working with OpenCPN -

Balou · 10-01-2015, 03:33 AM

Good morning,

I am new to this forum and don't know anybody can help me solving my problem.

I have installed OpenCPN on my laptop and I use OpenSUSE 13.2.

Compared with my previous laptop OpenCPN is working very slowly and I can not get working the GPS receiver.
Previous laptop stopped working after getting water on the keyboard.

The receiver is recognized /dev/ttyUSB0.
and before opening the OpenCPN I changed the root property to my own as I did with my previous laptop.

How can I check why OpenCPN is running so slowly ?

How can I check The serial port is working correctly ?

Nautical greetings.
Johan

ferrari · 10-02-2015, 10:45 PM

I have no experience with using openCPN, but some more information might be useful.

1. OpenCPN Version?
2. Does the serial GPS unit have a USB or serial (RE-232) interface? (ie is a USB-to-serial adapter involved?)
3. Confirm device node ownership with

Code:

ls -l /dev/ttyUSB*

There should have been no need to change ownership, since ttyUSB* device nodes are assigned bu udev to 'dialout' group by default. The user must be a member of that group.

The installation guide mentions

Quote:

Location of Important Files. Log and config files.

It is important to know the location of the log file and the configuration file, opencpn.conf(Linux) or opencpn.ini (Windows), on your computer. If you ask questions on the forum, there is a fair chance that you will be asked about the content in these files. Once you get familiar with OpenCPN, have a look at the files!

The troubleshooting guide should also be reviewed.

Additional OpenCPN forum support:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f134/

Balou · 10-03-2015, 03:32 AM

Good Morning ferrari,

Thanks for your reply.

Reading the manual before installing software is sometimes important.
I got the problem solved by this commands:
1. Make sure that you belong to the "dialout" group usermod -a -G dialout $USER
2. It is recommended that you install the "xcalib" program, that is necessary to dim the screen for night time usage.
3. It is recommended that you install the "xdg-utils" program, that helps the grib plugin compose a SailDoc grib-request-mail.

For checking the GPS receiver I found the check procedure by OpenCPN Data communication.
With the command: ls -l /dev/ttyUSB* I found the receiver port.
In my particular case I installed gpsd and gpsd-client.
Activate with this command: gpsd /dev/ttyUSB0
Open with the command xgps a simple graphic screen. This tells us If gps is working or not.
Additional I had to change the GPS mode from swift to NMEA sentences with gpsctl command.

Anyhow taking the time to read the manual ( which is very good detailed ) saves you a lot of troubleshooting time.

Nautical greetings
Johan

ferrari · 10-03-2015, 04:08 PM

Glad to have been of help.