archlinux-aiscatcher

The file PKGBUILD does following:

(1) Clones AIS-catcher source-code from https://github.com/jvde-github/AIS-catcher

(2) Builds executable binary and packages it, alongwith other support files, into following package:

aiscatcher-[version]-[architecture].pkg.tar.xz

(3) Offers to install aiscatcher [yes/no]

The package installation does following:

(1) Installs Linux executeable in folder /usr/local/bin/

(2) Creates Systemd service to automatically start AIS-catcher when RPi boots, and run AIS-catcher in background.

(3) Provides Systemd commands to start stop, restart, and display status, and journalctl logs of AIS-catcher

INSTALL / UPGRADE / REINSTALL

Copy-paste following commands one-by-one in SSH console and press Enter key. to Install / Upgrade / Reinstall Latest Version of AIS-catcher.

sudo pacman -S --needed git fakeroot

git clone https://github.com/abcd567a/archlinux-aiscatcher  

cd archlinux-aiscatcher

makepkg -si  

AFTER INSTALLATION IS COMPLETED, PLEASE DO FOLLOWING:

(1) If on RPi you have installed AIS Dispatcher or OpenCPN,
it should be configured to use UDP Port 10110, IP 127.0.0.1 OR 0.0.0.0

(2) Open file aiscatcher.conf by following command:

sudo nano /usr/share/aiscatcher/aiscatcher.conf     

The defalt content of above file are as shown below:

 -d 00000162
 -v 10
 -M DT
 -gr TUNER 38.6 RTLAGC off
 -s 2304k
 -p 3
 -o 4
 -u 127.0.0.1 10110
 -N 8383
 -N PLUGIN_DIR /usr/share/aiscatcher/my-plugins   

(3) In above file:
(a) Change 00000162 in "-d 00000162" to actual Serial Number of AIS dongle
(b) Change 3 in "-p 3" to the actual ppm correction figure of dongle
(c) Change 38.6 in "-gr TUNER 38.6 RTLAGC off" to desired Gain of dongle
(d) Add following line and replace xx.xxx and yy.yyy by actual values:
-N STATION MyStation LAT xx.xxx LON yy.yyy
(e) For each Site you want to feed AIS data, add a new line as follows:
-u [URL or IP of Site] [Port Number of Site]
(f) Save (Ctrl+o) and Close (Ctrl+x) file aiscatcher.conf

IMPORTANT: If you are Upgrading or Reinstalling, your old config file is saved as
/usr/share/aiscatcher/aiscatcher.conf.old

(4) REBOOT RPi ... REBOOT RPi ... REBOOT RPi ... REBOOT RPi

(5) See the Web Interface (Map etc) at
10.0.0.100:8383 (IP-of-PI:8383)

(6) Command to see Status sudo systemctl status aiscatcher

(7) Command to Restart sudo systemctl restart aiscatcher

(8) Command to Stop sudo systemctl stop aiscatcher

Command to view Log:

sudo journalctl -u aiscatcher -n 20

Determining the PPM Correction (for use in file aisctacher.conf)

(1) Install test software
sudo apt install rtl-sdr

(2) Determin the device index of the dongle for AIS-catcher by following command
rtl_test -t

(3) The device index will be 0 or 1, or 2 etc.
Use following command to determine ppm
NOTE: Replace n in command below by device index you found above
rtl_test -d n -p60

(4) Wait until the cumulative error value (in PPM) remains more-or-less the same for three consecutive minutes.
Note the last cumulative error value (in PPM) and use it in config of AIS-catcher.
For example if the value determined by above test is 7, the entry in config file will be -p 7

Logs:

Command to view full Log:

sudo journalctl -u aiscatcher -n 20

Commands to view specific parts of log:

Command:
sudo journalctl -u aiscatcher -n 200 | grep -o 'received.*'
Output:
received: 12 msgs, total: 59754 msgs, rate: 1.19834 msg/s

Command:
sudo journalctl -u aiscatcher -n 200 | grep -o 'rate.*'
Output:
rate: 1.29752 msg/s

Command:
sudo journalctl -u aiscatcher -n 30 | awk -F',' '{print $14}'
Output:
"ppm":4.340278

Command:
sudo journalctl -u aiscatcher -n 30 | awk -F',' '{print $13}'
Output:
"signalpower":-46.787212

In above command's last part, i.e. in {print $4}, substitute $4 by values listed in first column of the table below to get the output shown in second column of the table.

 

$n	Output Example
$1	Jan 05 04:48:16 debian11 aiscatcher[38575]: [AIS engine v0.42 #0] received: 16 msgs Jan 05 04:48:17 debian11 aiscatcher[38575]: {"class":"AIS"
$2	"device":"AIS-catcher"
$3	"rxtime":"20230105095333"
$4	"scaled":true
$5	"channel":"A" "channel":"B"
$6	"nmea":["!AIVDM
$7	3
$8	1
$9	4
$10	A B
$11	14eIvM6P00rDSONHv0pf4?vR2@:2 8h30ot1?0@<BbDPPPP3D<oPPEU;M418T@00BbDPPPPC=DoN0lU:2WQ8v
$12	25C"] 002"]
$13	"signalpower":-41.644276
$14	"ppm":-3.761574
$15	"mmsi":316206000
$16	"status":5
$17	"status_text":"Aground" "status_text":"Under way using engine"

 

To Uninstall AIS-catcher

sudo pacman -R aiscatcher