xcapcon - X windows based capture control user interface

PANEL

Polar and Geostationary Satellites    (Receiver) (SetAuto) (BuildProc)

Pass Type:  InView Scheduled Autosched Online Cataloged

Search Criteria (InView) (Catalog)     List Format @@ Scheduled


(List) (Orbit) (Print) (Edit) (SetProc) (Del) (Sched) (Help) (Quit)

     status  satel  telem  date  time  durat  el azm  pr arc process
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DESCRIPTION

In addition to this brief overview of xcapcon, the user is advised of the existence of three other sources of relevant information about the operation of xcapcon. xvu(1) describes user interface panels and the items within those panels. xcapcon describes the files that are manipulated by xcapcon. And finally, each lower level panel has its own help button, providing information relevant to the operation of that panel.

xcapcon is an integrated X Windows based CAPture CONtrol function that supports both polar orbiter and geostationary satellite families. xcapcon operates in two distinct modes. The first mode entails creating and operating on lists of satellite passes. Lists of passes are always displayed in the main display list area, which is the large area at the bottom of the xcapcon main panel. The second mode involves maintaining the autosched parameters file, i.e. doing autoscheduling. Autosched parameters are accessed and displayed through a separate panel which is brought up by pressing the Set Auto button.

Five different types of lists can be brought up in the display list: InView, Scheduled, Autosched, Online and Cataloged passes.

InView passes are those passes visible from the receiver site (or another site if the receiver location is changed, via the Receiver button). Criteria for selecting InView passes can be changed by changing the receiver site or by changing pass selection criteria via the InView button.

Scheduled passes are strictly those passes in the schedlist file. Keep in mind that not all passes in the schedlist file, although "scheduled", may not be run due to conflicts.

Autosched passes are those passes which will be scheduled on the next run of the autoscheduler. This provides a look-ahead function to allow the scheduling of additional passes without worrying about conflicts with the autoscheduler. There are no selectable criteria for autosched passes, but the autosched parameters themselves can be changed with the same result.

Cataloged passes are those passes already captured, archived to tape and logged to the catalog. Selection criteria for these passes can be manipulated by using the panel brought up by the Catalog button.

At least one Pass Type must always be selected before the List button is pressed to display the related passes. It is possible to select any combination of Pass Types by selecting the related values, but the user is cautioned that depending on the specific criteria involved, Cataloged and InView passes may take some time to be generated.

To provide maximum information about the displayed passes, but to stay within the width of the list area, three different List Formats are supported. These are Scheduled, Schedule2, Online and Cataloged. Each of these formats is supported for each of the five list types, and may be changed via the List Format item.

In general, the information in the display list is self-explanatory. A few items that are not self-explanatory are discussed hereafter:

The status field identifies the source of each listed pass; the following values are possible:

V    Inview pass

S+   Scheduled pass, will  be run, no conflicts
S+>  Scheduled pass, will  be run, future conflict
S+<  Scheduled pass, will  be run, prior conflict
S+<  Scheduled pass, will  be run, prior/future conflicts
S->  Scheduled pass, can't be run, future conflict
S-<  Scheduled pass, can't be run, prior conflict
S-<  Scheduled pass, can't be run, prior/future conflicts

An   Autosched pass, corresponds to autosched record n

On   Online pass, corresponds to online pass n

C    Cataloged pass

In addition to status there is a single acronym that needs a little explaining, "ARC". This acronym stands for AutoArchive (y/n), archive write device (y = use the default device, n = use some other device) and Catalog the archived pass (y/n). Since there are typically no more that two tape devices attached to a TeraScan capture system, this suffices to describe all possible autoarchive combinations.

Of the remaining fields all are merely abbreviations of the complete field identifier. For the sake of completeness these are described hereafter:

Satellite name

Satellite telemetry

Date in yy/mm/dd format, GMT

Time in hh:mm:ss format, GMT

Pass duration in mm:ss format

Satellite maximum elevation (approximate)

Satellite start azimuth (approximate)

Priority of the scheduled pass

Name of the postprocessing script

Status of the actual framing process

Status of the actual autoarchive process

Whether the autoarchive process will be logged in the passcat

Number of lines in the captured pass (0 while the pass is in progress for online passes)

Number of the pass on the archive media.

The tape label of the tape on which the archive label is written.

Priority of a scheduled pass, lower numbers mean higher priority

The antenna to use to capture a scheduled pass

The autosched rule name or masterfile name used to generate a given scheduled pass.

Of the five list types, three support no types of constructive or destructive operations. These are the Cataloged, Online and Autosched lists. While the former of these can be selectively displayed, none of these support any form of edit, addition, deletion, etc operations.

Of course by changing the underlying data file (passcat, onlinecat, autosched) the lists may be changed. However, only the autosched file can be changed from within xcapcon. All types of lists may be printed (by pressing the Print button) and polar orbiting satellites may have their orbits displayed (in the Orbit panel, brought up by pressing the Orbit button). The remaining permissible operations are as follows. InView passes may only be scheduled (by pressing the Sched button). Scheduled passes may be deleted (via the Del button), or have their archive and postprocess parameters changed (via the SetProc button), or finally have their start time , end time and priority changed (via the Edit button). Pressing the help button brings up this overview of xcapcon functionality.

PANEL ITEMS

Receiver

This button is used to setup the receiver location for use in displaying InView passes (and only InView passes). Pressing this button brings up the Receiver panel. Receiver location defaults to the current location and typically this function is only used to determine what passes other sites might be able to capture.

SetAuto

This button brings up the Set Autosched panel, which is used to display, edit, create or delete autosched records. the schedule).

BuildProc

This button brings up the Build Proc panel, which is used to create simple post-processes.

Pass Type

Pass Type is a choose-many type of field. The possible values are InView, Scheduled, Autosched, Online, and Cataloged passes. It defaults to Scheduled and Online (those scheduling related fields of the greatest interest.)

Search Criteria

This item consists of two buttons that allow access to the parameters for listing InView and Catalog passes. These are the InView button and the Catalog button. Pressing either of these buttons brings up the respective panel.

List Format

This cycle item determines the variety and arrangement of column headings at the top of the display list. The values are Scheduled, Online, and Cataloged. The default is Scheduled.

List

This button fills the display list with descriptors of the passes selected in the Pass Type field in the format chosen under List Format. For the InView and Catalog types this information is filtered by means of the criteria selected in the respective panels.

Orbit

This button brings up the Orbit panel for display of the orbits of any type of polar-orbiting pass. It does not work for geostationary passes.

Print

This button causes the contents of the display list to be printed. The default printer ($PRINTER) is always used, so be sure to set it correctly before starting up xcapcon.

Edit

This button brings up the Edit panel, provided that the last pass selected is a scheduled pass. Only a single pass is operated on at a time.

SetProc

This button brings up the Set Process panel, provided that there are scheduled passes selected. It operates on all selected scheduled passes.

Del

This button deletes all selected scheduled passes. There is no confirmation, so use carefully.

Sched

This button brings up the Add Schedule panel, provided that there are scheduled passes selected. It operates on all selected scheduled passes.

Help

The Help button brings up this document in a help window.

Quit

The Quit button exits xcapcon.

In addition to these xcapcon built-in functions there are the normal X functions available in the pulldown menu from the top menubar, e.g., iconize, resize. Be advised that the resizing of xcapcon will not expand the character size or display window and may result in an unusable interface.