ReTread the Old Coder's Head ??

Terry,

can you check the following variables:

QMAKESPEC=win32-g++ (this is probably set correctly otherwise you would have had problems earlier)
QTDIR=D:\Qt\4.3.3

It should compile if those are correct.

Tim B.

 

Apologies for not posting more often, but I've had little time, and more recently Ihave been enjoying Frosty's electric fish on another thread, anyway...

Can we think of a good name for this project? then we'll get it some sourceforge space.

Cheers All,

Tim B.

 

On the Road...

Hi Tim & Everyone.. I'm back in the USA for a bit; travelling to NY and then Vermont. Thanks for all the interest; I'll be back on in a few days....

 

Hi, all.. I'm a new member in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Your QT controls are very nice. An alternative OS agnostic solution could be SVG + AJAX. A low-cost embedded board is set up to translate the nema codes into an SVG page served up to any client with a competent web browser and access to the same network. Although, it may be a bit tricky to get smooth rendering comparable to the QT controls.

Web applications are easily customizable by the less tech savvy. A web app could integrate with a GPS, Google Maps, and easily lay it all out with more general controls and gauges to match the display device, e.g. PDA or mid-sized touchscreen.

SVG charting example

I personally would prefer Linux for marine type applications due to superior integration with things such as redundant and/or dual/quad displays with low-cost video cards, touchscreens, SSD disks and instant-on, and lower level embedded platforms such as gumstix. Linux is quite good at running windows applications, where the inverse is not true.

GPSstix

 

We seem to have been very quiet for the last month or so. Not so now!!

Firstly, welcome, SteelTrawler, glad you're here. I like the idea of using SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). It certainly would make it possible to publish charts on a webpage fairly easily. I know I/we are writing the display tools at the moment, but that's until one of us can get some coherent real-time monitoring together. Once we have realtime monitoring (which may well be done via a server deamon) I think the SVG could drop nicely into place.

Secondly, I think Terry got his compilation sorted. The sample program needs to be compiled with -Dwin32 on windows. This will be fixed on later releases. Add the following line to your *.pro file in the appropriate section if you're not using the one supplied...

DEFINES *=Win32

Thirdly... wow this is getting to be a long post...

I have been investigating OpenStreetmap at work, and as a spinoff have developed a simple renderer for the OSM data for this project. It will be a while before I release the mapping widget (because there's a mind-numbing amount to do), but it will be included when it is released. A screenshot is attached.

Cheers for now,

Tim B.

 

Ok, a few more screenshots...

I've been adding a few features to the OpenStreetMap renderer, and have now got a (very) rough hook for GPS data. I'd like some opinions on how to do GPS access in a reasonably platform-independant way.

My thought at present is to use gpsd, which will run on windows with the help of Cygwin. It has a nice simple protocol, but does require reading/writing to network sockets. It is quite possible to create more than one data aquisition routine, as we only need Lat/Long/Speed, everything else is worked out in the code.

Screenshots are of (part of) Glasgow, London, and Southampton.

Cheers All,

Tim B.

 

Question - what are you going to use for a source of marine chart info - especially within European waters ?

The old adage that "coastlines seldom change, so out-of-date charts can be used with caution" is sadly no longer true - witness the offshore wind turbines currently under construction, and proposals to build thousands of the buggers at distances of up to 250 miles from the UK coast. Then there's Traffic Separation Zones to be aware of and the usual need for spot soundings and sea-bed info - not to mention lights, buoys, an' stuff ...

I was wondering what the copyright situation would be for screen-capturing vector charts and modifying some of the details thereof ? i.e. there wouldn't be any fascimile copying of 'a work of art' (as in the direct scanning of an Admiralty chart), and there wouldn't be any binary copying of digital information either. I guess there would be a need to change enough of the raster image thus produced, in order that a new 'work of art' would effectively be created ... ?

I'd like to think such 'newly-created' charts could be freely shared, although I guess it would be prudent to seek the advice of someone au fait with copyright law first.

Colin

 

As far as I know, You can buy the charts & personal fair use applies for your own needs....?

I have a different slant on charts, as my cruising ground is Melanesia, around the top of Australia following Aussy coast then India, Sri Lanka et al.
Modern nav aids there are not & islands move up to 500mm per year.

Google-earth images would suffice for me (but I doubt they are downloadable - no internet unless $1000/month plus for satellite access) as all my nav is then visual & not reliant on charting except as a record of passage & name the village/anchorage used.

 

www.openstreetmap.com has a discussion about licensing on their wiki. For the moment let's stick to freely available stuff.

ENC is a format of interest, at least for some sections of the US. They are free to download here:
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/download.htm
IHO Section57 (Format details) can be downloaded from http://www.iho.shom.fr/ (go to publications)
See Also http://www.waypoints.com/popups/encfaq.html
More ENC Charts at http://www.digitalocean.ca/digitaloceane-store/primar.asp but not free.

 

I disagree with your viewpoint. To not consider what form or format the working material is going to have, and to have not established it's origins, BEFORE you invest considerable amounts of time and effort in the more sophisticated aspects of a fully integrated navigational system is extremely unwise.

Streetmaps have no relevance to marine charts - period.

Satellite photographs are useful to identify isolated dangers in poorly surveyed areas, but need to be used in conjunction with existing chart information.

Neither of the above will furnish depth or seabed information or tidal flow data.

The United States's policy is well known and their charts, pilots, sailing directions etc. are freely available for download. But this does NOT apply in those areas of the world where the UKHO holds a monopoly - so that's Canada, Australia, UK, etc and I'm sure quite a few more.

Perhaps this subject warrants a separate thread, but to simply dismiss my post as not being important is, I think, rather ostrich-like.

There was a guy near where I live who used to navigate with pre-war charts and an Esso road atlas of Europe. He has just been fined £3000 for crossing a traffic separation zone in a manner 'prejudicial to the safety of other mariners'. Without modern marine charts he had no way of even knowing that the zone existed. "You don't know what you don't know".

Unless you take this and other relevant matters into account BEFORE you design your space-age system, your work will undoubtedly end up like London's Millenium Dome - "We'll build it first, and THEN decide how to use it ...".

Colin

 

I agree, a streetmap isn't relevant to a marine charting package... unless you intend to use it on land as well (which I do).

The purpose of this project is to develop the software support for marine charts in a platform-independant manner. IT IS NOT to distribute charts.

Satellite imagery may be handy in certain circumstances (ie. when no accurate chart exists) but I will not be implementing it (I'll leave that to someone else).

Right, back to working on ENC...

Cheers,

Tim B.

 

Ok, well ENC will have to wait for a bit... anybody else want to take it up?
But I have managed to import and plot freely available AIS data for the Southampton (UK) area.

I've posted a screenshot below.

Cheers all,

Tim B.