Current status of Active Display

[technodevotee]

I have been trying out different software packages to auto update my basestation.sqb and the nearest I have got to a working solution is ADLite but it keeps giving an exception as reported by other users on this board. So I tried to get hold of a trial version of AD Premium to see if the problem is only with ADLite but did not get a reply from Gatwick Aviation Society.

There also seem to be issues with the website at the moment as I either get no response or the IIS welcome logo when trying to access links to it.

I wondered if anyone had any idea what is happening there.

[Anmer]

Welcome.

The person who developed and supported AD Lite (free) and AD (licensed), Gary Jones, sadly died a year or so ago.  Since then there has been no further development or proper support for these products.  Some have tried but the code is not accessible.

Rumour has it that the annual income for AD can justify paying for support but no one seems to be interested in pursuing this option.

Unless something changes, it looks like AD may slowly expire.  If I had an AD licence I'd think twice about renewing my annual premium.

Sadly this is typical of "enthusiast" software products that rely on one person.  Flight Display, which was free, suffered a similar fate when the developer had to consider his family commitments.

I can think of another product that may be at risk.

[technodevotee]

Thanks Anmer.

I have been visiting this forum on and off and have to say that it has been extremely helpful.

Initially I got a dongle to feed FR for the membership but then I realised that if I bought another dongle, I could use it with adsbscope on my laptop when out and about which removed the need for a mobile internet connection. But despite having got hold of a fairly recent database and extracted the data from it into a format suitable for adsbscope, I still had in excess of 700 unknown airframes.

So now I'm using VRS with MR-Dump1090 and have been looking for a method of auto populating the database. I've tried out most of the software available with varying degrees of success. Apart from the fact that some of it isn't compatible with Windows Server 2008 R2, my main problem has been the age and lack of support or development for some of the software.

Initially, although I've been unable to get Basestation to work with Dump1090, AD Lite WAS working for anything up to 10 minutes at a time which helped to fill in some of the blanks but all of a sudden, without knowingly making any changes, it now only works for between 1 and 10 seconds before throwing up unhandled exceptions.

Any input would be welcome.

[Anmer]

Any input would be welcome.

Maybe someone else can help.

Which other aircraft data solutions have you tried?

[IanH]

PBLink (part of the PlaneBase set of programs) is what I use for updating BaseStation.sqb now the AD Lite isn't so reliable. PBLink also seems less resource-hungry.

I can't get on with the parent PlaneBase program - it doesn't seem to work the way my brain does  - but it downloads the databse updates which PBLink then uses to update BaseStation.sqb.

You need to register for the program http://planebase.biz/pblink.

Give it a try.

[Bethsalem]

I use dbpop which is a 30 pounds sterling a year database updater.

The support from Mark who produces dbpop is excellent. Well worth the annual subscription.

I also use Planebase 3 which is a free product, with a once a year appeal for donations. It too has excellent support and is a very good product.

[boro]

I have dbpop and I agree the service and support from Mark is excellent.

I also use AD, it would be a shame if the product support for it does dry up.

I also have Planebase3 which is a good product but I also find the parent Planebase program has a lot of 'bells and whistles' on it which I wouldn't use, or more probably can't get my head around!!

Peter

[technodevotee]

Thanks for the recommendations guys.

I registered for and installed planebase on my server because other people had said that pblink was good but the programs refuse to start and throw an error every time. It may work on one of my workstations or laptops but I really wanted it on my server because it is always on and 'listening' for planes.

I tried planeplotter but couldn't get on with it.

I tried BaseStation but can't get it to work with dump1090 & fr24feed - it seems to take data in from dump1090 but doesn't show or log any planes.

I read up on DBpop but discounted it as from what I read it seemed to require a working copy of BaseStation. This may not be the case however.

Backtracking to the subject of AD, I have noticed that a number of ICAO24 codes logged by VRS and adsbScope are not recognised on the Gatwick Aviation Society database even when entered manually. I wonder if that means the database is being updated so often now either? Another reason to be wary of shelling out for the full version of AD?

I haven't had a chance to look them up on airframes.org yet.

I tried ModeSMixer and ModeSDeco last night and actually saw planes in BaseStation for the first time but still cant to find a way round the problem with AD Lite - it either hangs or keeps throwing unhandled exceptions.

The other problem is going to be getting fr24feed to work with ModeSxxxx in the mix!

[IanH]

Edit: just re-read earlier posts - the fact the AD Lite was working indicates that it is not a 32bit/64bit problem!!


Make sure that you are running the correct version of AD Lite. There are separate versions for 32 bit and 64 bit Windows - that's caught a few of us out.

I've just set it up to run on a 32 bit Win7 test box and it's working fine - everything identifies so far but nothing very recent yet.

[technodevotee]

Thanks for trying it out and letting me know.

I saw there were 2 versions and have so far been trying the 64bit version on my 64bit PCs. One is Windows Server 2008 R2 and the other is Windows 10.

But who knows, maybe there is an issue in the 64bit version which is not in the 32bit version so I've just downloaded the 32bit version and will try it on one of my 32bit Windows 7 pcs. I'll post back with the results.

[IanH]

And another problem as I recall with ADLite was that it checks to see if BaseStation is running in the background.

Just checked with BS not running, AD Lite throws an exception error, then loads but will not run.

AD Pro is reported to run without needing BS to be running but given the lack of support, not sure I would be going that route.

[technodevotee]

Yes, I noticed that too. Unfortunately, I have exactly the same problem with my 32bit Windows 7 PC.

I installed and configured my new best friend, modeSMixer2, to translate data coming from MR-DUMP1090 on my server (port 30002) to BaseStation format locally (port 10001) and BaseStation worked instantly.

I then installed AD Lite accepting the default settings (default database location and 127.0.0.1:30003).

It saw the data coming in and added details for the empty fields in 4 flights then threw the unhandled exception.

[IanH]

I've just done exactly the same to check. Dongle feeding modesmixer2, output sbs10001 data on port 10001 to BS. AD Lite working fine.

Can you check the MD5 hashes of your versions of AD Lite.

for example using one of:
http://www.pc-tools.net/win32/md5sums/ http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/hash_my_files.html

Mine are as shown below. If not the same, there could be corrupt files.

[Attachment deleted by Admin to save file space]

[technodevotee]

Well, I'll be darned! I've got it working on the 32bit Windows 7 PC.

I hadn't noticed the output setting for messages on port 30003 in the modeSMixer batch file and when I removed that and restarted it, AD lite started working.

It has been running for nearly an hour now without any problem.

Now I know the configuration I need, all (!) I need to do is reconfigure the Windows Server 2008 R2 machine and I should have a brand new uncle by the name of Bob.

What still puzzles me is how it ever worked and why it suddenly stopped.

Thanks for the help folks.

[IanH]

So AD Lite was getting message from two sources on port 30003!

No wonder it was confused - well spotted.

Asking you to show the modesmixer command line might have been my next request but no need now.