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Has work started in earnest to fix the Radarbox bugs?

Started by Sun Worshipper, March 28, 2012, 09:10:11 AM

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Sun Worshipper

I think a reasonable amount of time has passed since Ship Trax launched and now is the time to ask this question.

Does anyone know if Air Nav are honouring their commitment to sort out the bugs on radarbox?  If so, which are the ones they are addressing first?

Anmer

There is a list of reported bugs but it doesn't have any dates or priority scores:

http://www.airnavsystems.com/bugs/index.php?project=2&do=index

It may be incomplete and only one item is reported as being worked on.

If it were my business, I'd be keen to demonstrate to the RadarBox community that "work never stops" at AirNav and would be working hard to get a new release out ASAP. 

Apart from honouring past commitments, there's now much more competition with cheaper receivers, free realtime aircraft tracking websites and phone apps and, dare I say it, PlanePlotter's Mlat and Beamfinder.  Oh, and the main competitor has just launched a new receiver.
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Bethsalem

This is just my personal opinion, as I've no hard evidence, but I think Airnav's given up on the current Radarbox (perhaps due to the hardware's inability to provide the correct raw data for mlat?) and are putting their resources into its successor. Not that they'll ever admit that to us, the buying public.

I think there will only be community led improvements to the original box, such as dbpop, which aims at providing an accurate database.

So, rather than expect a major firmware update, I think we're going to be presented with a new box.

Anmer

Quote from: Bethsalem on March 28, 2012, 10:03:08 AM
So, rather than expect a major firmware update, I think we're going to be presented with a new box.

You could be right as competitor receivers have moved ahead, such as The Beast and now the SBS-3.

The RadarBox can't provide quality data for PlanePlotter's Mlat let alone Beamfinder Plus and isn't as "sensitive" as the SBS-3 and doesn't include any radio functionality.

But even if a new RadarBox is on the way (the current model is being heavily discounted and given away to Russians) the outstanding software issues need to be addressed. 

Let's hope AirNav will live up to its promise to address the software issues once ShipTrax was released?
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viking9

Maybe Airnav is hoping that the Russians will be grateful enough for the freebies to come up with the required bug fixes.  :)
Tom

Anmer

 ;D ;D ;D

I'd like to see AirNav enforce it's 24x7 feeder agreement and recover the free RadarBoxes when the Russians disappear.   ;)
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Bethsalem

 :)"Een Russia ve hav no vord for '24x7 feeder agreement'" :)

Anmer

I'm beginning to think AirNav can't afford a new RadarBox release.

ShipTrax took over three years to come to market and my guess is sales are sluggish and new Mode-S receivers are taking a bigger share of the market.

Can AirNav afford the development cost of a new software release or, more importantly, a new receiver to compete with the Beast and SBS-3?

"AirNav

We're now a good six weeks on from the commercial release of ShipTrax, so I was wondering what progress has been made in respect of the assurances received, that we would see a switch in emphasis to address the outstanding issues with the RadarBox software, and development of new features, once ShipTrax hit the shelves?

So far it's all gone very quiet.

I notice the offer put forward of providing 50 free boxes to increase network covereage, and whilst I welcome this in part, it will only benefit part of the current customer base that use the network.

I'm sure the existing customers would rather see a concerted effort in fixing known problems, and/or expanding the current capabilities of the software?

I'd hate to think that the exercise of providing these free boxes could in any way detract from other priorities? After all, surely it's only a case of despatching the boxes, and the project will "take care of itself"?

Whilst I appreciate that you're not in the business of quoting time scales for RadarBox development, it would be nice to be kept informed of what's being worked on now that we've overcome the ShipTrax obstacle?"


"Rest assured the Dev team is busy at the moment with RadarBox work and other projects. There is a lot in the pipeline and things are moving along.

The 50 boxes has no affect whatsoever with development of other projects. Once we have news and start beta testing fixes we will announce on the forum."


http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=6870.msg78087#msg78087
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Sun Worshipper

At least we know Air Nav employees can cut and paste! :D

Anmer

According to an unofficial AirNav spokesman, apparently we're going to get a completely new version of RadarBox.  No idea when?

"If you go back over previous posts on the subject and the replies received from Airnav, they are completely rewriting the software as opposed to updating the current version."

http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=6909.msg78978#msg78978
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Bethsalem

"No idea when?"

Watch this space....getting dustier and dustier, with more and more cobwebs.

December 2009 last real update, so no breath holding anyone  ;)

Sun Worshipper

Quote from: Anmer on April 16, 2012, 10:38:48 AM
According to an unofficial AirNav spokesman, apparently we're going to get a completely new version of RadarBox.  No idea when?

"If you go back over previous posts on the subject and the replies received from Airnav, they are completely rewriting the software as opposed to updating the current version."

http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=6909.msg78978#msg78978

Are they completely rewriting the software for a new piece of hardware?

I hope not because that doesn't help the many who have the current hardware who would need to shell out again to Air Nav for a new box!

Anmer

Quote from: Sun Worshipper on April 16, 2012, 11:28:43 AM
I hope not because that doesn't help the many who have the current hardware who would need to shell out again to Air Nav for a new box!

But it might generate new sales and much needed revenue for AirNav.
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Anmer

Taking an optimistic view, maybe the "all-new RadarBox" software will work with the current receiver, will fix all bugs and deliver Mlat as promised years ago?
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