PlanePlotte 6.7.6.9 Released

[Triple7]

From Bev:

PlanePlotter version 6.7.6.9 is on the web site now.
http:www.planeplotter.com#download
 
---Usual boilerplate---
Updates are free to registered users.
 
You may need to exercise your browser Refresh function to force it to show you the new version of the PlanePlotter web page. If you post a message complaining that the web page is still pointing to an earlier version, you pay a forfeit - unless I forgot to update the web page, in which case I pay a forfeit!
 
You can install the new version over the old one but you *must* close/exit PlanePlotter before installing the new one. Nic's installer will warn you if PlanePlotter is still running when you try to install the new version. Your settings from the previous installation will be preserved.
 
If you have a version-specific firewall or security system, you may have to reassure it that the new version is permitted to access the Internet. Be aware that increasingly, security systems treat any new file as a threat without any justification except that it is new. Please don't write to me about it; write to your security system provider and ask them to make their program smarter.
-----------------------
 
The following are the changes since the last published version 6.7.3.9

done in 6.7.4.1
initialise VDL2 pointer

done in 6.7.4.2
add accelerator keys "H" (Halt processing) and "K" (Kontinue processing)

done in 6.7.4.3
handle GS with non-standard port numbers
Alt-1/2/3 toggles OpenIP overlays

done in 6.7.4.4
accept the port number in the GS list - may help CG-NAT GS
prevent reverse orthomorphic projection from producing zero height or width map boundaries

done in 6.7.4.5
prevent excessive map zoom out

done in 6.7.4.6
update SBS receiver mode

done in 6.7.4.7
accept BaseStation MSG format messages from dumpHFDL

done in 6.7.4.8
View..Messages shows messages from dumpHFDL

done in 6.7.4.9
protect reentrancy in Internet check

done in 6.7.5.1
new version of Inmarsat ephemerides

done in 6.7.5.2
QNH : when nearest METAR is out of date (>2h) search next nearest airports up to max of five or 100nm

done in 6.7.5.3
new "Options..Message view" - select which message inputs are displayed in the message window

done in 6.7.5.4
provision to read "HF Selcal to Registration" definition file into SQB field UserString3
look up and display Registration from HF Selcal

done in 6.7.5.5
add option to accept unpaired Mode-S positions within 5 minutes of a previous position report

done in 6.7.5.6
User defined Selcal UserString (default 3)
handle 32 Selcal tones instead of original 16 tones

done in 6.7.5.7
handle changed Celetrak default TLE format

done in 6.7.5.8
copy (= left click) and paste (= right click) function in View.Messages for HF Selcals
display Mode3A/3S history graph function ('T')
use screen centre for QNH, not outline centre if the chart/outline is displaced.
new Options..Alert..TCAS..Ignore "no data" TCAS

done in 6.7.5.9
correct time zone error in QNH retrieval

done in 6.7.6.1
make doubly sure that isolated first position reports cannot be shared
prevent isolated first position reports from hypersharing
prevent positions received by hypersharing from seeding isolated subsequent position calculations

done in 6.7.6.2
restrict seed positions for CPR2 to type 6

done in 6.7.6.3
revise precedence of sharable condition

done in 6.7.6.4
separate share enables and potentially ambiguous CPR solutions

done in 6.7.6.5
initialize ambiguous flag for all message types

done in 6.7.6.6
restrict UDP and shared data from seeding CPR positions

done in 6.7.6.7
restore corrupt TCAS enable flag

done in 6.7.6.8
suspend positions from MV payloads in DF16 (frequently suspect
check CPR coordinate change is cognate with the time interval

done in 6.7.6.9
measure CPR position change more precisely
shared reports not tagged as ambiguous - prevented by foreign share code from sharing and seeding position
limit CPR decodes to real coordinates

Regards
Bev
COAA


Some additional comments from Dan Henry:

Hi all,

As you can see, Bev has been very busy.

For those not familiar with some of the acronyms, all the references to CPR stand for Compact Position Reporting.  Those are all PP software tweaks in how PP actually decodes full ads-b DF 17 broadcast positions.  They are related to the previous "isolated Position reports" feature, which has been completely overhauled.

There were several other significant changes designed to get rid of other bad positions.  The DF16 reference is how aircraft chatter back and forth with ACAS/TCAS.  That's part of the TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System?) feature.  It turns out that many of those DF16 positions PP has always used are very unreliable.  PP now ignores them completely for position, but still of course does the TCAS alerts when needed.  Those alerts are still valid.

The hypersharing changes are designed to stop people from sharing bad positions directly, that then might end up getting uploaded by the person that received that bad position from another person.  Those used to sneak through.

There were also several changes for "sanity checks" on positions themselves.  Because of the incredible number of messages, PP would occasionally decode a message it thought was valid (with correct CRC), but actually decoded with completely invalid lat/lon positions.  Those are now completely ignored so you won't see them locally, and they will not possibly get uploaded to the server.

So, let's just say that there are a lot of good updates that improve position quality in many different areas.

As a reminder, PP is always a bit experimental.  While it has been heavily tested, having more people run this new version will probably identify at least one thing that might need to be tweaked.

Thanks Bev for all the work on this!

Regards,
-Dan

Tim