How to manually edit the RadarBox 2008 Aircraft database

[Allocator]

If you want to manually add an aircraft or edit a record in the RadarBox 2008 database, this is how you do it.

- Use File | Database Explorer to open the database window:



The database window will open at the first table in the database, which is the actype (aircraft type) table.  We don't want this table.



Use the drop-down box to select the aircraft table:



Click on Add Record, then type the details into the selected cell of the new blank record. Click on another empty cell and click Edit Cell.  When you have added all the data, just click anywhere in the database window and make sure that you can see the data you have entered in the new record.  Close the window by using the red X at the top right.  You have added the record.



If you want to edit an existing record, or check to see if a partial record exists for that aircraft, use the search/Filter at the bottom of the database window.  Click on the cell to edit and click Edit Cell.  In this example, I'm checking to see if I have aircraft with Mode S 400FF2 - and yes I do have that aircraft in the database. If you want to see all the records again, click on Show All.

[Roadrunner]

I just tried copying the contents of my SBS1.sqb file (16,350 entires) into Radarbox. The actual upload seemed very quick but then it "hung" with the screen not updated at all. I selected refresh and Radarbox froze. I did this without radarbox connected to look for anything either local or network and with sharing also off.  When I reloaded radarbox my database had only loaded up 9,954 of the 16,350 entries in the basestation.sqb. Any ideas why this might be and why my PC should freeze doing such a basic action?

I have a COMPAQ srs5109 Intel 2140 @ 1.6GHz with 1015 MB RAM. Connected to internet via a Netgear WPN111 USB wireless dongle to a NTLworld.modem. I have been monitoring the internet connection and no time this morning has it dropped out for any visible length of time, yet my radarbox performance is back to the level of June/July 2007 :-(

[Allocator]

I just tried copying the contents of my SBS1.sqb file (16,350 entires) into Radarbox. The actual upload seemed very quick but then it "hung" with the screen not updated at all. I selected refresh and Radarbox froze. I did this without radarbox connected to look for anything either local or network and with sharing also off.  When I reloaded radarbox my database had only loaded up 9,954 of the 16,350 entries in the basestation.sqb. Any ideas why this might be and why my PC should freeze doing such a basic action?

Roadrunner,

Try the import again, and when RadarBox appears to hang, just walk away from it for half an hour or so - don't hit refresh.  I've seen this "import freeze" before, and when I was trying it with beta 1.4, I was actually emailing the bug report in to AirNav and when I went back to the PC, it had sorted itself out!

Also, when I look at my BaseStation.sqb file using Reporter, I notice that I have quite a few unpopulated aircraft - Mode S and country fields only.  In fact looking now, I see that I have 11165 records in BaseStation.sql, but if I filter the ones without type out, that only leaves me 9056.  When I imported my sqb file into RadarBox, I think that I got around 6000 "good" records so I'm guessing that some of the less complete records have been ignored.  My imported records cover the whole time that I've had my SBS-1 - July 2008 - so I'm fairly confident that I have all the good records.

I can't be bothered to open BaseStation.sqb in SQLite Maestro, export all the records manually and then import them manually into MyLog.db3.  However, this is a path you might like to investigate to see just what is being left out by th import.

My MyLog.db3 on my main PC now holds 6276 aircraft and I don't know how many there are on the non-internet laptop I run.  I sometimes copy the biggest database to the other machine, but I'm not really that fanatic about the records.  I just like to see if I've worked an aircraft before and when I first saw it.

As for your internet connection, I only occasionally get a red light on my modem, but I know that the connection "glitches" quite often.  I'm sure that AirNav will make RadarBox less sensitive to internet drop-outs at the next release.

Edit: In fact on the laptop, I had 6920 records in BaseStation.sqb and some 6000 imported successfully and now I have 6681 in the laptop MyLog database.

[Roadrunner]

OK thanks Allocator.

I know I have quite a few incomplete records but not 6,000. Will do as you say and see what happens. Another interesting thing happened after I had reloaded RB this morning, with everything set to new (eg no photos) . I set for 1 photo and had Network connected - all the network flights started immediately collecting photos bu My flights did not do so until I had disconnected and reconnected the Network - then they also started data gathering !

[DaveR]

I tried an import of the SBS Basestation file yesterday and all seemed to be well however I've just done some looking through MyLog and some of the routes are now well out. According to MyLog the local police heli just did a route from Amsterdam Schipol to the local airport. That must of been some police chase or perhaps they had run out of donuts!

I had a taken a backup of the RB files beforehand just in case so now have deleted the changed file and copied these back. Might be worh checking before you collect too much data

[Allocator]

I've just imported my main PC BaseStation.sqb into the PC Mylog - I've got database files all over the place!

MyLog = 6726 records

BaseStation = 11165 records

After import, MyLog  = 11050 records

As I've been messing about with the databases on different computers, there must have been loads of duplicates here, hence the final MyLog figure.

And yes, RadarBox did freeze during the sqb import, requiring a RadarBox shutdown and restart.  I'm guessing that the freeze is happening at the end of the import, but I've not done any comparisons to check this.

[Allocator]

I tried an import of the SBS Basestation file yesterday and all seemed to be well however I've just done some looking through MyLog and some of the routes are now well out. According to MyLog the local police heli just did a route from Amsterdam Schipol to the local airport.

I presume that you are talking about the route files in the RadarBox database, as BaseStation doesn't have any route information?

The route shown in RadarBox is related to the flight number detected.  The Police callsign must have matched a route somehow :-)

[tarbat]

I tried an import of the SBS Basestation file yesterday and all seemed to be well however I've just done some looking through MyLog and some of the routes are now well out. According to MyLog the local police heli just did a route from Amsterdam Schipol to the local airport. That must of been some police chase or perhaps they had run out of donuts!

Yes, same problem here.  Just imported my basestation.sqb, and I'm seeing aircraft with strange routes in MyLog:



There is no matching route for TESTID02 in the routes table.



These are the records in Basestation.sqb:



Also, the start and end times are swapped.

[Roadrunner]

May sound like a daft question but when importing data from an external .sqb file, does the on board database just look on the PC to see if the aircraft is already in MyLog, or does it also check to see if it is in tha AirNav master database and only if both match (not in MyLog but in Master db) then adds it to your MyLog data?

[Roadrunner]

AirNav can you please post details of what will be accepted as a complete record and what is likely to be ignored when importing data from .sqb files.

If I knew what RB is looking for as a minimum then I would be able to work out which records I need to update in the import file before trying again.

Allocator I walked away for 40 minutes (lunch) and when I returned the screen was still shwoing as loading. However I closed the program and opened again and had the same total as from the previous import (which I had cleared before trying again). It would appear therefor that my PC hangs up when doing an import but does actually do the job but does not seem to close properly.......

[b744]

If it helps I have a fairly full sbs sqb file (60,000+) so what I do is open this using sqlspy, then delete some fields such as long aircraft name,registered owner and serial no and then import.Takes about 2mins and dosent interfere with any other data but do back up prior to trying this.
You also edit using an sql program but allocators method is just as easy and works well.

For the record having seen some posts, I've had 1.4 working since it came out on a vista laptop and have had no problems at all so well done Airnav.
My only request (threadcreep) is asking (again) for an "interested"tag that could be used in conjunction with alerts etc Those with SBS will know exactly what I mean. Apart from that the RB is head and shoulders above any other box I may have !!

Thanks

[Roadrunner]

Can I ask a couple of questions regarding alerts in v1.4 ?

Can I select more than one type of alert at a time (eg. have Mode-S and Aircraft alerts on at the same time ?, likewise with Type of alert can I have sound and send email working together?

Finally how does one save the alerts set up? Each time I exit from RB I seem to loose my alrts set up.

[AirNav Support]

Yes you can hae mutiple alerts such as email and sound.

The details should be saved to your registry. I suspect you are using Vista which has getting upset?

[Roadrunner]

Yes you can hae mutiple alerts such as email and sound.

The details should be saved to your registry. I suspect you are using Vista which has getting upset?

Yes I have Vista - so what is the cure ?

[AirNav Support]

Are you running with admin rights? Sounds like a rights issue.

Vista is very fussy about security and hence a real pain when it comes to issues like these.