AirNav Systems Forum
AirNav RadarBox and RadarBox24.com => AirNav RadarBox and RadarBox24.com Discussion => Topic started by: Fenris on January 10, 2009, 07:19:52 PM
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I've spent a few hours playing with the RB software today, and have spotted a few things which could be clearer or better arranged. So, here goes.
Firstly, what does the Mode-S Maximum Signal Range button on the map tool bar actually do, I'm not clear as to its function.
Next, in the Interface, is there a way to change the order of the columns? I find I'm constantly needing to move left and right to see the information I'm after, even though I have deselected a fair few columns.
If I increase the map size, I also find that some of the buttons in the Interface (like the ADS-B only flights button) disappear from the reachable area, there doesn't seem to be a "container" view which would allow the whole window to scroll. Is there a plan to make this work a little better, I know others have mentioned being able to overlap windows or have a Z-order to allow better use of smaller screen area. I'm using a widescreen laptop, but it's not that big and I don't have a way of having a bigger screen easily.
I also noticed that using Esc to maximise the map, and the reverting it, leads to all sorts of display problems where the map detail selected is lost and all you get is a few tracks plotted with just the aircraft symbol and a data block but nothing else. I managed to restore it, but it needed reloading the default map to do this. A bit annoying (in fact I like the interface data enough to not do this often) but not a major thing for me really.
A suggestion, which I don't know if it has been made before, is I'd like to be able to have a polar diagram that can be split into altitude bands please. May be tricky, but I assume the data for the polar diagram is stored somewhere and isn't so big that 2 or 3 versions of it would be a problem.
A general comment, there is no description of all the fields in the data block, and I'm sure there are some I have not seen yet. So I'd suggest adding something into the manual that covers this.
Enough for now, more comments as I think of them. Sorry! ;-)
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I also noticed that using Esc to maximise the map
Hi Brian, thanks for that, although I've printed off the manual (at work - 80+ pages!), I've not read it - RB is so user-friendly and intuitive, that I've not needed to refer to it.
A suggestion, which I don't know if it has been made before, is I'd like to be able to have a polar diagram that can be split into altitude bands please.
Enough for now, more comments as I think of them. Sorry!
A layered polar diagram would be a very good idea!
Keep the comments coming, as a newbie, I find most comments in here interesting and instructive.
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A layered polar diagram would be a very good idea!
Already available using sbsplotter - http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=1357.msg10229#msg10229
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Hi Fenris,
Mode-S Maximum Signal Range simply displays a range of 250nm which is about the max you can get a Mode-S signal due to the curavture of the earth, Its just nice to have a polar map and that on to see in the theory if you had a 60ft metres antenna above your house.
The other suggestions or comments have already been brought up by others.
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Thanks tarbat, downloaded and saved the file.
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A layered polar diagram would be a very good idea!
Already available using sbsplotter - http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=1357.msg10229#msg10229
Excellent, thanks.
Can you tell me how to use it, I assume it has to run all the time RB is running. Does it remember what it's seen?
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Mode-S Maximum Signal Range simply displays a range of 250nm which is about the max you can get a Mode-S signal due to the curavture of the earth, Its just nice to have a polar map and that on to see in the theory if you had a 60ft metres antenna above your house.
OK, so you mean that if I toggle the button it just resets the range to 250nm? I have it selected all the time at present, and nothing seems to happen, so I assume it's a sort of one shot button. Could it be arranged for it to be shown inactive one the range has changed? At present it has the blue box around it all the time.
Or do I have this confused in my mind?
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Zoom out untill it shows the UK and Europe, and unselect and select it again and you will see what we mean,
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... The other suggestions or comments have already been brought up by others...
So has anyone else suggested that the Distance column be reformatted as numeric instead of alphanumeric so that we can sort aircraft by actual mileage (closest to furthest <or vice verse>) rather than by numeric appearance?
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Distance can already can be sorted as numeric. And even filtered on "less than". I use it on the network view all the time - see screenshot.
Are you running v2.0 2009?
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Beat me to it - sorts fine for me :-)
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You are both correct. I just received my unit today and failed to realize I was running v2007. My bad, and I've downloaded and installed v2.0 2009.
So I have to ask if anyone knows how to change the color of the map cursor (cross-hairs). Black on black is fairly difficult to differentiate. I was hoping for a white or yellow cursor.
Any suggestions?
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The crosshairs is from your windows setup, you need to alter these.
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So I have to ask if anyone knows how to change the color of the map cursor (cross-hairs). Black on black is fairly difficult to differentiate. I was hoping for a white or yellow cursor.
Previous discussion on this Windows problem at http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=526.msg4436#msg4436
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I was really hoping to avoid reconfiguring an application level cursor at the system level, but if that is my only choice I guess I'm stuck with it.
Thank you
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Windows should handle the colour of the cross-hairs automatically. Mine is white when over a dark colour, turns black when over a light colour, and is grey when over a medium colour.
It must be something in Windows that causes this to happen, not something in RB.
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Windows should handle the colour of the cross-hairs automatically. Mine is white when over a dark colour, turns black when over a light colour, and is grey when over a medium colour.
It must be something in Windows that causes this to happen, not something in RB.
Are you using XP or Vista Tarbat?
All the problems I've heard of appear to be in Vista.
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Hi All,I have Vista on my laptop all seems fine.
I can`t get any sense on why the Belkin USB hub keeps crashing, so I just hide in the back room and get nagged for being anti-social!
I`m going to put an aerial outside, SSE-1090SJ mk 2 ANTENNA with Westflex 103 cable anything better?
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Hi All,I have Vista on my laptop all seems fine.
I can`t get any sense on why the Belkin USB hub keeps crashing, so I just hide in the back room and get nagged for being anti-social!
I`m going to put an aerial outside, SSE-1090SJ mk 2 ANTENNA with Westflex 103 cable anything better?
How much cable do you anticipate running? If you have less than about 13.5m then its loss will be less than half the 3.5dB loss in the 3m of RG-174 used on the supplied antenna. So what with the improved antenna and greater height, it should be significantly better.
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Fenris, yes, I'm using Vista, but only the Vista Basic interface, NOT Aero. Don't know if using Aero makes a difference.
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Fenris, yes, I'm using Vista, but only the Vista Basic interface, NOT Aero. Don't know if using Aero makes a difference.
I have Vista Home Premium, I suppose I'll have to devote some time to changing a few things and trying them out. I do need to get rid of the transparent look to the window title bars anyway, I really don't like it. Now RB doesn't show this, its window has a black title bar so maybe Airnav are playing some tricks with themes?
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I also disliked the transparent look, and that also slowed down the PC when coming out of standby. Turn off the Aero interface to get rid of the transaparent look, and also reduce the CPU load!!
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Hi Fenris, 20 / 25mts max cable run, Westflex are based near enough to collect from and very patient with a techno-dummy.
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Hi Fenris, 20 / 25mts max cable run, Westflex are based near enough to collect from and very patient with a techno-dummy.
25m of Westflex 103 has a loss of 3.25dB, which is less than the supplied antenna's cable. How easily accessible is the place you intend to put your antenna? If it's really difficult to get to, then if you were to decide you need a preamp after trying just the Westflex then it would be a lot of extra effort.
I've just calculated the change in system noise figure for the difference between a 10m vs 25m run of Westflex using a 0.9dB NF 12 dB gain preamp. It's 0.2dB, which is tiny.
For the cable alone, you lose 3.25-1.3 dB, so 1.95dB. That's getting to the point where you would begin to notice it, but probably only for signals which are quite marginal.
It's hard to give you good advice on this, you might be perfectly happy with a long cable run and no pre-amp, and indeed you might find that spending the money on a preamp would not really improve your coverage very much. If your range is limited by obstructions on the horizon (mine is, as I live in a river valley), a preamp is less effective because without line of sight the path loss increases rapidly. 1.1GHz just won't pass through very much earth!
The best advice is to try and reduce the cable length as much as possible.
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The aerial will be on the chimney on the other side of the bungalow, I hope to keep the cable run to 20 mts and hope Exmoor doesn`t get in the way.
Nice to have friends, thanks.