I'm no longer seeing shared aircraft I seem to lose all my settings after using the A B C D buttons Clock is incorrect warning The Share button is greyed out GS OFF BAD CURVES "On opening the ACARS wave device...device ID out of range" when pressing the green start button No flight route database Check log file directory is writeable I can't get the OSM (Open Street Maps) to work Every time I start PP it tells me it cannot find a .clb file Error code 183 Why do I get double plots of some aircraft? Why do some of my aircraft flash from one colour to another? Error messages with numbers around 10000 10053 message 10054 message Error messages when closing Plane Plotter after configuring Mlat Failure after a long period of inactivity Aircraft Lookup not working QNH doesn't work but normal sharing does Scripts don't work Why do I get double coast outlines? How do I change the alert sound?

I'm no longer seeing shared aircraft

 

Ensure that the sharing button on the toolbar shows two arrows with no red line ,  and not one arrow  , or two arrows with a red line  !

 

I seem to lose all my settings after using the A B C D buttons

 

From Yahoo group postings by Bev:

  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planeplotter/message/23959

  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planeplotter/message/28233

 

The ABCD buttons, and the menu options File => Save/Load Restore point, are very powerful but are frequently misunderstood and misused.  They are like Windows Restore points.  They say "Take all my settings back to the way they were when the corresponding settings were saved."   They allow you to make completely different configurations available at the click of a button (e.g. acting as the source in a peer-to-peer pair or acting as the destination in such a pair).  Somewhere in the history of PP, someone thought they were good for selecting alternative charts and this misapprehension has lingered over the years.

 

If you want one click access to a lot of different charts, use the Quick Chart buttons ((re)defined with one click on the toolbar and retrieved with one click on the toolbar and they remember your zoom and drag offsets too).  Avoid the ABCD buttons and the File => Save/Load Restore points menu  unless you really need two or more radically different configurations of the whole PP activity and if you are sure that you know what you are doing.

 

But I want to use four different charts - I want to use the A B C D buttons!

 

Your comment amply illustrates the reason why most users are advised never to use the Restore points.  The Restore points are much more powerful than you think.  Your comment indicates that you regard the Restore points as a handy way of saving a chart display.  Not so.  If you want to save a chart or outline display for retrieval with a single click, use the Quick Chart feature.  There are ten Quick Chart buttons on the toolbar and you can define each one to be a different chart or outline, or even ten different zooms/drags of the same chart.  Open the chart that you want to recall later with a single click; select Options..Chart..Quick..Define.. and choose the button number that you want to associate with that chart display.  That button then becomes ´alive´ and you can return to that view any time by clicking on the associated Quick Chart button on the toolbar.

 

If you use the ABC button, you are changing every single parameter in the whole of the PP setup, potentially changing your registration number, your share code, your home location, your receiver setup, your graphical output, your I/O settings, your download selections and every other thing in PP.  Almost all questions of the form "Why did my xxxxx setting suddenly change when I didn't do anything?" are answered with "You asked it to change when you pressed A,B,C or D".

 

Using the ABCD buttons simply to return to a particular chart display is like exploding a ton of TNT in the basement to open the bathroom window.  Yes, it works ....... but there is a better way of doing it.  Advanced users, who understand what is going on, and who want to switch between completely different setups for PP, will find the power of the ABCD buttons invaluable.  For 99% of users, the sign "Danger - Keep Away" is required.

 

David Taylor suggests that you remove the A B C D buttons unless you are completely sure what they do, and sure that you really need them:  The Plane Help says:  You can delete some of the toolbar buttons by clicking on them, while holding down the SHIFT button.  Some important buttons cannot be deleted by this method.  You can restore all buttons to the toolbar by clicking on the '>' symbol at the rightmost extremity of the toolbar.

 

Clock is incorrect warning

 

"I keep getting an annoying warning that my PC clock is wrong each time I open Plane Plotter, but there is nothing wrong with my PC clock settings."  Your clock is not close enough to correct time, please see this page.

 

The Share button is greyed out

 

You need to follow the registration procedure to "un-grey" the share button and then you will need to authenticate the installation to gain access to the sharing server.  For information about authentication, please see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planeplotter/message/56305

 

GS OFF BAD CURVES

 

When I start PP on my desktop, I get an alert box with the message: GS OFF BAD CURVES

 

The alert message is placed there (manually) to draw your attention to the fact that your Ground Station status has been suspended because you are producing bad hyperbolic curves when your raw data is used in multilateration.  The cause could be that your receiver clock is out of spec or it could be because your home location is not precise enough.  It would be good if you could find out what is wrong so that you can return to contributing raw data for everyone's benefit.

 

"On opening the ACARS wave device...device ID out of range" when pressing the green start button

 

You have set the program to look for ACARS audio input from a VHF radio receiver.  Stop processing (square, black toolbar button) and check the I/O settings (menu Options, I/O settings, or press the spanner button that the has the letters i and o on it).  If you are just going to use Shared Data uncheck ALL the boxes in the Input Data section.

 

 

No flight route database Check log file directory is writeable

 

1. Make sure that Options, Directories, PP Log files points to a real place that Plane Plotter can write to.  If you use Windows Vista or Windows-7, you need to choose a path which is outside of the C:\Program Files\ tree because Windows stops you writing there for security reasons.
2. If there is a file in there called "flightroute.sqb" in there, with zero length, close and exit PP and then delete it.  (Do not delete it if it is more than zero length.)  Plane Plotter will automatically create a new one with the proper formatting next time it starts.  There is nothing you need to enable for that to happen.

Reference: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planeplotter/message/8698

 

 

I can't get the OSM (Open Street Maps) to work

 

Unless your firewall is preventing Plane Plotter from accessing the Internet at all, the most likely reason is that you have told PP to use a directory for charts to which it cannot write.  Check what have you defined under Options, Directories, PP Chart files and Options, Directories, PP Log files.  There are some suggestions about locating directories here.

 

 

Every time I start PP it tells me it cannot find a .clb file

 

By way of an experiment, I tried to import a chart into PP the other day.  I didn't intend to keep it (it was the CAA 1:500,000 - not successful), I just wanted to understand the process.  I didn't fully calibrate it and ultimately deleted the bitmap I created.  Now every time I start PP it tells me it cannot find the .clb file.  Well, it wouldn't, I never created one.  How can I tell PP to forget about this chart?

 

Just use the File | Open chart menu (or toolbar button) and select a chart which you know has a calibration file.

 

 

Error code 183

 

1. Please check your Options..I/O settings dialogue.
2. Have you enabled the UDP/IP output - most probably with an IP address and/or port that did not exist or was not open.
3. Disable (uncheck) UDP/IP output unless you know what it is for, and are actually using it.

 

Reference: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planeplotter/message/7388

 

Note that with the advent of hypersharing and local auto mlats, you should expect 183 messages to become more common as you will be firing off UDP packets all over the place including to some remote GS destinations offered in good faith but not actually set up correctly.  If the messages are persistent, then by all means check your I/O settings for anything silly, but otherwise just put it down to being part of the milieu.

 

Reference: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planeplotter/message/46476

 

 

Why do I get double plots of some aircraft?

 

Q: I have just been following and it had a second aircraft following alongside it matching it speed and height wise. I know this would not normally happen in real life, so what is the usual cause of this?

 

A: Plane Plotter displays and shares messages from a variety of different digital air-ground links.  The most numerous are Mode-S/ADS-B reports (yellow, turning orange after 4 minutes).  Less frequent are Mlat position estimates (white), ACARS position reports (red, blue or green - see Help file for details) and HFDL reports (cyan - which you described as light blue).  Continental are prolific users of HFDL so if a PP user is monitoring the right frequency, you will see cyan plots over a very wide area.

Here is the fun part:

• Mode-S gives the ICAO hex code, no rego, and a version of the flight number.
• ACARS gives the rego, no hex code, and a different version of the flight number.
• HFDL may not give either the hex code or the rego but does give another form of the flight number.

Plane Plotter could, in principle, display symbols for each of these for the same aircraft and, under sufficiently perverse circumstances, they might have no overlapping identifiers so it may not be possible for PP to identify them as the same aircraft.  When that happens, you will see multiple symbols.  Because the rate of position reports is much faster with Mode-S than the other modes, the predicted positions will certainly diverge leading up to the time when your Omit after time makes them vanish.  It is not a bug, nor a miscode, nor anything mysterious.  It is just how it works.

 

(From Bev's message on the Plane Plotter Yahoo group).

 

 

Why do some of my aircraft flash from one colour to another?

 

Q: I run an SBS-1, RadarBox or equivalent, and since I upgraded to version 5.5 or later I notice that some aircraft flicker between my local colour and my shared colour.  Why is this, and is there anything I can do about it?

 

A: The two colours are provided to tell you whether a particular aircraft in Plane Plotter was last received by you or by someone else.  In the traditional sharing system, every 60 seconds you would download other users' data and aircraft that were most recently received by another user, would change to the shared colour and those that were most recently received by your own receiver, would display in your colour.  This has not changed with Hypersharing except that the updates may now come every second, rather than once per minute.  In that case, you should expect that other users will often have picked up a recent message that your receiver did not.  Most production receivers only deliver a small percentage of the messages that are flying around.

If you dislike being informed as to whether you or someone else has contributed the most recent report, then make the two colours the same or turn off Hypersharing so that the refresh only occurs once per minute.

 

(From Bev's message on the Plane Plotter Yahoo group).

 

 

Error messages with numbers around 10000

 

Error messages with numbers such as 10048 are Winsock error messages.  Winsock is a piece of software in Windows which allows the use of a "sockets" interface to access network functions, in a similar way to the "sockets" interface in other programming languages, making it easier to port software to Windows.  There is information on that particular error here, although it's a general description:

  http://www.pc-library.com/errors/error-code/10048-0x2740/

which tells you that 10048 means that a port is already in use, so you should only try to run one program at a time accessing a particular port.  With Windows Task Manager, see whether you have a partially started Plane Plotter, and kill it if so.  Logging out and back in may also be required so release the port for use.

For a full list of Winsock error codes - numbers in the 10000 range, see one of the following, whichever you find most understandable:

 

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms740668%28VS.85%29.aspx

  http://kb.globalscape.com/KnowledgebaseArticle10140.aspx

 

10053 message

 

John Locker notes: "It only appears if you stop Plane Plotter prior to BaseStation, or if BaseStation stops unexpectedly.  If you are stopping Plane Plotter first , then that's the reason , but if it is appearing without you doing anything then it means that BaseStation is

falling over for some reason.  Check any add ons - GAS AD etc. - to see whether they are causing SBS BaseStation to stop."

 

10054 message

 

10054 means that an outgoing TCP connection failed.  The message is for information only and is not in any sense a show-stopper.  It *could* be caused by incompetent settings at the sending end but it is more likely to be caused by network problems.  If the messages are persistent, then by all means check your I/O settings for anything silly, but otherwise just put it down to being part of the milieu.

 

Reference: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planeplotter/message/46476

 

 

Error messages when closing Plane Plotter after configuring Mlat

 

Q: Whenever I close Plane Plotter I get the error 'Exception ESocketError in module ftd2xx.dll at 0005153B' and then separately from BaseStation 'Asynchronous socket error 10053' and BaseStation stops.

 

A: After installing the Mlat software, you need to close BaseStation before closing Plane Plotter.

 

 

Failure after a long period of inactivity

 

Q: I haven't used my secondary PC for many months, and now it behaves as if it is not registered.  What's happening?

 

A: If you have not accessed the sharing server for a very long time, your sharing access will have been deleted on the assumption that the installation was replaced.  Follow the steps outlined in this Plane Plotter Yahoo group message.

  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planeplotter/message/28501

 

 

Aircraft Lookup not working

 

Thanks for Jim Wakefield who has submitted this suggestion for failures of the aircraft lookup.  However, Bev comments that this is not a complete solution, and may not work in all circumstances (such as when tight security settings in Windows Vista or Windows-7 are the root cause of the problem).  If it works for you, that's great.

 

1. When a NO REG aircraft plot appears on a Plane Plotter chart or map, Left Click on the black Aircraft List icon at the top left of the screen (Fifth icon from the left)
2. Right Click anywhere on the row containing the NO REG aircraft. A dialogue box will appear for Aircraft Registration Database Lookup
3. Left Click on the square maximise icon at the top right of the box to maximise it and see the registration of the aircraft lower down in the box.
4. Left Click on X at the top right of the dialogue box to close it. The required registration should now be seen on the appropriate row in the Aircraft List
5. Left Click on the appropriate Quick Chart icon at the top of the screen to return to your original chart or map
6. The aircraft plot which was showing NO REG should now have its registration displayed.

 

QNH doesn't work but normal sharing does

 

Please note that QNH uses FTP to retrieve the data, rather than HTTP which is used for normal sharing.  So if sharing works, and QNH does not, check the Plane Plotter program and your PC is allowed to do FTP transfers by your firewall software.  You may get an "Error 3" message.  When Plane Plotter downloads the data, it needs somewhere to store it, and I understand it uses the Log Files directory, so that directory must be writeable.  Check with the Options, Directories, PP Log files menu that you have pointed Plane Plotter to a directory where you have permissions to write (i.e. one outside the C:\Program Files\ tree).  If you have a non-writeable PP Log file directory, you may also get the error message: "No flight route database. Check log file directory is writeable".

 

Scripts don't work

 

When I click on a script file - one named <something>.VBS - it doesn't run.  Curt Deegan wrote this helpful note about setting the right file association so that scripts work:

 

Having had to explain this several times helping people to get scripts I've written running, let me offer this step-by-step approach.  To make the necessary association, follow these steps:

 

• Right-click on any file with a .vbs extension in Windows Explorer, it doesn't matter which file
• In the drop-down list, choose "Open With"
• A window will open listing programs, scroll down until you find "Microsoft (R) Windows Based Script Host".  (With Win7 and possibly Vista you may need to click "Other Programs" to see a longer list of choices.)
• Click on that to select it
• Or, if you don't find that listed, click "Browse" and do this:
• Navigate to your "Windows" folder, then to the "System32" folder
• Scroll until you find "wscript.exe" and click on it
• Click on OK
• Check the box next to "Always use the selected program..."
• Click OK

 

You will now have established an association between .VBS files and the MS Windows Based Script Host which executes these scripts.  You will only ever have to do this once.   From now on, when you click to run a file with a .VBS extension, it will be executed rather than opened in your browser or Notepad editor.

 

Why do I get double coast outlines?

 

Double coast outlines may happen because you have both the general.out file (supplied with Plane Plotter) and your own coastal outlines such as COAST_HR_Ireland.out in the charts directory.  For each new release, Plane Plotter will try and create a general.out file, but you don't need it, so these steps will stop Plane Plotter install from creating a new file, and make sure that the existing file will not double-plot on your display.

 

1. In your Charts directory, delete the general.out file
2. Right-click in the directory, New, Text Document.
3. Name the document  "general.out"
4. Accept the warning about changing the file type
5. Right-click the new general.out, Properties, check the "Read-only" box in Attributes.

 

Now when Plane Plotter install tries to overwrite that file, it can't because it's read-only.  Because it has zero size, it doesn't plot anything, leaving the other .OUT files you have as the only ones plotted. By the way, if you don't already have the display of file extensions enabled in Windows Explorer, I strongly urge you to have them shown - see:

  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Show-or-hide-file-name-extensions

 

How do I change the alert sound?

 

In XP, Control Panel, Sounds, Sounds, scroll down the Program Events to find Plane Plotter.  In Windows-7, Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, Sound, Change system sounds.   You should see three sounds: Alert, MLat fail, and MLat OK.  Select the sound you wish to change, and point it to the .WAV file of your choice, or (none).  Alternatively, there is a silent Alert.wav file in the Plane Plotter Yahoo group Files area, and you could substitute that file in the Plane Plotter home directory.  Make the file read-only, so a new install won't overwrite it!