Installation problems

[Uwe Fechner]

Hello,

some people reported installation problems with FreeKiteSim.

I can report that FreeKiteSim is working fine if you use the
following library versions:

In [1]: import numpy

In [2]: numpy.__version__
Out[2]: '1.8.1'

In [3]: import scipy

In [4]: scipy.__version__
Out[4]: '0.14.0'

In [5]: import matplotlib

In [7]: matplotlib.__version__
Out[7]: '1.3.1'

In [8]: import pandas

In [9]: pandas.__version__
Out[9]: '0.14.1'

In [10]: import numba

In [11]: numba.__version__
Out[11]: '0.11.1'

You can install a specific version with pip, using the following syntax:

sudo pip install -U numpy=="1.8.1"

The correct version of numpy must be installed BEFORE installing
any of the other packages.

For testing the installation, run:

cd ~/00PythonSoftware/FreeKiteSim
python linalg_3d.py

This should give an output similar to:

time for numba norm  [µs]:    0.410795211792
time for linalg norm [µs]:    8.26351642609
time for cgkit norm  [µs]:    0.414800643921
speedup of norm with numba:  20.1159024956

time for numba dot [µs]:       0.493502616882
time for numpy dot [µs]:       0.683116912842
time for cgkit dot  [µs]:      0.564193725586
speedup of dot with numba:     1.38422145997

time for numba cross [µs]:     1.6932964325
time for numpy cross [µs]:     7.57911205292
speedup of cross with numba:   4.47595111374

time for azimuth_east [µs]:    0.42359828949
time for calc_alpha [µs]:      2.11288928986
time for numba normalize [µs]: 0.933694839478
time for numpy normalize [µs]: 10.8119010925


Best regards:

Uwe

[Jelte van Til]

Hello, my name is Jelte van Til. I am an. MSc. student in Mechanical Engineering at the TU Delft. After completing a BSc. in Applied Physics I decided to switch to mechanical engineering and participated in a bridging minor. At the moment I am doing an internship at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil, working dynamic modelling of kites at the kite control department UFSCkite.

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[Jelte van Til]

Thanks Uwe for your suggestions. There are still some errors / questions arising during the installation:

Numba was installed - however, the error upon import and checking version in python remained. Maybe it could be due to the following:

1. Numpy was installed to your version (1.8.1) sucessfully, and python reported the correct version. However after installing the remaining packages in INSTALL_01.txt, python reported a different version: 1.9.0. We thought reinstalling numpy at that point to the correct version would not be a good idea.

2. We found a different scipy version (after having installed numpy - this was done automatically?):

In [4]: scipy.__version__
Out[4]: '0.9.0'

However, an attempt at installing the correct version of scipy, with

sudo pip install -U scipy=="0.14.0"

ended in an error. Therefore I left the default version: 0.9.0. Could this have caused further errors?

3. We were not able to install matplotlib. In the error it was suggested to install 'distribute'. After doing so, matplotlib was installed successfully. However could the installation of 'distribute' have caused other trouble?

4. In INSTALL_02.txt no option is given to choose a numba version. The default version (latest) is different from 0.11.1. Should this be specified somehow? It seems to be installed with a 'git' command - so how should the version be specified in this case?

Thanks in advance for your reply. Kind regards.

[Uwe Fechner]

Dear Jelle,

I tried a fresh installation on a new virtual machine and
updated the installation instructions at https://bitbucket.org/ufechner/freekitesim .

There were a number of problems:
The main problem is, that some programs get upgraded or downgraded when installing other programs.

Therefore the installation order has to be correct, and sometimes you have to install first a new version
and than an old version.

In addition I added the installation instructions for the Assimulo solver suite, that is needed, too.

I think that SciPy is currently not needed.

I hope that we will have an easy-to-use installation script within a few weeks.

Best regards:

Uwe

[Jelte van Til]

Hello Uwe,

Thanks very much for your help. We managed to fly the kite on my colleague's machine!

Kind regards,

Jelte

[Uwe Fechner]

Correction:

SciPy IS needed for the dynamic simulation.

Check the version of pip:
pip --version
Expected output:
pip 1.5.1 from /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (python 2.7)

If not done already, install the dependencies:

sudo apt-get install gfortran
sudo apt-get install libblas-dev liblapack-dev

Install SciPy:
sudo pip install scipy=="0.14.0"

Regards:

Uwe

[Jelte van Til]

For some reason the simulator doesn't read my joystick. The following error keeps appearing:

jelte@jelte-MacBook:~/00PythonSoftware/FreeKiteSim$ ./kitesim.sh
nohup: appending output to `nohup.out'
Number of joysticks / pads found:  1
Joystick name:  USB Gamepad
No known joystick type found!
m_k:  0.2
MODEL:  KPS4

As a consequence, the simulator starts fine, but I cannot control the kite, it slowly starts turning after a while and crashes into the ground (what would happen if you do not apply any input, I suppose).

I have the correct versions of pip, numpy, scipy, pandas, matplotlib and numba installed, following your last instruction. Could it be that I need to install additional drivers?

[Uwe Fechner]

Hi Jelle,

if you want to use a different joystick than the "Logitech Logitech Extreme 3D"
or the "'Logitech Logitech Cordless RumblePad 2'", then you have to modify
the file joy_pad.py.

For testing just run:
python joy_pad.py

from the command line. It must print the set values for the winch speed and the
steering for 25 seconds. They must be between -1.0 and +1.0.

Best regards:

Uwe

[Ahmad Hably]

I have a naive question. Can we install this simulator on a mac ox?

[Uwe Fechner]

Dear Ahmad,

currently this is untested and probably not so easy.
Jan is currently writing an installer, that is based on the conda package manager
(see: http://conda.pydata.org/docs/ )

In principle conda should also work on mac ox, but it would need some extra work
to get it working.

Best regards:

Uwe

[Jelte van Til]

Hi Ahmad, 

I would suggest installing Ubuntu parallel to your OS system. Via the ubuntu site you can get the correct version for free - you just need to create an extra partition using your disk utility to install Ubuntu alongside your mac. See for versions below, and install instructions:

http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/releases/12.04/release/

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MactelSupportTeam/AppleIntelInstallation

Please let me know if you have more questions on this.

Kind regards,

Jelte