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Coolwind
Moderator
Italy
8957 Posts |
 Posted - 03/06/2011 : 01:45:13
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Hi everybody,
we are pleased to announce that the experimental (beta) version 2.3a is now available for download at
www.bware.it/LK8000/LK8000-23A-UPGRADE.ZIP
This is an UPGRADE, which means that you need a full 2.2 version already installed.
At the first run, please enter configuration and check polars, devices and airspace settings because they will be reset.
There are a lot of new things in this version, among which the long work by Kalman on airspaces.
Although there are still some things to change, probably, or to add, we feel airspaces are now much more easy to use and more practical. Furthermore, the new 2.4 nearest airspace pages is just easy to use.
For paragliders, and also for all pilots, we added configuration for pages (bottom bar and infopages) so now it is possible to choose what to "rotate" in menus, and what not to show.
All polars are now available as files, and can be viewed and changed. Thanks to Kuba, it is now possible to expand polars for gliders with flaps. It is explained inside the Example.plr file.
For GA (general aviation) a new color scheme for terrain will show obstacles at current altitude. It is very similar to what Garmin 1000 serie is showing. Not good for gliding, because obstacles do not consider loss of altitude during flight.
Devices are now configurable as ... "DISABLED". That's right. No more confusion if you don't use device B, which previously had to be configured the same as device A.
Although experimental, this version is supposed to be good for flight, being stable. At least, this is what we hope! However new airspaces and some internal fixes suggest that you dont use this version for your world record flights!
Please give us feedback to improve airspaces, keeping in mind our primary and most important target: to keep things easy and simple.
In next version 2.3b paragliders will find optimized routes.
They can find enhanced screen lock in 2.3a already.
Please read carefully the list of changes that follows.
This version is brought to you by the entire development team which is now made of me, Mat, Kalman, Richard, Kuba, Karim.
Happy testing
The dev team
Changes in LK8000 v2.3a
NEW
. New configuration for Polars (requires reconfiguring polar type!)
. Many new polars
. New FLAPS setting calculator , for extended polars
. New IMI ERIXX logger support, also for task declaration
. New configurable BottomBar.
System config menu 10 let you configure individually each bottombar stripe.
While rotating, only desired stripes will be shown.
Even if all bars are set off, NAV1 is shown.
Thermal mode will keep showing THR 0 bar.
. New configurable Infopages.
System config menu 10 let you configure individually each infopage, except traffic.
If all pages of a branch (for example, all 2.x pages) are OFF, then that branch will not be selected
during rotation.
Direct access to pages through custom keys is always possible, bypassing this configuration.
Traffic pages 4.x - when Flarm is detected - are always available. If you don't want traffic informations,
then please disable these traffic data being sent by flarm in its protocol, and save CPU.
. New Color scheme for GA: relative terrain.
This scheme will show red any terrain above current altitude.
Anything below, up to 500ft below, will be graded to yellow.
This scheme is NOT good for gliders, because it does not consider the loss of altitude while gliding.
It is intended to be used by general aviation mode, optionally activated by a button.
. New Info Status System indicators for :
Simulator mode
GPS device in use for fix
Software version
. New infobox Home Arrival altitude
. ------- New AIRSPACE handling ENGINE ----------
. NEW 2.4 nearest airspace page
. New airspace storage classes (CAirspace, CAirspaceCicrle, CAirspaceArea)
. New CAirspaceManager singleton class for managing airspace operations
. New openair parser based on the old one
. New airspace distance calculation algorithms
. New TMZ airspace class for handling TMZ zones separated from OTHER zones
. NOFLY/FLY airspaces introduced.
. NOFLY zones - works like the old airspaces. You are in a wrong position when you are inside a nofly zone.
Warning events based on this, so if you try to enter a nofly zone you get warnings to not do that.
. FLY zones - Zones you should be in to be safe. You are in a good position when you are inside a fly zone.
Warning event based on to remain in a fly zone, so if you try to leave it you get warnings to not do that.
Flying to an adjacent fly zone is permitted, in that case no warnings issued. (For ex. corridors beetween
different fly zones)
In the openair file the AF sentence defines a zone as fly, or you can change it from the UI.
. Current / predicted position
Predicted position of the aircraft calculated by lk. This calculation based on current mode (circling/cruise),
ground and vertical speed, and the configured warning time. This is the time before an airspace warning event
is estimated at which the system will warn the pilot. Warning messages based on predicted and current position
as well.
. Warning levels, warning messages
. Yellow warning:
Your current position near a warning situation. This means that you have a possibility to be in a wrong position
in the given warning time. (30sec by default). There are two types of yellow situation:
Predicted warning situation - your predicted posititon in a wrong zone (same as old airspaces case)
Near to a warning situation - You too close horizontally or vertically to a warning position.
(Too close comes from actual speed and nearest warning point distance and from the configured warning time)
. Red warning:
Your current position is wrong, you shouldn't be there because that position violates airspace rules.
(For example you enter a nofly zone, or you leave a fly zone)
. New airspace warning dialog
. Shows the reason of the message, warning level, name of airspace, horizontal and vertical distance, airspace
base and top altitude
. Dialog auto closes after a configured time automatically, or you can close it
. There is a possibility to acknowledge the given warning level for a configured time to not show up again.
. The old one still accessible under Info1/Analysis/Airspace/Warnings button
. Acknowledging
. Each airspace has a warning level and a corresponding ack level.
. Actual warning level calculated by LK based on distances, fly/nofly zones, etc.
. Ack level set by the user, by acknowledging warning messages.
. The warning message appears only if the warning level increases above the ack level. Lets see a few examples:
1.You are circling in a position where a no warning/yellow warning situation flipping. When a yellow warning
situation occurs a warning dialog appears. If you do not press the ack button then in every circle the new
warning dlg will appear beacuse warning level > ack level. But if you ack the yellow warning then the dialog
not shows up again in the yellow warning case for a configured time. If the ack time (120s) expires, then the
ack level goes back to zero, so the warning will appear again.
2.The same case if you are circling at a nofly zone border. Half circle inside the zone. This is a yellow/red
warning flipping. If you ack the red warning for a time, then you won't get a new warning message on every circle.
. Daily acknowledging - enable/disable an airspace
There is a possibility to disable an airspace (until lk restart). You can do that from airspace
details dialog (long click on map), pressing the Disable button. Disabling an airspace means that warning
dialog will never appear for that airspace, and it is not shown on the map as well.
. Warning dialog messages can be:
. "Predicted leaving FLY zone" : Current position inside, predicted position outside a flyzone (YELLOW)
. "Near leaving FLY zone" : Current position inside a flyzone, but you are too close to the border to leave it (YELLOW)
. "Leaving FLY zone" : You have just leaved the fly zone (RED)
. "Predicted entering NOFLY zone" : Current position outside, predicted position inside a nofly zone (YELLOW)
. "Near entering NOFLY zone" : Current position outside a flyzone, but you are too close to the border to enter it (YELLOW)
. "Entering NOFLY zone" : You have just entered the nofly zone (RED)
. New airspace info messages
. When leaving a nonfly zone
. When entering a (new)fly zone
. New UI features
. Long click on the map shows an extended airspace details dialog.
. In the type field FLY/NOFLY displayed
. There is a new button to set an airspace to FLY/NOFLY.
. Daily Ack changed to Enable/Disable
. Enable/Disable and Fly/Nofly buttons do not close the dialog automatically, and do not pop up a confirmation dialog
. The order of the airspaces sorted by top altitude. Lowest first.
. Airspace warning labels on map
. Can be disabled from config page2/Warnings
. Shows a red mark on the nearest posititon to a warning situation
. Shows airspace name, and the vertical distance to the border
. Vertical distance negative if airspace border above, positive if below your current altitude. (like in landables case)
. Label color means:
- Black - vertical distance ok, you are in good position vertically
- Red - vertical distance wrong against that nofly zone
- Orange - vartical distance wrong against that fly zone
. New infobox showing nearest vertical distance to an airspace (or to leave a fly zone)
. New infobox showing nearest horizontal distance to an airspace (or to leave a fly zone)
CHANGES
. Polars are now files inside _Polars folder, and can be viewed and edited.
. Extended polars are possible for use of FLAPS settings indicator. See Example.plr file in _Polars.
. Device configuration has type "DISABLED", no more confusion.
. Changes regarding airspaces:
. Drawing order of airspaces changed. They are draw from lowest top altitude first.
. Daily acked (now disabled) airspaces are not drawed on the map
. Infobox nearest airspace shows the horizontal distance to the nearest airspace (or to leave a fly zone)
. In airspace details dialog (long click on map) ACKDay button behaviour changed, now it shows a simple question to toggle actual ackday setting.
. Airspace ACK Day functionality changed to disabled/enabled
. Enable/Disable and Fly/Nofly buttons do not close the dialog automatically, and do not pop up a confirmation dialog
. Config page 2 reordered, some parameters moved under page accessible by pressing the "Warnings" button
. Paragliders screen unlock is valid by doubleclicking only on lower right screen corner.
Previously any position was good, leading to possible false unlocks during takeoffs.
BUG FIX
. Fix bug in 4.1 traffic page: using this page for a long time may lead to system locks. This is a critical fix.
. Fix AutoQNH problem. Takeoff wp was used in place of Home first!
Correct mode now is: look for home, if no home nearby, look for another known waypoint near 2km.
Do not consider TAKEOFF as a valid waypoint for QNH because it is itself assigned an altitude!
If no waypoints nearby, and no home, use terrain altitude if available.
. Fix a possible problem of UTF8 characters on very old devices, that may show as funny tokens appearing in place of text.
This was due to missing UTF8 support on some old operating system like Windows CE 3.0. The patch has been tested on
CE 3.0 Ipaq 3630.
. Fix cheap chinese PNA bugs, when system messages appear lk is crashing with exception 0xC000001C
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parapenT1sta
Pterodattilo
Canada
1806 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2011 : 01:49:18
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Great NEWS!
I have a new toy to test during my day off :) |
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Turbo
Pulcino
34 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2011 : 02:24:30
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| just as an advice: you might want to merge the hotfix branch (in your case v22) into the master branch unless you want to fix bugs over and over again... ;) |
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Coolwind
Moderator
Italy
8957 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2011 : 03:03:32
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| I fix bugs in the master, and apply them to the stable v22, using cherry-picks. Since only a small amount of fixes are needed in the 2.2, I think it is ok to do so. |
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Marco from Hangar 5
Pterodattilo
Netherlands
840 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2011 : 03:22:18
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practical note to the zip file.
I use to unzip the file over the existing installation, and then winrar comes back, replace this file with the new one?.. 'yes to all' and then I am done most of the time because the airspace files Maps and topology etc are not replaced if they are not changed in the new version(I know, not this time, I must be a little more carefull).
But today this did not work, because the EXE files are outside the LK8000 directory in the zip file. So I had to unzip these files seperately to get the 2.3a version working.
So next time, please keep the directory/file mapping in the zip file the same as it has to be on the SD card/PC, otherwise people may miss something. I guess I am not the only one doing it like that.
Quickly looked at the 2.3a version, good work on the airspace module! Good to see we can turn infopages/bottom stripes on/off.
You said in your post there is something special on polars for aircraft with flaps, but I wonder what it does, as that is not explained in the example.plr file.. Will it remind you to change flap settings? or display the best flap setting for current speed somewhere? If so, why also not add maximum speeds for flap settings (I sometimes set flaps too late back to cruise after a long climb).
Flying 150 with flaps +10 is a good way to loose height in a Mini :) (flaps should be at -4)
Beside these small remarks, of course.. Thanks for the good work!
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Marco
BU (PH-588)
Mini Nimbus HS7, s/n 039
http://www.zweef.nl/
Zweefvliegcentrum Noordkop, NETHERLANDS |
Edited by - Marco from Hangar 5 on 03/06/2011 04:06:33 |
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parapenT1sta
Pterodattilo
Canada
1806 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2011 : 04:23:43
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| A minor bug: scroll bar on the "Airspace Colours" is over the colors stripes (using PC at default resolution) |
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modellbobby
Aquilotto
323 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2011 : 09:49:44
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| It is well described in the example.plr. We could do many interesting things with flap/speed information. One would be displaying the correct Flap Setting for the current speed on the screen. |
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ybuqc
Pulcino
Canada
37 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2011 : 14:57:10
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| Very minor: Main Start Screen displays v2.2 but after (once SIM/FLIGHT) selected, it displays the correct value 2.3a. |
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Michal_PG
Pulcino
44 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2011 : 19:45:14
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Hi,
thanks very much for new version.
I donīt understand Nav and Cruise bottombar. When LK8000 use Nav1 and when use Cru?
Michal |
Edited by - Michal_PG on 03/06/2011 23:48:49 |
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Coolwind
Moderator
Italy
8957 Posts |
Posted - 04/06/2011 : 00:30:58
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Bottom bar NAV1 and CRU7 is simply a choice by user. Rotating stripes will get you to CRU7 after a while.. Did I get it right?
Concerning the position of executables, you are right, my fault. It was very late yesterday and I made a mistake zipping the file. I will fix it tomorrow.
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Michal_PG
Pulcino
44 Posts |
Posted - 04/06/2011 : 21:11:37
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quote:
Originally posted by Coolwind
Bottom bar NAV1 and CRU7 is simply a choice by user. Rotating stripes will get you to CRU7 after a while.. Did I get it right?
How to say it. I set Display mode to Auto. I expected Cruise Bottombar, but LK8000 show Nav instead.
Michal |
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Coolwind
Moderator
Italy
8957 Posts |
Posted - 04/06/2011 : 23:24:52
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Now I understand. Bottom bar can be rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise with a single touch, and for this reason the pilot has full control over it. There is no automatic switch to cruise or final glide. Only thermal mode, which is a special status, is triggering both overlays and bottom bar.
If you want automatic triggering of informations, infopage custom will do it.
Read the manual (even 1.22) for all explanations about this.
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davesalmon
Pterodattilo
United Kingdom
1507 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2011 : 12:03:44
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| I am a bit confused about the new polar line for flaps. I understand the principle, but do not understand the example, don't see the logic of the numbers, there seems to be far too many. We have a DG500 with +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, L. So start the line with the mass, then +2, speed, +1, speed, etc? |
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Coolwind
Moderator
Italy
8957 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2011 : 12:13:38
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As in the example for the Diana-2, start with low speed and thus in your example +2.
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MPusz
Aquila imperiale
Poland
683 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2011 : 13:39:54
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The correct flaps syntax seems to be:
WING_LOADING, FLAPS_COUNT, SPEED_0, FLAP_1, SPEED_1, FLAP_2, SPEED_2, FLAP_3, SPEED_3,....FLAP_X
So FLAP_2 for example should be used in speed range (SPEED_1, SPEED_2)
Hope it helps. |
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Coolwind
Moderator
Italy
8957 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2011 : 15:52:30
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| I personally think that without providing extended polars to the users, the flap setting feature of LK will be 99% unused. |
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New beta version 2.3a