Here's what's new in APRSISCE6P091016.zip

1) The Tile prefetcher now has a better timeout. I also run two concurrent threads (on the Windows Mobile platform) so the tiles fetch a bit faster.

2) Bad tile files are now removed from the device when they are detected. Still to come is a tile ager and purger.

3) On larger screen devices, Icons will now grow to double size for better clarity (complements Noel W8TVI)

4) The circle stations redraw has been optimized, especially if a flood of packets arrives in a short span of time.

5) You can now center the screen on an arbitrary station. Just select Center from a station's popup menu. Double-clicking on the heading rectangle offers to center back on you. If the station you're centered on moves, the map moves to keep it centered. If the centered station ages out and is replaced, the center will automatically move back to you.

6) Both the OpenStreetMap fetcher and the APRS-IS server connection cache the most recently resolved DNS name for faster connects.

7) Messages sent with acks requested are now buffered until the ack is received. The message rectangle turns yellow while there are ack-pending messages. Access them for retry or cancel via Menu/Messages/Pending Messages (disabled when none are pending). When expected acks are received, the Ack popup is suppressed. Only unexpected or duplicate Acks will generate a popup.

8) Battery voltage telemetry is now disablable (requested by Jason, K2ENG). Battery voltage is still monitored and displayed in the slider.

9) Other stations running APRSISCE are highlighted in pale yellow on the scrolling stations list. You can request seeing others by adding u/APWM* to your filter text. (That's how some of you get messages from me seemingly out of the blue!)

10) Changed overlay symbol text color on Number Diamonds (Digi and HF Gateway).

11) Optimized redrawing to decrease system load when lots of station updates come in quickly. This is really important when you monitor a large radius or a busy area. (This may slow updates down to 2 per second, but that seems fast enough).

12) Increased cached fonts and support BOLD display of symbol overlays.

13) Reversed Reply and Dismiss when messages are received to match the Dismiss placement of Windows Mobile appointment reminders.

14) Tracks are now attached to their generating station even when zooming way out (they used to detach if you zoom out too far).

15) Zooming out to extreme zoom now sticks the stations where they belong. You can now zoom out to an entire world view (not that the phone platform can handle seeing all of that, but it's pretty neat when watching all APRSISCE users!)

16) When centering on another station, APRSISCE automatically adds a friend filter using the configured radius around them. This can cause more stations and map sections to be active, also benefiting from being able to zoom further out. The original filter is restored when you move yourself back to the center.

17) The configuration dialog now supports setting your symbol! Just click on the symbol below the Genius(tm) button. Select your table (Primary, Alternate, or Overlay) and then spin the spinner(s) and watch the symbol and name change. Remember that not all clients support overlays on all symbols! (Most recently requested by Jason, K2ENG).

18) Overlays are now drawn MUCH more clearly on symbols of various sizes. Play with them in the Configuration Dialog and see them in the circle and in the scrolling station list.

19) The FIRST transmission now includes the satelite counts like GotFix always has.

20) Sending an APRS message that starts with ? will suppress the request for an ack. This seems to be necessary to talk to some servers. If you need an ack on a ? message (like sending ? to CQSERV), enter it as <space>? and the ack will be requested.

21) If centering on another station, other station Information popups will show Rel: nnnmi XXX as in distance and bearing from the center. If you are centered, it still displays Pos: nnnmi XXX as the distance and bearing from YOU.

22) The Spd: nnnmph is now actually displaying miles per hour rather than knots as it has been doing until now.

23) Clicking on a station in either the station list or the circle will now present a popup menu of the station ID(s) with a cascade that will offer Info, Center, Lookup, and sometimes Message.
Info gets you the old information popup about the station.
Center will move that station to the center of the screen (indicated with a checkmark if you pop it up again).
Lookup will send that station's callsign (sans -SSID) to WHO-IS via APRS messaging.
Message is only offered if the station indicates messaging capability.

24) Icons in the station list are larger than they were. I think they're more clear, but they do touch and overlap somewhat. Let me know what you think.

25) Tracks now include dots where transmissions occured, but only for the station currently in the center of the screen. If dots overlap (for instance when zoomed out), some will be suppressed.

26) All track points are drawn for the center station. Other stations only display the most recent N points of their recorded track. Centering on a station will display the full track with dots on the most recent points.

27) The message rectangle no longer scales the color. It is Green when there is an incoming message pending, Yellow when there are outbound messages awaiting acks, and Orange/Red when both inbound and outbound messages are queued. It also now says "No Msg" rather than "N/A" when there are no pending incoming messages.

28) The pending tile fetch queue is flushed if you zoom in and out and move around a bunch before it catchs up. If you go back to a previous area, it will requeue the tiles.

29) Clear Tracks (and double-click the Odometer) now prompts for clearing other stations' tracks separately from your own.

30) When selecting Menu/Messages/Pending Messages, you will get a popup of the target stations. Selecting one will bring up that pending message and offer to Abort, Retry, or Ignore (keep).

31) Support Item-In-Message display! See - Basically, if you send item-position-formatted text to APRSISCE as a message, the object will be displayed. Consider the following geocaches:
)GC1TX0D!2800.38N/08039.03W.Turtle House D1.5T2.0
)GC1RDVK!2805.13N/08036.32W.Hero Cache D1.5 T2.0
)GC1EK82!2805.02N/08037.10W.Parking Fee D1.5 T1.0
)GC1R0N6!2804.98N/08037.34W.STP #43 D1.5 T1.5
)GC1QWQ7!2804.80N/08037.28W.Straw-post D3.5 T2.5
)GC14TRT!2800.54N/08035.45W.But I can still see the CAR! D2.5 T2.5
)GC14YPT!2800.61N/08035.54W.No Pooh Sticks Here! D3 T3
)GC14YPT2!2800.56N/08035.62W.Pooh Sticks FINAL
)GC14N1Y!2800.70N/08035.61W.TDJ's Quark and Riffster's Can D1.5 T2.5
)GC17K8V!2800.73N/08035.20W.Small Trails - Smaller Cache (For Now) D2.5 T3.0
)GC1JH1T!2758.51N/08039.53W.Smitty Clan Cache D2 T1.5
If you copy each line of this and send it to APRSISCE, you'll get an X (/. symbol) on the spot of the geocache! You can probably guess where THIS is going, eh? I need to support !DAO! before you have a hope of finding a cache, though. 1/100 minute just isn't close enough!

32) Begin to identify clients and handle extra and missing trailing spaces in APRS parser

33) Parse and track MessageCapable-identified clients for offering Message in station popup

34) Clean up comment text a bit

To Dos: (Incomplete)
Automatic, decaying retransmission of non-acked messages (start at 30+ seconds due to APRS-IS dupe checker)
Read message display (they disappear now once read)
Tile ager/purger - Critical now that you can center on other stations!
Parse and display Frequency object information
Parse, use, and transmit !DAO! (APRS PRECISION AND DATUM OPTION)
Support the -180/180 latitude wrap with closest display tile
Find a better icon scaling algorithm based on screen size & scale
Fix up fonts for VGA (640x480) devices (test with Noel W8TVI)
Allow configuration of location for OSMTiles cache (w/o editing XML)
Allow configuration of date/time display & GMT vs local (Dave N8PU)
Allow configurable removal of some screen elements (Satellites, John N8JJ)
Pan (Drag) screen for browsing the map
Record/Recall last DNS/IP for OSM/APRS-IS (in config file, for connecting without DNS)
Asynchronous TCP/IP connections & reading (solves hangs)
Timeout on OSM Tile fetcher (solves stalls)
Implement whatever results from the Zoom +/- Poll

Win32 client only for the following:
Simultaneously track multiple targets in separate circles
Support NMEA GPS

Extreme future:
Support KISS TNCs

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the aprsisce
group.

File : /20091016 APRSISCE Notes.txt
Uploaded by : ldeffenb <kj4erj@...>
Description : 2009/10/16 Release Notes!

You can access this file at the URL:


To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit:


Regards,

ldeffenb <kj4erj@...>

I just posted a new release, APRSISCE6P091016.zip, in the Files section of the group. Release notes will come later, but some of the highlights are:

Popup Station Menus - Click on station icon or station list for Info/Center/Lookup/Message

WHO-IS Lookup - Click on station and select "Lookup"

Center on Stations - Click on station and select "Center", Click Heading or Scale to go back home

Better Messaging - Menu/Messages/Pending Messages to retransmit (no auto-retry yet)
(No Msg will be Yellow if messages are waiting for acks)
(Ack Received no long appears, but you might see an Unexpected Ack sometimes)

Config Symbol - Menu/Configure/Click on the Symbol and spin buttons
(Yes, you don't have to be a phone any more!)
(Most recently requested by Jason, K2ENG)

Disablable Telemetry - Via Menu/Enables/Telemetry
(Requested by Jason, K2ENG)

Enjoy the new features! I know I have been while developing them!

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the aprsisce
group.

File : /APRSISCE6P091016.zip
Uploaded by : ldeffenb <kj4erj@...>
Description : Popup Station Menus, Center on Stations, Better Messaging, Config Symbol, Disablable Telemetry

You can access this file at the URL:


To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit:


Regards,

ldeffenb <kj4erj@...>

Hi Lynn,

I would like to see the option to change your icon from the phone (for use in different activities such as Bike Races, EMCOM, Fox Hunts, etc), and perhaps the option to turn off battery telemetry. Let us know what you think about those. :-)

It's also working very well for me so far. I had a minor GPS radio glitch and had to completely flash the ROM to stock, but that was my fault – I was hacking away with some different programs.

Jason, K2ENG

Thanks Lynn - once again showing that Hams are genius material.

Kevin Jensen wrote:

Lynn,

I know you are busy. My background is electrical engineering so I am
very curious about the application. Yes I will read more about it in
the groups.yahoo page; but am at work where I do not have access. So
hope you do not mind a couple questions.

If you don't mind random delays in getting answers, I certainly don't mind answering them! I hope you don't mind that I copied the answer to the group so that others might benefit.

1) My cellphone will go into battery save mode after a minute. Will
the APRS-IS client still keep sending beacon points? When I look on
the APRS GOOGLE map of my activity (I am N1KCG-12) it looks like it
stopped after I got on the highway, after about two or three minutes.

In my experience, when the phone turns "off" in battery save mode, the GPS is also turned off. My application doesn't muck at all with power settings, so beaconing will stop, but incoming APRS-IS updates will continue.

2) How rapidly will my battery get drained running APRS-IS? Any data
on its effect on power in a typical cellphone with a GPRS circuit, and
data connectivity?

The battery with GPS and APRS-IS active will drain quite quickly. I always plug my phone into a power adapter in the car and only turn off the power savings timer when I KNOW I want to continue tracking. Once in power saver with only a modest-radius APRS-IS feed active, it'll last longer, but still MUCH less than if the client itself were closed or APRS-IS disabled.

The client also transmits battery level telemetry. You can see mine at:



The week view has some good days in it and the month or year view shows just how mean I've been to my battery. I'm now running an extended capacity battery on my AT&T Tilt. I'm happy with the battery life (3-4 hours with full APRS-IS and GPS, 6 hours with only APRS-IS), but I don't like the fact that it no longer fits in my belt clip.

3) I assume that the APRS-IS client needs a GPS circuit in the
cellphone, and a unlimited data connection. Is that true?

Yes, the client relies on a GPSapi-supported GPS unit and sends/receives lots of data so an unlimited plan is highly recommended.

4) Since I am running WM6 on my cellphone, will the APRS-IS client
run in the background, while I use the phone for other activities?
Can I receive phone calls? Supposing it depends on the cellphone, but
that most that can run the APRS-IS client under WM6 might be able to
handle the multitasking.

The application will continue to run in the background, but the ability to maintain a data connection while receiving calls is up to the cellular provider and the infrastructure around you. I've had calls go straight to voice-mail in some cells. I've had the data connection stop when the phone rang and resume when I terminated the voice call. And I've had the data connection continue operating while talking on the phone. And these were all on the SAME phone, just in different geographical areas.

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile

You're quite welcome Steve! I happened to notice you come on-line this
morning (filter of u/APWM00 gives you all APRSISCE users, regardless of
location) and also saw your truck (AB8JC-9). I enjoy watching my RF
tracker playing catch-up with my phone when I go mobile. It makes a
good way of detecting APRS RF coverage when you're out of your normal
territory.

Glad you're finding the software useful. If all goes well, there'll be
a new release coming out soon. I need to work out popup menus on
Windows Mobile and then I'll get it out the door. If any of you have
any "hot" features you'd like to see, let me know and I'll see what I
can do!

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile

ab8jc wrote:

Howdy folks,

I just downloaded the 090811 build & installed it on my ATT Tilt (aka Kaiser/Tytn II). Seems to be working just fine -- it tracked me to work, anyway.



Thanks for the software, Lynn!

Steve
AB8JC

I saw this go by on another APRS mailing list (UI-View) back on 8/8/2008:

Here are those common defaults:

-0 Home Station, Home Station running IGate.
-1 Digipeater, Home Station running a Relay Digi, Wx Digipeater
-2 Digipeater [#2 or] on 70CM
-3 Digipeater [#3]
-4 HF to VHF Gateway
-5 IGate (Not home station)
-6 is for Operations via Satellite
-7 Kenwood D7 HH
-8 is for boats, sailboats and ships (maybe 802.11 in the future)
-9 is for Mobiles
-10 is for operation via The internet only
-11 is for APRStouch-tone users (and the occasional Balloons)
-12 Portable Units such as Laptops, Camp Sites etc.
-13 Un-asigned
-14 is for Truckers
-15 is for HF

I've chosen -12 for my APRSISCE as it is definitely portable and may someday actually go via RF. -10 seems more for non-mobile Internet clients like WinLink and UI-View.

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile

PS. I'm posting this here so I can quit trying to remember where it was that I saw it before!

Dear Lynn,

? Greetings!? I have enclosed two (2) pictures of APRISCE latest version; the satellite section of the screen works fine.? It's the delay with taking the picture while working from my desk…

Thanks!

73
de James, VE2KHC

P.S.? From the HP brochure:?? "The HP iPAQ hw6900 Mobile Messenger utilizes a 3.0" transflective TFT display, with 240 x 240 resolution, 64K colors, LED backlight (with power saver mode)."

开云体育

Yes, I'd like to see a screen shot to know what you're seeing.? Do you know the screen resolution of the iPAQ 6955?

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile

ve2khc wrote:

OH, and I forgot. It was neat to see my phone icon show up on the AVMap G5 and mover around with me ;-)

I'm sure there are some hams out there now wondering what a phone is doing moving around on their UIView or Xaster screens :-O

73
John
K2QY

Dear Lynn and any others lurking around,

After using this program a few weeks and trying it off and on, AND getting my local digi owner to change his settings for complete 2way text messaging all I can say is WOW! This is really cool. No problems with the program once I got used to what the buttons all do and set a hot button (the camera) on my HTC Touch (SPRINT). Once the local digi owner changed settings for phone->a field radio I realized the full potential of text messaging on APRS. I tried texting a friend last night and it "just knocked his socks off". We moved to a voice channel and chatted quite a while about phone->radio and back messaging.

Thanks again,

John
K2QY

Thanks for the quick responses and yes that does clear up my questions.
73
K2QY

John,

See interspersed answers/comments below....

svkaereste wrote:

Nice to text with you yesterday. In my mind this is the way messaging should work on APRS. Easy and fast.

Agreed. I've had similar APRS messaging exchanges with others on APRS
mobiles as well. The key (no pun intended) is to have a suitable
display and input device. In those cases it was with a Tracker2
attached to a Garmin Nuvi 350 for APRS messaging. Good RF coverage and
bi-directional IGates are also required for that to work smoothly.

Couple of problems I am having though, which may be a problem with my particular phone: HTC Touch, Sprint

After I load the file and unzip it: under password, there already is a "-1" filled in. Is that supposed to be there and my generated pass code should be put in before or after that? Or should I just type over it. It doesn't seem to make any difference.

The default password of -1 is for a read-only connection to APRS-IS.
You should delete it completely and put your own password/passcode in.
If you have an incorrect password, your position updates will not be
accepted by properly configured APRS-IS servers. However, it turns out
that the default configuration files sent out for javAPRSsrvr were not
originally requiring authentication, so you might be connecting to one
of those. As the configurations get updated, the proper password for
your callsign will be required.

Sometimes when I go back to check my "configure", my own password code is displayed already in the Filter box. It is difficult to clear, either I need to type anything over it, accept that then type spaces over the jibberish I typed in and rehit accept.

Your password should not be showing up in the Filter box. If it is,
I've got a bug somewhere. I'm not quite following your description of
clearing it, but if you simply click the cursor to the end of the field
and type backspaces, it should clear. This is, of course, assuming a
keyboard and/or touch screen that allows you to do so.

You can always edit the APRSISCE.XML file that should be located in My
Documents in a plain text editor to make the change as well. Only do
this when the client is closed or your changes will be lost when the
client writes out an updated copy on closing.

I don't always get the text messaging available. When I go to FindU I sometimes see the text tests I'm sending to another radio, but not always. Have I set something incorrectly?

You can always double-click on the N/A (or callsign, if you've received
a message), or use Menu/Messages/Send Message to bring up the message
sending dialog. Clicking on a station checks the APRS data types being
transmitted by that station to determine if messaging is supported. If
so, APRSISCE offers you to send a message. if not, you can only dismiss
the station information dialog.

I need to get after the Tracker2 and TinyTrak4 folks to allow users to
configure their message support. These particular trackers support
messaging but only with a suitably connected Nuvi GPS (for the Tracker2)
or a display and PS/2 keyboard (for the TT4). However, neither tracker
currently has the ability to specify that messaging is supported.

Of course, the messaging capabilities of KISS-interfaced TNCs is
entirely dependent on the software on the other end of the KISS link.

I realize this is a BETA, but I can really see how neat this will be when it's completed. Great work.

Thanks. I use it all the time as KJ4ERJ-12 (my AT&T Tilt) and now as
KJ4ERJ-15 (on my Vista laptop). I'm always open to suggestions on
making it better and/or more usable on different platforms, so please
don't hesitate to point out problems or ask for new features!

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile

Dear Lynn,

Nice to text with you yesterday. In my mind this is the way messaging should work on APRS. Easy and fast.

Couple of problems I am having though, which may be a problem with my particular phone: HTC Touch, Sprint

After I load the file and unzip it: under password, there already is a "-1" filled in. Is that supposed to be there and my generated pass code should be put in before or after that? Or should I just type over it. It doesn't seem to make any difference.

Sometimes when I go back to check my "configure", my own password code is displayed already in the Filter box. It is difficult to clear, either I need to type anything over it, accept that then type spaces over the jibberish I typed in and rehit accept.

I don't always get the text messaging available. When I go to FindU I sometimes see the text tests I'm sending to another radio, but not always. Have I set something incorrectly?

I realize this is a BETA, but I can really see how neat this will be when it's completed. Great work.

John
K2QY

开云体育

John,

I don't know how to do a Today program icon, but I hooked mine into one of the buttons on my Tilt.? The Buttons Control Panel let me tie it directly to the OK button on the phone (lower right corner).? It still works as OK if there's a dialog up, but otherwise it brings APRSISCE to the fore.

I'll add the Today screen idea to my ToDo list.? Don't know when it might happen, but some day I might get inspired to research it!

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile

svkaereste wrote:

Wow! This is just a way cool program!

I'd love to add a icon to my "Today" page on my HTC touch. Anyone know how to do that?

John
K2QY