Great idea adding an elevation calculation. I do it in my head with varying accuracy because it's a great experience for the new to near space to see the balloon at 100,000 feet.

On Jul 10, 2017 2:04 PM, "Mark Conner mconner1@... [GPSL]" <GPSL-noreply@...> wrote:

Jerry,

I'm with you that the existing programs do only part of the job.  I still use APRSPlus, not only due to inertia, but because it has offline maps and the display can be configured to give essential info right on the map display.  When I have cell coverage, I also use aprs.fi but hate to rely on that.

Some things I find handy that you might consider:

• Last several packets (parsed or raw) for a particular callsign or wildcard
  
• Balloon course in addition to alt/speed
  
• Dead reckoning of current position (updated near real time like aprs.fi) based on last position and course/speed
  
• Real-time (1 Hz) display of vehicle position (perhaps all moving APRS stations) and course indicator
  
• I-gate packets received on RF to APRS-IS 
  
• I-gate position reports of chase vehicle (and, ideally, transmit on RF at intervals)
  
• Limit display to callsigns filtered by (multiple) wildcards
  

New features I don't have that I'd like:

• Audible alert for burst detection
  
• Compute balloon's angle above horizon from chase vehicle (can probably assume flat earth) to aid in visual search
  

Suggestions for current interface:

• Put distance to balloon under compass (or maybe inside balloon icon)
  

Looking forward to your progress on this!

73 de Mark N9XTN

On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 1:11 PM, Jerry Gable jerrygable@... [GPSL] <GPSL-noreply@...> wrote:

[Attachment(s) from Jerry Gable included below]

Since GPSL I have been thinking about chase software.  I haven't found any that does what I think it should.  I have looked at http://flighttrack.surfingsatellites.org/ but that is about the only one I know about.  I am looking for one that can be used offline in those bad reception areas balloons like to find.

I decided to start looking at what it would take to write one and have started playing with writing my own.  I have played with the pieces and think I have the stuff to pull this off.  The screenshot below is what I have running now.  The numbers on the right for the balloon are all test but the parser is working and mapping position reports to the map.

The question is: Is anyone else interested?  If I do it just for myself I'm not convinced it is worth the effort.

Here are my goals for the tool.

• Must work offline. 
  
• Maps must be able to be cached.
• Must be able to deal with internet loss as well as PC restarts
  
• Show my location and the balloon being chased.
• decode GPS NEMA data for my location
• Allow multiple trackers to provide data from the balloon (failure backup and faster update times)
  
• Simple interface to allow use in moving cars (not driver)
  
• Show what the balloon is currently doing
  
• Receive APRS from a radio (KISS mode) and APRS-IS.
• Show pre-flight prediction
• Update prediction with real time data from the balloon
• Run on windows laptop. (Tools allow for Apple laptop & linux builds as well)
  

So am I doing this for myself or is there interest in this from you?  If yes, what would you like to see in it?

 

Jerry Gable
Balloon Flight Prediction tools
http://www.s3research.com