Re: [RoverLog] Digest for roverlog@googlegroups.com - 4 updates in 2 topics

[Bill Schwantes]

Hi Tom and other commenters,

Thanks for the actionable info.

RoverLog latest version seems to work OK running on Windows 10.  I have not exercised all functionality but logging functions work as they did before on W7.

I did a test with GPS yesterday while making a short 1.5 hour trip from Santa Fe to Albuquerque New Mexico. The trip covered about 70 miles.  A Garmin handheld GPS was connected to my logging laptop computer via serial to USB converter. I didn't use any RoverLog functionality except for determining  position

The good new is that the main logging window displayed the correct 6 digit grid square as displayed on the GPS and displayed changes whenever they occurred in near real time. That's an improvement over previous attempts where RoverLog would not display updated position.

There were seven ..... I'll call them disconnects where RoverLog displayed the red warning banner stating there was invalid GPS data and interrupted the GPS server position data and switched to manual input. There appeared to be three types of disconnects, characterized by the steps required to recover the correct functionality.

1) Three of the seven disconnects occurred when my laptop's power saving function caused the display screen to go dark.  This became predictable and occurred every time the laptop "went dark". When the display was revived by moving the mouse RoverLog displayed the last position shown before the display went off and switched modes to "Manual Input".  

This disconnect was recovered in all three cases by simply clicking the button "from GPS" whereupon RoverLog resumed automatically updated position information provided by the GPS.

I believe I can change the power saving selections of my laptop to preclude this type of disconnect.

2) A second type of disconnect occurs for no known reason. We're just rolling along and the chime alerts me to check the screen. Roverlog has displayed invalid GPS data and switches to manual position input mode.  This occurred four times.  One of those times the disconnect occurred while I was glancing at the screen while in motion; nothing else was going on. It just disconnected for no apparent reason.  The GPS module displayed correct position information on the lower half of that box, blinking about once a second and operating exactly the way it does when the main RL screen updates position information from the GPS. 

There were two recovery actions resulting from this type of disconnect;  One recovery was successful using the method described above: simply clicking the "from GPS button on the main RL screen.  The other disconnect required restarting the GPS server even though it appeared to be fully functional.

3) The third type of disconnect presented just like (2) above; no known reason.

Recovery was a bit more complicated.  When clicking the "from GPS button in the main display RoverLog immediately displayed the "invalid GPS data" warning and retained the Manual position input mode....... like it wouldn't even try to receive data from the GPS.  Restarting the GPS Server had no effect.  The only way I could recover GPS functionality was to stop RoverLog and restart the entire program.

One other observation:  An unsuccessful recovery attempt from a disconnect had two flavors differentiated by the timing of the warning banner. Three things could occur. a) one could take an action and it could cause a recovery, b)  one could take an action and the "from GPS" button would remain displayed for a couple of seconds then the warning banner would display saying "Invalid GPS data" then the position mode would switch to "manual input" and the recovery attempt would be unsuccessful.or c) Immediately following an action one would see the warning banner and the mode would not switch to "from GPS".  In every case the behavior exhibited by (c) required complete RoverLog shutdown and re-start.

Summary:  GPS position functionality is improved but is not reliable enough to be considered automatic.  GPS functionality needs to be completely stable with zero disconnects/interruptions. This issue will become critical if ARRL adopts distance based scoring using 6 digit grid information, as they have proposed for future UHF contests.

Please let me know how I can support troubleshooting/debugging.

73 Bill

W7QQ DM75ao

On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 5:32 AM, <rove...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

rove...@googlegroups.com

Google Groups

Topic digest
View all topics

• RoverLog Questions - 1 Update
• VHF Supercheck partial and Prefill Databases - 3 Updates

RoverLog Questions

Tom Mayo <tma...@gmail.com>: May 09 10:53AM -0400 Hi Bill,   I have not tried RoverLog with Windows 10. I'd love to hear others' experiences.   RoverLog's Rig Server communicates with a rig via serial port or serial port emulation. Many embedded console solutions use a serial terminal emulation over USB, so this might work.   You can run multiple RoverLog Rig Servers, each one connected to a different rig. Only one starts automatically, but you could script starting multiple ones. RoverLog's main program will communicate with each Rig Server via a different IP port that you specify. RoverLog's main program keeps track of rigs by band. Multiple bands could use the same rig as set up in the .ini file.   Server IP ports are specified by you. There are no hard and fast rules on what to pick, but these port numbers are IP ports, so you should stay away from low numbers and other well-known port numbers. I've established a convention of using numbers over 32,000, which should work in almost all cases.   The Rig ID hex value is only used for Icom radios. Consult your Icom manual for what to use.   The RoverLog manual gives some detailed examples on how to set up the IF frequency. Zero is a valid option as you describe.   As for polling frequency, I love how the Icom radios work---if you tune the knob, the information gets sent immediately. Other radios could be polled every second probably without issues. The issue would be if you logged a contact less than a second after tuning the radio and the contact got logged on the wrong band. I can't see how that would happen.   I sent some other e-mails on the callsign databases. See if that helps.   Regards, Tom, N1MU

Back to top

VHF Supercheck partial and Prefill Databases

Tom Mayo <tma...@gmail.com>: May 09 08:56AM -0400 Are you talking about RoverLog's .lup and .mk databases?   Some are distributed with RoverLog's install and I have a couple more on the website.

Tom Mayo <tma...@gmail.com>: May 09 08:58AM -0400 Here is a link to a database of place names and zip codes. Let me know what else you are looking for.   http://roverlog.2ub.org/zip.mk

Tom Mayo <tma...@gmail.com>: May 09 08:59AM -0400 Look for pij.lup and pij.mk that came with the RoverLog install file which are databases based on VE2PIJ's database of stations.

Back to top

You received this digest because you're subscribed to updates for this group. You can change your settings on the group membership page. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it send an email to roverlog+u...@googlegroups.com.

[Tom Mayo]

Bill,

Thank you for providing this detail. I will dig into this. In the meantime, I would suggest the Alt-U debug Window I put in to the software to gather extra info on these issues. 

Thanks again,

Tom

Sent from my iPhone

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RoverLog" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to roverlog+u...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to rove...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/roverlog/CAFyNi865V-1-FEjcucZvSFiguejoJ7K%3D9cuZDh%2BpCadLfb%3D8XA%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Tom Mayo]

After reading this again, I'll say a couple of things.  It's possible that there is a mismatch between the NMEA data the GPS receiver is putting out and the parsing used by RoverLog's GPS module.  If I can get data from the Alt-U window from the GPS module (which should show the raw string from the GPS), it might help.  Also, if I can get debug output from the GPS module that shows what it sent to the main RoverLog program that would probably help.  I'm going to go look at the source code starting at what would cause the switch to manual and then backtracking to what could cause that...

[Tom Mayo]

I'll also say, you can use the Alt-Q communications status screen to provide some information and try some debugging actions.  O=open, C=close, B=blacklist, U=unblacklist.

If you can try some of these when it is stuck and let me know if anything works, that would help.