data from your email address -
and little robots will add the anchorage for you and claim it under
your
username - simply email it to sailmail (at) goodanchorage.com
If there is sufficient interest, it is possible that a future release
will allow anchorages to be added via the plugin.
Additional Information
Good
Anchorage OpenCPN Plugin | Good Anchorage will provide
additional
plugin information, for registered members of GoodAnchorage. It has
some screenshots, as well as FAQ.
The GoodAnchorage site has lots of additional information as well as
the ability to submit your own anchorages.
Radar
Overlay
Following
the introduction of the
Garmin Radar Overlay Plugin, there are a few more versions brewing for
other makes.
Garmin
Radar
The
GRadar plugin works with modern
Garmin (Ethernet capable) radar scanners only.
The chart plotter is a combination of a Gps and electronic charts. If
Gps works as expected and, a bigger if, the chart is correct, then
everything is fine. Add a radar to the mix, with an independent picture
of targets, including land, buoys and other vessels, and compare the
two. That is what this plugin does. It overlays the radar-picture on
the chart plotter. If both agrees, the navigator can be more confident
that his navigation is correct. On the other hand, if the pictures
disagrees, there is one more thing to sort out.
To use this plugin the user must be familiar with both OpenCPN
and radars. Without a sound knowledge in radar picture
interpretation, the plugin will seem a bit confusing.

Hardware
The Garmin Radar PlugIn for OpenCPN requires a specific hardware
interface in order to allow the OpenCPN application to access the
Ethernet data captured and broadcast by the radar scanner.
There are three interconnect scenarios possible, depending upon whether
the installation includes an existing Garmin chartplotter, and the
operational mode desired.
Interface Type 0: OpenCPN Slave Mode, using existing Garmin
chartplotter.
Interface Type 1: OpenCPN Master Mode, using existing Garmin
chartplotter.
Interface Type 2: OpenCPN Master Mode, no chartplotter.
Download and read the complete installation instructions:
GRadarDoc.pdf
Installing
the plugin
Follow the instructions on the
Install
and Enable page.
Enable
GRadar plugin
Once installed enable the plugin in Options->Plugins. The
Preference
button does not work. For GRadar Settings, read on.
When enabled the GRadar icon appears in the toolbar. The icon
is an
on/off switch and has two states indicting if the the plugin is working
or not:
Off On
As soon as the plugin is enabled there will also be a separate
log
window. This is how it looks when no radar is connected.

Using GRadar
Rightclick to get to the GRadar Settings.

Operational Control

Range
Control

Noise
Control

Dome
Control

More
...
NMEA
ARPA Radar Targets
Certain radars transmits targets in NMEA sentences. OpenCPN can display
these targets in a similar fashion as normal AIS targets. Read more:
Radar Targets
Is this a good thing combined with GRadar or does it just clutter the
display......??
.
Test
Multicast
Testing Multicast UDP for Radar with 2 Computers
Multicast UDP reception is needed to run gradar.
Step by step, simplifying the environment as much as possible ..
OCPN 3.3.1303 now supports UDP Multicast of NMEA streams, thanks to
Muttnik.
To prove that your hardware is capable of multicast reception, do this:
- Two PCs, networked somehow (verify this please, by ping...
).
- Master PC has a GPS, slave is the device we are interested
in.
- On master, set up a UDP output connection at address
224.0.0.8
(this is a well-known, benign and local-only multicast address).
- On master, set up a connection to receive your GPS input,
whatever that may be.
- On master, open NMEA debug window and verify that you see
BLUE
UDP
output to the specified port. UDP is connection-less, so will transmit
without any receiver.
- Leave master running.
- On the second PC, which will be the Device Under Test
(DUT),
start
OCPN 3.3.1303 with one UDP receive connection at the address mentioned
above.
- Open the NMEA debug window, and look for GREEN UDP accepted
messages.
If you don't see GREEN, then somehow the DUT cannot receive
multicast....
If you don't see GREEN, then we need Wireshark on the DUT to see what,
if anything, is coming over the wire.
Windows 7 Details with a Garmin Radar and Gradar Plugin
The "Home" and "Public" network settings and firewall can create a
situation where the Radar is broadcasting on the "Public" network and
Opencpn is on the "Home" network, isolating the Radar UDP Multicast so
that Opencpn will never "see" it. If you want to keep your computers
protected from attacks from the internet, it is best to make
adjustments in the firewall to make an opening for just the Radar. As
Helsmatt
wrote:
SOLUTION: One solution would be to turn off the Firewall
for
Public Networks but this is not a good solution for PCs which will be
used to
connect directly (not using routers with firewalls) to the
Internet
using Wifi in
public places like
marinas.
The best
solution is to customize the Public Profile on the Windows
Firewall to disregard the network adapter that is being used for the
radar
scanner
These
documents will assist, some comments follow:
Comments
following the success:
- Forgot you wanted to connect to
internet via wifi, but now I am
wondering why the Radar is on "Public".... I guess you can't log into
it and direct it to a "Home" setup.... maybe its expecting to see a
server or router with DNS rather than the more informal home network?
- Garmin chose a (fixed)
multicast address which is in the "public"
network space. Dunno why. So Win7 sees it as a public exposure.
- I wish we could [log on
to the Radar]. That was our first
approach, but even googling the issue, there was no solution to
redirecting [the
radar] to 'home'. Possibly something in the registry, but we don't need
to do it that badly. We eschew messing with the registry. Anyway, we
got it working, drilling some small holes in the firewall for gradar to
peek through...After all, I am a mechanical guy...Every problem
looks like a nail when the only tool you have is a hammer.
- On both PCs
we only had to plugin an active LA N connection, in
this case, the Garmin radar cable (with associated hardware to control
the scanner as described on OCPN. The PC sees activity and turns on the
ethernet port. Can't do anything unless you have the radar attached and
fired up, otherwise "network cable unplugged". In hindsight it was
simple and fairly automatic once the firewalls were properly modified.
Navico
Broadband
Navico
Broadband Radar
The
Navico broadband plugin will work with a Simrad, Lowrance or
B&G broadband scanner. All three models -- BR24, 3G and 4G --
are
supported.
The latest version available is 1.1, released on December 26, 2014.
Binary releases are available at:
http://opencpn-navico-radar-plugin.github.io/
Source code available here:
https://github.com/canboat/BR24radar_pi
Requirements
The plugin requires API 1.10 and OpenCPN 3.3.
The plugin requires OpenGL mode. It does not work without OpenGL,
and never will. This means that a computer with good and fast
OpenGL drivers is recommended.
Hardware installation
The Navico radars communicate with the chartplotters using UDP
multicast. This means that they do not require any IP address. As long
as there is a wired Ethernet path between the radar and the computer
running OpenCPN it should work fine. A wireless connection is almost
useless for two reasons: most wireless routers do not bridge multicast
traffic, and if they do this is at the 802.11b base transmission rate
of 1 MB/s, resulting in loss of parts of the radar picture, making it
unusable. One way around this would be to only enable faster 802.11
versions.
Software
installations
There are installation packages that can be run using the installation
tool for your platform.
Once you have installed and restarted OpenCPN it should be available in
the "Plugins" list in the configuration dialog.

Click the enable button, then close the options dialog. Unless you want
to switch to kilometers or want to rotate the radar image there should
be no need to access the preferences.
Once you have enabled the plugin a new button appears on the button
bar, looking like this:

The light will be red, yellow or green. Red means that the radar is not
transmitting and that this is the desired state. Yellow means that the
button has been pressed to switch the radar on but no data has yet been
received. Green means that data has been received from the radar.
Click on the button to open the radar control dialog and start the
radar.
The radar controls dialog is intended to be a small dialog that can be
kept on-screen at all times. If you have a small screen you can close
the dialog and open it again either by pressing the radar button twice
(switch off, switch on) or by using the context menu (right mouse click
-> Radar control.)
If not all conditions are met to show an overlay it will show the
following:

The
OpenGL mode must be enabled. Go to Options > Display >
Advanced > Graphics to enable this.
As you can see the overlay requires boat position (normally via GPS)
and heading (via a compass). Heading via COG (when moving) is not
recommended. You must set up NMEA connections either via a serial
connection or a TCP or UDP or GPSD server.
The radar will be searched automatically on all ethernet devices in
turn. In the image above you see that the plugin is attempting to find
it on a device with IP address 10.37.129.2. It will keep scanning at a
rate of one per 2 seconds until it finds it. When it does it will
update the control to show the radar IP address.
Once the conditions are met and the radar is transmitting the radar
control dialog allows you to change the settings of the radar (as shown
on Windows XP):

You
can access settings that should be needed less often by clicking
Advanced (as shown on OS X with a BR24 or 3G):

Controlling
the radar picture
Whereas an AIS requires little help, a radar may need some tweaking to
get the best picture. Not only that, the radar plugin can also be
fine tuned for specific circumstances.
- Range. Starts off as "Auto", which means that it shrinks
and
grows
with chart scale. You can go from 50m to 48km or 1/20 NM to 36 NM with
a 4G radar and one step less with a BR24 or 3G.
- Gain. How much the return is amplified. Auto works quite
well.
- Sea. Change this in a rough sea if the Auto setting shows
too
much noise.
- Rain. Change this in order to "see through" rain or to have
dense
rain show up.
- Advanced. See the next list.
- Guard zones. See the next chapter.
Advanced
controls
- Transparency.
Use this to change how much of the underlying chart
is visible through the radar image on overlay. It is not possible to
change the 'z order' of the image with vector charts, so AIS images are
always on top, then the radar, followed by the chart.
- Interference rejection. Increase this if you see spurious
hard
'spokes' of radar data in the direction of another ship that has a
radar that 'jams' the picture. Keep low or off otherwise.
- Target boost. Increase to have small returns show up more
prominently.
- Noise rejection (4G only). Controls the amount of noise
filtering
applied by the radar. Target sensitivity is increased at longer ranges
when this control is set to Low or High, but does cause some loss of
target discrimination. To get maximum range performance from 4G, set
Noise rejection to High. You may need to lower noise rejection in areas
of high interference.
- Target separation (4G only). Advanced technology in the
radar
enhances the definition of returns, especially at mid range. Suggested
value: high.
- Scan speed (4G only). Increases the speed at which the
radar
turns
to 36 rpm. If Noise rejection is set to Low or High, for ranges 1nm or
higher, speed is limited to 24 rpm.
- Downsample. Generating the radar image may cause a lot of
CPU if
you have a weak OpenGL graphics card as every rotation contains 2048
lines of radar data. By downsampling (ignoring a part of the data)
fewer blobs are created, but the image becomes blockier. Suggested
values are 1 to 4. 5 to 8 are there for tests.
- Scan age. If you have very weak hardware you may need to
keep
radar data onscreen for longer than the normal period. Increase beyond
the
default value of 4 if you have missing data and don't mind seeing older
returns.
Guard
zones
You can enable two guard zones. Enter values in the Guard Zone dialog
to configure the distance and angle from the bow that you want scanned
for 'bogeys'. Once an echo is detected the alarm will sound every ten
seconds until you press the Confirm button. Once you do the
alarm will be silent until the guard zone is empty and a new echo
arrives in the guard zone. As of 1.1 you can set up which alarm sound
you want to use in the preferences dialog (Options > Plugin
>
BR24radar > Preferences).
Debugging
Navico
Broadband Radar Debugging
What to do if it does not work
Of course you updated to the newest version first?
Recent versions show this message dialog if not all conditions to show
a radar image are met:

No
boat position
Check your GPS interface and/or NMEA inputs.
No
heading
No compass data found. Check the NMEA inputs for HDT, HDM or HDG
sentences. HDT is preferred. If none are available COG is used if the
boat is traveling, but this is very bad for the overlay. Get a compass!
No
radar present
Is the system connected to the radar, either directly or via switch?
Does the IP address of the network device show up in the "ZeroConf"
line?
If the radar does not transmit radar data but it is detected then the
"Radar present" line will get a checkmark and the text will change to
"Radar IP <ip-addr>". Check that this is the correct IP
address.
If the radar transmits data the dialog will change to the controls
dialog, but the log file will still show the information such as IP
address.
Everything
looks OK
but still no picture
If you get the normal radar control dialog and the little 'light' in
the radar button shows green, but you still do not get a picture, you
can
use the radar emulator.
The emulator was created for debugging during development, but it can
be used to check that your OpenGL driver is compatible and whether your
system performs well enough. It uses (almost) the same code path as the
normal UDP reception of radar data, but 'invents' an artificial radar
image in 'standalone' mode.
In the preferences dialog (Options > Plugins > BR24Radar
>
Preferences) choose Display Option for Radar display
as Emulator and close the preferences and options dialogs.
You should now see a
picture like this, even if you have fulfilled none of the overlay
requirements:
It
still doesn't show a picture
Rats. Use the following to increase the amount of logging to the
opencpn.log file:
- Click on the question mark in the button bar and note where
the
ini file (and log file) are kept.
- Stop OpenCPN.
- Edit the ini file and change the VerboseLog in the
[Plugins/BR24radar] section to a number higher than 0. Values from 1 to
4 are different. At level 4 your file will grow very quickly!
- Start OpenCPN.
Check for the following if your emulator picture stays blank
(at
VerboseLog=2 or higher):
18:58:35 CET: BR24radar_pi: 1415818715610 drawn 128 skipped 0
spokes with 14496 blobs maxAge=1487
That line consists of a timestamp (milliseconds since epoch),
the
number of drawn lines (should be 128-2048 depending on Downsample
setting), skipped (should be zero), number of "blobs" drawn and the
maximum age of any radar data in milliseconds. If "drawn" is higher
than zero, there is hardly anything that can be 'wrong' in the plugin
source code.
BSB4
Charts
Provides
support of BSB Version 4
Raster charts, a format used by many hydrographic authorities
throughout the world.
BSB4
charts are raster
charts, manufactured according to a standard
developed by MAPTEC. The BSB4 plug-in enables OpenCPN to open and read
the encrypted charts correctly provided that the charts have been
purchased, registered and the plugin is installed properly.
Supported charts must have been installed with appropriate encryption
certificates in place.
This
plug-in only
works with Windows.
There are several sources of
charts:
The chart installation procedure
is
independent of OpenCPN. At the time this plugin was first published the
creator of the plugin posted on www.cruisersforum as
follows:
- This plugin
supports Windows only.
- The BSB4
charts will be available only on the computer where they were
successfully
first installed and registered by the original end user.
- The plug-in makes no attempt to understand or "crack" the
encryption algorithms. The DLL interface is treated as an opaque portal
to read the decrypted files. The plug-in acts as a "wrapper" to make
the charts visible.
- The BSB4 PlugIn
won't be distributed as
open source. It
will be a
binary-only DLL, looking just like all other Plugins at run-time.
- Please take
careful notes of the 2nd point above.
If a user somehow "acquires" a copy of an encrypted BSB4 chart folio,
it won't be usable with this plugin.
In summary, the plug-in will only work for registered charts on
the computer where they were first installed and registered. The
plug-in is NOT a means to obtain free charts.
The downloaded file is an
installer which
will place a DLL in the "plugins" folder of the OpenCPN installation.
The
installer will attempt to place it in the correct location but if your
directory structure is "non-standard" the plug-in may not end up in the
correct location. On a standard installation the plug-in folder will be
C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN\plugins\ If you have a non-standard
installation then it will be up to you to ensure that the BSB4 plug-in
(bsb4_pi.dll) appears in the correct folder - just copy it into the
right location if it doesn't get there by itself.
Once the plug-in DLL is in the
correct
plug-ins folder it will appear in the options/plugins menu when you
start OpenCPN. You will need to navigate to Options (the wrench menu
item), select the plug-ins tab, find the BSB4 plug-in and click
"enable" in order to use the plug-in.


With the plug-in successfully installed in the OpenCPN plug-ins
directory and enabled there is one further step necessary to view your
encrypted charts.

From
the Options menu, select the Charts tab. Then add the appropriate
directory(ies) where your encryption certificates are located, followed
by the directory(ies) where the encrypted charts are located. The
screenshot above is from a successful installation. Your directory
structure will no doubt be completely different but the same principles
apply. In the example above, the non-encrypted charts are located on
Dropbox. Then there are two separate encryption directories followed by
the directory which contains the encrypted charts.
To
recap the process, the following are the steps necessary to install
and use the BSB4 plug-in:
- Purchase and install encrypted BSB4 charts on the same
computer
that will run OpenCPN with the BSB4 plug-in
- Download and run the BSB4 plug-in installer
- Ensure that the plug-in DLL has in fact been created in the
appropriate plug-in folder. If not, copy the DLL to the required
location.
- Start the OpenCPN software and enable the BSB4 plug-in
- Add the appropriate encryption and chart directories to the
OpenCPN chart locater.
Typically if you follow all the steps the charts will immediately be
visible at this point. On occasion however they will not immediately
appear and you may need to exit the OpenCPN software, closing it
completely and then reopening it. At that point the encrypted charts
should be visible..
S63
Vector Charts
Chart showing Part of Jamaica, from
the IHO S63
test suit.
This Plugin supports use of S63 encrypted Charts and dramatically
expands OpenCPN's range of charts available.
These
charts are quite reasonably priced. S-63 is the encrypted
distribution format for S-57 vector charts. Today, hydrographical
offices all over the world are producing their official vector charts
in the S-57 format. Distribution is done under the S-63 standard.
To use the encrypted charts, you must get a license for your particular
machine (called Permit), make sure to visit http://o-charts.org/
for more
information and to get the permits.
S63 is an encrypted version of S57 vector charts, and is the standard
format for almost all, officially published, vector charts in today’s
world. As a matter of fact, only NOAA and the East Asia Hydrographic
Commission (EAHC), publishes free unencrypted S57 charts nowadays.
These, S57 and S63 charts, are the current state of the art charts. The
quality of the charts are the best vector charts available. They are
always kept up to date. No other vector chart are in the same league.
There are, however also some drawbacks. Many popular cruising areas are
very poorly covered as the focus is on the needs for commercial
shipping. One example is he Bahamas area. Another problem is the
relatively high price.
OpenCPN handles these commercial, non free, charts through an open
source plugin, that in the background connects to a "black box" helper
application. An external entity,
o-charts.org,
handles the encrypted and commercial aspects of the S-63 plug-ins for
OpenCPN.
Get
Started
- Download
the plugin for your operating system from http://o-charts.org/downloads.html.
On the same page download your fingerprint executable, that will be
needed later. Also download and read the informative Documentation.
- Install the plugin the way you normally install programs on
your
operating system.
- Go to Options->Charts-Plugins. Find the S63 plugin
and click
"Enable" and then "Apply" or "OK". The "Preferences" button is grayed
out, as there are nothing to set.
- Check that your Options->Charts has a new "S 63
Charts" tab,
as in the pictures below.
- Now go to the O-charts shop to get your "User Permit" and
"Install Permit". Use these to buy your chart selection.
- Detailed instructions are available on o-charts.org
Loading
the Charts
The
Keys/Permits tab.
- Certificate
Name This should already be present
after a successful plugin installation.
- If it's missing press the "Import Certificate..." button
and
import the file IHO.PUB. To find the location of this, file press the
button in the toolbar.
Find the " Config file location" at the bottom
of the "About" tab. Go to the same directory as the config file, and
then s63->s63_certificates directory, where you will find
IHO.PUB.
- UserPermit
- Enter
your new Userpermit from O-charts and test it. The permit
above is from IHO's test suit and is not valid in real life.
- New InstallPermit
- Enter
your new Installpermit from O-charts and test it.
- OpenCPN is now setup for S63 charts. Buy your charts or use
the
test set. See instructions below.
- Download and uncompress your files.
- Install Cell Permits by using the button "Import Cell
Permits..."
to find the file PERMIT.TXT.
- Import the downloaded charts by pressing "Import
Charts/Updates.." and find the folder "ENC_ROOT"

- This
dialog will pop up. I you answer "No", the SENC creation
will happen when you first try to use the chart.

Testing
Download test charts
You may exercise the S64 Test set using the following special permits:
User Permit: 66B5CBFDF7E4139D5B6086C23130
Install Permit: 38F99B50
Perhaps the best to start with is:
IHO S-64 [S-63 TDS v1.2]/8 Data Exchange Media/Test 8b/PERMIT.TXT.
NV
Charts
- On your PC, the download and
installation plugin can be made before or after the installation of
the charts.
Get
charts from NV-Verlag:
The NVC charts are purchased
only from the
German publisher NV Verlag.
- On this website: NV_Verlag
- This website is
multilingual.
See, top right on the homepage of
the site, the icons to change the language.
-
The charts in this editor ribs cover the
following:
For
Europe area : |
Other
areas: |
the
North Sea, |
Caraïbe |
the
Baltic Sea |
East
USA cost |
the
English Channel, |
|
Attantique
the coast |
|
Balearic Islands |
|
- Editor's note:
- In case of
malfunction,
particularly on
Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, do not hesitate to contact NV-Verlag, using
their website contact form.
Experience shows that this chart editor is responsive and helps resolve
many problems.
- The installation
procedure of the
charts is independent of OpenCPN
- It is possible to
install the charts on
two different computers,
- Free software charts
display comes with
charts. But it is
"light" a product.
- Nautical charts are
automatically
installed in a specific folder proposed by the installer.
- But it is
possible to choose the
installation folder of charts as you wish.
- Other data,
OpenCPN does not
support, will install automatically in a prescribed folder.
- You can buy a
"dongle" on which a
facility is possible.
- In this case, by
moving the dongle,
it is possible to use the charts on other computers.
Installation
charts procedure:
- For installation you
must:
- or a CD-ROM,
provided by the
publisher, which contains:
- the
installation software
- charts.
- or having
proceeded to download:
- the
installation software,
- charts.
- If you have a
dongle, install the
dongle into a USB port on your PC
- Note
Well:
- This dongle does
not appear in the
list of equipment on the PC when using the Windows Explorer.
- Since the dongle
can be used on
another PC, the location of the charts in your PC is not listed on the
dongle.
Therefore, the name of the
folder where the charts are placed does not matter.
- The charts will
not be installed on
the dongle.
- One of the two
work permits
nautical charts will be listed on the dongle.
- If you do not have a
dongle, one of two
installation permissions will be written on your PC.
- In any case, it is
best to have a good
internet connection to complete the installation.
- In the absence of
internet access,
there is a special procedure for installing.
- Run the installation software,
- Follow the
instructions that appear on
the screen knowing that sometimes to be patient.
Download
and install the plugin:
The latest version is available
here:
- Save the file to
your PC.
- This plug-in only works with windows
- After downloading
the file, depending
on the settings selected on your PC, click or double click it.
- For installation
steps. Allow the
installation to do.




The installation will be done
automatically
in the "plugins" folder of the installation OpenCPN.
- Nota
Bene :
- Once the
installation done, the
executable file which was used to carry, can be deleted from the PC.
Activation / De-activation of the plugin:
After
installing OpenCPN the icon
bar at the top of the screen, has no additional icon.No
visual information makes
it impossible to know whether the plug-in "NVC-Chart" is on.
Activation :
- Commissioning
Tool "NVC-Chart":
- Go to the "Toolbox",
"Plugins" tab,
- Click the "NVC-Chart" icon,
- Click the "Activate" button,
- Confirm with "Ok" or "Apply".
Deactivate :

Go to the "Toolbox",
"PluginsIns" tab,
- Click
the "NVC-Chart" icon,
- Click
the "De-activate" button,
- Confirm
with "Ok" or "Apply".
Manual
- Cases where the charts were installed
directly on the computer with the access code.
- OpenCPN
automatically recognizes
their presence
- The operating
procedure is the same
as with other charts.
Just declare
the directory charts in the "Maps" tab of the "Toolbox"
- Cases where the
charts were installed
on the computer and where the access code is on a dongle.
- You must insert
the dongle into a
USB port on the computer before launching OpenCPN.
- After that, the
operating procedure
is similar to that of other charts.
Just declare the directory charts in the "Charts" tab of the "Options".
- Each access to
the charts, the
dongle is red illuminated during the update of the database.
(see pictures below)
- If you use a dongle and if the dongle
is removed, access to nautical charts is stopped.
-
- It is useless to put the dongle
to try to regain access to nautical charts.
- We must restart the access
procedure:
- closing OpenCPN,
- by returning the dongle,
- OpenCPN restarting again.
Retrieve Charts Previously Purchased.
To retrieve the charts I
purchased earlier
NVcharts and directed me to this website: NV-Chart Download
Then you can find the charts you purchased and you want to download by
year of release.
I found the Windward Islands kit but couldn't find the Leeward Islands
kit.
Enter the charts you need to download and click on the download button.
The charts will be downloaded as an exe file. Run the exe file and
enter your serial numbers, name and email and then it will install the
charts. They recommend saving them in C:Chartkit/BSB. That's where I
installed and then pointed Opencpn to that subdirectory and everything
works well.





.
ODraw
Summary
The Ocpn_Draw Plugin (OD) is designed to allow users to place
objects/items on the OpenCPN interface and have these georeferenced.
This allows the objects/items to move with the chart and have a
defined Latitude and Longitude. There are two basic types of
object/item that can be used:
Points are very similar to Waypoints and mark locations on the chart.
Paths joint two or more points together and draw a line between them.
Currently these Points exist:
- Boundary Point
- Text Point
- Electronic Brearing Line (EBL) Point
- Dead Reckoning (DR) Point
These Points are used to construct special types of Paths:
- Boundary
- Electronic Bearing Line (EBL)
- Dead Reckoning (DR)
The example screen shot below shows an example of each type of Point
and Path.

WatchDog
Alarms
Ocpn_Draw_pi (OD) is intended to be a Graphics companion with
Watchdog_pi (WD) Alarms.
OD is used as a graphics tool to create Boundary Graphics and Boundary
Point Graphics.
WD will then create "Boundary Alarms" using the Boundary Graphics
created by OD.
The alarms that WD can create are (GPS proximity, GPS course &
time, Anchor, AIS) depending on the alarm type WD may require a
particular
Boundary GUID or the alarm may apply to all boundaries that are
displayed.
The WD alarm types are separate and distinct from the OD graphics types
(inclusive, exclusive, neither).
WD is "blind" to the OD graphics types, however we recommend that users
create OD graphics types that correspond to the type of WD alarm being
created, just for graphic clarity and understanding.
Installation
This plugin requires the most current version of Opencpn 4.1.xxx
Download the plugiin from the Plugin Downloads section of opencpn.org
Settings

Settings
> Plugin > Ocpn_Draw > Preferences
Under Preferences the Tabs are General, Boundary, Boundary Point, Text
Point, Path, EBL, DR, DR Point and About where various settings are
selected. Generally the defaults should give a reasonable starting
point. However, all the defaults that are used can be changed from here.
General

Confirm Delete
This setting determines whether a dialog box will be shown asking for
conformation about deleting any objects. With it checked you will be
asked to confirm all deletes, with it unchecked you will be able to
delete any object without being asked for confirmation.
If you do delete an object by mistake and you have 'Nav Object Backups'
set to more than 0, you will be able to use one of these backups to
restore your objects.
Show Magnetic Bearings
If this is checked and there is a magnetic variation available then
this will be applied to all angles that are used within the plugin. If
it is checked and there is no magnetic variation available it will
assume a
'0' variation.
Nav Object Backups
This setting determines how many backups to keep of the navigation
objects file. The location of the files can be found in the opencpn.log
file. Each time OpenCPN stops a new copy of the navigation obj file
will be created. The latest file is called 'ODnavobj.xml'.
Edge Panning Sensitivity
This is the percentage of the screen size distance from the edge that
will cause the screen to pan when using the drawing tools. The bigger
this number the further from the edge of the screen your pointer will
be when the screen starts panning.
Initial Edge Panning
Sensitivity
This is the same as above, but is used after a drawing tool is picked
but before the first object is created. This is supplied so that the
screen does not start panning if you move your pointer off of the toll
bar near the edge of the screen.
Display Toolbar
The plugin allows you to use two graphical methods of selecting the
tool you wish to draw with:
- The main Toolbar and the right mouse click
- The Draw Toolbar
This setting determines if the tool bar is display and has three
settings
- Never - the toolbar is not displayed
- Whilst Drawing - the toolbar is displayed whilst a drawing
tool
is active
- Always - the toolbar will display all the time
irrespective of
whether you are using the plugin.
Boundary

Active Line Color
This is the color of an active Boundary Line
Selection is by a platform specific color picker. This will allow the
color to be any RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color that is supported by the
platform.
Active Fill Color
This is the default color to use for any active Boundary fill hash.
When selected a standard, platform Dependant, color picker will be
presented. This will allow the color to be any RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
color that is supported by the platform.
Inactive Line Color
This is the color of an inactive Boundary Line.
Selection is by a platform specific color picker. This will allow the
color to be any RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color that is supported by the
platform.
Inactive Fill Color
This is the default color to use for any inactive Boundary fill hash.
When selected a standard, platform dependent, color picker will be
presented. This will allow the color to be any RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
color that is supported by the platform.
Line Width
This is the width of the Boundary Line in pixels. It can be a value
between 1 and 10 pixels.
Line Style
This defines how the Boundary Line is drawn. It can be one of the
following:
- Solid
- Dot
- Long Dash
- Short Dash
- Dot Dash
Some of these may not display well on your screen depending on the
resolution you are using. It is known that when using high resolution
screens, i.e. 3800x1900 the difference between the line types may be
difficult to see.
Fill Density
This allows the setting of how transparent the fill hash is. A value of
0 means that it is fully transparent and a value of 255 is that it is
fully opaque. The term density is used as it seemed clearer, i.e. low
density - you can see through it, high density - you cannot see through
it.
Boundary Inclusion Size
This defines, in pixels, how wide the hash is around the outside
Boundary Line when the Boundary is of type 'Inclusion'.
Boundary Type
This radio button selection sets the default type for all Boundary.
Points.
- Exclusion - fill the inside of the Boundary with a hash.
- Inclusion - surround the Boundary with a nominated size hash
- Neither - just draw the Boundary Line with no hash
Boundary
Point

Arrival Radius
This is not really relevant to a Boundary Point at the moment, but may
become useful if other items/capabilities are added
Show Name
This is the default setting for showing the Boundary Point name.
Currently Boundary Points are created with the name empty/blank so
nothing displays.
Icon
This is the default icon to use for all Boundary Points. There is a set
of OpenCPN icons that can be used as well as user defined icons. The
method of adding user defined icons is documented in the main OpenCPN
manual
Show Range Rings
Boundary Points can have range rings associated with them. To show the
rings by default this setting needs to be checked
.
Boundary Point Type
This radio button selection sets the default type for all Boundary
Points.
- Exclusion - fill the inside range rings with a hash.
- Inclusion - surround the largest range ring with a
nominated size
hash
- Neither - just draw the range rings but there is no hash
Fill Density
This allows the setting of how transparent the fill hash is. A value of
0 means that it is fully transparent and a value of 255 is that it is
fully opaque. The term density is used as it seemed clearer, i.e. low
density - you can see through it, high density - you cannot see through
it.
Boundary Point Inclusion
Size
This defines, in pixels, how wide the hash is around the outside
Boundary Point Range Ring when the Boundary Point is of type
'Inclusion'.
Number of Range Rings
This defines the number of range rings to show if they are selected to
be shown. If Zero is selected, then there will be no range ring shown.
Distance Between Range
Rings
This is the gap between successive range rings. The measurement this is
using is defined in the Distance Unit' setting
Distance Unit
The unit of measurement to use for the range rings gap. It can be:
- Nautical Miles
- Kilometers
Range Ring Colors
This is the default color to use for any Boundary Point Range Ring.
When selected a standard, platform dependent, color picker will be
presented. This will allow the color to be any RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
color that is supported by the platform.
Range Ring Line Width
This is the width of the range rings when drawn in pixels. It can be a
value between 1 and 10 pixels.
Range Ring Line Style
This defines how the Range Rings are drawn. It can be one of the
following:
- Solid
- Dot
- Long Dash
- Short Dash
- Dot Dash
Some of these may not display well on your screen depending on the
resolution you are using. It is known that when using high resolution
screens, i.e. 3800x1900 the difference between the line types may be
difficult to see.
Text
Point

Text Point Icon
This is the default icon to use for all Text Points. There is a set of
OpenCPN icons that can be used as well as user defined icons. The
method of adding user defined icons is documented in the main OpenCPN
manual.
Text Position
This selects where the text is positioned relative to the location of
the Text Point. If you show an Icon it will be easer to see and
interact with the text on the screen. If you do not use an Icon it may
be easier to use the Path Manager to get to the Text Point.
There are 7 different locations:
- Top
- Top Center
- Bottom
- Bottom Center
- Center
- Right
- Left
Text Color
This is the color that the default Display Text will have. Selection
is by a platform specific color picker. This will allow the color to
be
any RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color that is supported by the platform.
Background Color
When a Text Point displays text it will have a colored background to
help it stand out from the underlying chart. This is the default color
of the background box. This will allow the color to be any RGB (Red,
Green, Blue) color that is supported by the platform.
Background Density
This allows the setting of how transparent the background color. A
value of 0 means that it is fully transparent and a value of 255 is
that it is fully opaque. The term density is used as it seemed clearer,
i.e. low density - you can see through it, high density - you cannot
see
through it.
The default density is 100.
Text Font
This is the default font to be used for the 'Display Text'. The 'Fonts'
button will allow picking of any font that is installed on the system.
You can pick the Family, Style and Size of the font. This is presented
by a platform specific font picker.
The current font that will be used is shown by the work 'Example' which
will be drawn using the font selected.
Show Display Text
This is the default for when the Display Text of a Text Point is shown.
- Always - Display text is always shown
- On Rollover Only - The text will be displayed when the
mouse
pointer rolls over the Text Point. This is to try and help declutter
the screen if there are many objects being concurrently displayed.
- Never - The display text is not displayed
Path

Active Line Color
This is the color of an active generic Path if there is no specific
type. Currently this is not used as there are no unspecified Path types
in use.
Selection is by a platform specific color picker. This will allow the
color to be any RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color that is supported by the
platform.
Inactive Line Color
This is the color of an inactive generic Path if there is no specific
type. Currently this is not used as there are no unspecified Path types
in use.
Selection is by a platform specific color picker. This will allow the
color to be any RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color that is supported by the
platform.
Line Width
This is the width of the Path Line in pixels. It can be a value between
1 and 10 pixels.
Line Style
This defines how the Path Line is drawn. It can be one of the
following:
- Solid
- Dot
- Long Dash
- Short Dash
- Dot Dash
Some of these may not display well on your screen depending on the
resolution you are using. It is known that when using high resolution
screens, i.e. 3800x1900 the difference between the line types may be
difficult to see.
Electronic Bearing Line
(EBL)

Start Point Icon
This is the default icon to use for the start point of an EBL. There is
a set of OpenCPN icons that can be used as well as user defined icons.
The method of adding user defined icons is documented in the main
OpenCPN manual.
End Point Icon
This is the default icon to use for the end point of an EBL. There is a
set of OpenCPN icons that can be used as well as user defined icons.
The method of adding user defined icons is documented in the main
OpenCPN
manual.
Active EBL Line Color
This is the color of an active EBL.
Selection is by a platform specific color picker. This will allow the
color to be any RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color that is supported by the
platform.
Inactive EBL Line Color
This is the color of an inactive EBL.
Selection is by a platform specific color picker. This will allow the
color to be any RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color that is supported by the
platform.
Line Width
This is the width of the EBL in pixels. It can be a value between 1 and
10 pixels.
Line Style
This defines how the EBL is drawn. It can be one of the following:
- Solid
- Dot
- Long Dash
- Short Dash
- Dot Dash
EBL Fixed End Position
This the default for all EBL's. This fixes the End Point of an EBL such
that when the boat moves the end point does not. If this is left
uncheck the end point of the EBL will move with the boat so the EBL
always has
the same length and bearing.
Show EBL Direction Arrow
This is the default for all EBL's. If checked a direction arrow will be
displayed on the EBL at or near the end point. This helps show the
direction of the EBL.
EBL Persistence
The EBL's that are created can be:
- Persistent - will persist over a restart of OpenCPN
- Persistent over Crash - will not be persistent over a
normal
restart of OpenCPN, but will be persistent over a crash of OpenCPN
- Never - the EBL will only be temporary and will not be
displayed
again when OpenCPN is restarted.
Show VRM
This draws a Variable Range Marker (Ring) centered on the start point
and sized to go through the end point.
Dead
Reckoning (DR)

DR Point Icon
This is the default icon to use for the all points of a Dead Reckoning
line. There is a set of OpenCPN icons that can be used as well as user
defined icons. The method of adding user defined icons is documented in
the main OpenCPN manual.
Active DR Line Color
This is the color of an active DR Line
Selection is by a platform specific color picker. This will allow the
color to be any RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color that is supported by the
platform.
Inactive DR Line Color
This is the color of an inactive DR Line.
Selection is by a platform specific color picker. This will allow the
color to be any RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color that is supported by the
platform.
Line Width
This is the width of the DR line in pixels. It can be a value between 1
and 10 pixels.
Line Style
This defines how the DR line is drawn. It can be one of the following:
- Solid
- Dot
- Long Dash
- Short Dash
- Dot Dash
Speed over Ground
This is the default speed over the ground to use when calculating the
DR line.
Course over Ground
This is the default course over ground to use. The type, True or
Magnetic, is determined by the setting in the General tab.
DR Path Length
This is the default length of the DR line.
DR Point Interval
This is the default interval to place points along the DR path.
Length Type
This is the default length type to be used, either Time or Distance.
Interval Type
This is the default interval between placing points, either Time or
Distance.
Distance Units
This is the default distance units to use, either Kilometers or
Nautical Miles
Time Units
This is the default time units to use, one of Minutes, Hours or Days
DR Persistence
The DR lines that are created can be:
- Persistent - will persist over a restart of OpenCPN
- Persistent over Crash - will not be persistent over a
normal
restart of OpenCPN, but will be persistent over a crash of OpenCPN
- Never - the DR line will only be temporary and will not be
displayed again when OpenCPN is restarted.
Dead Reckoning Point (DR Point)

Show Range Rings
Boundary Points can have range rings associated with them. To show the
rings by default this setting needs to be checked.
Number of Range Rings
This defines the number of range rings to show if they are selected to
be shown. If Zero is selected, then there will be no range ring shown.
Distance Between Range
Rings
This is the gap between successive range rings. The measurement this is
using is defined in the Distance Unit' setting
Distance Unit
The unit of measurement to use for the range rings gap. It can be:
- Nautical Miles
- Kilometers
Range Ring Colors
This is the default color to use for any DR Point Range Ring. When
selected a standard, platform dependent, color picker will be
presented. This will allow the color to be any RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
color that is supported by the platform.
Range Ring Line Width
This is the width of the range rings when drawn in pixels. It can be a
value between 1 and 10 pixels.
Range Ring Line Style
This defines how the Range Rings are drawn. It can be one of the
following:
- Solid
- Dot
- Long Dash
- Short Dash
- Dot Dash
Some of these may not display well on your screen depending on
the
resolution you are using. It is known that when using high resolution
screens, i.e. 3800x1900 the difference between the line types may be
difficult to see.
About

This page provides useful information in the event you have problems
with the Plug In. Please provide the version number and the patch
number with any reported incident. You should also provide the version
number
of OpenCPN as this will help identify where the issue may be.
Draw
Create (right icon)
The plugin has an interesting interface with two icons as shown above
for Draw Manager and Draw Create.
The right icon Draw Create is dynamic and
will show a different icon dependent on which drawing object type has
been selected. Click on the right icon and a floating Draw
Toolbar appears containing Draw Tools,
with the last one used selected as default (appears depressed). Select
the Drawing Tool needed.

The
above Draw Tools are for Boundary,
then Boundary Points, Text points, EBL
and DR in that order.
The Drawing Objects that are available are as follows:
- Boundary
- Boundary points
- Text points
- Electronic Bearing Lines (EBL) & Variable Range
Marker (VRM)
- Dead Reckoning
Try drawing several of each type to learn how they work and what they
create.
You can select the next tool in sequence by right clicking the mouse
prior to starting to draw. Once a left mouse click has been done the
right click will terminate the 'create' drawing. You can also stop the
'create' mode by hitting 'Esc', left mouse clicking the selected tool
in the main toolbar or by left mouse clicking on the close icon in the
'Draw Toolbar'. It sounds complicated, but you will find one of the
methods should meet your normal usage requirements.
Each
tool has a cursor icon:
- Boundary: Pencil
- Boundary Point: Red Cross
- Text Point: 'I' icon
- EBL: Red Cross and a line joining the cursor to the boat
- DR: Red Cross
The DR tool does not draw based on the current cursor position, it
brings up a dialog box that allows you to enter the DR information.

When you left mouse click 'OK' the DR line will be drawn based on the
information you have entered. The information that is first displayed is
the default information entered into the properties panel or the
current information available to OpenCPN, i.e. SOG and COG.
Draw
Manager (left icon)
The left Icon is for the Draw Manager which
gives the user control over each of the Drawing objects that
have been created from the Draw Toolbar. From the Drawing
Manager menu Path & Point Manager
Tabs for Paths, Ocpn Points, Layers become available, and
selected Drawing Objects can be Shown, Hidden, Deactivated,
Centered, Deleted, Exported, Delete All, and Export All. Additionally
a drawing object's Properties can be
accessed and changed.

First select one or more Drawing Objects
under a given Tab. Then select the desired Action
on the right.
For example: Select all Drawing Objects
under Paths Tab, then select Delete.
This will remove all of the Drawing Objects
under Path Tab. Of course the quick
alternative is to select Delete All.
Properties, Deactivate and Center View are
greyed out when more than one object is selected.
Drawing Manager > Layers
Drawing Objects imported into Layers are static and non editable. Use
Layers in the same way as the
Route and
Waypoint manager
does, i.e. Temporary Layers. It will bring in
boundaries and points and show or hide them as required. You can load
more than one layer file into the same layer, just select more than one
file in the file manager popup and they will load into the same layer.
To use Layers and move Drawing Objects into a temporary user created
Layer, select them, Export Selected and then from the Layer Tab Import.
Edit
Mode for Draw Objects
First, to get out of the creative draw mode, click on the Draw Button
and hit escape.
Then in the drawing hover over the object you wish to modify until a
square yellow descriptor appears, then right click. The popup menu's
first line will identify the type of drawing object you have selected.
Then there will be a action pick list, dependent on the object, such as
Properties, Move.., Insert.. Deactivate.. Delete. Some drawing objects
are made of several parts, (Boundary, Boundary Points, EBL &
VRM)
so it makes a difference where you hover and the condition of the
object.
1. To select a Boundary, hover over the edges. To select a boundary
point hover over it.
2. To select an EBL hover over the ends or the shaft, depending on
whether the EBL is centered on a boat or lat/long the right click
actions will be different. The popup menu list selections should be
self explanatory.
When you have right clicked and selected an action, for example to move
a boundary, text point or boundary point, the point will be
highlighted
with a yellow dot. Complete the move by dragging and releasing.
For editing any characteristics such as color, line thickness, font,
etc, use 'Properties', but if you just want to move a point select
'Move'. To move a point you will need to right click and select move.
Having selected move you will then need to put the cursor over the
selected object, push and hold the left mouse button and drag the
object to where you want it. When you let go of the left mouse button
the
cursor (what ever it was showing before) should revert to the standard
pointer and the 'move' process is terminated. If you want to move the
object again, you will have to right click again to get the popup and
repeat the process.
Edit
Mode for Draw Object Properties
There are multiple ways to access an object's Properties.
- In Path & Point Manager double
click on a Drawing Object, Properties will
appear.
- In the Drawing hover over the Drawing Object, right click
and
pick Properties.
- In the Drawing hover over the Drawing Object, double left
click, Properties will appear.
It is also possible to drill down into an object if it is multi-part,
i.e. get a Boundary properties dialog displayed then right click or
double click any line showing a Boundary point and the properties for
that point will be displayed.
This
section will describe in more detail the drawing tools that are
available with this Plug In.
Boundary
This allows drawing of
a closed path joining all points that of the
path. The smallest Boundary has two points, but normal Boundaries will
have three (triangle) or more points. There is no limit to the number
of points, or the size of the Boundary. When drawing points that have
already been placed will be connected together with the path line. A
rubber band line will be drawn that follows the cursor. The boundary
fill may appear incomplete or strange at this point. However, when the
final point is place and the create process is finished it will correct
itself and display the boundary fill correctly.
If a point is placed in
the wrong location carry on laying the other
points. When you have finished the create process you can then edit the
boundary and 'Move', 'Delete' or 'Add' more points to the boundary. If
the whole boundary is in the wrong location it can be moved as a whole
from the right mouse click menu.
The
types of boundary you can draw, which can be easily changed after
creation if it is wrong, are:
- Exclusion - The interior of the boundary will have a cross
hatch
pattern of the selected color. The type of boundary reported to other
plugins, such as Watchdog, will be of type 'Exclusion'.
- Inclusion - A user defined width cross hatch pattern will
be
drawn
around the outside of the boundary in the selected color. The type of
boundary reported to other plugins, such as Watchdog, will be of type
'Inclusion'.
- Neither - The boundary will be drawn as a line with no
interior
or
exterior fill. The type of boundary reported to other plugins, such as
Watchdog, will be of type 'Neither'.
- Please Note that these Types (exclusion, inclusion,
neither) are
Graphical only, and WatchDog does not use them in setting its internal
alarms. We recommend that these graphic types be used appropriately to
conform with the type of alarm that will be set from within WatchDog,
however they will have NO EFFECT on the WD alarm type.
The type of boundary may change what other plugins do with the
information, or how it is displayed. If using the Watchdog plugin and
you set the boundary anchor watch the alarm will go off if you move
outside of the boundary. If you are motoring/sailing and you have a
proximity boundary watch set then the alarm will go off if you get
closer than the specified distance. The first type of boundary should
be an 'Inclusion' boundary and the second should be an 'Exclusion'
boundary.
Note: A Boundary is a line joining multiple, 2 or more, Boundary Points
together. As such, each Boundary Point can have the same capabilities
as individual Boundary Points.
Boundary
Point
This allows the placing of individual points on the chart. They are
very similar to 'Marks' that can be dropped by OpenCPN. However, they
have
the capability of being 'Exclusion', 'Inclusion' and 'Neither' boundary
points. This is demonstrated when Range Rings are Displayed.
- Exclusion - The interior of the boundary point, from the
biggest
range ring, will have a cross hatch pattern of the selected color. The
type of boundary point reported to other plugins, such as Watchdog,
will be of type 'Exclusion'.
- Inclusion - A user defined width cross hatch pattern will
be
drawn
around the outside of the largest range ring of the boundary point in
the selected color. The type of boundary point reported to other
plugins, such as Watchdog, will be of type 'Inclusion'.
- Neither - The boundary range rings will be drawn as a line
with
no
interior or exterior fill. The type of boundary point reported to other
plugins, such as Watchdog, will be of type 'Neither'.
- Please Note that these Types (exclusion, inclusion,
neither) are
Graphical only, and WatchDog does not use them in setting its internal
alarms. We recommend that these graphic types be used appropriately to
conform with the type of alarm that will be set from within WatchDog,
however they will have NO EFFECT on the WD alarm type.
Boundary Points continue to be placed on the chart until the drawing
create mode is terminated. This allows the placing of as many points
with single mouse left clicks as the user wishes.
Text
Point
This allows the placing of individual Text Points on the chart. They
appear very similar to Boundary Points, but they allow the displaying
of multi-line text in the desired font. They can have range rings, but
these cannot be filled.
The text top left corner of the text is the reference point. There are
7 provided locations:
- Top - which puts the text over the top of the point aligned
to
the left edge of the icon with the bottom just clear of the icon
- Top Center - which puts the text over the top of the point
with
the center of the text aligned to the center of the icon
- Bottom - which puts the top edge just underneath the point
aligned
to the left edge of the icon. If you displace the point name the text
should drop enough to show it
- Bottom Center - which puts the text underneath the point
with the
center of the text aligned to the center of the icon
- Center - which puts the text horizontal and vertical center
over
the icon.
- Right - which puts the top edge aligned with the top of the
icon,
the left hand edge of the text just clear of the right hand side of the
icon
- Left - which puts the top edge aligned with the top of the
icon,
the text to the left of the icon with the right hand end of the text
box just clear of the icon
The amount the box edge is offset is controlled by 8 settings in the
opencpn
ini/conf file.
You will find them called:
DefaultTextTopOffsetX, DefaultTextTopOffsetY
DefaultTextBottomOffsetX, DefaultTextBottomOffsetY
DefaultTextRightOffsetX, DefaultTextRightOffsetY
DefaultTextLeftOffsetX, DefaultTextLeftOffsetY
These are not in any dialog box as they are very unlikely to be
modified.
Changing the font in the properties box does not apply the font until
the OK button is pressed on the properties box. The word 'Example'
should change to show you the font selected.
I will look and see if I can make the background box a little bigger.
The information for the size of the box is obtained from the system
depending on the font used, so I may have to make that an attribute of
either the font (may be difficult) or of the point itself.
Changing the font in the properties box does not apply the font until
the OK button is pressed on the properties box. The word 'Example'
should change to show you the font selected.
When
a Text Point is created the 'natural' scale at which it is created
is stored. This is then used to determine what to show when scaling to
larger scales. Currently at twice the natural scale the text gets
hidden and at 8x the natural scale the text box gets hidden. This is
currently hard coded.
To display text for the Text Point you will need to open the properties
for the Text Point and fill in the 'Display Text' tab. This is simple
text and does not allow individual formating of different parts of the
text. You can pick the font and the font metrics to use for all the
text associated with one text point.
EBL
The EBL always starts attached to the boat with the far end of the line
being placed by left clicking the chart. The default action for the end
point is set in the main properties dialog. The end point can either be
fixed to a Latitude and Longitude or move along with the boat. This
allows the EBL to show the boat moving against a fixed point, i.e.
passing a reef, or to show other objects moving relative to the boat,
i.e. when the boat can tack to get around a bouy.
The EBL can be detached from the boat to allow placing of the start
point where the user left clicks. The EBL can also then have the start
point centered on the boat but not move or re-attached to the boat.
Variable Range Markers (VRM's) can be displayed as part of the EBL, by
checking a box on the EBL properties (or set the default on the OD
properties) and a range ring will be drawn based on the start point. If
the end point of the EBL is moved the range ring will move with that
point. This allows easily setting up of safety rings around a boat. The
plugin provides additional information when moving the end point of an
EBL/VRM
End Points A & B of an EBL can be in several states:
1. Associated with Boat position (boat lat long) - Moving with the boat.
2. Associated with a fixed position (lat long) - Not Moving with the
boat.
3. When offset Point B is associated with Boat position (lat long) it
moves relative to the boat position and stays at the same angle.
Right click selections for EBL are
1. When the EBL start point is attached to the boat... Pick a new start
point.
2. When the EBL start point is not on the boat.. Center on moving boat
or Center on Lat/Lon (not fixed to the boat)
This flexibility is useful for DR to have "Fixed" EBL markers.
The default color is the same as for a 'Boundary Point' and it will
draw 1 range ring. If you want to change that then you will need to get
to the start point properties (double click the EBL and double click
the first point), or if the first point is clearly visible, just go to
its
properties (right click the point and select properties) and you can
change the number of rings, the colors (you cannot fill them at the
moment).
The VRM color, by default is set to the same as the EBL, but once you
change the VRM color to be different from the EBL then it will stay
this way, unless you select the match option in the right click menu.
There are two ways of changing the VRM color:
- Under properties for the EBL with the VRM showing. Change
the EBL
color and the VRM color will also change.
- Under properties for the EBL with the VRM showing get the
properties of the 'boat'/'start' point and change the color.
It may seem strange at first to use an EBL to give you the VRM, but it
makes the coding/logic easier and allowed building on the 'path/point'
concept that is at the heart of this plugin. From a user perspective it
should make selecting the VRM easier so that it can be dragged to the
size required as there is a well defined point that can be selected.
This is particularly true if you have many VRM's at one time.
It is not necessary to loop through the
preferences
to enable
the VRM for one EBL - the settings pop-up double clicking the EBL has
all the necessary entries.
Reverse bearing has been added to the rollover popup for EBL's.
The main properties dialog in the general tab sets whether to use
magnetic bearings or true. If magnetic is used then if you have the
World Magnetic Model installed the variation will be used from that
plugin. If not you will, currently, need to set 'UserMagVariation=0.00'
in the ocpn_draw_pi section of the config file (there is no setting in
the properties dialog for this yet). There is, currently, no way to get
at the value set in the
opencpn
mainline
properties that will work on all platforms which may require
another plugin-api change to enable this to be made available.
DR
This draws a Dead Reckoning line with multiple points along it starting
at the boats current location. As mentioned above, this tool does not
use the mouse click to draw on the chart, rather it uses it to display
a dialog box where the DR information can be entered. When the 'OK'
button is clicked the DR will be created and drawn on the chart. At
this point the line can be modified by changing the points that make it
up.
However, this may make the DR line not reflect what you expect as
neither the time/distance between points is maintained, nor is the
COG/SOG. So the DR line at that point becomes more of a line with
possibly little meaning in the context of DR.
Properties
dialogs
All objects that have been drawn have a properties dialog associated
with them to allow changing of the objects attributes.
Boundary
Properties
You can display the point properties by either double left mouse
clicking on the particular line you want in the Points list or by right
mouse clicking on the line, once it has been selected, and selecting
'Boundary Point Properties' from the popup menu.
If you want to remove a
particular point then left click the line to
select it then right mouse click on the point and select 'Remove
Selected' from the popup menu.
Boundary Point Properties
Basic

These
are the properties for the selected Boundary Point. Any changes
here will be made to the selected Boundary Point and, if the 'OK'
button is clicked, will be preserved over a restart.
Extended
This allows you to stop displaying the Boundary Point on the screen and
change the GUID if you want. You will need to click 'OK' to save the
changes.
Text
Point Properties
Basic
These are the properties for the selected Text Point. Any changes here
will be made to the selected Text Point and, if the 'OK' button is
clicked, will be preserved over a restart.
Display
Text
This tab controls the text that is displayed for the Text Point. Any
changes here will be made to the selected Text Point and, if the 'OK'
button is clicked, will be preserved over a restart.
Extended
This is the same as for a Boundary Point
EBL
You can display the point properties by either double left mouse
clicking on the particular line you want in the Points list or by right
mouse clicking on the line, once it has been selected, and selecting
'EBL Point Properties' from the popup menu.
If you want to remove a particular point then left click the line to
select it then right mouse click on the point and select 'Remove
Selected' from the popup menu.
EBL
Point
Basic
These are the
properties for the selected EBL Point. Any changes here
will be made to the selected EBL Point and, if the 'OK' button is
clicked, will be preserved over a restart.
Extended
This is the same as for
a Boundary Point
DR Properties
You can display the point properties by either double left mouse
clicking on the particular line you want in the Points list or by right
mouse clicking on the line, once it has been selected, and selecting
'DR Point Properties' from the popup menu.
If you want to remove a particular point then left click the line to
select it then right mouse click on the point and select 'Remove
Selected' from the popup menu.
DR
Point Properties
Basic
These are the properties for the selected DR Point. Any changes here
will be made to the selected DR Point and, if the 'OK' button is
clicked, will be preserved over a restart.
Extended
This is the same as for a Boundary Point
Possible Future
Improvements:
Match
It might be nice to have a way to "match" a text entity which is a way
of copying all the font, color, background color and transparency
information. To clone the properties of an object and not necessarily
the object itself. So, the idea is to copy some of the attributes,
color, text, icon from one point to another, but leaving the lat, lon,
GUID, name? remember the "the change all icons for boundaries" you have
implemented already.
Copy and paste Lat/lon point
Code for copying a point (text, boundary, etc.) exists already, there
just isn't a way to execute it, i.e. it needs new menu item to allow
the creating of a point based on the current point.
Watchdog

Latest
update of this
documentation: (dd-mm-yyyy): 18-01-2016
(and up to date with the following version of Watchdog-Plugin: 1.9024)
What
is Watchdog (WD)
Plugin?
Watchdog Plugin is a plugin for OpenCPN. This plugin is developed by
Sean D'Epagnier and implements various configurable alarms alerting the
user about the changing conditions round the boat. Watchdog also
implements a Deadman-alarm and an improved anchor alarm. Watchdog
communicates with another very useful plug-in, called OpenCPN
ODraw Plugin”.
That plugin is a tool to draw geo-referenced points, lines and shapes
within OpenCPN. These points, lines and shapes can be used in
navigation, for instance to show specific points or areas (boundaries),
electronic bearing lines (EBL) and variable range markers (VRM).
Watchdog will be referred to as
“WD-pi” or
“WD”.
OpenCPN Draw Plugin will be referred to as
“Draw-pi”
or “OD”.
Contents:
This plugin requires the most current version of Opencpn
4.1.xxx
or later.
Download the plugin from the Plugin Downloads section of
opencpn.org
Watchdog warns you -in
a couple of specific situations- when you want
to be warned.
Watchdog has (in the
version stated in the top of this document) the
following types of alarms:
Landfall Alarm
Boundary Alarm
Anchor
Alarm
Course
Alarm
Speed
Alarm
Deadman Alarm
NMEA
Data Alarm
Yes, that is possible. But maybe you want to choose
something else.
You can set an alert in the form of a text-message that pops up on your
screen …

A text-message is rather useless if you are not looking at your
display. As the Deadman alarm is supposed to prevent you from falling
asleep (or to wake you up if you did) the only logical kind of alert
for "Deadman" is some form of (loud and bloody annoying!) noise.
So Watchdog also enables you to set an acoustic alarm.

You
can use any sound you like, as long as it is a “.wav”-file.
Examples:
If you want to brush up on your Morse-code, you can set Morse-code YYY
(Yankee = "My anchor is dragging") as sound for anchorwatch-alarm and
Morse-code UUU (Uniform = "You are running into danger") as the sound
for Boundary and Land-fall-alarm. You can generate these sounds
yourself dead-simple on the website
Morse
Code
Translator.
Just type whatever you want, adjust pitch and speed to your liking and
save as .wav-files in /OpenCPN/sounds).
If your only reaction to hearing the beeps of Morse code is “Ah, the
pizza in the microwave is ready!” then maybe a more direct approach
suits you better. Like for instance a computer that actually says
“Warning!
Boundary!” when the Boundary-alarm sounds and “Warning!
Anchor!” when your anchor is dragging.

And
if you really want a Watchdog that barks, well….. then find
yourself a wav-file of a barking dog (not recommended though; if you
are
anchored in an idyllic harbour it might start every dog in the
surrounding to join in).
Apart from pop-up screens and all kinds of sounds, you can also let
Watchdog execute a computer-command. That can be any
computer-command. To name just a few options: Start a
pdf-document with pre-defined messages in "Seaspeak" or any other
language you need to have a conversation with the skipper of that
monstrosity that is about to collide with you.
Or imagine your boat anchored in the bay and you sitting ashore in the
pub.....
And hey, on our mobile phone we receive an email from a loved-one!

Once you have Watchdog installed and in your OpenCPN
Toolbar,
follow these 4 initial steps to set up a new Watchdog Alarm:
Step 1. Click "Watchdog" in the
OpenCPN Toolbar
Step
2. The "Watchdog Window" opens. It will show all
the alarms you have set (in this example none is set yet). Click
"Configuration"
Step
3. The "Watchdog Configuration Window" opens.
Click "New"
Step
4. The "New Alarm Window" opens. It shows the
various types of alarms.
(next steps involve clicking the desired alarm and clicking "OK")
NOTE:
these 4 initial steps are for each
alarm
the same. In the rest of this tutorial these steps will not be repeated
but will be referred to as "set up a new Watchdog-alarm".
First the various types of alarms are briefly explained.
After
that each type of alarm is explained (a bit) more extensive.
Landfall
Alarm
Landfall Alarm is meant to alert you when you are nearing
land.
Not very usefully when you are only sailing withing a couple of miles
from your marina but more aimed at the bigger trips involving vast
stretches of water. Columbus would have liked it. The more extensive
description of the alarm is here: LANDFALL
ALARM.
Boundary
Alarm
Boundary Alarm is meant to alert you when the position of a
ship
relative to a boundary (or to a boundary of a specific type) is not
what you want it to be. For instance when you are about to sail into a
so-called "restricted area". Boundary Alarm can be configured in
relation to your distance to a boundary (Boundary Distance
)
or in relation to the time it will take you to get to a boundary
(Boundary Time
). Boundary Alarm can also
be set up as Anchor Watch
alarm or as Guard
Zone
Alarm.
A Boundary alarm of the type “Anchor Watch
”
is meant to alert you when your own ship gets outside a specific
boundary. In other words, when your anchor drags. Anchor Watch is
related to the position of your own ship and is fed by the data from
your GPS
-receiver.
A Boundary alarm of the type “Guard Zone
”
is meant to alert you when one or more other ships are inside a
specific boundary. “Guard Zone” is related to the position of other
ships and is fed by the data from your AIS
-receiver.
The difference with the "normal" AIS-alarm (warn me when a
ship
comes within a given distance from "own ship") is that the Watchdog
Boundary-Guard Zone alarm gets triggered when a ship enters a specific
area (like for instance the entrance to that secluded spot you thought
to have for just you and your spouse / friend / secretary /…).
The more extensive description of the alarm is
here:
BOUNDARY ALARM.
Anchor
Alarm
Anchor Alarm is meant to alert you when your position
changes
more than a specific distance from a certain position (in short: when
your
anchor is dragging).
The more extensive description of the alarm is here: ANCHOR ALARM.
Course
Alarm
Course Alarm is (of course) meant to alert you when you get
off
course. The problem with getting off course is of course that you might
end up somewhere where you do not want to be (see "Boundary Alarm").
The more extensive description of the alarm is here: COURSE ALARM.
Speed
Alarm
Speed Alarm is meant to alert you when you are going slower
than
a certain set speed (“Underspeed
”) or
when you are going faster than a certain set speed (“Overspeed
”).
If you go too slow, you might run out of beer before you
reach
your destination. If you go too fast, your lovely sailing trip might
end too soon in some lousy marina.
The more extensive description of the alarm is here: SPEED ALARM.
Deadman
Alarm
Deadman Alarm is meant to alert you (or your crew) when the
program suspects you to have fallen asleep, jumped overboard or simply
passed away. In other words: when after a given amount of time the
program still has not experienced any action whatsoever from whoever.
The object is of course to be sure there is still someone on board
keeping watch and able to take all the necessary actions. The Deadman
alarm stops as soon as any action is taken, for instance a movement of
the cursor (mouse).
The more extensive description of the alarm is here: DEADMAN ALARM.
NMEA
Data Alarm
NMEA Data Alarm is meant to alert you when OpenCPN loses
NMEA-input. NMEA-data is information the program receives from various
instruments. Most well-known NMEA-data is from GPS-receivers and
AIS-receivers. NMEA Data Alarm is crucial if you want to rely on
anything that has something to do with either your position, course and
speed or the position, course and speed of other ships! In short: if
you lose your NMEA input, you lose a very important part of the CPN-bit
of
OpenCPN!
The more extensive description of the alarm is here: NMEA DATA ALARM.
Landfall-alarm
is meant to alert you when you get within a set distance
from land.
For most sailors the usefulness of such an alert is obvious.
“Hoorah and up she rises!” More info: go to “
MAIB”
and search for “Lysblink Seaways”.
Important: the alarm operates in relation to the
coastline as it is programmed into your vector charts!
OpenCPN comes with a worldwide background map, displayed if no charts
are available for an area.
Note: these two screenshots illustrate that the
coastline in that basic background map can be quite different from the
real thing!
Looking at this basic coastline chart WD will assume we are not close
enough to the coastline to trigger the Landfall alarm. So, WD stays
quiet.
When
he really should have barked!
Therefore
it would be advisable to use the most detailed
GHSSH High Resolution Background Map which is 230 mb and found
here
under http://opencpn.org/ocpn/downloads/data/GshhsHiRes.zip.
Now that's more like it!
Stay
on the save side and set landfall-alarm for a distance well
offshore. Landfall-alarm is not meant for close-quarters navigation.
Setting the Landfall-alarm is explained step-by-step
by these screenshots.
Set up a new Watchdog-alarm and pick "Landfall".
Click "OK". The "Edit Alarm" window pops up.
In the Edit Alarm window you can choose between "GPS course crosses
land in less than ... minutes"
or "GPS fix is less than .... nm from coastline".
Here we've chosen "GPS fix is less than 5 nm from coastline". Tick the
rest of the boxes and click “OK”.
The
Watchdog Configuration window shows the alarm.
Now
your Landfall alarm is ready to be used.
Just make sure the "Alarm On/Alarm Off" box is ticked (set).
Watchdog
communicates with another very useful plug-in, called “OpenCPN
ODraw Plugin”. That plugin is a tool to draw geo-referenced
points, lines and shapes
within OpenCPN. These points, lines and shapes can be used in
navigation, for instance to show specific points or areas (Boundaries),
electronic bearing lines (EBL) and variable range markers (VRM).
Watchdog will be referred to as “WD-pi” or
“WD”.
OpenCPN Draw Plugin will be referred to as “Draw-pi”
or “OD”.
To fully benefit from the capabilities of the WD Boundary Alarms, you
have to understand the “Boundaries” made by OD. Therefore, prior to
explaining the WD Boundary Alarms, we first give an explanation of
these Boundaries (for a full explanation, see the chapter
Plugins->External Plugins->
ODraw
in this
manual).
Boundary Shapes or Boundary Points
You can create Boundaries by using OD. You can create Boundaries in OD
by drawing shapes (lines from point to point) but also by drawing just
one point (Boundary Point or BP) and then specify a certain radius
(range) around that point.
Boundary Types
In the “Boundary Properties” tab you can assign a “Boundary Type” to
each Boundary or BP.
You can choose “Exclusion”, “Inclusion”
or “Neither”
Note
:
in WD you can set the
alarm for every kind of boundary
. So, you can set alarms
that get triggered when you get in (or too close to) a boundary of the
type "Exclusion" but you can also set alarms
that get
triggered when you get in (or too close to) a boundary
of the type "Inclusion" or a boundary that is of type "Neither".
The most logical thing to do though, is to use as a rule
that each Boundary Type is meant to give you a specific type of message.
We advise you to use "Inclusion" boundaries as "OK to get in",
"Exclusion" boundaries as "not OK to get in" and "Neither" boundaries
as boundaries that are just good to be aware of. The type of message
each
boundary type would send to you, would then be something like this:
Boundary Type Exclusion says: “Don’t you come
near me (and “inside me” is an absolute No No!)”.
Boundary Type Inclusion says: “Stay with me,
please”.
Boundary Type Neither says: “Hey, I don’t care
where you are, but I think you should know I exist”.
Each Boundary Type is graphically represented in a specific way.
Exclusion: a hatched pattern inside the
area.
Inclusion: a hatched zone on the outside of
the boundary.
Neither: no hatch (just a line).
You
can give boundaries any shape, size and color you like, but
colorwise it might seem logical to use something reddish (“danger”)
for boundaries of the type “exclusion” and something greenish (“safe”)
for
boundaries of the type “inclusion”.
In this screenshot we show you the different types of boundaries.
Top row: two boundaries of the type “inclusion”
Second row: three boundaries of the type “exclusion”
Third row: two boundaries of the type “neither”
Fourth row: three boundary points. From left to right, “inclusion”,
“exclusion”and “neither”.
WD-Boundary
Alarms
In WD you can set “Boundary”-alarms (choose “Boundary” in the “New
Alarm”-window).
Boundary Alarm: “Distance” or “Time”
In the “Edit Alarm”-window you can choose between:
trigger the alarm when my position (GPS-fix) is less than ...
nautical mile from the boundary.
(GPS fix). This type of alarm is a “Boundary-Distance”
alarm.
or
trigger the alarm when my present course and speed will bring me at
the boundary in less than … minutes (GPS course). This type of alarm
is a “Boundary-Time” alarm.
If you choose “Boundary-Distance”, you can type how many nautical miles
you want as a margin from the boundary. 3.000000 means 3 nautical
miles, 0.01 means one hundredth of a nautical mile (= 0.01 x 1852 =
18,52
meter) etc.
In this screenshot “Boundary-Time” is ticked. You can set the time by
typing or by clicking the UP and DOWN buttons.
Boundary
Alarm: “Boundary Type”
You can set a WD boundary-alarm that gets triggered:
- in relation to any boundary, no matter what the
type is (the alarm works for all boundaries).
- in relation to all boundaries of the type Exclusion
(the alarm works for all “Exclusion” boundaries)
- in relation to all boundaries of the type Inclusion
(the alarm works for all “Inclusion” boundaries)
- in relation to all boundaries of the type Neither
(the alarm works for all “Neither” boundaries)
If
you set a WD Boundary Distance-alarm for Any, the
alarm will be triggered as soon as you enter a boundary of the type
“Inclusion”, “Exclusion” or “Neither”.
If you set a WD Boundary Distance-alarm for Exclusion,
the alarm will be triggered as soon as you enter a boundary of the type
“Exclusion”. The alarm will not be triggered when you enter a boundary
of the type “Inclusion” or “Neither”.
If you set a WD Boundary Distance-alarm for Inclusion,
the alarm will be triggered as soon as you enter a boundary of the type
“Inclusion”. The alarm will not be triggered when you enter a boundary
of the type “Exclusion” or “Neither”.
If you set a WD Boundary Distance-alarm for Neither,
the alarm will be triggered as soon as you enter a boundary of the type
“Neither” (but it does not work for Boundary Points
of type “Neither”, see note). The alarm will not be triggered when you
enter a boundary of the type “Inclusion” or
“Exclusion”.
Note:
BD alarm “Any”, “Exclusion” and “Inclusion” also work in relation to
Boundary Points (BP).
BD alarm Neither does not work
for Boundary Points of type “Neither”.
Boundary Alarm: “Anchor Watch” or “Guard Zone”
You can also set a boundary-alarm that gets triggered in relation to a
specific boundary (the alarm works only for that specific boundary).
That can be an alarm of the type “Anchor Watch” or an
alarm of the type “Guard Zone”.
Anchor Watch
Guard Zone
A
Boundary alarm of the type “Anchor Watch” is meant
to alert you when your own ship gets outside a specific boundary. In
other words, when your anchor drags. Anchor Watch is related to the
position
of your own ship and is fed by the NMEA-data from
your GPS-receiver.
A Boundary alarm of the type “Guard Zone” is meant to
alert you when one or more other ships are inside a specific boundary.
“Guard Zone” is related to the position of other ships
and is fed by the NMEA-data from your AIS-receiver. NOTE:
"other ships" are only ships that actually transmit AIS data and whose
AIS-data are actually received by your AIS-receiver! Ships that do not
transmit AIS-data (or AIS-data your AIS-receiver does not receive) are
not "seen" by WD!
To let WD know what specific boundary it should watch, you have to
specify the “GUID”. GUID stands for “globally unique
identifier” and is a unique reference
number used as an identifier in computer software. GUIDs are displayed
as 32 hexadecimal digits with groups separated by hyphens.
Example: 2a980000-5098-4787-ac4f-e05b47e7ffff
To enter the GUID of a Boundary or BP in WD, you place your
mouse-cursor on a boundary and copy-paste in the field Boundary GUID or
Guard Zone
GUID.
Alternatively,
when the “own ship” icon is within the boundary, you can
click “Get Boundary GUID”.
Note: this method does not always work. In such cases:
use the “copy-paste” method.
When
it comes to alarms in relation to boundaries, the most obvious
situations where you want an alarm are exclusion boundaries
and inclusion boundaries. In this documentation we'll
focus on these two types.
Here you see four boundary-area's: two Inclusion (top row, greenish)
and two Exclusion (bottom row, reddish).
The boat is not inside a boundary.
SETTING
UP A WATCHDOG "BOUNDARY- DISTANCE" ALARM.
As said before, you can set up a "Boundary-Distance"
alarm. That means "trigger the alarm when my
position
(GPS-fix) is less than …….. nautical mile from the boundary".
You can can set the alarm to be triggered:
A. as soon as you get within
a specific distance from
a
boundary. That option
would result in the
alarm being triggered as soon as you get within
that distance of a boundary, so you will be warned even before you
enter that boundary.
B. as soon as you get inside a
boundary.
We will first give an example of type A and then give an example of
type B.
A. Creating a Watchdog Boundary Distance alarm "you are
to
close to a boundary" (nearer than .... nm").
In this tutorial we will first set up a Watchdog Boundary Distance
Alarm alarm for when we get nearer than a defined distance from a
boundary.
In this example we will use a limit of 1 nm.
Set up a new Watchdog-alarm and pick “Boundary”.

Edit the alarm so that the alarm will be triggered when the
GPS-fix indicates that the boat is less than 1 nm to a
boundary
("GPS fix is < 1.0 nm from boundary). Here
we have chosen "Any" as the boundary type, so the alarm will get
triggered if we get within a distance of 1 nm from any boundary (no
matter what type of boundary).

In
this example we have three boundaries. One is called "Boundary RED
SOLID", one is called "Boundary RED LONG DASH" and the third is called
"Boundary RED DOT". These names are just given as an example and to
make things easier to understand (and yes, the names indeed do
correspond
with the colors and types of the lines).
The 4 range rings around the boat are each 0.25 nm, so the outer ring
represents a range of 1 nm. You can see that the boat is closer than 1
nm to the boundary "RED SOLID". The other two boundaries are more than
1 nm from the boat.
As soon as the alarm is activated, WD will trigger the alarm and draw a
red and grey flashing line to the boundary that is within 1 nm. In this
case the screenshot was taken at a moment when that red and grey
flashing line was in the "red" state.

Note:
it is possible that there are situations when
there is more than one boundary within the specified range before the
alarm is enabled. Then, the moment you enable the alarm, WD will draw
the red and grey flashing line to one of these boundaries. That
can be any of them and is not necessarily the boundary closest to you!.
An example is given in the next screenshot.
Here all three the boundaries are within the range of 1 nm. "RED SOLID"
is at a range of about 0.75 nm and closest to the boat. "RED LONG DASH"
is second at about 0.85 nm and RED DOT is third and just within the 1
nm range. WD picks one of these three boundaries and in this case he
picked the boundary "RED DOT". But that is not the boundary closest to
you!
B. Creating a Watchdog Boundary Distance alarm "you are
inside
a boundary" (0.0 nm from a boundary).
Now we will set up a Watchdog Boundary Distance Alarm alarm
for
when we get inside a boundary. And we want this
alarm to be triggered only when we enter a boundary of the type
"Exclusion".
Edit the alarm so that the alarm will be triggered when the GPS-fix
indicates that the boat is inside a boundary of the type “Exclusion”
("GPS
fix is < 0.0 nm from boundary").
The
alarm is related to GPS fix < 0.00 nm from boundary. Boundary
Type “Exclusion” is ticked. The result is that the alarm will be
triggered when the GPS-fix indicates that the boat is inside a boundary
of that type
Click "OK".
The WD Configuration window shows the alarm we just made. Click "OK".
Make sure that in the WD window the alarm is ticked (enabled). As the
boat is not inside an Exclusion boundary, WD shows "Distance >
0.00
nm" and the alarm is not triggered.
Position is outside Exclusion boundary = O.K. = no Boundary Alarm
Now
lets see if it works...
Position the boat inside one of the Exclusion boundaries (in this case
bottom left).
Position
is inside Exclusion boundary = not O.K. = Boundary Alarm. The
alarm is triggered and in the WD window the text turns from black to
red (meaning: alarm is triggered).
Click "OK" in the Watchman window to acknowledge the alarm.
If you position the boat outside an Exclusion boundary, the alarm will
not be triggered anymore and in the WD window the text will turn from
red back to black (meaning: alarm is not triggered).
If
you change the position of the boat from outside the Exclusion
boundaries to inside one of the Exclusion boundaries (for instance the
Exclusion boundary bottom right), the alarm will be triggered again.
More
than one boundary alarm
You can set up more than one Boundary alarm.
In the next screenshot you see that there are two Boundary Alarms
available, the top one is "Boundary-Distance". That is the alarm we
have just set up.
The other alarm ("Boundary-GUID") is a Boundary alarm of the type
“Anchor Watch”. It is meant to alert you when you get outside a
specific boundary. In this case; the top left "green" boundary. In
short:
Position is inside that green boundary = O.K. = alarm is not triggered
Position is outside that green boundary = not O.K. = alarm is triggered
The boat is outside that boundary but the alarm is not activated yet
(the box is not ticked).
That
second alarm was set up by repeating the steps for setting up a
new Boundary alarm. But that second boundary alarm is configured as
explained in the next steps.
Creating a Boundary GUID “Anchor Watch” alarm
Configuration of the alarm:
The
alarm is related to Anchor Watch Boundary with GUID
79caffff-0c22-4b5f-9d55-856f5e7effff (that is the GUID of the top left
green boundary, which is copied and pasted from the top left boundary.
See Boundary Alarm: “Anchor Watch” or “Guard Zone” for the procedure.
Now let's test again:
Tick the box "Boundary GUID"
As
the position of the boat is outside the specified boundary, the
alarm will get triggered and the text in the WD window will turn from
black
to red.
Now
position the boat in the specified "Anchor" area (the top left
green boundary).
the alarm will not be triggered anymore and in the WD window the text
will turn from red back to black (meaning: alarm is not triggered).
Creating
a Boundary Guard Zone Alarm
A Boundary alarm of the type “Guard Zone” is meant to alert you when
one or more other ships are inside a specific
boundary. “Guard Zone” is related to the
position of other ships and is fed by the data from your AIS-receiver.
Setting up a Guard Zone alarm is similar to setting up a Boundary GUID
Anchor Alarm. But instead of "Anchor Watch" you click "Guard Zone" and
you put the GUID of the "Guard Zone" Boundary in the field next to
"Guard Zone GUID".
When
the feed from your AIS-receiver shows that a AIS-target (=
"another ship") enters the specified Guard Zone, the alarm gets
triggered.
1. Ship not (yet) in Guard Zone: alarm not triggered.
2.
Ship enters Guard Zone: Alarm is triggered (and shows ships name and
MMSI-number)
3.
WD Window text turns red and says "AIS Target in zone"
4.
Ship leaves Guard Zone: Alarm is not triggered anymore, WD Window
text turns black and says "No AIS targets found in zone"
Combination
of Boundary Guard Zone Alarm and Boundary Anchor
Alarm.
It is possible to assign a Boundary Guard Zone Alarm and a Boundary
Anchor Watch Alarm to one and the same boundary. That means that you
can let Watchdog alert you when another ship enters your "safe"
anchoring
area. To achieve this, you use in the Boundary Guard Zone Alarm the
same GUID as in the Boundary Anchor Watch Alarm.
This Anchor Alarm does not
belong to the category "Boundary" as it is
not related to a boundary. This Anchor Alarm is related to a specific
position.,
The pictures are self-explaining (or at least supposed to be).
Set up a new watchdog alarm and pick "Anchor"
In
the "Edit Alarm" window, the latitude and longitude (Lat and Lon) of
your ship will be shown (or to be precise: the Lat and Lon of the "your
ship" cursor, so make sure you have a GPS-fix!).
Radius can be set to whatever you like but "0 meters" will
of course
result in an unwanted amount of alarms.
In this example radius is set to 50 meters. Click "OK".
Then the alarm is enabled and the boat is within the radius of 50
meters from the specified position, the alarm is not triggered and the
circle
showing that radius has a green edge.
Moving
the boat more than the pre-set radius (in this case 50 meters),
triggers the alarm. The green edge turns red. The text in the WD window
turns red and shows the distance from the specified position.
Course Alarm is (of course) meant to alert you when you get
off course.
The problem with getting off course is that you might end up somewhere
where you do not want to be.
Setting the Course-alarm is explained step-by-step by these
screenshots.
Set up a new watchdog alarm and pick "Course"
You can set the alarm for, for "Port" only, for "Starboard"
only or for
"Port or Starboard".
Choose "Port" if you only want to be alarmed when you go too far to
port.
Choose "Starboard" if you only want to be alarmed when you go too far
to starboard.
Choose "Port or Starboard" if you want to be alarmed when you go either
too far to port or too far to starboard.
Choose
how many degrees you want as margin before the alarm is
triggered. You can specify the desired course either manually (enter
the desired course yourself) or by clicking "Current Course". In that
case
Watchdog enters your present COG, as received from your GPS.
In this example Watchdog will start barking when you wander more than
20 degrees to port or more than 20 degrees to starboard from a course
of
135 degrees.
After you are finished editing the alarm, click "OK".
The
"Course Alarm" shows up in the Watchdog Configuration window. Click
"OK".

Watchdog
shows your COG (in this example 168 degrees).
Tick
the checkbox (if it isn't ticked yet).
Watchdog "Course Alarm" is now activated and will alert you if your
course is not between 115 and 155 degrees (135 plus or minus 20
degrees).
In the screenshot below the course is somewhere around 005 degrees. As
that is (way) off course, the alarm is triggered.
Speed-alarm
is meant to alert you when your SOG gets below (Underspeed)
or above (Overspeed) a specific speed. You can set a limit. That limit
is the speed, in knots, you don't want to get below or above.
Setting the Speed-alarm is explained step-by-step by these
screenshots.
Set up a new watchdog alarm and pick "Speed"
In
this example the alarm is set for "Underspeed" and the limit is set
to 5 knots. In other words: you want to have an alarm as soon as your
speed drops below those 5 knots. But If you are riding bigger waves,
your speed can increase momentarily when you surf from the wavetop and
decrease momentarily when you have to go "uphill" again. In such cases
the Speed Alarm might get triggered with every wave. To prevent that,
you can set Watchdog to average your speed. You can
set a slider from 1 second to 120 seconds.
In this example the slider is set to 60 seconds. Now Watchdog will only
trigger the alarm when your average speed, measured over a
period of 60 seconds, will be below 5 knots.
In
this example the boat's average speed over 60 seconds was 0.6 knots
and the limit was set to 5.0 knots.
Watchdog shows you "0.6 < 5.0" (0.6 is less than
5.0).

Here
we have set two speed-alarms. One for Underspeed
and one for Overspeed.

In this screenshot the limit was still 5.0 knots, but the boat's
average speed over 60 seconds was 0.3 knots.
The "Underspeed" alarm was triggered and the text turned red.
The "Overspeed" alarm did not get triggered and that text remained
black.

Deadman Alarm is meant to alert you (or your crew) when the program
suspects you to have fallen asleep, jumped overboard or simply passed
away. In other words: when after a given amount of time the program
still has not experienced any action whatsoever from whoever. The
object is of course to be sure there is still someone on board keeping
watch
and able to take all the necessary actions. The Deadman alarm stops as
soon as any action is taken, for instance a movement of the cursor
(mouse). As the Deadman alarm is supposed to prevent you from falling
asleep (or to wake you up if you did) the only logical kind of alert
for "Deadman" is some form of (loud and bloody annoying!)
noise.
Setting the Deadman-alarm is explained step-by-step by these
screenshots.
Set up a new watchdog alarm and pick "Deadman"
Once
set, the clock starts ticking...
In
Watchdog you can set NMEA-data-alarms. NMEA stands for National
Marine Electronics Association.
NMEA-data consists of sentences, the first word of which, called a data
type, defines the interpretation of the rest of the sentence. Each Data
type would have its own unique interpretation and is defined in the
NMEA standard.
Examples of devices that communicate via NMEA-data with your computer
are your GPS-receiver and your AIS-receiver.
In this picture there is a set-up with a GPS-receiver and a
AIS-receiver connected to OpenCPN.
Here the GPS is on COM21 and the AIS on COM16.
NMEA
and your position.
For a chart-plotting-program like OpenCPN the most important type of
NMEA-data is the data defining your position on this globe. These data
are provided by your GPS-receiver. Without receiving these GPS-data,
the program won't know what your actual position is anymore (and there
is a fair chance you might not know it either). When, for
whatever
reason, the flow of NMEA-data from your GPS to OpenCPN stops, that will
have major effects on the whole idea of the CPN-bit
(chartplotting and navigation) of OpenCPN!. Your boat
might sail into a Boundary Area you want to stay out of, but
the boundary alarm won't be triggered. The same goes for Anchor Alarm.
If you drag your anchor but your GPS has gone on the blink, the alarm
won't be triggered. In short: it's important to know when you lose your
GPS fix.
The GPS-data are received in a data-type beginning with "$"
and the letters "GP". The most important NMEA
sentences include the GGA which provides the
current Fix data, the RMC which provides the minimum gps sentences
information, and the GSA which provides the Satellite status data.
So, if OpenCPN receives $GPGGA, that means it
receives a fix from your GPS.
Setting up a Watchdog-NMEA-alarm (GPS)
Let's set up a Watchdog-NMEA-alarm that warns us when for some reason
the GPS-fix is lost for more than 10 seconds.
Set up a new watchdog alarm, choose "NMEA Data" and click "OK"
Standard
"$GPGGA" is set.
Set timer to "at least every 10 seconds" and tick the other boxes as
per the screenshot below.
Click "OK"
Now
you have your NMEA-alarm set. It will be triggered 10 seconds after
OpenCPN stops receiving GGA-sentences.
NMEA
and the position of other ships
NMEA-data can not only show you where you are, they can also show where
other ships are, what their name, callsign, SOG and COG are etc. Nice
to know if you want to meet up (a rendezvous) or if you are afraid one
of
them might get a bit too close for comfort (a collision). These kind
of data are received via an AIS-receiver.
Multiple NMEA-alarms
You can set a separate alarm for the loss of AIS data. It works the
same as the GPS-alarm but AIS data (from other ships) always begin with
!AIVDM (don't forget the exclamation-mark).
Setting up a Watchdog-NMEA-alarm (GPS)
You can add a new NMEA-alarm (see the previous steps) but now you fill
in !AIVDM
The result is two NMEA Data-alarms (one for GPS fix and one for
AIS-data)
The
upper NMEA Data alarm is the AIS-alarm
The lower NMEA Data alarm is the GPS-alarm
Each alarm can be switched on or off.
EMAIL
TO YOURSELF
You can order Watchdog to
execute a computer-command. Let's say that we
want Watchdog to send us an email in case our anchor drags. We have
stored that command in a file we made and called AnchorAlarm.bat.
In this example that file is stored in the root of our computer (C:\)
but of course you can put in anywhere, as long as you tell Watchdog
where to find it.

Sending emails from the command-prompt can be done with a small tool
called "Send-It-Quiet".
More info:
http://commandlinesendmail.blogspot.nl/
Example of the file AnchorAlarm.bat
(in this example Send-It-Quiet is installed in
E:\Tools\senditquiet\senditquiet)
Lets say:
1. You are Blackbeard
2. Your emailadress is blackbeard@gmail.com
3. Your Gmail username is blackbeard
4. Your Gmail password is 1loveGold2.
And you want the program to send an email to yourself with the subject
ANCHOR
ALARM and the message This is your ship. You stupid
fool, come back here! My anchor is dragging!
The batchfile would then be:
E:\Tools\senditquiet\senditquiet\senditquiet.exe -s smtp.gmail.com
-port 587 -u blackbeard@gmail.com -protocol ssl -p 1loveGold2
-f blackbeard@gmail.com -t blackbeard@gmail.com
-subject "ANCHOR ALARM" -body "This is your
ship. You stupid fool, come back here! My anchor is dragging!"
The result when the anchor alarm gets triggered...

Note
:
of course this only works when you can
actually email from the computer OpenCPN is installed on!
This example is tested on a Windows 7 PC with Internet
connection
and a Gmail-account.
If, after reading all of the above, you still wonder why
Watchdog
could be of any use for navigation, we strongly advise you to sell your
boat...
Back to Table of Contents
Weatherfax
Weatherfax
Retrieves internet image files, reads image files or decodes audio and
then Overlays the image on top of charts.
Preparation
Install Weatherfax Plugin. Enable it in the Settings > Plugin
Tab.
Then open it and explore the top menus.
With an internet connection it is quite easy to select the "HF Radio
Schedules" to select and set alarms for use with a receiver, or to
select the Internet Schedules and then retrieve Weatherfaxes via the
Internet and overlay on the chart. Audio Capture requires a connection.

Retrieve
Weatherfax Image files with an internet connection
If you have an internet connection, first Retrieve > All
> HF
Radio Schedules.
Then Retrieve > Internet > Select NOAA > Select
Boston (for
example) > Select 24hr 500mb Forecast
The Weatherfax image file will download and be overlaid directly onto a
chart.

Lat
42 Long -70 --> Servers: Noaa ---> Regions: Atlantic
---->
Select Contents ----> Retrieve

Lat
42 Long -70 --> Servers: Passage ---> Regions: N.
Atlantic
----> Select Contents ----> Retrieve
The plugin data directory contains an WeatherFaxInternetRetrieval.xml
file that has database for meteorological sites. The "Internet
Retrieval" Option uses this schedule. It is a wonderful planning tool
for cruises
or passagemaking. There are several options, but first Select
"Internet" to retrieve HF Radio Schedules via the internet. Then Select
"NOAA" Under "Servers" you will see "Stations" fill up. Then select
"Boston" and the Internet Retrieval choices are automatically listed in
the menu area. Select several faxes and pick "Retrieve Scheduled" or
"Retrieve Selected".

Aviation Americas Forecast
retrieved via the internet.

Passage Weather Atlantic 012 Wind via internet.

Bermuda
3 day via internet.

Noaa
Atlantic 24hr 500mb via internet.

Noaa
Atlantic 24hr Surface via internet.

Passage Weather New England Wind 012

Passage Weather Nova Scotia Wind 021
Examples
of Internet Retrieval (for the Online Wiki)

List
of Weatherfaxes downloaded. Highlighted one shows overlaid on
charts.
The Weatherfax will be overlayed generally in the proper location
provided the weather service has not changed their fax formats. (The
user can modify the associated WeatherFaxInternetRetrieval.xml file
appropriately to add or modify the actions.) Users should please post
changes to this file to the Weatherfax Thread for the next release.
HF
Radio Weather Faxes
The plugin has a built in database (WeatherFaxSchedules.xml) for HF
Radio Weather Service Fax transmissions, which when used properly can
automatically alert the user and begin decoding these faxes.
Retrieve > RF Radio Schedule Menu on the Filter Tab.

Retrieve
> RF Radio Schedule Menu on the 1 minute
Alarm Tab.

Retrieve > RF Radio Schedule Menu on the Capture
Options Tab.

Retrieve > RF Radio Schedule Menu on the
Information Tab.

Decoding
Sound via SSB
Select Retrieve -> Audio Capture (Ctrl+A)
A line from the ssb radio to the audio input of the sound card should
be attached, and the radio tuned to the appropriate frequency (1.9khz
below listed frequency and SSB mode) The SSB BFO must be adjusted
correctly.
Retrieve
>
Audio Capture shown while receiving

The
images decoded can then be calibrated and overlayed on charts. The
resulting image can be exported to a chart, so the plugin also works as
a general purpose conversion tool to make charts from images.
Working
with Files
The plugin can read and open numerous common image files,
and
audio files, and can save Kap files. The next step in development is to
have
it read Kap for ease of use with respect to coordinates being recorded
and reused.

Working with
Weatherfax Image files
Mercator Projections
If the fax is a Mercator projection (orthogonal, not polar),
click
through the next screen that comes up and at the second screen set the
coordinates and lat/long properly. (Screenshots will be added later)
and click on through to see the fax overlaid on the charts. Note:
It is very difficult to test for poor coordinate and lat/long input, so
it is best to have your lat long correct, otherwise strange things may
happen with the overlay in Opencpn.
I first use a separate image viewer with the selected fax image, to
zoom in and to write down the Lat/long and coordinates that I will be
using. If you plan to export to a chart file then you should select
"Get
Aspect Ratio"

Polar Projections
There are other techniques used to modify a Polar fax onto a
Mercator projection chart which are reviewed on the forum and will be
more fully described later. Review the posts following this
one
in the Forums.

Coordinate
1 (Red) -Select a high latitude
which must also lie on the vertical meridian running through the pole
(N or S)
Coordinate 2 (Blue) - Select an opposing
corner (either side) with lower latitude.
Then hit Get Map, the Blue circles should follow the latitudes of
respective coordinates. Adjust the left/right location with the PoleX value
and adjust the circle radius with the PoleY value. Set the True Width
Ratio value to 1.0.
From
here, it should be possible to click "get mapping"
True width Ratio
-
Adjusts the width of the blue
circles (a fraction like .8 makes the circles wider, and 1.2 makes them
narrower). Adjust the true width ratio such that the blue circles align
with the associated latitude lines, otherwise the "Apply"
transformation will not render straight lat/long lines or will fail.
Pole X -
Moves the center of the blue circles left and
right. The blue circles should be centered on the vertical meridian
which goes through the pole.
Pole Y
-
Moves the center of the blue circles up and
down. The blue circles should be centered on the pole. Hit get mapping
to see how this is working, because the blue rings change in width, and
sometime the ring closest to the pole flips if the value is too far out
of whack.
Equator Y
-
This does not appear to do much when you
change the value, more about this value later.
If you are starting fresh with a Polar, and the blue rings are too wide
after hitting Get Mapping, first check the lat/long entered and reset
coords to be sure they are hit, then Hit 'get mapping again' then
adjust the "True width ration" so the blue rings align with the
latitude
lines. Once that is done don't hit "Get Mapping" again, hit "Apply" the
lines should be straight and orthogonal.
Here
is an example of a WxFax overlay in Opencpn

Future
Improvements
Image files that are downloaded and overlaid onto charts
with
specific coordinates, can now be saved as Kap files that save long/lat
and coordinates with the file. The next step is to have the plugin read
Kap files so they can be automatically overlaid on charts without
having to use the Fax Translation Wizard.
Thanks to Sean for a great Plugin!
Climatology
Climatology Plugin
Intended to aid in planning sailing voyages, to help visualize weather
patterns, and to integrate with weather routing plugin to compute
optimal sailing routes. Weather_routing plugin will use Climatology to
make long voyaging routes. This plugin goes well beyond what a Pilot
chart provides.
Manage and view monthly gridded Climate data compiled from various
sources. Satellite weather data from the last 30 years is averaged,
then represented using only useful bits, then compressed to produce a
much
smaller database used by the plugin.
Climatology provides monthly data for Wind, Currents, Sea Level
Pressure, Sea Temperature, Air Temperature, Cloud Cover, Precipitation,
Relative Humidity, Lightning, Sea Depth, and Cyclones.

July
Wind with Current overlay. (Click for enlarged view)

Climatology Data Types with Display Options
Climatology has a number of Data Types. The display characteristics of
each data type are controlled from the "Config" menu which first
requires selection of the particular data type from a dropbox. Amongst
the display controls for each datatype are Enable/Disable, and to show
the data as a "Overlay" which requires that OpenGL be enabled under
Option > Display > Advanced. The display options have
been
configured already for general use provided OpenGL is checked and
should require no special configuration effort to be useful, however as
users
become familiar with the plugin, they may wish to change a setting for
their type of use (such as if they do not have OpenGL checked.)
The table below shows four data types that are normally shown in vector
format and do not require that Overlay be checked, the other data types
can also be configured to not require that Overlay be checked if OpenGL
is not operational. Click for an enlarged view.
Normal Vector Data Types
(Opengl not required) - Malaysia

Wind
- December
<img alt="Current - December"
data-cke-saved-src="/ocpn/sites/default/files/users/rgleason/Climatology-Current-Dec.jpg"
src="/ocpn/sites/default/files/users/rgleason/Climatology-Current-Dec.jpg"
"="">
Current - December

Pressure - December

Cyclones
- December
___________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
The table below shows data types which are normally shown with Overlay
checked and OpenGL turned on, however they can be configured to show
vector data when Opengl is off, by unchecking "Overlay" for each data
type and configuring a few of the display settings. Click for enlarged
view.
Normal Overlay Data Types
(requires Opengl) - Atlantic

Pressure

Sea Temperature

Cloud
Cover

Precipitation

Relative Humidity

Sea
Depth
Note: The Data-Types in the table above can be configured by the user
to show data if Opengl is not turned on by selecting "Config",
selecting
the appropriate data type from the Drop Down window, and unchecking
"Overlay" and then selecting "Numbers".
Configuration
Config > Standard Tab > Wind dropdown

Config
> Standard Tab > Current dropdown

Config
> Standard Tab > SeaSurfaceTemperature dropdown

Config
> Standard Tab > SeaLevelPressure dropdown

Config
> Wind Tab

Config
> Cyclones Tab
s
Installation
of the Plugin
The plugin works with OpenCPN 3.2 and newer and is available for
download from
opencpn.org/ocpn/downloadplugins.
1. Windows: Download and run installer
2. Linux: dpkg -i <package_name>.deb or rpm -i
<package_name>.rpm or cd /usr; sudo tar xavf
<package_name>
You must also get the data files, the plugin will inform you where to
install them.
Warning about use of Data:
Weather_routing is only as good as the data provided by the Grib plugin
and the Climatology plugin.
- Climatology
plugin: Depends on a separate set
of
files that must be downloaded, extracted and placed in the proper
directory. Climatology data is generally averaged since the 1980's
depending on data type and sources available (for example, Wind data is
averaged 6 hr data since 1987). The entire source data set is over 180
gb, however after averaging and compression it becomes about 7mb.
There are various macro factors which affect weather over a given
season which should be considered, including El Nino, Gulf stream, etc.
Climatology has averaged these effects.
- These planning tools may be helpful, but should be taken
with a
healthy "grain of salt" as any good sailor (who looks out to the
horizon) should know. -Rick Gleason
About the Author
The Climatology Plugin was written by Sean Depagnier who has written
many Opencpn plugins. There is a strong likelihood you have already
used one of his plugins. The plugin is over 1000 lines of code written
with care and skill. Sean has a voyage fund and would appreciate any
contribution large or small, please see the Donate button under the
Configuration > About Tab. -Thank you Sean for this excellent
plugin!.
Weather Routing
Weather
Routing
This
plugin creates optimized weather routes based on grib files and
performance
data (polar data) for the boat, as well as conditions
set
for time, where to start and where to finish
.
- When
downloaded, without changing anything, except downloading a
recent grib file, defining two weather_routing waypoints (hover mouse
at location, right click pick weatherrouting position), create a new
Configuration under Weather_routing, select Edit Configuration and add
one of the waypoints to the start and the other to the end waypoint,
click Grib Time, close Configuration, and Compute the new configuration
and it will probably create isochrones and a new weather route.
- Use the Grib Plugin and recently downloaded grib files for
completing grib predictive routing (1-8 days).
- Use the Climatology Plugin to find and plan long term
cruising
routes, (most useful in prevailing winds areas).
- Use both grib and climatology data to get current data if
the
grib
does not contain it, or to use climatology to avoid areas of cyclones.
- It is also possible to use both grib and climatology data,
allowing the grib's route to be extended past the time/range of the
grib. This
builds on the assumption that the current general weather pattern is
"average", otherwise the result may be totally misleading. If you have
followed the weather for a while and know the current weather pattern,
through 500 mb patterns etc, this is more useful for actual routing
than just using a long term average like climatology alone.

Create a New Route (Edit > New)
- Start
the plugin by clicking it's icon on the toolbar.
- start and end points can be set by hovering
cursor at a
location, and right mouse click, select "Weather Route Position"
- Start Grib (with fresh grib file) and/or Climatology
Plugins, and
set the time to the desired starting time.
- Select Configuration -> New to create a new weather
route
configuration.
- The Weather Routing Configuration Dialog should be shown.
Set the
start and end positions and hit "grib time" to set the time. Be sure to
edit the boat to correctly configure it, see below.
- Beginners should first try a simple route, with starting
point
and
end point, 5 degree steps, and possibly a 3 hour time interval until
they see it is working. The time interval depends on the speed of the
boat and distance traveled.
- From the first Weather Routing Window, select Configuration
->
Compute.

Configuration Window (Edit > Configuration)
Provides setup
flexibility for various factors:
- Start
location, date and time. End location.
- Step
duration for isochrones in hours and minutes (12 hours for
long routes, 1 hour for shorter)
- Degree
Steps (5 degree steps is faster than 1 degree steps)
- Boat
Performance based on editing boat specifications or based on
a polar data file.
- Set
constraints on various factors such as max wind, swell,
waves, latitude, max diverted course etc...
- Set
data source Grib or Climatology, greys if not available.
- Set
options like detect land, currents, inverted regions,
anchoring.
- Routes
can be Edited (created, selected, renamed, reset and
exported.)

Grib
or Climatology Data is Required
Provided by use of the Grib_plugin and a fresh Grib file, or by the
Climatology_plugin with the separate Climatology data installed in the
proper directory.

When the weather route is displayed, grib and climatology calculations
use different color schemes. In the route below, on the left, using
only climatology because we are outside the grib area. In the middle,
the computation is based on grib data, and toward the end of the
passage, the grib data does not cover this time so again climatology
data is used. If the transition from grib to climatology is not
uniform, then the climatology data is not as reliable in that situation.

Route Manager
The
Route Manager can be used for listing the weather route. Right
click a weather route and pick "Properties" Also weather routing can be
exported.
Warning about Data:
Weather_routing is only as good as the data provided by the Grib plugin
and the Climatology plugin.
- Grib plugin: Depends on recent download grib
files from Noaa and other sources. Downloaded Grib predictions can
change
significantly over several days. The longer the grib prediction is, the
less reliable the grib can be.
- Climatology plugin: Can be used for analyzing
long cruising routes through various seasons and constraints, but does
not
take into account the current weather conditions which often vary
significantly from the 30 year average, especially outside of
prevailing wind areas.
- These planning tools may be helpful, but should be taken
with a
healthy "grain of salt" as any good sailor (who looks out to the
horizon) should know.
Warning about Weather Routes:
The weather routes created may not consider or "see" normal navigation
considerations and issues, therefore every route should be checked very
carefully for navigation markers, shallow depths, bad currents, rocks,
land and other obstacles and hazards.
Messages in Configuration Window
In the Config Window after "Compute" there will be a message placed to
the right of the Configuration.
"Complete" affirms that the computations completed. "Fail" indicates
they did not and that some setup parameter may be out of range. The
failure messages have been made to be more descriptive to help.
If your polar doesn't include boat speeds above a windspeed that the
grib tries to use, it will fail to route.
Some
other Examples:
Nassau to Newport, showing other windows (Boat Performance window,
Routing window with Properties opened showing track waypoints)
.
File
Conversion
Polar
File Conversion
Opencpn weather_routing_pi and the
required polar format
The weather_routing_pi plugin references several files located in
c:/ProgramData/opencpn.
To see
where these files are set
in the plugin, select a route or make a new one. Pick Configuration
--> Edit.
Then pick Boat "Edit" a tabbed dialog box will open.
"Plot Details"
Tab has Open, Save and Save as buttons. This is the pointer to the
<boat>.xml file which contains the boat characteristics,
it is
initially set to "boat.xml". After you have gone through all the tabs
and set the boat's Lwl, Loa, Displacement, etc. you should "Save as"
using your boat's name. Then "open" that file each time weather_routing
needs those settings..
Initially under <Configuration > Edit > Boat Edit
> Plot
Details [tab] the file referenced is "boat.xml".
Make sure you have a file "boat.xml" in your opencpn data directory, if
you are having troubles, download a boat.xml file and "load" it.
The second
file is under <Configuration > Edit > Boat Edit
> Polar
[tab]
and this is an optional polar file "<boat>.csv"
"Polar File" Tab shows the path of the Polar file being used, if one
exists, otherwise the program has built in VPP calculation using the
boats characteristics which have been entered, which is in effect when
the path shows as "<computed>".
If you have prepared a polar file in the Opencpn format for your boat,
you can load it into the plugin from this tab, and after you "Save"
from the "Plot Details" tab, the pathname will be remembered [note the
pathname in the sample <boat>.XML file below].
Sometimes the plugin is picky about
these files. If
it is close the plugin and opencpn and reopen, to reset it. Then try
again.
The two sample files are shown below. They are paired. If you load the
XML file the referenced polar file will be loaded if it is in the path
and the correct format.
Shannon38-opencpn-roundtrip.XML
[This is the
<boat>.XML file]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<OCPNWeatherRoutingBoat version="0.9" creator="Opencpn Weather
Routing plugin">
<BoatCharacteristics displacement_tons="21" lwl_ft="34"
loa_ft="38"
beam_ft="11" />
<BoatDrag frictional_drag="0.0170" wake_drag="0.9500" />
<Plan Name="Initial Plan" computed="0" csvFileName="C:\ProgramData\opencpn\Shannon38-opencpn.CSV"
/>
</OCPNWeatherRoutingBoat>
Shannon38-opencpn.CSV
[This is the <boat polar>.csv file.]
twa/tws;6;8;10;12;14;16;20
0;0.00;0.00;0.00;0.00;0.00;0.00;0.00
30;0.00;0.00;0.00;0.00;0.00;0.00;0.00
40;2.80;4.10;4.40;4.70;4.90;5.00;5.10
45;4.00;4.90;5.20;5.50;5.70;5.80;5.90
52;4.50;5.40;6.10;6.40;6.60;6.70;6.80
60;5.00;6.00;6.50;6.70;6.80;6.90;7.00
75;5.50;6.40;6.80;7.00;7.20;7.30;7.40
90;5.70;6.60;7.00;7.30;7.50;7.60;7.70
110;5.80;6.70;7.10;7.40;7.60;7.70;7.90
120;5.50;6.50;7.00;7.30;7.60;7.90;8.20
135;4.80;6.00;6.60;7.00;7.40;7.70;8.30
150;4.00;5.00;5.90;6.50;6.90;7.30;7.90
165;3.70;4.80;5.20;6.20;6.60;6.90;7.50
180;3.30;4.20;4.70;5.90;6.30;6.60;7.20
qtVLM Polar
Format
http://wiki.virtual-loup-de-mer.org/index.php/QtVlm_Polar_Diagram
Extension of the file name. Csv
Separator ';' (semicolon)
Double-entry table
The first cell always contains 'TWA \ TWS'
The first line lists the wind forces. Vlm does not go beyond 60 knots
of wind.
Beginning of each line ** gives the look, then each value corresponding
to the shape and strength of the wind (column heading)
The digital data of the polar use a decimal
point, 'that is the point.'
An integer (no point ended) is valid.
Whites are valid (value = 0.0) but discouraged. Thank you for being
explicit
Text file format is UNIX ie lines that are terminated by LF (Line
Feed) and not CR (Carriage Return) and LF. A good text editor windows
(PsPad or Notepad + +) knows rerecord this format.
TWA\TWS;0;2;4;6;8;10;12;14;16;18;20;22;24;26;28;30;32;34;36;38;40;42;44;46;48;50;52;54;56;58;60
0;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;
0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000
5;0.000;0.210;0.420;0.630;0.800;0.860;0.920;0.940;0.950;0.970;0.980;0.980;0.990;0.950;0.880;
0.810;0.740;0.670;0.600;0.530;0.460;0.370;0.280;0.190;0.090;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000;0.000
Maxsea Polar Format (same as Adrena, or SailGrib WR)
http://www.sailgrib.com/wr-user-guide
The first row defines the True Wind Speed.
The first column defines the True Wind Angle
In the example, the theoretical hull speed for various wind velocities
and wind angles is in the cells.
Modify the True Wind Speed values in the first row. The example below
uses 10 and 30 Kts.
Enter these values in the first row and delete the other columns.
In an Excel spreadsheet
TWA 10 15 20 25
30 2.0 5.4 7.2 7.9
90 4.7 9.5 11.5 12.8
150 2.9 7.4 10.5 13.0
http://www.sailingperformance.com/Products.html
Expedition http://www.expeditionmarine.com/index.html
Isler http://www.islersailing.com/new_page_3.htm
BLUR Boats and Polars http://www.blur.se/boats/
Bluewater
Racing, and Expedition Polar file format
http://www.bluewaterracing.com/bluew...#_Toc343740589
Quote:
A polar file is a sequence of lines. Each line
describes the curve for one windspeed, ws.
Optionally, the
first line may begin with the string "pol", in which
case it is treated as a comment line. This clunky format is not my
idea; it is for compatibility with Expedition and
other software
tools, and
because it loads easily into spreadsheet tools such as Excel.
Each curve is described on one line of the text
file
by a windspeed, followed by a sequence of pairs of True Wind Angle and
boatspeed. (TWA in degrees, BSP in knots)
eg:
10 30 0 45 6 90 8.1 160 7 180 5
15 30 0 40 8 90 12 150 10 165 9 170 5
This gives two curves, one for windspeed 10,
one for
windspeed 15. Different curves may have different TWA points, and
different numbers of points. The line for windspeed 10 specifies a
boatspeed of zero knots at a true wind angle of 30 degrees, a boatspeed
of six knots at TWA 45, 8.1 knots at 90, seven knots at 160 degrees,
and five knots at 180 degrees.
There can be a zero windspeed curve
with non-zero
boatspeed, i.e., “when the wind is gone, the motor's on.”
Rules for the data in polar files:
1) One
windspeed curve
per line.
2) There
must be a least
3 points per curve.
3) There
must be at least
one non-zero windspeed curve.
4) The
minimum TWA is
zero, and the maximum is 180.
5) The
2nd smallest TWA
in a line is the best VMG upwind angle for that windspeed. The 2nd
largest
TWA is the best VMG downwind angle for that windspeed
6) The
first TWA should
be less than any 2nd TWA in any curve. Ideally, zero.
7) The
last TWA should be
greater than any 2nd-to-last TWA in any curve. Ideally, 180
If these rules are broken, the behavior
of the
program is undetermined.
Example
2 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88 92 96 100 104 108
112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 148
152 156 160 164 168 172 176 180
4 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88 92 96 100 104 108
112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 148
152 156 160 164 168 172 176 180
6 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 4.5 56 60 5
64 68 72 76 5.5
80 84 88 92 5.7 96 100 104 108 112 5.8
116 120 5.5
124 128 132 136 4.8 140 144 148 152 4
156 160 164 168
172 176 180
8 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 5.4 56 60 6
64 68 72 76 6.4
80 84 88 92 6.6 96 100 104 108 112 6.7
116 120 6.5
124 128 132 136 6 140 144 148 152 5
156 160 164 168 172
176 180
10 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 6.1 56 60 6.5
64 68 72 76 6.8
80 84 88 92 7 96 100 104 108 112 7.1
116 120 7 124 128
132 136 6.6 140 144 148 152 5.9
156 160 164 168 172 176
180
12 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 6.4 56 60 6.7 64 68 72 76 7
80 84 88
92 7.3 96 100 104 108 112 7.4
116 120 7.3 124 128 132
136 7 140 144 148 152 6.5 156 160 164 168 172 176
180
14 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 6.8 56 60 6.8 64 68 72 76 7.2 80
84 88 92 7.5 96 100 104 108 112 7.6 116 120 7.6 124 128 132
136 7.4 140 144 148 152 6.9 156 160 164 168 172 176 180
16 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 6.7 56 60 6.9 64 68 72 76 7.3 80
84 88 92 7.6 96 100 104 108 112 7.7 116 120 7.9 124 128 132
136 7.7 140 144 148 152 7.3 156 160 164 168 172 176 180
18 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88
92 96 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 148 152 156 160
164 168 172 176 180
20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 6.7 56 60 7 64 68 72 76 7.4 80 84 88 92 7.7
96 100 104 108 112 7.9 116 120 8.2 124 128 132 136
8.3 140 144 148 152 7.9 156 160 164 168 172 176 180
22 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88
92 96 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 148 152 156 160
164 168 172 176 180
24 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88
92 96 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 148 152 156 160
164 168 172 176 180
26 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88
92 96 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 148 152 156 160
164 168 172 176 180
28 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88
92 96 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 148 152 156 160
164 168 172 176 180
30 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88
92 96 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 148 152 156 160
164 168 172 176 180
32 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88
92 96 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 148 152 156 160
164 168 172 176 180
34 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88
92 96 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 148 152 156 160
164 168 172 176 180
36 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88
92 96 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 148 152 156 160
164 168 172 176 180
Other Information and Alternatives for Weather_Routing
Refer to this link in the wiki
http://opencpn.org/ocpn/RM_weather_routing.
Terminology
List of
Definitions and Terminology
Definitions
The definitions below are for those terms commonly used in instrument
systems and navigation. The abbreviations shown are those more commonly
used and may vary from one manufacturer to another. The definitions
likewise may vary. [Comment: These definitions should perhaps be on a
more general page for Opencpn. Also there are some definitions and
terminology missing.]
Route -
Waypoint - Start and Destination
Isochrones - While calculating a Weather Routing the plugin
will calculate the location of the boat for a given time interval (eg:
1 hr, 4hr, 6 hr or 12hr ) and an isochrone represents how far the boat
will sail in a given direction, based on the weather and boat
conditions, for each successive time interval. Isochrones are like
contour lines around the starting point. Think of them as showing an
intermediate destination, and the calculated distance traveled.
Apparent Wind – Apparent wind is the wind as it would
be perceived if one were standing on the deck of a boat that was
subject to movement by; a) The movement of the boat within a body of
water.
(caused by some form of propulsion; sails, engine etc) and b) The
movement of the body of water itself (caused by currents, tides etc.).
Apparent Wind Angle (AWA) – Wind angle relative to the
bow in degrees to port or starboard of the Heading, as measured by the
onboard wind instrument
Apparent Wind Speed (AWS) – Wind speed relative to the
boat as measured by the onboard wind instrument
Average Speed (AVS) – Average Boat Speed through the
water. (Trip Log / Trip Time)
Bearing to Waypoint – Compass bearing to active
waypoint measured from the current position.
Bearing Waypoint to Waypoint – Compass bearing to a
waypoint measured from the previous waypoint.
Boat Position (POS) – Latitude and Longitude of the
boat
Boat Speed (BSP) – Speed of the boat through the water
as measured by the onboard speed transducer
Course (CRS) – Compass direction that the boat is
moving through the water (HDG + Leeway).
Course Over Ground (COG) – Compass direction that the
boat is moving over the surface of the earth. (HDG + Leeway + Current)
Cross Track Error (XTE) – The perpendicular distance
from the direct route (rhumb line or great circle) between two
waypoints to the current position of the boat (POS)
Dead Reckoning, also Dead Reckoning (DR) - Dead
reckoning is the process of determining one’s present position by
projecting known or estimated course(s) and speed(s) from a known past
position, or predicting a future position by projecting known or
estimated course(s) and speed(s) from a known present position. The DR
position is only an approximate position.
Drift (DFT) – Speed that the water is moving. This
movement may be caused by a number of factors, including; tide, ocean
currents, river flows etc.
Electronic Chart Display & Information System (ECDIS)
– An ECDIS is a computer-based navigation information system that
complies with International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations and
can be used as an alternative to paper nautical charts. IMO refers to
similar systems not meeting the regulations as Electronic Chart Systems
(ECS)
Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC) - An ENC is an
official database created by a national hydrographic office for use
with an ECDIS. An ENC must conform to standards stated in the
International
Hydrographic Organization (IHO) Special Publication S-57 before it can
be certified as an ENC. Only ENCs can be used within ECDIS to meet the
International Maritime Organization (IMO) performance standard for
ECDIS.
Ground Wind - Ground Wind the wind as it would be
perceived if one were standing on land. For those on the water, it
might be considered as the wind that is perceived when anchored or
moored.
Ground Wind readings assume that there is no movement of the boat in
relation to the earth. Ground Wind is used in weather forecasts and
reports.
Ground Wind Direction (GWD ) or (TWD)-
Compass direction from which the wind is coming over the surface of
the earth. Commonly known as True Wind Direction in the US.
Ground Wind Speed (GWS) or (TWS) - Wind speed over
the surface of the earth. Commonly known as True Wind Speed in the US.
Heading (HDG) - Compass direction in which the boat is
pointed. The abbreviations HDT and HDT are typically used to
distinguish between heading degrees true and heading degrees magnetic,
whereas HDG
does not infer either a true or a magnetic heading. Whether HDG
displays true or magnetic values, will depend on sensor selection and
system
setup.
Heel (HEL)– Angle in degrees of the port/starboard
inclination of the boat
Layline – Theoretical COG that will be achieved if the
current conditions (TWD, TWS, TWA, SET, DFT, BSP, HEL etc), remain
constant. There are port and starboard laylines that represent port and
starboard tacks (or gybes). There are boat laylines, which emanate from
the boat, and waypoint laylines, which emanate from the active
waypoint. They are used to indicate when it is beneficial to tack or
gybe.
Leeway – Leeway is the angle between the HDG and the
CRS and results from the lateral movement experienced by the boat as
she moves forward through the water.. The empirical formula is that
Leeway = -1 * k * Heel / BSP^2. The formula itself is often called into
question, especially with planning hulls. The k value, which is boat
specific, will vary according to crew numbers and boat loading.
Log (LOG) – Record of distance traveled
Set (SET) - Compass direction that the water is moving
towards. This movement may be caused by a number of factors, including;
tide, ocean currents, river flows etc.
Speed Over Ground (SOG) - Speed that the boat is
moving over the surface of the earth. Speed Polars – Theoretical values
for
maximum BSP for a range of given TWSs and TWAs.
Targets (boat speed) – Theoretical values for TWA and
BSP for a range of given TWSs that result in the highest VMG. It is
derived from the Speed Polars.
Track – A record of the ships position as it proceeds
on its voyage.
True Wind - True Wind is the wind that would be
perceived if there was no movement of the boat through the water. It
represents the wind perceived by an object stationary in the water, but
moving with the tide or current. The wind felt by a stick floating down
a river for example.
True Wind Direction (TWD) - Compass direction from
which the wind is coming over the surface of the water.
True Wind Angle (TWA) - Wind angle relative to the bow
in degrees to port or starboard of CRS
(some instrument systems do not consider leeway in the calculation of
TWA and in this case TWA is the wind angle relative to the bow in
degrees to port or starboard of HDG).
True Wind Speed (TWS) - Wind speed over the surface of
the water.
Velocity Made Good (VMG) – Speed achieved directly
towards, or away from, the TWD. Velocity Made on Course (VMC) – Speed
achieved directly toward the active waypoint
Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA)
Time to go (TTG)
Tacking Time to Destination (TTD) Calculate in
advance how long it will take to tack (or jibe) a sailboat to a
particular destination in particular wind conditions, including factors
such as wind changes, currents, waves, boat polars, sail and boat
bottom conditions. An approximation of performance. [From Sailtimer
documents].
[Editor's Note: ETA is not an accurate way to judge progress or
performance in a tacking sailboat because it does not account for the
greater distance sailed between waypoints. VMG to Waypoint changes the
longer the tack (decreases because to the increased angle from the
mark) and VMG to Wind has similar problems because it is not relative
to a
destination. So these terms are not effective. Tacking performance is
commonly judged by using Target boat speeds now. TTD may also provide a
better measure of performance than ETA and VMG.]
-----------------
AWA Apparent Wind Angle
AWD Apparent Wind Direction
GWA or TWA Ground or True Wind Angle
GWD or TWD Ground or True Wind Direction
VMG Velocity Made Good
POS Boat Position
BSP Boat speed thru the water
SOG Speed over ground
COG Course over ground
CRS Course - Compass direction that the boat is moving through the
water (HDG + Leeway).
Track
HDG Heading Compass direction in which the boat is pointed.
DFT Drift Speed that the water is moving.
SET Compass direction water is moving towards
Leeway angle between the HDG and the CRS
LOG Record of distance traveled
XTE Cross track error
ETA Estimated time of Arrival
TTG Time to Go
Target BSP for various points of sail in various winds for optimal
performance.
TTD Tacking time to Destination.
Polar
Load, view, edit and save polars.

At
this moment the polar plugin has 4 modes of operation:
- Data from logbooks: This mode will read from all logbooks
found
in
the logbook/data directory and if found enough data points it will
create a Polar from this.
- Data from NMEA: This mode will read data from the NMEA
stream and
create a Polar from this data.
- Data from VDR File: This mode will read a given VDR file
and will
using the NMEA messages in there to create a Polar.
- Edit Manual: This mode allows the user to create a Polar
manually.
It is possible to switch between modes.
For instance edit manually a Polar and then switch to Data from NMEA
and Start Record. This will add and update the data for the polar.
The data will be collected in 5 degree wind directions and 2 knots of
windspeed and saves this information. The plugin will also interpolate
middle steps, eg 6 and 7 degree will be added to the 5 degree step and
8 and 9 will be added to 10 degree step. The windspeed is divided by 2,
so column 2 knots hold the speeds from 2 till 3.99 and column 4 knots
will hold the speeds 4 till 5.99. etc up to 40 knots.
If reading in other polar files it tries to fill in the wind direction
in 5 degree steps and 2 knots of wind like the input from NMEA.
It will use the same sampling as above.
Polar can read badly formatted polar files with lines of all zeros and
can save the file out with the zeros removed.
Find-It
What and Why
This Plugin is a stowage manager.
The
plugin can work alone or in conjunction with the LogbookKonni
plugin.
If the LogbookKonni plugin is present and enabled and the Buy it button
is pressed the items in the Material or Provisions page marked Buy will
be transferred to the LogbookKonni page Maintenance/BuyParts.
Install
See
Install and Enable
page for installing this plugin.
Standard actions
First you have to define the Units.
E.g. Bottle, Can, Tin, Box etc.

Then you have to create the possible locations in the boat.
These Locations are user definable and depend on the possible locations
on board.
The locations below are just for demo purposes.

Now
you can create Material or Provisions with the units and locations
defined previously.

If the Actual count will be below the Quota,
the Balance will be positive and the Buy
indicator will be set to Yes.
Clicking on the Buy it button will transfer the Yes
marked lines to the LogbookKonni plugin in the Maintenance/BuyParts
section. Depending on the Priority it will be marked
in different colors.
Options

Logbook
The Logbook plugin is useful for
creating and maintaining many types of logs for your boat.
The Logbook Konni plugin can be downloaded from the Download
tab.
The wiki is a part of the download and is accessible from the plugin.
The plugin is now maintained by
Del, Konnibe has been unable to
continue development due to ill health.
Installation
See
Install and Enable
page for installing this plugin.
An additional Layouts zip file is needed for the first install and
should be downloaded through the official download page.
After downloading and installing the plugin, you can install the
initial layouts.
- Start OpenCPN
- Select Options from the toolbar (spanner icon) and go to
the
Plugins tab.
- Select the Logbook plugin
- Click the Preferences button
- In the dialog click "Install" below the label "Install
Layouts"
- In the file dialog select the file
'LogbookKonni_Layouts.zip'
Note that the layouts are customizable by the user and can be
distributed to and shared with other OpenCPN logbook users. If you have
developed a useful custom layout for your logbook then please feel free
to send us details.
The logbook plugin contains a extensive help file which can be
accessed by clicking on the little blue book when the logbook plugin is
started.
Preferences
Setting preferences for the logbook is done in the Logbook Preferences
dialog. You can get to this from the main OpenCPN Options window, go to
the Plugins tab, select the Logbook plugin and click "Preferences"
Logging, Date and Time
Behavior
This is on the Behavior tab. Here you can adjust the following items:
- Date format for logging -- either local format (may not
work on
all platforms), or select a format such as Day/Month/Year.
- Time format -- 12 or 24 hour format with or without seconds.
- Time zone -- either log in UTC timezone or choose the local
timezone. It's also possible to log in "GPS Auto" time zone where the
time zone is determined from the current longitude.
.
DR
Dead Reckoning
Add DR positions to a route by means of
editing a gpx file, which has been exported from 'Route Manager'.
Definition
In navigation, dead reckoning or dead-reckoning (also ded for deduced
reckoning or DR) is the process of calculating one's current position
by using a previously determined position, or fix, and
advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds
over elapsed time and course.
What and Why
The DR plugin is a means of adding DR positions to a route. Because the
plugin cannot access 'Route Manager' directly it works by editing a gpx
file, which has been exported from 'Route Manager'.
DR speed and the time between the DR positions can be changed before
the DR gpx is finally created.
This plugin is a temporary solution to the problem of creating DR
positions. The Draw plugin now allows the creation of
DR positions for course legs.
Install
Copy 'DR_pi.dll' to the plugins folder. Start OpenCPN. Tools/Options
and select 'Enable' for the DR entry.
Standard Actions
Save the route which you want to add DR positions to by using 'Route
Manager'. Make a note of the folder where this original route file can
be found.

Start
DR:

The
main page of the plugin appears:

The
DR speed and interval between DR positions have been added. The DR
route name is entered in the bottom box.
T
he
process of creating the DR route is started by pressing 'Generate
GPX'. A file dialog box appears.

Select
the route GPX file where DR positions will be added.
Immediately
after selecting this file a new file dialog box appears.

After
pressing 'Save' the route_dr gpx file is created in the folder
you have chosen. If the original file is not needed you can use the
same
file name and the original file will be over-written.
The
plugin can now be closed.
Using 'Route Manager' import the DR gpx:



The
DR route is now available. To avoid confusion the original route
can be hidden by using the 'Eye' symbol.
oBabel
What and Why
OpenCPN is a fantastic program for planning routes but sometimes these
routes need to be transferred to chartplotters from Garmin, Raymarine
etc.
The oBabel plugin is intended to make the transfer of routes and
waypoints from OpenCPN to (Initially) Garmin Chartplotters easier.
These instructions are for using oBabel with MS Windows. It has not
been
tested with other OS.
At present the transfer of waypoints directly from OpenCPN via NMEA0183
is possible, but not the routes they are part of. Using the program
GPSBabel as part of the plugin allows the transfer of routes via the
Garmin protocol, if a Garmin plotter is being used.
Install
Download the oBabel_pi.dll plugin file and place this file in the
plugins folder of OpenCPN.
The OpenSource GPSBabel program needs to be installed on your computer.
A copy can be downloaded from here:
http://www.gpsbabel.org/download.html
Standard Actions
Connect your chartplotter to the OpenCPN computer using a serial cable.
Enable the plugin by using Tools/Options and pressing the Enable button.

The
main page of the plugin appears:

The
plugin should detect the comport (COM2 in this case) that is being
used for the connection to the plotter. If you have been using this
serial comport already as one of the connections in OpenCPN you will
need to delete the connection using Tools/Connections in OpenCPN.
oBabel and OpenCPN cannot use the same comport.
The Garmin plotter communication configuration must be set to 'Garmin'.
The plugin uses the OpenSource GPSBabel program. Find the
'gpsbabel.exe' program file by pressing 'Locate GPSBabel'. The path to
the file
appears in the textbox on the left.
In this first run through we will transfer a route using KML and the
clipboard.

In
OpenCPN display the route you wish to transfer. 'Right-Click'
anywhere on the route and choose the option 'KML Standard'.

Right-Click
again in the Clipboard area of the plugin and the KML text
will appear.

Use
the checkboxes to select what you want to transfer. Finally press
'Clipboard->GPSBabel'. A box will appear showing the options you
have chosen.

Pressing
'OK' starts the transfer. You will see some screen activity as
GPSBabel is started and does the work. Using a Garmin plotter you will
hear a 'beep' as each transfer is completed.
Options
Transfer saved route
from
OpenCPN
It is possible to transfer a route that has been saved on your
computer. If it is a route exported from OpenCPN use the dropdown
'KML/oGPX/GPX'
and select 'oGPX'.

Press
'File->GPSBabel' and the 'Proceed' page appears. Using 'Ok'
starts the transfer.

Transfer a saved Route GPX from
other programs
For routes from EasyGPS and other sources choose 'GPX' from the
dropdown 'KML/oGPX/GPX'.
Transfer
a
single waypoint from OpenCPN via KML
Use the same technique as shown above for copying a route to the
clipboard. In this case 'Right-Click' on the waypoint you wish to
transfer.
Route
Great Circle
Route Plugin
"Salty Paws" route plugin handles much more than Great circles,
introduced here.

The
plugin have a few features not present in the built-in tool. It can
calculate a composite route, and the distance between the waypoints can
be set by the user. The end result, however, is a "gpx" file that is
exported, and then imported into OpenCPN via the Route Manager.

A
Great-circle from Cook Strait to Cape Horn limited by 60° S
Go to
Table
Of Contents
Celestial
Navigation
Plugin
to record Sextant Sights and show Circles of Position to obtain a Fix
Celestial navigation support makes it possible to establish your
position when other means are not available. Also, users may find this
plugin, which is still under development, useful for cross checking
their position fixes obtained in other ways, or to to better visualize
a celestial fix. You find the forum thread here:
Cruisersforum
thread: celestial navigation plugin
Types
of Observations
Currently 3 types of
observations are, more or less, supported:
- Altitude (sextant measurement) -- Measure the
angle between the horizon and a heavenly body, and enter the required
data in the plugin. Each measurement results in a Circle of Position on
the sphere (COP, or Circle of Equal Altitude). Two or more observations
result in intersecting COP's from which a position fix can be obtained.
- Azimuth (compass measurement) -- Measure the
azimuth (bearing) of a heavenly body. This method is hopelessly
inaccurate, especially on a small boat in high seas. However, it is
interesting for demonstration purposes, and possibly - with accurate
digital compasses - it may be a viable navigation method in the future.
- Lunar distance (sextant measurement) -- Measure
the angle between two heavenly bodies. The computer then attempts to
determine clock error from this measurement, and the system time may be
corrected.
Process
1. Obtaining Sights with
Sextant
Standard practice in
navy and merchant navy with regard to celestial
positioning is as follows (assuming no artificial horizon is available
on the sextant):
- During morning nautical twilight (about 15 minutes): if
possible
take 6 star/planet observations.
- In the morning at about 09:00LT: take a Sun's observation
(later
to be shifted to noon-time).
- At local noon: take a Sun's observation (traditionally only
direct
latitude calculation from sun at meridian passage). Construct a fix for
noon from both sun observations.
- During evening nautical twilight (about 15 minutes): if
possible
take 6 star/planet observations.
- Use the Moon for an observation in above practice when
situation
permits.
Many books have been
written about the art and science of celestial
positioning (see below).
This is the document containing the test data used for the example
below: Example
worksheet
(4 star observations).
2. Sight
Properties - Sight Tab - Enter Star Data
Enter Type (Altitude, Azimuth, Lunar), Celestial Body, Limb,
Measurement and Degrees of Certainty. Degrees of Certainty is the
accuracy the navigator assumes for the observation. A larger value
results in a larger line width for the Circle of Position on the chart.
3. Sight Properties -
Date and Time Tab
Enter Date, Time, Certainty and Shift. Note that entering a shift
removes the calculated numerical fix. This is due to the computation
method used, which presently does not allow to shift COP's. However, a
position fix can be established by visually observing the COP's (which
are graphically shifted) on the chart.

4.
Sight Properties - Config Tab - Display Characteristics
Enter Transparency and
Color you wish to use for the COP.

5. Sight Properties -
Parameters Tab
Enter Eye Height, Temperature, Pressure and Index Error.

6. Sight Properties -
Calculations Tab
Showing the input figures and some calculated results for the
observation. Together with the calculated numerical position fix showed
in the main window of the plugin, this can be used for comparison with
results that are obtained by other calculation methods (traditional
manual method using logarithms, traditional or direct computation methods
as mentioned in Nautical Almanac, shortened methods using e.g. US Pub.
229 or US Pub. 249, other computer applications).
7. Celestial Navigation
Sights - Circles of Position and Sights
A Circle of Position (COP) indicates all the positions on earth where a
navigator may observe the same altitude of a heavenly body at a certain
time. Using traditional methods, only the part of a COP the navigator
is interested in is used, and replaced by a tangent line (LOP).

8.
Four Circles of Position (showing DR position as MOB and fix as
Waypoint)
The MOB icon shows the initial DR position entered. The red circle
indicates the intersection of the crossing red lines, the calculated
position fix. Hover cursor over the crossing, right click and place a
mark. If required, visually adjust this to get best latitude and
longitude of the fix. In Sight Properties - Sight Tab, Degrees
Certainty was set to 0.05.
Methodology
General Traditional Theory
A general, but very clear text on celestial positioning is available in
the PDF file on the web site of Henning Umland:
Many thanks to Henning Umland for this concise text. Naturally, also
the information provided by the Nautical Almanac and Bowditch is of
interest (see 'Links').
Plugin Computation Methods
The plugin is still under development and the computation methods used
are innovative and based on vector, matrix and least squares methods.
The author, Sean d'Epagnier, uses this innovative method to directly
calculate a fix position. Only he knows the background and details.
General information on direct computation methods can be found on pages
277 to 285 of the Nautical Almanac 1994 (see 'Links') and in the
following articles:
Presently, the plugin is not capable of advancing COP's to a common
time. When a shift is entered, the calculated numerical position on the
main window disappears. In this case, the fix can only be established
by visual examination of the graphics on the screen (see also 3. Sight
Properties - Date and Time Tab, and 8. Four Circles of Position) and a
fix time cannot be established.
Accuracy of Data
Comparison
of Plugin Astronomical Data and Nautical Almanac Data
The data and formulas contained in the Nautical Almanac form a standard
in itself. The plugin utilizes astronomical data from VOP87d (for the
planets and indirectly for the sun), ELP2000/82 (for the moon) and
contains Right Ascension (RA; star's SHA = 360° - star's RA) and
Declination (Dec) data for the selected stars.
During development of the plugin, the calculated (intermediate)
correction values for dip, refraction, horizontal parallax, parallax in
altitude and semi diameter, as well as the calculated position fix,
should be compared to values that result from other computation methods.
The astronomical data used in the plugin is more accurate than data
taken from the Nautical Almanac. However, for navigation purposes the
differences are generally not important. With regard to altitude
reductions, so far test data indicates that the differences found in
calculated observed altitude (Ho) are small. Measurement and reading
errors made by the navigator will be larger. Using the present version,
calculated fix positions can still differ from those calculated with
traditional methods.
Accuracy of Plugin
Astronomical Data
The plugin
astronomical data are from Jean Meeus' Astronomical
Algorithms.
- Planetary positions are based upon a truncated version of
Bretagnon and Francou's VSOP87 theory. The estimated maximum error in
the
heliocentric longitude is several arc-seconds. Geocentric positions are
accurate to within a few arc-seconds.
- Lunar positions are calculated using a truncated version of
the
lunar theory ELP-2000/82 of Chapront-Touzé and Chapront. The estimated
maximum error in the geocentric longitude is about 10 arc-seconds.
Accuracy of Data in the Printed
Nautical Almanac
The largest error that can occur in GHA and declination of any body
other than the Sun or Moon is less than 0.2'; it may reach 0.25' for
the Sun and 0.3' for that of the Moon. In practice it may be expected
that
only one third of the values of GHA and declination will have errors
larger than 0.05', and less than one tenth will have errors larger than
0.1'.
The errors in the altitude corrections are nominally in the same order
(but the actual values of dip and refraction at low altitudes may
differ considerably in extreme atmospheric conditions).
Depending on the type of sextant, the reading accuracy of the sextant
can be 0.2', 0.1' or 10". Measurement and reading errors made by the
navigator will be larger.
Abbreviations
Some abbreviations of terms are given in the list hereunder. Not all of
these abbreviations conform to a standard.
DR Dead Reckoning Position
AP Assumed Position
MPP Most Probable Position
COP Circle of Position (Circle of Equal Altitude)
LOP Line of Position
HA Hour Angle
GHA Greenwich Hour Angle
LHA Local Hour Angle
SHA Sidereal Hour Angle
RA Right Ascension (star's SHA = 360
o
- star's RA)
Dec Declination
GP Geographical Position (of heavenly body; Lat = Dec, W_Lon
= GHA or
E_Lon = 360° - GHA)
ic Index Correction (= - Index Error of sextant)
Dip Dip of the Horizon (function of eye height)
R Refraction (function of Ha, temperature and pressure)
HP Horizontal Parallax
PA Parallax in Altitude (function of HP and Ha)
SD Semi Diameter
Hs Sextant Altitude
Ha Apparent Altitude
Ho Observed Altitude
Hc Computed Altitude
Z Azimuth
Int
Intercept (= Ho - Hc)
Resources
Article:
Generic Algorithm for Solving Celestial Navigation Fix Problems
by Ming-Cheng Tsou, Ph.D., National Kaohsiung Marine University, Taiwan
POLISH MARITIME RESEARCH 3(75) 2012 Vol 19; pp. 53-59
10.2478/v10012-012-0031-5
ABSTRACT
In this work, we employ a genetic algorithm, from the field of
artificial intelligence, due to its superior search ability that mimics
the natural process of biological evolution. Unique encodings and
genetic operators designed in this study, in combination with the fix
principle of celestial circles of equal altitude in celestial
navigation, allow the rapid and direct attainment of accurate optimum
vessel position. Test results indicate that this method has more
flexibility, and avoids tedious and complicated computation and
graphical procedures.
Article:
The Direct Fix of Latitude and Longitude from Two Observed Altitudes
by Stanley W. Gery
Neptune Power Squadron, Huntington, New York, Received April 1996,
Revised December 1996
ABSTRACT
This work presents a direct method for obtaining the latitude and
longitude of an observer from the observed altitudes of two celestial
bodies. No assumed position or dead-reckoned position or plotting is
required. Starting with the Greenwich hour angles, declinations, and
observed altitudes of each pair, the latitude and longitude of the two
points from which the observations must have been made are directly
computed. The algorithm is presented in the paper, along with its
derivation. Two different, inexpensive, programmable pocket electronic
calculators were programmed to execute the algorithm, and they do it in
under 30 s. The algorithm was also programmed to run on a personal
computer to examine the effect of the precision of the calculations on
the error in the results. The findings show that the use of eight
decimal places in the trigonometric computations provides acceptable
results.
Article:
New Computational Methods for Solving Problems of the Astronomical
Vessel Position
by Tien-Pen Hsu (1), Chih-Li Chen (2) and Jiang-Ren Chang (3)
(1) Institute of Civil
Engineering, National
Taiwan University
(2) Institute of Merchant Marine, National Taiwan Ocean University
(3) Institute of Systems Engineering and Naval Architecture, National
Taiwan Ocean University;
THE JOURNAL OF NAVIGATION (2005), 58, 315–335. The Royal Institute of
Navigation, doi: 10.1017/S0373463305003188, Printed in the United
Kingdom
ABSTRACT
In this paper, a simplified and direct computation method formulated by
the fixed coordinate system and relative meridian concept in
conjunction with vector algebra is developed to deal with the classical
problems of celestial navigation. It is found that the proposed
approach, the
Simultaneous Equal-altitude Equation Method (SEEM), can directly
calculate the Astronomical Vessel Position (AVP) without an additional
graphical procedure. The SEEM is not only simpler than the matrix
method but is also more straightforward than the Spherical Triangle
Method
(STM). Due to tedious computation procedures existing in the commonly
used methods for determining the AVP, a set of optimal computation
procedures for the STM is also suggested. In addition, aimed at
drawbacks of the intercept method, an improved approach with a new
computation procedure is also presented to plot the celestial line of
position without the intercept. The improved approach with iteration
scheme is used to solve the AVP and validate the SEEM successfully.
Methods of solving AVP problems are also discussed in detail. Finally,
a benchmark example is included to demonstrate these proposed methods.
Article:
Use of Rotation Matrices to Plot a Circle of Equal Altitude
by A. Ruiz
Industrial engineer, Navigational Algorithms
Journal of Maritime Research, Vol. VIII. No. 3, pp.51-58, 2011
ABSTRACT
A direct method for obtaining the points of a circle of equal altitude
using the vector analysis as an alternative to the spherical
trigonometry is presented, and a solution where celestial navigation
and Global Navigation Satellite Systems are complementary and coexist
is
proposed.
Article:
Determining the Position and Motion of a Vessel from Celestial
Observations
by George H. Kaplan
U.S. Naval Observatory
ABSTRACT
Although many mathematical approaches to the celestial fix problem
have been published, all of them fundamentally assume a stationary
observer. Since this situation seldom occurs in practice, methods have
been
developed that effectively remove the observer's motion from the
problem before a fix is determined. As an alternative, this paper
presents a
development of celestial navigation that incorporates a moving observer
as part of its basic construction. This development allows recovery of
the information on the vessel's course and speed contained in the
observations. Thus, it provides the means for determining, from a
suitable ensemble of celestial observations, the values of all four
parameters describing a vessel's rhumb-line track across the earth:
latitude and longitude at a specified time, course, and speed. In many
cases, this technique will result in better fixes than traditional
methods.
Book: A Short
Guide to Celestial Navigation
Copyright © 1997-2011 Henning Umland; PDF file can be found on this
page on his web site:
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts. A
copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free
Documentation License".
Revised October 1st, 2011, First Published May 20th, 1997
Book: The Sextant Handbook
Copyright © 1986, 1992 Bruce A. Bauer
International Marine
ISBN 0-07-005219-0
The Sextant Handbook is dedicated to the premise that electronic
navigation devices, while too convenient to disregard, are too
vulnerable to rely on exclusively. The book is designed to make
beginner and expert alike conversant with this most beautiful and and
functional of the navigator's tools.
Other
Celestial Links
Examples of Test Data
- Example worksheet (observation of 4 stars for fix
calculation)
- Alternative worksheet (observation of Sun, Moon, Venus and
Polaris for altitude reduction only)
We should thank Sean who has advanced the work of others admirably, and
NAV for his technical review of the plugin, his knowledge, and his
generous assistance in preparing this documentation. Rick.
NMEA
Converter
NMEA Converter can convert incoming NMEA Sentences.
Be
aware you need at least some knowledge of NMEA
Sentences .
Install the plugin in accord with the Install and Enable
Instructions.
Then open the Preference Dialog to set your conversions.

If
you see something like above please enlarge the nmeaSendDlg window
so it will show some buttons.
Lets make a first test.
This is a completely useless sentence that is send every second to
OpenCPN. Check also the nmeadebug window in the picture above, and note
that a checksum is added to the sentence.
It is easy to change this one into something like:
$GPRMC,085437,A,5324.3052,N,00611.5704,E,3.3,68.9,070614,0.3,E,A
That will fake a GPS position into OpenCPN, but still not very usefully.
Use
incoming data to send a different NMEA sentence.
The real power of this plugin is that you can change the
data of the
send sentence by cherry picking from incoming sentences.
The reason I did write this plugin was I wanted dashboard to show the
air temperature. To get the data, dashboard needs a $xxMTA sentence,
however I had a Airmar PB200 unit that is sending $xxMDA sentences.
An example: We have from the windset,
$WIMDA,30.1,I,1.0,B,11.3,C,,,,,,,18.6,T,18.5,M,5.8,N,3.0,M*27
and want:
$xxMTA,11.3,C*<Checksum>
Note that the data needed in in fields 5 and 6 of the MDA sentence.
(11.3 degrees Celsius)
Setting the format to,
$XXMTA, $WIMDA5, $WIMDA6
will give an output sentence: $XXMTA, 11.3, C*26
Where $WIMDA5 is replaced by the 5th field of the
$WIMDA sentence. etc.

As seen above, the $XXMTA sentence is send each time a $WIMDA
sentence
is received, an read by dashboard.
Do
math - Convert units. EG: Centigrade to Fahrenheit
But what if I was living in the US and preferred the
reading in
degrees Fahrenheit??
Just change the format to:
$XXMTA, 5 / 9 * $WIMDA5 + 32, F
As you see the value is recalculated an d now displayed as degrees
Fahrenheit.
For calculations the following functions are supported:
Normal
functions
abs : the absolute value, it removes the sign
ceil : the smallest integer greater than or equal to x
cub : x^3, safe way to compute such an exponent
deg : converts from radian to degree
exp : the exponential value
hvi : Heaviside's function, =0 if x<0, =1 if x>=0
int : the largest integer less than or equal to x
inv : inverts, 1/x
floor : not supported, see int
ln : the neperian logarithm
lnep : see ln
log : the logarithm base 10
rad : converts from degree to radian
sgn : the sign, -1 or +1. Zero returns +1.
sqr : x^2, safe way to compute such an exponent
sqrt : the root square
Trigonometric
functions
acos : the secant (inverse of cosine)
acsh : the inverse of the hyperbolic cosine
asin : the cosecant (inverse of sine)
asnh : the inverse of the hyperbolic sine
atan : the cotangent (inverse of tangent)
atnh : the inverse of the hyperbolic tangent
cos : the cosine
cosh : the hyperbolic cosine
sin : the sine
sinc : the cardinal sine (radian)
sinh : the hyperbolic sine
tan : the tangent
tanh : the hyperbolic tangent
This makes it possible to do spreadsheel like calculations. And as in a
spreadsheet the trigonometric functions are using radians.
Future:
Calculate True Wind from Apparent Wind
I didn't try it but it should be possible to calculate
truewind from
apparent wind, course and speed,
If you have an useful format formula please feel free to add it here .
Another future possibility is to do a comparison lookup of a boat's
Polar data and send a special NMEA sentence of the comparative result
to the Dashboard using a special dedicated performance instrument, for
example.
VDR
Voyage
Data Recorder
Use Voyage Data Recorder to record and play NMEA files.
- Use
VDR for AIS Simulation - Run VDR to play AIS NMEA
files.
Or...
use the VDR plugin to record your passages and replay them later! The
VDR is also great for testing NMEA sentences, the Dashboard and new
OpenCPN features. These are just a few examples, of how to use this
versatile plugin.
- When VDR is
activated in ToolBar ->
Options -> Plugins
-> VDR, two Buttons appears in
the ToolBar

- The left button is for recording, and leads to a "Choose file" dialog to select
the file
to record to. A file with
a .txt file extension works well.
- The
right button is for playing an existing file, and also leads to a
dialog where the file must be selected. Once
selected VDR
starts to play the file, the small
dialog below shows on the screen.

- You
can control the speed
with the upper slide. Far left is
slow, natural speed, while moving
the slide to the far right equals fast forwarding.
- The
lower part of the dialog shows
the progress.
- When recording,
the VDR plugin includes all NMEA data
available on
the internal
bus in OpenCPN. Even data not recognized or used by
OpenCPN will be recorded. Everything (almost) in the ToolBar -> Connections ->
"NMEA debug window"
will be included.
- In other words. The
VDR records everything from all
ports and
does
not participate in the downstream multiplexer filter or priority
scheme. That way, a VDR recording may be played back, experimenting
with
various filters and priorities if desired.
- If you
are playing a file with the VDR
at the same time, even that data
will be
included.
So it is
possible to play and record at the same time!
Want to
play?
Un -
7-zip the file and change the .pdf extension to .txt. The file is
now ready to play.
- If
you can't find the boat, have a look in the Adriatic or just
press the "Auto Follow", or press F2.
The view will now center on the action.
- The
VDR shows up as "PlugIn Virtual" in the NMEA Debug Window.
Calculator
The calculator plugin allows
you to carry out all nautical calculations, without having to leave the
OpenCPN environment. The scientific calculator is capable of working
with, and retaining variables.
- When starting the plugin for
the first time, go to
to
find the
plugin tab. Click on the calculator plugin, then the "Enable" button.
- Back in the OpenCPN
menu the calculator icon brings up the calculator.
- Tick the "Help" tickbox
to bring up a comprehensive
help screen.
Unticking the help button brings you back to the calculator only
interface and resizes the menu to the original size.
- Enter calculations in
the box and press enter or
"Calculate" for
evaluation. Press the up or down button, to retrieve historic input and
results (max 30).
- Examples of
expression that work in
the
calculator are: (comments are in brackets, some results depend on
other example calculations):
- Hull speed:
- LWL=48
(water line length in feet)
- vhull=1.34*LWL^(1/2) (hull speed in knots)
- Conversions:
- ftm=0.3048
(feet to meters)
- km_to_nm=0.539957
(Kilometers to nautical
Mile)
- ftm*LWL
(waterline length in meters)
- Distance to horizon
- R=6378.1*1000 (Radius of the earth in m)
- H=2.5 (Height of the eye above sea-level
in m)
- d = R * acos(R/(R + h)) (Distance to
horizon in m)
- ans*km_to_nm (Distance to horizon in nm, km_to_nm
was entered under conversions)
- Distance to
lighthouse
- H1=200 (height of lighthouse in m)
- d1 = R*acos(R/(R + H1)) (Distance to
horizon in m)
- distance=d1+d (visibility range of
lighthouse in m)
- Ans is the result of
the previous
calculation
- Variables can be
defined (e.g.
myvariable=10/8*cos(dtr*90) or yourvariable=Ans)
- Operators:
- + plus
- - minus
- * multiplication
- / devision
- ^ power (use ^(1/2)
for square root)
- % modulus - Divides
the value of one expression
by the value
of another, and returns the remainder.
- ! factorial
- Functions:
- Abs Absolute
- Exp Exponential
- Sign Returns .-1 for negative numbers and 1 for
positive
numbers
- Sqrt Square root
- Log natural logarithm
- Log10 10 logarithm
- Trigonio (default entry is in radians use e.g.
sin(dtr*90) to
calculate in degree) :
- Sin
- Cos
- Tan
- ASin
- ACos
- Atan
- Factorial Variables: Pi, e
- dtr is the conversion factor from degrees to
radians
- Bitwise
operators
- || logical OR
- & logical
AND
- |
- <<
- >>
- =
- <>
- <
- >
- <=
- >=
Go to
Table
Of Contents
Rtlsdr
USB
Rtlsdr
USB Plugin
Use
a low cost USB DVB-T (Digital TV) receiver for AIS messages from Ships
Various dongles are supported, the r820-t works the best and is also
the cheapest (typically under $10 USD)

Hardware
Setup:
You must use a proper vhf antenna, not the one included with the
dongle. I cut the antenna coax included with the dongle, and spliced it
to the vhf coax. You must solder both inner and outer (shield)
connections.
Software Setup:
Linux
You must now compile rtl-sdr from source:
git clone git://git.osmocom.org/rtl-sdr.git
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
sudo make install
Next,
you must have either aisdecoder, or gnuradio (with gr-ais).
For
aisdecoder:
wget http://www.aishub.net/downloads/aisdecoder.tar.gz
tar zxvf aisdecoder.tar.gz
cd aisdecoder
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
sudo make install
For
gnuradio with gr-ais:
<not completed>
Windows
You must run the program zadig to install the driver
available
here http://zadig.akeo.ie/
The default settings should be fine.
The receiver program (rtl_fm) and decoder (aisdecoder) are included as
pre-built binaries, so from here, install the plugin setup package. So
far I have no pre-built packages for gnuradio on windows, but this
would be useful if provided. If there are issues it may be helpful to
install the sdrsharp program to determine if the dongle is receiving
data at all.
All Platforms
It should be possible (from the preferences dialog) to
calibrate
the dongle with the Auto Calibrate button:

From
what I can tell so far, the error correction range is +- 128 (my
two dongles use values of 35 and 50) and must be within 5 for
aisdecoder and 15-20 for gnuradio. When the value is more accurate,
more ais messages are received as well.
From
here, install the plugin package, or build from source and
install.
This works best in an area with a
lot of
ais
traffic.
Once calibrated, ships should appear on the chart..
oTCurrent
What and Why
The OpenCPN standard installation has tidal current data for the USA.
By pressing the 'Show Currents' icon a set of arrows for the tidal
current are displayed and also the rate of the current. These arrows
are in a single color. No value for direction is shown.
oTCurrent allows the selection of a different date/time for the current
prediction. Also, using the 'Next' and 'Previous' buttons the user can
'step through' the time of the prediction.
IMPORTANT: The times selected/shown use the same time
zone as your computer. The tidal current displayed should be checked
against official publications.
Install
Download the oTCurrent_pi.dll plugin file and place this file in the
plugins folder of OpenCPN. The plugin assumes that you are using the
'Harmonic.idx' file installed in the 'tcdata' folder of your setup. The
plugin is not able to work with 'tcd' files.
Standard
actions
Enable the plugin by using Tools/Options and pressing the Enable button.

While
the 'Options' screen is open user preferences can be set. The
user can decide whether text values of rate and direction are shown
against
the tidal arrows. Arrows can be 'solid fill' or 'outline'. 'Fill
Color' makes the arrows 'solid fill'.
The color of the arrows can be changed. These selections are saved in
the Config file.
After enabling the plugin and pressing 'Apply' the oTCurrent icon
appears on the toolbar.

Press
the icon to start seeing tidal arrows. Unlike the arrows
displayed by the standard OpenCPN program you will need to be zoomed
in, to a
scale greater than 1:50000.

Pressing 'Next' steps the time
ahead by the interval set in the 'Step'
box.

Pressing
'Previous' steps the time back by this interval.
The 'Now' (Clock) button shows the tidal current for the present time.

Dates in the future can be chosen, using the 'Select' button.

If you have a 'Harmonic.idx' file on your computer, other than the one
installed as part of the standard OpenCPN installation, this file can
be selected with the 'Browse' button.
Options
Return to 'Tools/Options/Preferences' if you wish to change whether
text is displayed for direction or rate. Also to change the color used
for a range of speed.
FAQ
No arrows are shown. How do I show them?
Is the chart zoomed in to a sufficiently large scale? Are you using a
'Harmonic.idx' file?
My sailing area is Europe. Can tidal currents
(streams) be displayed?
Unofficial 'Harmonic.idx' files are available for some European
waters.
Other
Plugins
Other Useful 3rd Party
Plugins
These plugins are available at the Opencpn Download location or at
various github repositories to be compiled. They generally work for
Windows and Linux, and some are available for MAC. There are no page
links for these plugins yet.
AIS Radar View
-
Implements a radar-like
display for AIS
targets
Calculator - This
is a calculator & mathematical expression parsing plugin.
Route - Route Plotting, Great Circle routes,
Limited Circle Routes and Rhumb lines.
Chart Object
Search - Allows search of
named objects on S-57 and CM93
vector charts.
Debugger
- Shows plugin API messages. For developers to help
troubleshoot problems with NMEA data streams.
Launcher
- Allows user to define several buttons to launch external commands.
Targets touch screen devices.
Gecomapi
- Google Earth Plugin Turn Google earth into chart overlays
IACfleet
- IAC Fleet Code visualizes the encoded data
issued as part of the weather
bulletins. The IAC Fleet Code provides size effective encoded synoptic
charts for several areas of the world, especially useful with slow and
limited connection to the Internet. Coverage
areas:
- South Pacific weather issued by Fiji Meteorologica Service
in Nadi and
available from Saildocs
- Weather over Brazil and adjacent parts of Pacific and
Atlantic oceans, including direct download of the data from the Internet
- Weather analysis and 24 hour forecast
for North
Atlantic and Europe issued by NOAA, including direct download of the
data from the Internet
SweepPlot - Provides a
historical plot of Speed
(SOG) above Course (COG) for sailors.
Chartscale - Slider
to change the chartscale. Useful utility.
RotationCtrl -
Controls to rotate the charts in
various ways. North up, South up, Course up, Heading up, Route up, Wind up,
Tilt down, Tilt up.
Rotate
CCW,
Rotate CW.
Projections - Utility to project
the charts in
many alternative projections configured by the user.
Right-click shows "Projections" with user selection for Mercator,
Orthographic, Polar, Stereographic, Genomonic, ane Equirectangular.
These projections may be useful for a more accurate interpretation of
navigational data. Mercator is especially skewed at high attitudes.
Requires opengl.
Statusbar - This plugin
replaces the built-in status with a more configurable one that is
easier to read.
For
best results, you should
disable the built-in toolbar on the User Interface tab in the Toolbox
and set the Y position of the plugin toolbar to at least the pixel size
of the font selected in the plugin preferences.
TackandLay - Tack and
Laylines for sailors. Linux
only.
Possible Future Plugins
Sailing
Console - Sailors tool which utilizes instrument data to
optimize boat progress
Survey - To survey and record the depth.