The G7III Predict Clients

• John A Magliacane, KD2BD for Predict, earthtrack, and planettrack
• Xavier Crehueras, EB3ZCS for Gsat (from where I got the groundstation arc Generation Code from, which was origionally taken from earthtrack, but I may well never had worked out how to do the groundstation arcs if not for gsat showing me how easy it was).
• Hari Nair for xplanet.

All these clients depend on having a predict server avalible via UDP, and having xplanet installed locally. All clients are also released under the GPL. Onto the Clients:

• satellitetrack

  I had always liked the idea of plannettrack, but discovered that it didnt quite do exactly what I wanted, so I decided to write satellite track to meet my requirements. The main features that I wanted were:

  • Automatic Update when running the -window flag of xplanet, every x seconds
  • Adjustable Colour Scheme
  • Satellite Footprints drawn, even when satellite not within range of groundtation
  • Ground Track

• missiontrack

  While writing satellitetrack, I started thinking about what satellites I and others would like to track on the same screen. One thing that came to me was Shuttle(post Return-to-Flight), ISS, TDRS, and other major TDRSS customers such as HST.

  I also thought of the GPS, NOAA, and GEOS constellations, as well as all Amaateur Radio Satellites capable of APRS capability (With maybe the major IGATES as Earth Stations).

  I quickly realised that the commandline for satellitetrack was going to get rather long (not to mention silly), so I decided to make it a config file. missiontrack inheirits most of satellitetrack's features, but adds the following features:

  • Up to 5 main satellites, showing footprint and groundtrack
  • Unlimited 'aux', or support satellites, showing footprints only
  • Unlimited Earth Stations, with a range circle for the Primary Satellite
  • Ability to switch off the ground track on each of the 5 main Satellites
  • Ability to switch off the footprint for all of the Aux Satellites
  • Ability to switch off the range circle for the groundstations
  • Ability to specify config file, so making handling multiple 'missions' easy.

  Note: I just found a horrible bug. missiontrack can't handle spaces in the spacecraft name. I'll fix it when I next do some work on missiontrack - I have a few things I want to add to it anyway. Expect it to be fixed in the next 2-3 weeks. As a work around, change any spaces in the spacecraft name in your predict.tle to dashes.

Both satellitetrack, and missiontrack still need work, and certainly both till have bugs, so feel free to email me bug reports, suggestions, and even patches at g7iii@g7iiii.demon.co.uk

I have a few other ideas, as to further related clients, so don't be suprised if some other clients turn up at some point (I work on these when I get the time, and inclination).

73s de Iain.