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Board » General Discussion » SPINNACER

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Hi all :)

You might have read my post about posting links to executables, well my link is approved, so here's the post I was talking about:

It's been a couple of times now that I needed to know my SOG, given a TWS and TWA that were different from my current TWS and TWA (for setting DCs mainly). The polar diagram in the client was not exact enough IMO.
So I started writing a little program that could read the polar, and interpolate for me. I called it "Sol Polar Explorer". Then I added some new things (vmc stuff, and a sort of calculator). Then I found that "Sol Polar Explorer" already existed, made by Aaron.. I decided to rename my program, "Sol Polar Explorer" is Aaron's. Besides, my program was getting more than just an explorer.

I introduce to you "SPINNACER":

SOL Polar Inspector N.N. And Calculator to Enhance Racing

:)

Once I added the last big chunk of functionality I will reveal what N.N. abbreviates, until then it's just a Polar Inspector and Calculator.

The source code of Aaron's Polar Explorer is publicly available, including the "official" interpolation that SOL uses. I implemented that, so the data should match pretty well. Thanks Aaron.

---
So what does it do?
1. It can read the files that brainaid provides as "Detailed data as CSV".
2. Show the basic polar (a bit more precise than in the client), **with zooming functionality**
3. Show the polar at a given TWS, providing TWA and SOG information at mouse location. Also: draws VMC line, with best VMC angle and speed towards mouse location. **with zooming functionality**
4. *Secret* - I'm really curious if anyone can find out what it is :)
5. Calculator: Can do almost every calculation involving, TWS, TWA, COG, BRG, VMG, VMC, DST, delay, ETA, etc..
6. Special view at a polar

---
These are some features I want to add:
- Show best VMG angles and "polar hop"-locations in "Pro Polar View"
- Make "Super Pro Polar View" better (have you figured out what it is yet?)
- Make a nice drawing representing the most important numbers in the calculator (so that stupidities get noticed in time)
- Connect with SOL for live boat data
- N.N.

If you can think of any improvement or addition I'd like to hear it. If you find bugs or have trouble of some other kind, please do tell me.

---
Instructions:
1. Download (.zip

if you have no clue what .tar.gz is)
2. Extract to a location of your choice
3. Run the jar file, (can be done via terminal/command prompt: "java -jar SPINNACER.jar")
4. Open a polar file (three polars are included in the download)

---
Have fun!
-kroppyer
______________
edited to check that link did not overlap column

--- Last Edited by RainbowChaser at 2013-10-01 21:54:08 ---
Admittedly I have a Legacy system which is OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger) so I am posting the errors that showed when the file failed to launch.


Issues reported & noted:

--- Last Edited by A2R at 2013-10-02 02:23:37 ---
None so blind
The file can be run with java 7 (aka 1.7) and java 6 (aka 1.6)

I've changed some of the source code so that it should be compatible with java1.4, but calculator-part is a little more work to change. So have a go at this one, see if it works, and then I might make the calculator java1.4 compatible.

SPINNACER for java 1.4 [link broken, see homepage]
(I've not tested it)

If anyone else cannot run the normal version, but can run this version, please do tell me, then I know how many people are waiting for a java 1.4 compatible calculator.

---
Meanwhile, I will post some screenshots and explanations. So that people know what to expect, and decide whether it's useful to put time and effort into getting it to work (which isn't so hard on normal up-to-date computers, no offence A2R :) )


EDIT: stripped this version further down, but it works now. but its slower, and half the functionality is missing.

EDIT: version for java 1.4 available on request. Version for java 1.5 online on homepage.

--- Last Edited by kroppyer at 2013-10-01 22:59:16 ---

--- Last Edited by kroppyer at 2013-10-02 00:13:40 ---

--- Last Edited by kroppyer at 2013-10-05 19:40:43 ---

--- Last Edited by kroppyer at 2013-10-05 19:41:02 ---
I've made a guide, to help you out if you have a problem getting the thing to work, or just to let you have a look at what you are getting yourself into before putting in the time and effort of downloading. It's usually quite easy to get it to run, but I can understand some have a little more trouble, and would want to know if it's worth it.

GUIDE TO SPINNACER
I hope I make Port soon there is a Polar Bear stalking me :)
None so blind
oops, should've posted on "www.sailonline.org", not "sailonline.org" (where I'm logged in as sol)

see below post
-kroppyer

--- Last Edited by sol at 2013-10-05 19:34:40 ---
spinnacer v1.1 beta is available.
Java 1.6/1.7 (default) tar/zip
Java 1.5 tar/zip

changes:
- polar hop locations are shown in Pro Polar View (after super pro polar view has done its calculations)
- in Pro Polar View there is now a Slider to change TWS.
- use right click+drag to zoom if you can't use a mouse wheel to scroll.
- in Pro Polar View, left click to keep twa and vmc lines on current location (click again to let them follow the mouse again)
- You will automatically be notified if there are new versions
- The polar bear is included in the download and won't be downloaded again each time you start the application, you will now be able to bear away and head up properly when you are offline.
- added two new polars

There is no updated guide yet, as it's still a beta version.
Is your Avatar some kind of Fractal Lissajous pattern ?
None so blind
Yes, it is a fractal, or rather, they are fractals.

I found it somewhere in the messy, dusty place that is part of my hard-drive, looking for something else. I thought it looked cool, and deserved a better place. So I took the dust of, and there it is :D
Version 1.1-beta is now deemed stable and released as version 1.1
An updated guide is available. Links in the above post have updated automatically, but here are the most important links again:

sol.kroppyer.nl
Latest .tar.gz
Latest .zip
Latest .tar.gz (for java 1.5)
Latest .zip (for java 1.5)
GUIDE to SPINNACER 1.1

Oh, and the new guide contains a small explanation of Super Pro Polar View, so anyone still curious can take a look.

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