Specifications

BATS AND PORTABLE BATS OPERATION

3-5

3.1 “TRACKMAN” SOFTWARE PHILOSOPHY

I know from experience that sometimes you can just run a program and everything seems intuitive

from the start. Other programs you struggle through and nothing makes sense as far as the menu

structure. I am going to give a brief overview of our design philosophy and how and why it was de-

veloped this way. So, when you are plucking through the menus saying to yourself “What was that

person thinking?” maybe this will help! If not, send us an email. Criticism accepted! This software

has been designed and tested on various computers and operating systems. It can run under Win-

dows®

95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, and XP. Even given all our testing, I am sure there are some combi-

nations of hardware and software that will cause some quirks in its operation, but for the majority

of machines it is stable. See section 2 for recommended hardware and operating systems.

The “Trackman” (originally TrackPoint Data/Control Manager) software evolved from EdgeTech’s

earlier TrackPoint II USBL system. It was designed to allow an interface between any of our new or

future USBL products. It also has a means to communicate with Navigation software (e.g., IPS) on

the same PC using UDP or TCPIP, that is sending the USBL data to a software port and having the

Navigation software read it directly without having to go through hardware ports. This Trackman

program can then be hidden

(minimized) once the USBL System has been setup and the Naviga-

tion software run as the primary display. See SETUP menu. The basic menu structure is shown be-

low.

 File Menu Similar Windows environment FILE pull down menu. Controls typical PC

interface items such as disk services and printer, etc. Exit also.

 View Menu Having to do with the viewing of the screen either plotting or setup.

 Setup Menu This is for system setup not related to the USBL system or BATS Trans-

ceiver. Beacons, PC, etc.

 USBL Menu Allows setup of items pertaining to the USBL Transceiver.

 Test Menu Built-in test or simulated target.

 Window Menu Allows various modes of tiling (Tile Custom & Auto Tile Custom) the win-

dows, Tracking, Project, etc.

 Help Various Help Topics

There is a feature (“Update While Hidden” function) that allows the Trackman software to not up-

date the plotting while hidden (minimized). This saves a lot of processing power for use in other

programs such as the Integrated Navigation programs. Trackman’s main function is then to just

collect and process data and pass it on to an Integrated Navigation Software package.