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radar_pi is a plugin for OpenCPN that allows full integration of certain radar scanners.
The following radar scanners are supported:
- Garmin HD
- Garmin xHD
- Navico Broadband Radar BR24, 3G and 4G
- Navico HALO (20, 20+, 24, 4, 6, 8)
- Various Raymarine radars
- A simple emulator
WARNING Newer Garmin radars like xHD2 and Fantom are NOT supported. Furuno radars and all others not in the above list are not supported.
The plugin can be operated as the only control station for your scanner, as it allows access to all setup operations such as antenna direction correction and antenna height, as well as cooperate in a multi-station setup -- whether multiple OpenCPN installations or one or more MFDs/plotters. In fact using a mixed setup is what 2 out of 3 developers use, and recommend (our laptops and tablets don't work nearly as well outside as the dedicated plotters.)
It supports up to four radars, with the dual-range Navico radars counting as two radars, as long as all radars are of a different type. In the set, only one can be Garmin and only one can be Raymarine. So you can connect both a 4G and a HALO radar and enjoy dual range on both physical radars, combining to four different scans simultaneously on your computer screen.
The plugin has class leading ARPA and MARPA support, supporting 50 ARPA and MARPA targets as well as target trails support comparable to commercial level radars as well as guard zone support. It supports two guard zones per radar as well as two Electronic Bearing Lines (EBL) and Variable Range Markers (VRM) per radar.
The following pages document the plugin for end users:
- Requirements
- Hardware installation (Navico)
- Hardware installation (Garmin)
- Hardware installation (Raymarine)
- Software installation
- Operation
- Preferences
There are a number of reasons why, if you are looking to buy a new radar specifically for OpenCPN, we recommend that you buy a Navico HALO radar.
- The three developers for this plugin that contribute to the central code all run Navico radars, so you get better support.
- They are technically better.
- They support dual range.
Now you may argue that the Furuno or Garmin Fantom radars are "just as good", but these are not supported, so we don't know how good they are. The Quantum radar is modern, has instant-on and supports Doppler, but has a much lower maximum sharpness than the HALO radars; the number of 'pixels' that it produces is 2 to 3 times lower both in range and in angle.
The Garmin radars that are currently supported are all (very) old magnetron style radars; this is fine if you already have one, but we don't recommend it for new buys. Also getting them to work is more involved.
The older Raymarine RDxxD and Navico 3G/4G radars are no longer being produced; only get one if you can get one for a really, really good deal (sub $1000 for old stock, even less for 2nd hand.)
For more insight in what it takes to add a new radar type, such as Furuno, see Adding new radar types.
This plugin was initially developed as a BR24 plugin by Dave Cowell who took Dave Register's Garmin plugin and modified it to work with the BR24. Over the years code was contributed by @Hakansv, @douwefokkema, @seandepagnier, @nohal, @chucksk, @ab2nkovs and @canboat. After v3.0 was released the code was changed again to support multiple radar types, and adding Garmin support back in with the help of @trudK45.