OpenCPN Remote

This plugin hosts a browser-based remote view of OpenCPN without sharing the whole desktop. It captures only the OpenCPN application window and serves it to a responsive web page with pointer and keyboard input forwarded back to OpenCPN.

What it does

• Runs as an OpenCPN plugin.
• Streams OpenCPN's own UI pixels to a web browser.
• Scales to phones, tablets, and desktops.
• Does not use VNC, RDP, or whole-screen capture.
• Protects the remote endpoint with a generated token.

Build

Install OpenCPN and wxWidgets development packages first. On Debian/Ubuntu-style systems this is typically similar to:

sudo apt install build-essential cmake libwxgtk3.2-dev

Then build:

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build -j

For OpenCPN's Install from file / Import plugin tarball button, build the tarball:

cmake --build build --target plugin_tarball

Select the generated .tar.gz file from the build directory. Do not select the .so file directly; OpenCPN expects an import tarball with a root-level metadata.xml.

Use

When enabled, the plugin logs a URL like:

OpenCPN Remote listening on http://0.0.0.0:8765/?token=...

Open that URL from another device on the same network, replacing 0.0.0.0 with the host machine's LAN IP address.

##Mobile gesures 2 fingers to pan the map Triple tap with 3 fingers to zoom in and 3 fingers to pan

Security notes

This is a remote-control plugin. Use it only on trusted networks unless you place it behind HTTPS/VPN access control. The plugin intentionally captures the OpenCPN window only, but any sensitive information visible inside OpenCPN will be visible to authenticated browser clients.

Current limitations

Some platforms or OpenGL driver combinations do not allow reliable application-window pixel capture through wxWidgets. If frames appear blank, disable OpenGL in OpenCPN or use a platform-specific capture backend as the next step.