OpenRadarGuide: Difference between revisions

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===OpenRadar===
===OpenRadar===
For the currently available Prototype of OpenRadar see http://wagnerw.de/OpenRadar.zip. Extract the content of this ZIP to a place where it is easy to find. Make sure you have read and write permissions for that directory.
For the currently available Prototype of OpenRadar see http://wagnerw.de/OpenRadar.zip. Extract the content of this ZIP to a place where it is easy to find. Make sure you have read and write permissions for that directory.
<br />
<br /><br />
If you did already work with an OpenRadar installation you may want to
* RENAME your current OpenRadar-directory (i.e. to "OpenRadar-BU")
* then download and extract the new version into a newly created directory with the name of the old one (without the "-BU")
* now you can replace all data in the new "OpenRadar/data" directory with the ones in the "OpenRadar-BU/data"
** if you expect changes in the scenery etc. do not copy the the Airport (ICAO) directories
* delete the BU-version only after you are sure you verified that all your personal data were transferred, i.e. still accessible!


== Startup ==
== Startup ==

Revision as of 09:37, 5 January 2013

Back to mainpage


Preface

OpenRadar is a prototype to support flight sim ATCs in their work on our airports.

Please note There are some major changes in the upcoming prototype release. The changes improve the usability and make working as an ATC effective. This guide will be updated soon.

Some words to our project targets in advance:

  • Realism means we show the data that we have/can calculate and that a real live ATC would have. For instance, we do not update the positions as soon as they are coming in, instead we simulate a radar antenna and perform one position update per antenna rotation. On the other hand, we don't have professional ATCs, neither we have professional pilots contacting our ATC. So we have to make some compromises...
  • Useability: The application should simply work. It should be handy, behave consistently and require almost no training. The ATC has other things to do than to fight with the application

We hope that we met your needs and are happy to get feedback!

Important The tooltip texts that appear when you hover with your mouse over an active area, is there to remind you, if should you have forgotten how to trigger a feature. Try pointing your mouse everywhere! Maybe there is something you missed until now...

Prerequisites

Internet

Of course you need an uninterrupted Internet access to exchange data between You and your clients. The requirements for that connection are not very high -- but they must be uninterrupted!

Communication / FGCOM

We urge you to always offer your services as well in typing (MPchat) as also in speaking (FGcom). You will soon discover, that FGcom makes it much easier to communicate, as well for you (who hopefully will control many pilots at the same time) as also for the pilots (who need both hands to control their plane). So very often there will be not enough time for typing!

If FGCOM is not yet installed, see:

  • For Windows and Linux: http://code.google.com/p/fgcomgui/
  • For OSX: We do not know of a standalone installation source - but we do know that starting with version 2.0.0 the FGFS-OSX-version does contain the FGCom. That fits and works for OSX >= 10.5.

In addition you may inform yourself about FGCOM on:

for general infos http://wiki.flightgear.org/FGCom
for more detailed informations http://wiki.flightgear.org/FGCOM_for_Windows
if you have problems with FGCOM http://wiki.flightgear.org/FGCOM_Testing

Java V7

Make sure you have installed at least Version 7 of Java. Verify and or Download the installation packages from: http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp

OpenRadar

For the currently available Prototype of OpenRadar see http://wagnerw.de/OpenRadar.zip. Extract the content of this ZIP to a place where it is easy to find. Make sure you have read and write permissions for that directory.

If you did already work with an OpenRadar installation you may want to

  • RENAME your current OpenRadar-directory (i.e. to "OpenRadar-BU")
  • then download and extract the new version into a newly created directory with the name of the old one (without the "-BU")
  • now you can replace all data in the new "OpenRadar/data" directory with the ones in the "OpenRadar-BU/data"
    • if you expect changes in the scenery etc. do not copy the the Airport (ICAO) directories
  • delete the BU-version only after you are sure you verified that all your personal data were transferred, i.e. still accessible!

Startup

Inside the downloaded OpenRadar base-directory you will find start-scripts. See

  • for Windows: OpenRadar.bat
  • for Linux: OpenRadar.sh
  • for OSX: We do not know yet – pls help us with a FGFS-PersonalMessage to “wagnerw” or “jomo”


At Startup you will always be welcommed with a the window “OpenRadar – Welcome” that presents 2 TABs to define your preferences:

Welcome tab on Linux
Settings tab on Linux

For all data there are standard values given as defaults. If you do change any values, they will be saved and presentet to you during the next start.
If this is the very first time you start OpenRader you first have to verify your “Settings”, thus click onto that “Settings”-tab:

OpenRadar-Welcome - Settings

These settings are grouped into 3 parts:

1) FGcom

OpenRadar can support up to 4 instances of FGcom in 2 ways:
  1. It can start and controll FgCom instances that operate in the background as sub-tasks of OpenRadar
  2. or just control manually started FgCom-sessions.
You select these modes of operation by the “FgComMode” selection:
a) Internal: FgCom(s) are started and controlled by OpenRadar
For this mode you have to define all available fields to tell OpenRader where your FGcom resides and what options shall be used:
Path: Here you define where your FGcom is installed.
In the following some examples:

type Windows Linux OSX
a standard installation C:\Programs\FGcom /home/YourName/fgcom *)
on another disk D:\FlighGear_2.6\FGcom /media/DiskName/FGFS/fgcom *)
on a LAN-server \\ServerName\Central\FGFS /home/YourName//.gvfs/fgfs on nas-server/fgcom *)
*) for OSX we do not know – pls help us by definig it here or send a PersonalMessage to “Wagnerw” or “jomo”

Executable: Here you define the Programname that shall be started

  • For Windows: "fgcom.exe" or "anyName.bat"
  • for Linux: "fgcom" or "anyName.sh"
  • OSX: We do not know – pls help us by definig it here or send a PersonalMessage to “Wagnerw” or “jomo”

Server: There are 2 FGcom-servers available:
  • delta384.server4you.de (we do suggest this one)
  • fgcom.flightgear.org.uk
Client: will always be “localhost” - unless you want to run FGcom on a different PC than OpenRadar.
FGcom Ports: The here defined values are crucial for the operation because:
  • They are the only connection between the OpenRadar and FGcom. So you must define those the same in OpenRadar as well as in FGcom !!
  • They also define how many “Radio Units” (COM0, COM!, etc.) are generated within OpenRadar
Simply provide a coma separated list of UDP Ports to be used by FGcom, but be warned, more than two are hard to handle.
e.g. 16661,16662
b) External: Control a manually started external instance of FGcom.
For this one you only need to define where that FGcom is running and what the connecting port is. e.g.:
  • Client: locahost
  • FGcom Ports: 16661,16662 (if e.g. 2 FGcom instances were started)
c) OFF: No FGcom support
That means that You do not want to work with FGcom during your ATC-session – thus you do not need to define any of the fields and there will not be defined any Radio (e.g. COM0) in OpenRadar. This mode is not suggested!


2) FG Multiplayer

Here you find the server and connection port of FlightGears multiplayer server. It delivers the radar contact position informations and is used for chat. You won't have to change the settings, as long as the server won't change.
In case you experience problems with the outside you may check and/or choose any "Server" that is listed in http://mpmap01.flightgear.org/mpstatus/: Look for a server nearest to your location that has a status of "OK" and shows the most "totals".
PLEASE NOTE: The "Client port" is the port used by your computer to talk with that server. If you want to use FlightGears internal chat parallel to OpenRadar, you must use a different port than FlightGear. Because of that, the default port of OpenRadar is 5001 (in order to differentiate it to the 5000 used in FGFS).

3) METAR

OpenRadar retrieves the weather information via METAR messages from a server in the INTERNET. This information is being displayed and used to calculate the usability of runways and the air speed of the radar contacts.
If your airport is too small to be in that worldwide list, you can provide the code of another bigger airport with METAR data nearby in the sector.property file. But be aware that then your customers weather-settings may differ to yours, because they may use the standard FGFS-METAR-Source!

Please click on the verify button to have your settings checked!

Select Airport

This is always the first window that you will see after starting OpenRadar. But at first, the available airport list (e.g. EDDF, KOAK, in the center) will be empty. In order to define your future work-locations simply enter the airport code (ICAO) or a part of the name into the search field and hit “search”: The list below then shows the results found in the airport database delivered with OpenRadar. If an airport does already exist, it will be shown in the big center-field.

When you start OpenRadar later on, you will see this list of already downloaded airports. Double click onto one of them (or select one with one click and then click onto start) and you are in the ATC seat.

Operating

Oakland international used in new OpenRadar

The OpenRadar main screen is divided into three regions:

  1. Top left you see the big Radar Map showing the airport, its surrounding, the navaids and the radar targets.
  2. Below it, bottom left, you see the MPchat Area for the FlightGear multiplayer chat feature.
  3. On the right side you see the Service Area with 4 subparts. From top to bottom those are
    1. Status Information
    2. COM-Radios (only if you have defined one or more)
    3. Runway Manager to set up runways used
    4. the Flight Strip Manager, where you can manage your radar targets.

Radar Map

The radar map is the most complex part of OpenRadar.

You can zoom in and out using your mouse wheel, in addition you set four functional zoom levels GROUND, TOWER, APP and SECTOR. Those predefined functional levels you can change anytime by

  • setting up the wanted range with your mouse wheel
  • adjust the map-center by dragging it with your mouse (click-hold and drag)

and then middle click on one of the functional zoom levels to assign the new values for it. This values are stored as presets until you change them again!

A typical tower operation

The Radar-targets

  • do have a label attached with the following informations
UID heading direction
Flight Level Airspeed
  • and are displayed in 5 different colors:
(See also the chapter "Flight Strip Manager")
white always the currently selected target, it's UID is also shown in the MPchat inputline (e.g. see "D-Leon" who just is getting his "clear to land")
blue targets who's Flight-Stripe is placed to the left (e.g. see "Side" (just started) and "D-AHGM" just going to intercept the ILS: These 2 PLUS the white "D-LEON" are actively controlled right then!)
yellow targets who's Flight-Stripe is placed in the middle (e.g. could be assigned to "jomo2" as an indication that we wait for him to "wake up" soon)
green targets who's Flight-Stripe is placed to the right (e.g. see "jomo2" just parking - not actively controlled right now)
gray a neglected target or one for which there were no refresh data received for some time
A GND layout with active PPN's

The radar map has so many details to display, that it is impossible to display all at once. Because of that we display details depending on the zoom level. For instance we hide Fixes and/or Runway Numbers etc. at a certain level of zoom. Thus OpenRadar features an adaptive detail level. In addition you can hide types of data by the buttons FIX, NDB, VOR, CIRC, APT, PPN. (PPN's are Gate-, Terminal-, Parkinglot-numbers. They may not be available on all airports yet!)

The "Runway Manager" (on the right side of the screen) allows you to define which runway(s) should be used for landing and/or starting. This status is shown with little green/red dots at the runway end. See in the upper example:

  • 25L, 25R, and 18 are active (see the green and red dots at the ends)
  • 25L has in addition the blue approach center line and funnel, i.e. it is assigned for landings. This center line is drawn out for 100mi, helping you to align the arriving airplanes with the runway. In addition there is shown some kind of a funnel in a definable distance that may help you to align the planes coming via a base-leg for landing.

MPchat area

The MPchat area

This area allows you to enter chat messages, view the chat history and filter it. In the entry-line atop you define your messages to any radar-target by:

  • Manually typing a message:
    • A left mouse-click onto the Flight-Stripe or onto the Radar-Target will place the Target-UID at the beginning of the entry-line
    • Then you may type or copy/past anything behind that - and send it out by ENTER
  • Generate a standard message:
    • A right mouse-click will open a list with the available messages - select one with a left mouse-click
    • That will place the message into the entry-line - you may now review/edit it and then send it out by ENTER
  • OpenRadar will always set the ATC-name (as it appears on the very top of the service area - see the following chapter) in front of the message.

Below that entry-line is the scrollable list of sent messages. In that list the messages of the selected user are colored cyan. With the button "VIS" you may filter to see only the messages of the visible users - with "ALL" you see the messages of all contacts in range again.

You may enlarge that area by grabbing the upper edge with the left mouse-button and move it upward. Of course that will reduce the size of the radar-screen -- so use it with care!

Service Area

This column at the right side of the screen is for setting up the base-data for the operation, display needed data for traffic-guidance, and provide tools for guiding the pilots.

Status Informations
The general Status Informations

This area shows in 4 lines the most used status-informations:

  1. A text box that allows you to see and change your MP-callsign. So you can quickly change it, if a second ATC takes another role at the same airport (TW/APP/GND/RADAR, etc). At the right of it is placed a clock with the UTC-time. Because you probably will always have international guests you should refer to that modern "Coordinated Universal Time" (replacing nowadays the formerly used "Greenwich Mean Time" (GMT))
  2. In the second line you see the ICAO (the international Code for airports) and the long name of your airport. In addition you see on the right the currently selected radar contact (e.g. "jomo").
  3. The third line lets you predict several values for that "radar contact" (e.g. "jomo"). Whenever you place your mousepointer somewhere on the Radar Map, the third line will give you several informations about that target:
    • StP = "Selection to Pointer": That is the compass direction between the target and the mousepointer, in both ways (TO/FROM)
    • Miles: The distance between the target and the mouspointer.
    • min: The time the target needs to get to that mousepointed area - IF the speed remains steady as is!! In this example there is given a "n/a" (not available) which most probably means the plane is not moving (may be parked)!
  4. The fourth line shows the mostly needed weather information Wind, Pressure and Visibility. If you hover your mouse over it, you can see the complete last METAR-message received, in it's original form. (For help ref to http://wiki.flightgear.org/METAR#METAR). Please note that these values are similar to ATIS information: METAR directions is given in TRUE, ATIS in magnetic...
COM-Radios
The COM-Setting (that can be none or up to 4)

According to the amount of FGcom-Ports you defined during setup (compare chapter "3.1.1 FGcom") you find here as many COM-Units (COM0 to max COM3). Each of them has a PopUp-List of Radio-frequencies available for the airport you are located on. You may

  • choose a frequency out of the list by clicking onto the arrow at the right of the input-field
  • or empty the field by a right mouseclick and enter any other frequency wanted.

At the right of that field you find a "Push To Talk" (PTT) button that you can operate by mouseclick -- or you can use the shortcuts given in the following table.

COMx left on keyboard right on keyboard
COM0 Ctrl NumOff+Num0
COM1 SHIFT NumOff+Num1
COM2 NumOff+Num2
COM3 NumOff+Num7

Please watch the color change of the PTT buttons to know, when you can speak.

In case you operate the FGcom controlled by OpenRadar (compare the "FGComMode" in chapter "Startup"), then the radio label turns to red when FGcom is unable to establish a connection on this frequency. OpenRadar has more frequencies available than FGcom knows of...

Runway Settings
The Setting area runways

Here you define the major variables for your airport operations: That are the assignments of the runways! For this purpose OpenRadar gives you a lot of precalculated values to support your decission findings and/or informations pilots may ask you about. See e.g. the picture on the right:

  • From top to bottom OpenRadar lists all runways (theoretically) available for that airport. But be careful: In that example you see e.g. for EDDF the runway 18/36 for which according to law 18 may only be used for starts and 36 may not be used for anything! As ATC you have to find out those regulations yourself (or you might get a laugh from knowledgeable pilots!)
  • From left to right you see the following informations (if available):
  • The runway-name
==> if you right-click on those names a window will open that lets you define the Approach Centerline, and the Funnel, etc. Compare the picture "A typical tower operation" in the chapter "Radar Map" above.
  • Check-boxes to define if that runway is used at all, may be just for landings or just for starts or for both. The program prevents you from assigning a runway in both directions (e.g. 25R and 07L)
  • a graphical display of the cross winds and and gusts: They are green from 0-5kn, orange 5-10kn and red above. When there are significant gusts that color-bar is divided into two. Typically the gusts then will be represented by the longer bar!
  • above that bar you see the fractions of head- and crosswind. You may use especially the crosswind-fraction to warn pilots if those are => 10 kn! (Remember: You find the normal wind values in the metar-data further up in the Status Informations)
  • to the right follow
  • in the upper line the exact runway heading (as needed for older type autopilots)
  • in the lower line the length and width of the runway in feet!
  • then follow the ILS informations, if ILS is available for that runway. The data shown are: the ILS-beacon-name, the frequency, the glideslope, and the altitude at the threshold.
Flight Strip Manager
Handling the Flight-Stripes

Paper Flight Strips are the ATCs help to coordinate his traffic. In reality those strips contain many details about the flight, that we do not have (yet). Based on vertical space-limitations we have gathered the most critical informations into 2 lines, which are automatically initiated and controlled by the program. Those are:

Target UID Aircraft Type direction to it from ATC
distance to it IAS+GND speed Altitude (FL) current heading

In addition the user may add some more informations in additional lines. We urge you to reduce these additional lines to a minimum, because already with 2 lines the list will become that long, that you must scroll constantly! These additional lines will be saved as target-data and inserted each time a new stripe is created for that target! We suggest to maintain some target-data and some flight data for all frequent visitors. See as a suggestion several 3rd line examples:

"ILS VOR FGC NRW || GED MTR"
This pilot knows how to use ILS, VOR, FGcom, the new Runway at EDDF || he is advised to approach via VOR GED and MTR.

"ILS VOR FGC NRW || KJFK 280° f510"
This pilot also can use ILS, VOR, FGcom, NRW || and will depart to JFK on a straight course of 280° on FL510"

You are absolutely free to define your own codes and whatever. To do so

  • enter/edit those data by opening the "Note Editor" with a right mouse-click onto the stripe
  • add additional lines by Strg+ENTER (remember: Not more than 2, please!)
  • Always exit that Editor with the ENTER-key in order to transfer the data to the stripe!
  • At the bottom of this editor you can also select in which additional language the "standard commands" shall be transmitted to that target.

You can manipulate the listing of the flight strips:

  • New radar-targets will always appear at the end of the list on the right side
  • You can move the stripes in vertical order by drag and drop
  • You can place them in three horizontal columns (left, middle and right) either by dragging them with the hold-down mouse button or by mouse-clicks left or right of the stripes (you may double-click to move directly from one side to the other)
  • with the "AUTO"-button at the upper edge of this area you can define that the stripes will be sorted automatically into groups according to their left/center/right position. This may be very irritating at first - so you may want to switch that "AUTO" off at first usages!
  • The radar-targets will change their color according to the horizontal position of their stripe:
    • the radar-targets for stripes at the right side will be green - these are all targets when initialized!
    • the radar-targets for stripes in the center will be yellow
    • the radar-targets for stripes at the left side will be cyan

On the radar-map the "cyan targets" will overlay the "yellow targets" - and the "yellow targets" will overlay the "green" ones!

You cannot change these combinations of color and position -- but you might define your own definition of what the positions mean! We suggest the following:

green = right = initial position: Means not yet defined or not under my control (e.g. passing through on high altitude, is controlled by another ATC, etc.)
yellow = center = I expect him to get under my control when in range (e.g. 60 mi), or he may be transfered to me by another ATC soon, etc. He may become a danger to the traffic controlled by me if he continues uncontrolled!
cyan = left = under my control (light cyan when active in the MPchat input-line!)

Again: That is a proposal - you can define your on assignments!

You can apply the following mouse-actions onto the stripes as well as onto the radar-targets:

  • a single left mouse-click selects/activates it, i.e. its radar-target becomes "light cyan" and its UID is set into the MPchat input-line. In addition its listed messages in the MPchat-list become colored cyan!
  • a double left mouse-click centers the radar-map onto that target - thus it is easy to spot! The selection of any of the "preset zoom levels" (GROUND, TOWER, APP, Sector) will reset the map-position again to its center!
  • a center mouse-click opens the Note Editor (see above)
  • a right mouse-click shows the dialog to choose pre-defined ATC messages to be sent to the current contact
  • a CTRL+left mouse-click will define that target as neglected. Thus his radar-target will become just a light gray color, that will not overlay or otherwise disturb the radar-views.

Useful Features

Radar Map

  • On contact
  • left click selects and sets cursor into the chat input field
  • middle click opens the radar contact settings (ATC note and native language)
  • right click opens the ATC messages selection box
  • left double click on map to center it on airport (return to airport)
  • middle click on zoom level defines the current view as new center and zoom setting (stored in a file)
  • a click on the texts, on the lower left, toggle display of FIX, NDB, VOR,...

Flight Strip Area

  • On flight strip
  • left click selects the contact and sets cursor into the chat input field
  • middle click opens the radar contact settings (ATC note and native language)
  • right click opens the ATC messages selection box
  • left double click centers radar map on the contact (to find contact)
  • CTRL+left click sets the contact to be neglected
  • a click beside the flight strips moves the flight strips between the three columns (right, middle, left)

Runway area

  • right click on runway number opens the runway settings dialog to define the centerline and vectoring settings
  • If at least one runway is active you may double click the runway panel background to hide the inactive runways (frees space for flight strips)

Radios

  • a right click on the frequency list changes the input to be editable, so you can define the frequencies by yourself


Shortcuts

Shortcut Action
ESC Close all open dialogs and cancel the text input (reset chat input field)
ALT + L Toggle FGCom Log Window (only if you run FgCom started by OpenRadar)
Left CTRL PTT Radio COM0 (if it has been activated via Port in Settings)
NUM off: Num0 PTT Radio COM0 (if it has been activated via Port in Settings)
Left SHIFT PTT Radio COM1 (if it has been activated via Port in Settings)
NUM off: Num1 PTT Radio COM1 (if it has been activated via Port in Settings)
NUM off: Num2 PTT Radio COM2 (if it has been activated via Port in Settings)
NUM off: Num3 PTT Radio COM3 (if it has been activated via Port in Settings)

Acknowledgments

This project was founded and driven by Ralf Gerlich. Still today he is supporting it as a mentor.

And not to be forgotten: This project links different efforts of many people together. Thank you for your great work!