AirNav Systems Forum
AirNav RadarBox and RadarBox24.com => AirNav RadarBox and RadarBox24.com Discussion => Topic started by: NickJackson on October 04, 2009, 05:48:38 PM
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I've been using the Radarbox for 24 hours and found out a lot about the product already. Questions that don't seem to obvious at the moment are:-
1)
Does the 'My Log' report flights picked up by the hardware box only?
2)
When I maxmise my window, the AirNav Radarbox window extends beyond the viewable area such that some fields/boxes are obscured and unusable. Is there a way a setting the display so that screen fits properly when maximised?
3)
I don't really need to see the photos, logos, aircraft silhouettes all of the time but I do want to see a list of flights picked up. It looks like you can only turn off both photos etc. and the flight list together. Is this correct?
Re; the above, in the demo version you could get a pop-up window with the pertinent flight info when you put your mouse over the radar plot. Is this still available.
4)
Using the reporter or another feature is it possible to create reports with bespoke content, subject to the limitations of the source data in the database? I'd really like to include some flight level, heading, lattitude/longtitude info, although this may mean more than one record per flight on the report.
5)
In 'My Log' about 10% of the ModeS codes don't have any registration/flight details. Are these aircraft that have Mode S but no ADS-B equipment?
Please accept my apologies if I'm running over old ground here. BTW: I'm running software version 2.01 on Windows XP with firmware 02.03.1
Thanks
Nick
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I bought my AirNav on Friday and am having similar problems. There is so much that is not covered in the help. As an example, the 'Start Tour' (beginning of 3rd toolbar) just starts a revolving count down. Nothing else happens.
The program runs very slow especially when attempting to use the menu. The egg timer appears and nothing else happens.
The list of aircraft jumps from right to left and up and down, making it virtually useless.
I have an Acer M464 with an Intel Core2 duo CPU E4700 @ 2.60GHz. 1.7GB RAM at 2.6GHz. The screen is an Hanns·G, which is a tall screen 1280x1024 pixels, so not a small wide screen.
No other program exhibits these problems. I'd give the version of software etc, which I would expect to find in in the 'Help ¦ About', but I've not the time to wait for it to display!
CPU usage is low according to 'Windows Task Manager'. So what's happening?
The box is working as I've got 36 local aircraft in the list with the std antenna inside my window.
The network has over 560 aircraft, so is this causing the slowdown?
This is without any other program running, naturally apart from Avira and ZoneAlarm.
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landyman try the latest beta on the forum see whether that fixes your problems. Also there is a manual on the forum and also in the beta install which is 100 pages long who should helping in explaining functions.
1.) Only hardware
2.) Never seen this, what screen size and resoultion are you using?
3.) In File -> Pregerences you can turn of the details you mention
4.) You would need external software for this
5.) These aircraft which we don't have details to what they are yet, probally likely to be military aircraft or new aircraft.
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I'm also curious about the 'Start Tour' button.
What happened to the tour? I presume a guided demo should run ?
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5.) These aircraft which we don't have details to what they are yet, probally likely to be military aircraft or new aircraft.
There don't seem to be ANY details of the Australian military aircraft in the database, although (as pointed out by Allocator I think) the details ARE available on airframes.org.
Some of these planes are 10 or more years old, so I think by now most of them should have made it into the AirNav databases!!
Can someone have a look at getting the AirNav databases up to date, and distributing the updates to the users please.
DaveReid also pointed out an issue with the aircraft types of a significant number being incorrect.
http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=3516.msg34251#msg34251
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Function of the "Start Tour" button:
It's a flight tour feature, that scrolls over all tracked flights automatically. You can see it working by watching the (moving) pointer (black triangle on the left of the grid) and the changing corresponding aircraft details shown in the MyFlight list of the interface.
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5.) These aircraft which we don't have details to what they are yet, probally likely to be military aircraft or new aircraft.
There don't seem to be ANY details of the Australian military aircraft in the database, although (as pointed out by Allocator I think) the details ARE available on airframes.org.
Some of these planes are 10 or more years old, so I think by now most of them should have made it into the AirNav databases!!
Can someone have a look at getting the AirNav databases up to date, and distributing the updates to the users please.
DaveReid also pointed out an issue with the aircraft types of a significant number being incorrect.
http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=3516.msg34251#msg34251
RadarBox comes with a comprehensive aircraft database, but like all such lists, it would have been out of date the day it was published. To overcome this, AirNav entered an agreement with the Gatwick Aviation Society (GAS) to gain access to their volunteer maintained database to auto-populate the RB database whenever a new aircraft is detected. It's not foolproof, but it is very good.
If the Australian military aircraft are not in the GAS database, then these aircraft details will not be populated. For the GAS guys to know about these aircraft, they have to be told, so this is where everybody can help out. There is a form on their site for submitting aircraft details and by doing this you help everybody who uses the database, not just RadarBox users.
So, when you say "Can somebody take a look at getting the database up to date" it's all down to us to help :-)
http://www.gatwickaviationsociety.org.uk/introduction.asp
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So, when you say "Can somebody take a look at getting the database up to date" it's all down to us to help :-)
http://www.gatwickaviationsociety.org.uk/introduction.asp
Interesting... I wasn't aware that the users were indirectly populating the database for AirNav, or how they did it. I'd have thought AirNav would have people or perhaps multiple sources of information and be correlating the info themselves.
No doubt the information is published somewhere and I just haven't read it.
Of the last 6 Australian Airforce planes that RB knows nothing about 5 of them are listed in the airframes.org database, and one of them dates back to 1999. Seems the Gatwick mob aren't really that interested in Australian planes despite saying they have "complete registers" for them!
7CF830
7CF837
7CF8BF
7CF83A
7CF85E
Seems a bit "hit and miss" where users have to notice info is missing and then try and source it from other websites, so they can cut & paste it into the GAS database.
Nonetheless, I'll cut & paste the airframes.org (when I see it) info if that is what is required!
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Nonetheless, I'll cut & paste the airframes.org (when I see it) info if that is what is required!
maybe not - when I try to add them I get a "page cannot be found" error message!
here are the details if anyone else knows how to add them:
A97-440 Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Hercules C30J 5440 L4T 7CF830 Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) 1997 2000-07
A97-464 Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Hercules C30J 5464 L4T 7CF837 Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) 1999-09-07
A32-346 Raytheon B300 King Air 350 B350 FL-346 L2T 7CF8BF ASY - RAAF 2002 2003
A97-467 Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Hercules C30J 5467 L4T 7CF83A Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) 2000
A37-001 Bombardier (Canadair) CL-600-2B16 Challenger 604 CL60 5521 L2J 7CF85E RAAF
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here are the details if anyone else knows how to add them
Well if you really want to do things the hard way, open up your favourite SQLite editor, load the NavData.db3 database and use SQL statements like:
Insert into Aircraft (MS, AR, AT, AN, AC, CN) Values ('7CF8BF', 'A32-346', 'B350', 'Raytheon B300 King Air 350', 'Australia - Air Force', 'FL-346 ');
But, as I mentioned in a previous post, hopefully all this will become academic in a few weeks' time when the mechanism for maintaining and propagating database updates and, equally importantly, validating aircraft details, photos, ICAO codes, etc is completely overhauled.
Ideally we should have reached this stage by now, but V3's protracted gestation period has understandably delayed things a bit.
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Well if you really want to do things the hard way, open up your favourite SQLite editor, load the NavData.db3 database and use SQL statements like:
Thanks - but I have no idea how SQLite works, I've updated my own database via the database explorer interface. I was trying to update it at the source so everyone would benefit, and it would only have to be done once.
But, as I mentioned in a previous post, hopefully all this will become academic in a few weeks' time when the mechanism for maintaining and propagating database updates and, equally importantly, validating aircraft details, photos, ICAO codes, etc is completely overhauled.
Ideally we should have reached this stage by now, but V3's protracted gestation period has understandably delayed things a bit.
So this mechanism will get all the Australian RAAF aircraft, and other various/missing data in the current AirNav database??
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So this mechanism will get all the Australian RAAF aircraft, and other various/missing data in the current AirNav database??
Clearly no database will ever be 100% comprehensive and up-to-date, but yes, you can reasonably expect that frequently-seen military aircraft should be covered.
What will also be fixed, rest assured, are all the fictitious type codes, inconsistent airline names, etc, that can currently be found in the database - can anyone enlighten me as to what an "OLDP" or "HLAC" is, for example, or why we need 4 different spellings of Air Méditerranée ?
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Interesting... I wasn't aware that the users were indirectly populating the database for AirNav, or how they did it. I'd have thought AirNav would have people or perhaps multiple sources of information and be correlating the info themselves.
I think that you are missing the point here somewhat. There is no complete worldwide aircraft database as far as I'm aware. I'm sure that all the licencing authorities of individual countries have such databases (G-INFO for the UK for instance), but not one database.
When RadarBox was first launched, you got the database that came with it and that was it. You could manually update the database using Database Explorer (as you still can), but there was no integration with any on-line sources.
AirNav worked with the GAS team to arrange access to the GAS data and I'm sure that this was not a free option - but RB users got the database auto-populate software update for free anyway. You expect AirNav to maintain the database and I'm sure that they could if they employed a team to do it - are you prepared to pay for this?
So, if you help the VOLUNTARY UNPAID GAS team to update the database, you are not populating the database for AirNav, you are improving a resource that is used by very many aviation enthusiasts around the world, including those who use the SBS-1 which also uses the GAS data.
I hope that this helps you understand the whole database issue.
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Nonetheless, I'll cut & paste the airframes.org (when I see it) info if that is what is required!
maybe not - when I try to add them I get a "page cannot be found" error message!
here are the details if anyone else knows how to add them:
Use Database Explorer. You can cut/paste, but you have to do it for every data cell, so I usually just type in the details. It's fine if you are just doing a few aircraft, but tedious if you are doing a lot. Many of the Brit Mil aircraft don't appear in any databases, but a bit of detective work on this and the Kinetic forum has produced great results. Adding the aircraft as they are 'found' is one of the most enjoyable aspects for me :-)
See the Video Tutorials either on the AirNav Youtube Channel of in the RadioBox support section on the main AirNav website.
Of course, this only updates you own NavData.db3 database, not any external on-line database.
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Oh Wow!
I received my AirNav setup last Wednesday. Wondered whether I'd pickup anything as I live in a groundfloor apartment. Needn't have worried - plenty of traffic received - albeit in one direction only!
Currently using only the included standard aerial. Is sitting outside the window ledge of my bay window - outside is important - double glazing seems to affect signal badly!
My package came with an included Radar-Rama external antenna - which I may install shortly.
Have had great results so far, but decided to install version 3.01 beta tonight.
Seems to be a great improvement - receiving signals more frequently etc.
Only pain was that 'my logs' seems to be empty! I made a backup of my db3 files before upgrading - any chance of getting my data back?
Two more questions:
1) How do I enter my home location? I have a GPS fix nearby (not home - but near enough) of N52 23.803 W001 15.979. This is in decimal WGS84 co-ords - whatever that means!
2) How does the aircraft 'status' work?
I have seen take off, climb, levelled, cruise, descent, approach, landing.
All self-explanatory - but is there any FL or rate of ascent/descent or landing gear up or down that dictates when this status change takes place?
Apologies if I'm asking questions that have already been answered on this forum?
Am thrilled with what I've seen so far - can't wait until I manage to erect a proper external antenna!
Chris Walker
Rugby, UK
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1) How do I enter my home location? I have a GPS fix nearby (not home - but near enough) of N52 23.803 W001 15.979. This is in decimal WGS84 co-ords - whatever that means!
Easiest way is to find your location on the RB map, right click on it, and select "Select as Home Location".
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1) How do I enter my home location? I have a GPS fix nearby (not home - but near enough) of N52 23.803 W001 15.979. This is in decimal WGS84 co-ords - whatever that means!
52+(23.8/60) = 52.396666666666666666666666666667
-1+(15.070/60) = 1.2511666666666666666666666666667
So try
52.3966 -1.2511
Note: West is a minus figure, as is South. North and East are positive
If you use Google Earth, just set the preferences to show decimal degrees and just read it off the screen when you put the cursor over your location :-)
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Function of the "Start Tour" button:
It's a flight tour feature, that scrolls over all tracked flights automatically. You can see it working by watching the (moving) pointer (black triangle on the left of the grid) and the changing corresponding aircraft details shown in the MyFlight list of the interface.
Many thanks Terre. Another item to add to the F1 help facility!
Now that I've got AirNav running at a reasonable speed, by disabling my Avira antivirus on the 7 data files that are continuously updated, I can now seen the action you describe.
Thanks, Reg.
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Oh Wow!
I received my AirNav setup last Wednesday.
...
2) How does the aircraft 'status' work?
I have seen take off, climb, levelled, cruise, descent, approach, landing.
All self-explanatory - but is there any FL or rate of ascent/descent or landing gear up or down that dictates when this status change takes place?
Chris, I bought mine on Friday.
Unfortunately the 'Status' column is not self-explanatory. Does it come from the received signal or is it based on the software's interpretation of received data?
I live 16 miles from an airfield and under the flight path. So aircraft passing overhead are landing. They are also descending.
I've seen aircraft that are taking-off at 4975 altitude, which I would have thought was climbing.
Also departure at 24,100 altitude.
This suggests to me that it is a setting on the flight deck, which is often wrong. Anyone really know?
Reg.
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Its the softwares interpretation. Depending on its current height and what the level of climb or descent is you can determine 99% of what its doing.
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Thanks for the info re; my original posting AirNav Support:-
1) Understood thanks
2) The screen is an ACER AL1714 of the visible screen is just over 13" wide and just under 11" deep. Looking at the Windows Control Panel 'Display' boxes its using NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS with resolution 1024x768 and 96DPI. I hope that means something to you!
3) I see that feature now.
4) I'll have to investigate the reporting options further sometime
5) I checked the GAS database and all 61 records with ModeS codes but no registrations are listed on there DB. How often is the GAS database uploaded to AirNav and distributed to users?
Thanks
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5) I checked the GAS database and all 61 records with ModeS codes but no registrations are listed on there DB. How often is the GAS database uploaded to AirNav and distributed to users?
Thanks
If they are in GAS but not your database, this could be because you were offline to the Internet when they were picked up, or added by GAS since they were picked up.
The way of getting them added into your database, go to MyLog, and then Tools and Populate. This should then run the GAS Autopopulate again.
Rick
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Many thanks to all who replied to my queries on correct format for entering home coordinates. Will correct my position when I get home this evening. On Sunday I was seeing 'live' planes on my screen but missing from the blue skies above me in reality - guess I'd entered my co-ords wrongly!!!
Also thanks for confirming that it is the software that determines what is displayed in the status column.
Will have a trawl through this useful forum in the next few days - as I suspect I will find the answers to many of my other questions already answered.
Cheers
Chris
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Thanks rnsavage. I tried MyLog -> Tools -> Populate and 9 new entries were added. However I still get lot of gaps. Today it's been running with the hardware and network on since 7.30am with 546 entries. Of those 93 have ModeS codes but no registration which is too high a failure rate.
A spot check of these 'missing' regn's reveals Ryanair and Eastjet deleiveries going back to 2008 which are in the GAS db. e.g. 4CA702 / EI-EBE doesn't appear.
I had a look at the Database Explorer but could only see how to amend a record, but not add one. Should I run the Populate/Import in the Databse Explorer?
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Many thanks to all who replied to my queries on correct format for entering home coordinates. Will correct my position when I get home this evening. On Sunday I was seeing 'live' planes on my screen but missing from the blue skies above me in reality - guess I'd entered my co-ords wrongly!!!
AFAIK, RadarBox doesn't rely on your home coordinates being entered correctly when decoding the position of airborne aircraft, so there must be another explanation.
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Many thanks to all who replied to my queries on correct format for entering home coordinates. Will correct my position when I get home this evening. On Sunday I was seeing 'live' planes on my screen but missing from the blue skies above me in reality - guess I'd entered my co-ords wrongly!!!
AFAIK, RadarBox doesn't rely on your home coordinates being entered correctly when decoding the position of airborne aircraft, so there must be another explanation.
Well if you've entered your position incorrectly and then expect to see an aircraft above you because it shows on the map as being "overhead" then it won't be visible!
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Well if you've entered your position incorrectly and then expect to see an aircraft above you because it shows on the map as being "overhead" then it won't be visible!
True - if you don't know where you live, then you're stuffed :-)
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Many thanks to all who replied to my queries on correct format for entering home coordinates. Will correct my position when I get home this evening. On Sunday I was seeing 'live' planes on my screen but missing from the blue skies above me in reality - guess I'd entered my co-ords wrongly!!!
Also thanks for confirming that it is the software that determines what is displayed in the status column.
Will have a trawl through this useful forum in the next few days - as I suspect I will find the answers to many of my other questions already answered.
Cheers
Chris
Pinza,
You may well see aircraft on the map but not in the blue skies above if you are referring to high level overflights. It will depend on the atmospheric conditions as to whether they are showing trails or not. Quite often, the hligh level aircraft flying overhead Central Sotland will only be showing a trail if they are at FL32 or above. Therefore, if you are seeing high level aircraft on your map and know approximately where they should be use the old bins you may/should be able to spot them.
Ian
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Thanks rnsavage. I tried MyLog -> Tools -> Populate and 9 new entries were added. However I still get lot of gaps. Today it's been running with the hardware and network on since 7.30am with 546 entries. Of those 93 have ModeS codes but no registration which is too high a failure rate.
A spot check of these 'missing' regn's reveals Ryanair and Eastjet deleiveries going back to 2008 which are in the GAS db. e.g. 4CA702 / EI-EBE doesn't appear.
I had a look at the Database Explorer but could only see how to amend a record, but not add one. Should I run the Populate/Import in the Databse Explorer?
Nick,
If a reg is missing in My Flights or the Network, just click on the ModeS code and if it is in the database the reg will appear (usually fairly quickly). It is an easy and quick way of populating any missing regs without hunting through various databases.
Ian
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I tried that so I assume they're no in the database. None of the ones I've tried have worked yet but I'll go through them as I see them again.
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Yes, aircraft were plotted correctly - just not my home position (my fault) so had difficulty with the limited field of view from my backdoor when I was looking in the wrong direction... DOH!
Had problems last night with network data - am sure it is an AVG - anti-virus problem. Am sure I can resolve this tonight.
Thanks, Chris
Also need to work out how to use quotes etc on this forum
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Yes, aircraft were plotted correctly - just not my home position (my fault) so had difficulty with the limited field of view from my backdoor when I was looking in the wrong direction... DOH!
Had problems last night with network data - am sure it is an AVG - anti-virus problem. Am sure I can resolve this tonight.
Thanks, Chris
Also need to work out how to use quotes etc on this forum
Chris,
Click on the box to the right of a reply marked 'quote'. A quick reply box will open up at the bottom of the screen showing what was in the reply. Scroll down through the message until you come to the word 'quote'. Press the 'enter' key to take you onto the next line and then write your reply. When finished click on preview to check your reply message then click on post. Your reply message will now appear with the quote from the message you are replying to above it. Hope that makes sense.
Cheers,
Ian
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Thanks Ian,
Just testing your help on 'quotes'.
Am very happy tonight:
Firstly I have successfully adjusted my home co-ords after following the suggestions on this thread of the forum - thanks all!
Secondly I have overcome my AVG problems and received network traffic on top of my own received traffic this evening.
Watched UPS237 (N730UP) and Icelandair ICE746 (TF-FIG) on screen and then went out of back door to see if I could see them - no - too overcast but at low an enough altitude to hear them climbing over my house. So am pretty confident that I've set my home position correctly at last!
Yes, aircraft were plotted correctly - just not my home position (my fault) so had difficulty with the limited field of view from my backdoor when I was looking in the wrong direction... DOH!
Had problems last night with network data - am sure it is an AVG - anti-virus problem. Am sure I can resolve this tonight.
Thanks, Chris
Also need to work out how to use quotes etc on this forum
Chris,
Click on the box to the right of a reply marked 'quote'. A quick reply box will open up at the bottom of the screen showing what was in the reply. Scroll down through the message until you come to the word 'quote'. Press the 'enter' key to take you onto the next line and then write your reply. When finished click on preview to check your reply message then click on post. Your reply message will now appear with the quote from the message you are replying to above it. Hope that makes sense.
Cheers,
Ian
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Any other problems/queries, just ask. There is usuually someone on the forum who will know the answer.
Ian
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I have been updating my DB in Database Explorer with Aircraft Types....but when the plane shows up again, the DB doesn't know what the AC type is...again.
Any clue? I'm using 2.0 software (3.x beta doesn't work on Vista Basic).
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Are you really using Database Explorer, or are you making the changes in MyLog?
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Is this a case of the PT,LK,PT2 & LK2 fields not been filled in and being over written.
Andy
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Is this a case of the PT,LK,PT2 & LK2 fields not been filled in and being over written.
Andy
Maybe, but surely the approach should be to not overwrite existing information unless it's known to be volatile.
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Are you really using Database Explorer, or are you making the changes in MyLog?
Yes, I'm really using DB Explorer....I know the difference. I see lots of quirks and problems with the RadarBox software. Also...is there a way to add more info in large quantity to the DB on my system? How does the update process work? Do my changes to the DB get uploaded to the RadarBox server?
I know...lots of questions...but I'm trying to understand this thing better so I don't waste time inputting info.
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Do my changes to the DB get uploaded to the RadarBox server?
No.
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As far as overwriting volatile info....if the field has ... in it, like AT (Aircraft type)...would it get overwritten again with "..." if there was something like CRJ9 already in it?
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As far as overwriting volatile info....if the field has ... in it, like AT (Aircraft type)...would it get overwritten again with "..." if there was something like CRJ9 already in it?
I would hope not, but I am unsure as the the logic applied if other fields in the record are blank.
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That would be the only explanation why I have to keep re-entering the info. I only fill in the AT...since that allows me to see the little silhouette next time it pops up.
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Couple of questions to ask here, rather than starting a new thread:
1) Running v3.07beta on a laptop with 1Gb of ram and using Windows Vista - works great once loaded - BUT takes over 5 minutes to load - is that normal?
2) Have just been tinkering with colour schemes - can't seem to find an option to change one thing though! Namely the 'crosshair' cursor to select flights on the main radar screen. My cursor is almost black and next to invisible on the black background - making selection of a flight very much hit and miss! Is there an option to change the colour of the cursor? If not, can I request an option in the next release please.
3) I stay online while running ANRB more to auto-populate MyFlights rather than to see other network traffic, so am a bit concerned as to how much data is being transferred as I am not on an unlimited data tariff with my ISP. I have a monthly allowance of 10Gb - can anyone translate this into an average daily allowance (in Mb which I can record) so I can keep an eye on my usage while I share data?
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Pinza,
My laptop takes about 15 secs to load the program.
My cursor is white at default and I do not think you can chage the colour.
Also using Vista.
J.
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Pinza,
My laptop takes about 15 secs to load the program.
My cursor is white at default and I do not think you can chage the colour.
Also using Vista.
J.
Thanks Jeremy,
Loads of rubbish on my laptop - time for a major prune but still shocked to find a 5 minute load time (compared to your 15 seconds!). I thought I'd cleared all the redundant 'autostart' programs too!
Strange that my default (and invisible) cursor is black compared to your white one!
Minor niggles - works well once loaded!
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A quick search on the forum shows this post: http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=164.0 (http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=164.0).
Hope it helps - XP man myself :-)
Rod
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A quick search on the forum shows this post: http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=164.0 (http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=164.0).
Hope it helps - XP man myself :-)
Rod
Thanks so much Rod - post you pointed me to was over two years old but solved my black cursor problem perfectly!
Oh the joys of Vista! Much prefer XP which my Netbook runs but has too small a screen to run usefully...
Toying with idea of buying cable to go from tiny Samsung NC10 screen to large living room video telly via S-Video tv-out cable.