[1.0] Figaro Global Navigation Satellite System - Launch a Working GPS System

[blenderman]

does this plugin let you record a "track" of where you vehicle traveled? It would be cool to be able to show the path traveled as a map overlay either a flat map or a picture of the planet with the track traveled.

[Kimberly]

It doesn't currently do that, but that's not a bad idea, blenderman. Even better if we could do that in reverse, plotting out a route from coordinate to coordinate.

[drtedastro]

Need to be able to do both.

Record where we have been, then be able to upload a track for it to follow, telling it where and how to go.......

[PakledHostage]

@blenderman: I agree that it is a good idea. I won't make any promises, but I will think about how I could implement it.

UPDATE

I have fixed the bug that people were reporting, but once again I can't log in to SpacePort. I had the same problem about a month ago and Rob (N3X15) helped me get access to my account, but I seem to be locked out again. I'll send another email, but I don't expect to hear back for several days because, according to the "Oh the places we'll go! blog article, the guys are all out of the office into next week.

Until then, please accept my apologies. You can still avoid the bug by only having one craft at a time carry the receiver, or reverting to the old method of using a unique acronym in the names of all of your satellites (change the "GNSSAcronym" parameter in the Figaro Receiver's Part.cfg file to match the acronym you are using if you choose this work around).

[Kimberly]

Why not upload it to a mirror in the meantime?

[PakledHostage]

UPDATE

I have posted the latest version (v 1.0.21.03) to SpacePort this morning. I have tested my changes using AviatorDSB's persistence file as well as with my own persistence files. The bug seems to be fixed. Hopefully it won't rear its ugly little head anymore. Thanks, everyone, for your patience while I worked to resolve this issue.

[m4v]

does this plugin let you record a "track" of where you vehicle traveled? It would be cool to be able to show the path traveled as a map overlay either a flat map or a picture of the planet with the track traveled.

IMO it should be a separate plugin, since I can see more causal gamers wanting the same feature without having to deploy a GNSS constellation in every place they go.

[J.Random]

Very cool mod, lots of potential here. I have a small issue and a suggestion.

Issue: on multiple occasions, when GNSS coverage wasn't full yet, I had receiver showing N/A for position/accuracy, but some 12-15 sats "visible" (I think those were ALL gnss sats I actually had in orbit at the moment) in status page. Not sure how to reproduce.

Suggestion: it would be nice to be able to see all the info at once. So, it may be better to change UI to something like KER (couple of buttons on top, pressing the button toggles the corresponding mode and expands the mod window).

[Kimberly]

IMO it should be a separate plugin, since I can see more causal gamers wanting the same feature without having to deploy a GNSS constellation in every place they go.

What's the fun in that, though? If they want that feature, they gotta work for it. They could just deploy four fixed stations around the area they want to navigate in.

[molunbun]

Thanks for this great mod but I seem to have found an annoying bug. If I turn on the receiver and press ESC, the pause menu won't show up but it works fine when it's turned off.

[SirJodelstein]

Regarding the tracking stuff: Check out my Persistent Trails Mod. Records any vessel tracks by lat/lon/alt, currently powered by the the magic of handwavium (i.e. i read the values directly from the game). I am currently trying to find out if there is a way to add cross-mod compatibility here (like "for GPS-Receiver-Equipped vessels, only allow recording if a GPS fix is available"). The first part (checking if the vessel has a receiver) is easy. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a way to access the results of the GPS calculations (signal quality and calculated lat/lon/alt).

[rcman914]

"Issue: on multiple occasions, when GNSS coverage wasn't full yet, I had receiver showing N/A for position/accuracy, but some 12-15 sats "visible" (I think those were ALL gnss sats I actually had in orbit at the moment) in status page. Not sure how to reproduce."

I have incountered the same problem with the N/A for the position/ Accuracy and having 15 satellites visible. The only mod I have installed is this one. I have KSP version 0.21.1.276

[m4v]

"Issue: on multiple occasions, when GNSS coverage wasn't full yet, I had receiver showing N/A for position/accuracy, but some 12-15 sats "visible" (I think those were ALL gnss sats I actually had in orbit at the moment) in status page. Not sure how to reproduce."

I have incountered the same problem with the N/A for the position/ Accuracy and having 15 satellites visible. The only mod I have installed is this one. I have KSP version 0.21.1.276

Yes, it usually happens when dropping stages: everything is working fine, drop a stage and later everything gets set to N/A.

[PakledHostage]

Yes, it usually happens when dropping stages: everything is working fine, drop a stage and later everything gets set to N/A.

I will look into this issue ASAP if someone can post details on how to duplicate the problem.

[KhaosCorp]

I will look into this issue ASAP if someone can post details on how to duplicate the problem.

It seems really hit or miss on when it happens, also seems to be tied to the part, or at least the part causes higher rate of occurance .

[PakledHostage]

It sounds like it may somehow be loosing track of the spacecraft that contain the transmitter part when you stage. It updates its database of craft that contain the transmitter part every time the number of craft changes (i.e. when you stage). I will look for a bug there.

Does it recover if you turn the Figaro receiver on and off with the right-click menu?

[m4v]

Does it recover if you turn the Figaro receiver on and off with the right-click menu?

No. But sometimes crashing the craft with the receiver did recover it for the next flight.

[PakledHostage]

Thanks, that might actually be enough of a clue. It runs a bit of a Rube-Goldberg machine type architecture when the module loads. It sounds like I have to improve the reliability of that initialization code.

[m4v]

Thanks, that might actually be enough of a clue. It runs a bit of a Rube-Goldberg machine type architecture when the module loads. It sounds like I have to improve the reliability of that initialization code.

So I decided to debug it myself, since I could reproduce it with reliability, and after compiling the plugin with just some prints for check some variables, I couldn't reproduce it any more. Which is very odd, I had this problem with .21 too and I don't understand why a recompile fixed it (at least for now).

edit: I take it back, I could reproduce it. But is a lot more random for me now.

Edited October 23, 2013 by m4v

[PakledHostage]

I've had a couple of people sending me PMs to ask about when the next Figaro update is coming out, so I'll answer it publicly: In a week or so.

I will try to find time to download v0.22 of the game over the coming weekend and will work on it then.

Also, m4v very kindly provided me with some of of his troubleshooting findings and I will be incorporating his suggestions into the code when I finally get a chance to work on it.

[PakledHostage]

UPDATE

Thanks to m4v's help, I have fixed the bug that resulted in the Figaro receiver sometimes failing to find satellites. I have uploaded the new version to SpacePort.

Please help me show m4v our appreciation by giving him some rep points (click the little star at the bottom left of any of his posts, above).

[KFS]

Well i downloaded the newest version from the spaceport..for me its still not working?

Untitled space craft is the one with the receiver..all of the clamshell gps sats have transmitters on them..

The test craft( a probe core with the reciver and a generator from lack luster labs)

but even when a satellite is overhead...it doesnt work..am i doing something wrong..?

the satellite

[m4v]

@KFS, you need 4 satellites for get a fix on your location, click the button of the KerbalGPS window until you see the satellite count, if it says "1" when your satellite is overhead then is working, but you need 4 before it can show any coordinates.

edit: to clarify, you need 4 visible satellites, a constellation of 4 sats isn't going to cut it. Mine has 12 sats for example.

Edited November 8, 2013 by m4v

[PakledHostage]

Further to m4v's post, I'd like to add that satellites are only visible when they are above the horizon. Like with real GNSS systems, the signal is line of sight.

Edit: Reposting a .gif from the Q&A section on the first page of this thread. It shows how the number of visible satellites in the real world GPS system changes with time:

Edited November 8, 2013 by PakledHostage

[PakledHostage]

UPDATE

I have posted a new version of this mod to Kerbal SpacePort this evening. Changes include the following:

– Updated KerbalGPS plugin for version 0.23 of the game

– Exposed some variables in the plugin to allow in-game integration with other mods such as SirJodelstein's Persistent-Trails plugin.

Edited December 18, 2013 by PakledHostage