New version of NemaStudio includes Attitude instrument
Recently Sailsoft released version 1.26 of NemaStudio. Apart from a few relevant bug fixes and some minor improvements a new instrument is introduced, the Attitude instrument.
I have been very reluctant to implement this function since there is no NMEA 0183 standard for Attitude.
Heave, roll and pitch sensors have been produced by a limited number of manufacturers. Each of them using their own, proprietary sentence format not openly published.
Supported manufacturers
In the current version of the Attitude instrument I have implemented the formats of two manufacturers, Ashtech and Furuno, since some customers were so kind to inform me unofficially about the sentence formats of these manufacturers.
Attitude simulation mode
For each dimension (Roll, Pitch and Heave) an individual simulation option is available by checking the appropriate check box.
When not in simulation mode, each parameter (Roll, Pitch, Heave) can be set individually, also while running.
In simulation mode, the sample time for Roll, Pitch and Heave values is 1/100 second. The algorithm used to calculate the angle in degrees (resp. meters) is
((2 * MaxAngle)/Time)
With the high sensor update rate (0.01 sec) it is possible to achieve a fairly realistic output provided setting the Transmit Interval to a low value, e.g. 0.1 second or even less. Drawback is that you will need a fast serial port baud rate or use UDP ports to avoid buffer overruns.
Bug fixes and other updates in Version 1.26
– Custom Instrument: UDP IP portnumber wrongly shown in GUI, corrected
– General Settings: max velocity now 1023 so msg 9 can be tested against this max
– AIS: msg 24A and 24B now broadcast always over the same channel
– AIS: msg 24A/24B now possible to optional exclude 24B by settings
– AIS: msg 24A fillbits incorrect, corrected
– AIS: msg 14 padding to 40 chars removed, fill bits field adjusted
– AIS: msg 14 belonging to the same sequence now always use same channel
Ger Rietman's blog 
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