Polar Diagram

[Hawkeye]

Having recently acquired a laptop, I ran my RadarBox yesterday on one of the local 'high spots' regularly used by radio enthusiasts and was impressed although not really surprised with the 250nm  range and the number of entries in MyFlights using the standard antenna
I was interested in comparing the Polar diagram produced over about two hours with the one on my desktop developed over the years, but on running RB on the laptop again this morning it had reverted to the previous one.  I’ve dug back into postings on the forum but haven’t been able to find why this would occur.
I’m running Win7 on both machines but RadarBox on the laptop isn’t installed in Prog Files (although as I’ve mentioned in previous postings, it has run there successfully without any problems on my desktop PC)
I’d appreciate any help as to as to why the new PD wasn’t saved before I venture out into the cold and windy wilds again :-)
 
Thanks,

Syd

[neroon79]

Hi Syd,

I noticed, that the Radarbox Software doesn't shut done 100% 'clean' from time to time without any sign, that it hasn't shut down 'clean'. On some of the occasions ANRB.exe hasn't shut down clean, I found .journal files left in Data folder, sometimes with loss of flights or new airframes in the db and sometimes without any loss. I'm not sure if the file, that is containing the polar-diagram, could be somehow affected the same way the other database files are affected. Next time you may consider to shut down and restart the Box Software before leaving the wilderness. If the polar-diagram is the same as before the shut down, it was a glitch last time. If not, you can stay some more time and try again. If it's still setting back to "old" version, than it might be a more serious problem, that should be investigated.

[RodBearden]

For your info, the Polar Diagram data file is D012.dat

If you copy the data from that into Excel, you can create a radar chart from it. With two next to each other, you can compare them easily.

Rod

[Hawkeye]

Thank you both for your replies.

Ingo, I think your suggestion that an 'unclean' shutdown could be the cause is probably correct as my laptop battery was more or less completely flat by the time I called it a day. Mind you, at that stage, your very sensible idea to shut down and restart to check the polar diagram would have been too late to continue the session if all was not well.  Next time I go up there, I'll do a couple of shutdown/restarts earlier and copy/paste the D012.dat files to another folder at that stage. I reckon, by the number of 'hits' I was getting, the PD would be more or less the same after about one hour as two. 

Rod, if after a shutdown/restart the diagram was up to date but it reverted to the previous one on final shutdown, would there not be only data for the previous one in D012.dat?
Unfortunately, I’m not the brightest shilling in the till with Excel and I would be pleased if you could explain how to create a chart from the data
If you would be good enough to do so, perhaps a PM would be best as probably almost all other members  will know.

Thanks again,

Regards,

Syd

[Hawkeye]

Rod,

Replied to your PM but got message that it was undelivered because your inbox was full.
Will try again, probably be tomorrow.

Cheers,
Syd

[RodBearden]

Sorry Syd

I've done a clearout so you should be OK to try again now.

Rod

[Hawkeye]

I felt I must publicly express my appreciation of Rod's document he sent by PM explaining how to produce a polar diagram in Excel from the D012.dat file.  Even I found it easy to follow.
The time and effort he and others spend providing data and help for the benefit of RB users on this forum is outstanding.

Thanks a lot and regards Rod,

Syd

[tarbat]

I posted a ready-made Excel sheet back in 2008 - goto http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=1302.msg10127#msg10127 and download the D012.xls file.

[RodBearden]

It's a pleasure, Syd.

And thanks for that, too Tarbat.

For those who would like to do it themselves, here are the instructions I did for Syd, both for Excel 2003 and Excel 2010.

Rod