Gpredict 2.0 released

Gpredict
1

Greetings,

I’m happy to announce that Gpredict 2.0 has been released!

This release accumulates many features and bug fixes that have been done over the last six years, including:

  • New logo
  • Initial port to Gtk+ 3
  • Import transponder data from Satnogs database https://db.satnogs.org/
  • Support for multiple TLE sources
  • Improved radio and antenna rotator controllers (no application freeze)
  • Map can be centered around arbitrary longitude
  • Natural sort function for satellite list in module configuration
  • Select a satellite in all views
  • AOS and LOS signalling in rigctl interface
  • Autotrack satellites in a module
  • Support for user defined end stops on Azimuth axis
  • Experimental gpsd support
  • Change frequency and antenna position using the mouse wheel
  • Highlight satellites within range in the list view
  • Improved handling of decayed satellites
  • Fixed application freezing while talking to radios and rotators
  • Fixed incorrect program name in desktop files
  • Fixed 100% CPU load on manual time adjustment
  • Fixed issue controlling Yaesu FT-847
  • Fixed old log files not being saved
  • Fixed track button in rotator controller having no effect
  • Fixed operational status of satellites
  • Fixed wrong icon in time controller
  • Fixed mising ground track for new satellites
  • Fixed show next pass shows the current pass
  • Fixed problems with plotting footprints near the poles
  • Fixed satellite nickname not escaped for Pango
  • Updated translations

Source code is available on GitHub or SourceForge.

Binaries for Debian-based systems are available from our PPA or Debian Unstable.

Linux AppImage is a work in progress. So is windows support.

For Mac OS X please try MacPorts.

Thanks to all contributors :smile:

Happy tracking!
Alex OZ9AEC

13 Likes
3

Hi Alex,
thank you for your work. Hope it solved mit gpsd problem.
I get a failure when i try to “./configure” the new gpredict on my pi3.
Still using the “old” jessi.
configure: error: Gpredict requires libgoocanvas-2.0-dev
I’m confused and could not find it.
Could you please help me?
Sigvald.

4

It’s because Debian Jessie did not include it. Please use a newer version of the OS.

5

Also, I’m not sure which gpsd problem you are having, but I haven’t touched the GPS code in gpredict for this release. This was a more or less enforced panic release to make Gpredict compile with Gtk+ 3 and avoid deletion from Debian. There are still many issues to sort out, but now I am hoping for more frequent releases.

6

Hi Alex,

Thanks for your hard work on this nice program.

I want to build a rotator and would like it to be compatible with an existing common device, to ensure that it works right off the bat.

Could you make a suggestion as to which rotator protocol I should use?

Regards,

Herman

7

Hi Herman,

You can use the same protocol as the SatNOGS rotator. I believe it is the Yaesu GS232 protocol. There is also a GS232A and GS232B variant, but I do not know what the difference is.

8

Thanks, Google found a PDF copy of the protocol immediately.

9

The fundamental difference between the GS232A and GS232B protocols is the format of the response provided to the C2 (get position) command. There is fundamentally no difference between the GS23/ GS232 and GS232A protocols however there are implementations out there which are ‘incorrectly coded’ which is why there is a generic GS232 hamlib rotator backend.

10

I’m running into the same error, missing libgoocanvas-2.0-dev, even though I’ve installed libgoocanvas. I’m running the latest CentOS 8 stream, installed last night. Does this REQUIRE a Debian-based linux?

11

It does not.

Libgoocanvas contains the library required to run predict. To build the gpredict you also need the corresponding development packages, usually called libgoocanvas-dev or libgoocanvas-devel (possibly with a version number in between).

May I ask why you need to build predict from source? Is the version available in Centos 8 is old? The latest stable release of predict was made more than 3 years ago…

12

Thanks. Yes, I had to build all of those other dependencies, including goocanvas, but as I said, ./configure didn’t recognize that I had goocanvas. I was only building it because I wasn’t able to find the package. I ended up installing a Ubuntu-based distro, which easily gave me gpredict with a simple apt install.

13

I use Linux Mint 20.3 Una and get “Gpredict requires libgoocanvas-dev 0.15 or later”

14

Lets have a look if Mint (Ubuntu) has a package in there repository.
I would suspect it is already in there and then you won’t need to build it yourself.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-cache show gpredict

Package: gpredict
Version: 2.3-72-gc596101-3
...
...
...

And if the output shows a version 2.x run sudo apt-get install gpredict