Main WebReleaseNotesArchive
In this section: Did you know you can search the content of any web page by using Ctrl+F? Enter the search term to find (exact only). 3.6.9 beta 10/4/2007
The Splash screen will now appear for a minimum of 2 seconds.
When a client receives a message from a server operator, the server address will now appear in the title of the message box displayed on the client.
The Configure MCP Information dialog position is now saved in the profile.
A Start Minimized General option has been added.
Clients will now ignore UDP originating from unknown host addresses.
The replay delay is now adjustable from the replay status dialog.
When the "Ignore consecutive datagrams with duplicate UserData? within MCP" protocol option is selected, ignored traffic will now be sent to the dispatcher display in order to prevent timeouts.
Signals cleared by controls will now blink until a subsequent control takes it down, an indication arrives, or an inactivity timeout occurs.
ATCSMon behavior when a Station Name on a dispatcher display is found to be non-unique in ATCSdb is documented below:
When the dispatcher display is started, a list of MCP addresses is created for each such Station.
The effective Station address will be dynamically updated from traffic matching any of the addresses in the list once monitoring has been started.
The mnemonic maintenance and plotting dialogs for a given Station will not be available from the dispatcher display until an address is assigned, and then, they will reflect only values specific to the currently-assigned address.
If identically-named Stations actually exist in the monitored area and traffic may be seen from both, it will be necessary to specify the address as the Station name for at least one of the Stations. ATCSMon will retrieve the actual Station name from ATCSdb when the dispatcher display is started. These addresses are excluded from the list of addresses mentioned above.
The connections window may now be launched from the system tray icon right-click menu.
MSCOMCTL.OCX version 6.1.97.86 is now included in the distribution, therefore, it will not be necessary for users to manually apply the updates documented in the Microsoft support knowledge base article 896559.
3.6.1
Genisys and
Servers now include the currently-defined AAR Railroad Number and
Packet protocol ID values are now "g" and "s" respectively, replacing "G" and "S". Packets received from pre-3.5.5 servers will be transparently converted to the new format via insertion of the current client AAR Railroad Number and
The file naming convention for Genisys /
When replaying files, logfile autorotation is now disabled, as is the dispatcher display inactivity timer.
A Configure | Options | Display option has been added to show a warning message at display load time if Station names / addresses on dispatcher displays are not found in the ATCSdb database.
The .dat extension has been replaced with .log in the Rules | Log file name dialog.
Windows Vista is now a supported operating system.
When displaying multi-part messages, the Packet window will now show "Part n of x" beneath the message number line.
Leading and trailing spaces are now trimmed from IP addresses in the Data Sources dialog.
The Configure MCP Information dialog now contains latitude, longitude, and milepost columns, and dialog height, width, and column widths are now saved in the profile. Additionally, a Select Active MCP's button has been added, which will select all MCP's currently appearing in the main form MCP pane.
ARES 215.2 Time Update message timestamps are now properly decoded.
DDE Errors are now displayed on the Main Status Bar, in order to alert those who have unintentionally enabled one or more of the DDE outputs.
A splash screen has been added, and the main form is now displayed prior to any diagnostic dialogs.
Fixed a bug in 3.6.0 which caused corruption of the Configure MCP Information dialog.
3.5.4
APIgid32.dll and JetComp?.exe are no longer required files, and msjro.dll (installed as a part of MDAC) and BCH6345.dll (
ATCS-Genisys MCP's are now reliably identified, and existing incorrectly-identified MCP's will be automatically fixed when encountered in the data stream.
A "Night Mode" View option has been added which will dim the entire screen (by altering the Gamma correction used by the video chip), and swap the foreground and background colors of the Packet, Messages, MCP, Plot, and Mnemonics windows. If the Night Mode menu item is greyed out, the video hardware does not support the required functionality.
Errors 5 and 401 occurring during profile loading have been resolved.
The Dispatcher Display now supports Track Builder 3 bitmaps, but in background mode only.
Dispatcher display blocks with misconfigured right/left linkage values are now detected.
Track Builder 3 bitmap resizing is now supported.
7/4 beta error 35601 which occurred during loading of the Dispatcher Display layout has been fixed.
The Dispatcher Display station name indication color timeout value will now be used for the "Other" color.
Totally-empty control or indicaton mnemonics values no longer overwrite existing database mnemonics during MCP imports.
The Jet version included in the Windows 2000 SP4 Rollup is now correctly identified in the About dialog.
MCP import and export file open dialogs now display files in detail mode.
The last used replay, MCP import and export directory names are now saved to the profile.
OK logical OR approach indication logic is now supported. Name the block(s) ":xO" in "TB Block Properties - General". The "From Station" and "To Station" supply the two station call-up letters. Specify xOK in Mnemonic Maintenance for each of the MCP's. OK blocks will appear as "FromStation-ToStation:xO" on the dispatcher display mouseover. Unfortunately, it will be necessary to rename any existing mnemonics using the operator "O" (i.e. POK - Power Off indication).
Hypertext links are now supported in dispatcher displays. Text beginning with "http" will appear as a clickable, underlined link, while text with "http" elsewhere will be displayed as a clickable, underlined link to the http target. For example, the text value "http://www.atcsmon.com" will appear as http://www.atcsmon.com; the text value "Click here for the group site.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ATCS_Monitor" will appear as Click here for the group site. The mouse pointer will turn red when over the link hotspot.
A bug preventing the proper decoding of
Runtime error 126 messages that sometimes occurred on Windows 98 SE if the "server sends current controls and indications..." option was selected have been eliminated.
A bug introduced in 3.5.2 causing ARES indications to be identified as controls has been fixed. Existing MCPs will be automatically updated to the ARES control and indication message type defaults of 199.2/9 and 199.13_ values when data is received.
ATCSMon will once again properly terminate upon windows shutdown.
A main menu View | Layout Information option which displays the TB "About Territory" data has been added.
The main Options window will now appear in the Taskbar.
References in layout blocks to non-existent blocks greater than the maximum valid block number will now be detected as an error when the layout is loaded.
Long signal names may now span both the Signal Name and Control/Monitor Name fields. Terminate the value in either field with a "+", and the other field will be concatenated to it when the layout is loaded.
Out-of-service track block controls and indications are now supported for traditional (non-BK, non-OK) approach blocks. When identifying these bits, use the same name as the approach block, but replace the "A" with "X", i.e the out-of-service indication bit for approach block 1
A quick search feature has been added to the Configure MCP dialog, active for address and name searches when either column is the selected sort item. The column names are now appended with an ascending "^" or descending "v" indicator when selected for sorting.
Dispatcher display inactivity timeouts are now disabled during replays.
Dispatcher display MCP addresses are now prepopulated from the database upon layout load, so right- and left-clicks on the station names display the mnemonics dialogs without first having to receive data. This required the addition of an MCPName index to the MCP dataset, which is done automatically on a one-time basis and requires exclusive access to the database. If a station name is not unique in ATCSdb, use the MCP Address as the TB station name, and the station name will be retrieved from ATCSdb at display load time.
Packet counts have been added to the "Servers Connected" dialog.
Client version numbers in the "Clients Connected" dialog now survive display refreshes.
Dispatcher display stations with blank station names are now detected as errors.
Adjustments to initial UDP timing on both client and server instances should minimize server UDP wait state time. Clients connecting to servers configured to send current controls and indications should receive that data upon connection (i.e. prior to receipt of any real-time data).
100.0._ is now a supported MCP Control Information Message Number for IDOT indications.
In client mode, per-server packet statistics are now available in the Servers Connected dialog.
In server mode, packet yield / minute is now available in the status bar packet count tooltip, as well as in the system tray icon mouseover display, when minimized.
Message boxes displayed if a plot is requested for which there is insufficient data now auto-close.
Lower-case Station call-up letters are now supported. ATCSMon will now automatically update Track Builder from 3.1G to an ATCS Monitor-specific version 3.1H which also supports lower-case station call-up letters when Track Builder is run from the toolbar icon.
Rules may now be sorted by name.
Main window MCP and Messages column order is now saved in the profile.
User-defined dispatcher display mnemonics with state values established via VBScript may now be created.
A TB text value of C:3EG=If (1RW
The Station Name of the call-up letter in the defined mnemonic must be unique in ATCSdb. If not unique, use the MCP Address as the TB Station name value, and the actual station name will be retrieved from ATCSdb at display load time.
The defined mnemonic call-up letter must be unique (i.e., not shared) within the layout.
If the defined mnemonic contains a trailing "K" or "Z", the script will be evaluated only upon receipt of indications or controls respectively, otherwise it is evaluated upon receipt of traffic of either type. In any case, script variables not found in undefined references are evaluated as False.
The defined mnemonic must not exist in the control and/or indication mnemonics for the control point.
The defined mnemonic is established within the script engine as a persistent global variable with an initial value of False. The actual variable names are "v" followed by the defined mnemonic without the colon (i.e. vC3EG in this case), which may be referenced in scripts for other control points.
If the "clear indications" inactivity timeout option is selected and a timeout occurs, the defined mnemonic is reset to a False state.
The script expression must contain only valid VBScript, and multi-line statements are acceptable. A help file describing VBScript syntax is available here.
These special text entries are displayed only on the TB dialog and never appear on the dispatcher display.
To aid in script debugging, if the CTRL key is held down while restarting a dispatcher display, all detected scripts will be displayed in message boxes during dispatcher display load, as will the evaluation of the scripts during execution. Additionally, all text entries will be displayed in the raw text window.
The Microsoft Script Control MSScript.ocx, available here, is now a required file.
Up to 30 server addresses may now be specified in the Configure | Options | Data Source | Network Settings dialog.
ATCSMon will now terminate properly during system shutdowns. Additionally, if the main window is manually closed or the main menu Exit option is selected and the save settings dialog is displayed, operation will continue normally if the Cancel option is selected.
The zoom button is now enabled when new plots acquire more than 2 data points.
Plots launched from the dispatcher display will no longer occasionally initially display in a zoomed mode.
Logical active text, broken in the 6/19 beta, is once again functional.
Any mnemonic defined for an MCP may now be used in Active text entries. Previously, standalone active text mnemonics had to be user-defined, requiring specification of a logical value if a defined mnemonic needed to be used. For example, A:1RG&1RG=text-to-display may now be specified as A:1RG=text-to-display if 1RG is defined for the MCP in Mnemonic Maintenance. If 1RG is not defined for the MCP, text-to-display will of course be evaluated as VBScript.
Active text now operates reliably when shared station call-up letters are specified.
An option to log but ignore decoding errors has been added to the General Options dialog.
mms:// and rtsp:// may now be specified in dispatcher display hyperlinks.
The dispatcher display may now be scrolled with the keyboard arrow keys.
Error 13: Type Mismatch errors that occurred when no text entries were specified on a dispatcher display have been eliminated.
The messages window will now display text userdata for ATCS 60.2.11 messages when text is present.
The main menu Help FAQ item has been replaced with a link to the new Wiki Documentation Project.
ATCSdata.dll has been updated to version 3.5.4, eliminating divide-by-zero errors that occurred in very rare cases when packet header checksums failed to detect errors.
Dispatcher display switch out-of-correspondence (switch-in-motion) indications now operate properly for switches defined in TB with lock mnemonic overrides (i.e., "A:1NW,A:3LZ").
Hostnames may now be specified in the Server Mode IP address fields, facilitating denial of server access by software router applications.
ATCSMon will now terminate gracefully at startup if MDAC or Jet are missing or misconfigured.
Numeric columns in the Active MCP Window are now sorted correctly when clicked.
The Progress Bar displayed when replaying text logfiles is now a Slider, which permits movement to any location in the logfile being replayed, and packet timestamps are now displayed at the top of the dialog.
Windows Installer has been replaced by InnoSetup?, therefore it is recommended to back up all user data (profiles, layouts, ATCSdb, etc.), perform an uninstall of any previous version and remove the installation directory before installing this version. After installation, restore user data from the backup. Issues with Windows Installer attempting to perform reinstallation under certain circumstances are of course eliminated when this procedure is followed. From this release forward, only a single installation file will be provided which can be used for both new installs and updates. When updating an existing installation, all user data is preserved.
3.5.2
Fixed a plot bug that occurred when the 2.3.1/3 control message type was specified.
Added a General option to enable addition of Locomotive MCP addresses to the database. MCP name will default to AAR Railroad Abbreviation (reporting marks) and unit number, and names for existing addresses will be updated only if blank. Both 10- and 14-digit addresses are supported.
The Genisys /
The default file naming convention for Genisys /
XOR ("^")is now a supported active text operator.
A port count value has been added to the server base port parameter for UDP communications in the Network Settings | Server Mode Listener Notes field. Specify "Base=26000,100" to limit the assigned ports to 26000 through 26099. Minimum count value is 3, maximum is 100, and a default of 20 is used if a valid value is not supplied. Minimum port value is 1024, maximum is 65000. When present, base values now appear in the Clients Connected window caption. Set this option only if your firewall requires manually-established rules for inbound UDP, or if you wish to limit the number of concurrent client connections, since connection attempts exceeding the limit will be rejected.
The Packet window horizontal scrollbar will be located leftmost after retrieving stored traffic.
Frequency and Protocol columns have been added to the Configure MCP Information window, and it's caption will now display the current ATCSdb path.
Database compression now functions properly on Win9x platforms.
199.2/9 and 199.13_ (signifying 199.131 and 199.136) are now supported ARES MCP Control and Indication Message values, and will be supplied as defaults for new MCP's.
Message snapshots are once again replayable (broken in 3.5.0).
The "Open new capture file at
Navigation buttons have been added to the plot window. To zoom to a selected area, use buttons or click and drag the mouse across the desired points. When zoomed, plot updating will be suspended although no data will be lost. Updating will resume when plot is zoomed fully out. Keyboard arrow keys, PageUP?, PageDown?, Home, and End keys are mapped to button functions.
Graphlite.ocx is no longer required and has been removed from the distribution.
A Protocol option to ignore locomotive packets has been added.
Blocks named StationCallupLetter?:Dead will appear in gray on the dispatcher display, and may be toggled between dark red and gray when clicked.
Run-time error 9's that occurred when clicking another application while a dispatcher display was active have been eliminated.
Track elements obliterated by Active text are now restored when the text becomes inactive.
ATCS Inbound
For those of us who enjoy fishing through packet contents with a hex viewer, snapshot capture files created with a ".raw" extension now contain non-replayable binary data.
Packet window maximum message count is now user-configurable, defaulting to the previously-hardcoded value of 30. Use of large count values may result in sluggish operation during monitoring unless the "Hold Packet Display" toolbar button and/or new "Save decoded data" option is selected. Monitor CPU usage to determine an appropriate value for your machine.
An option to Save decoded data has also been added which saves the formatted packet window text for each packet to the traffic array, resulting in much quicker refreshing of the packet window (read: faster MCP window navigation when running with large message count values) at the expense of substantial memory usage.
The setting of the Hold Packet Display toolbar button is now saved in the profile, useful for server configurations.
When selecting MCP's in the Active MCP window, the mouse icon now changes to an hourglass while the packet window contents are refreshed. Richtx32.ocx is now a required file.
Keepalive error messages are now suppressed when the socket is in the connecting state.
Minimized plots may now be successfully closed from the taskbar right-click menu.
Those who update using upgrade components rather than re-install may need to overwrite riched32.dll in their ATCSMon installation directory with the supplied version if the packet window hex dump displays incorrectly.
The "Always on Top" dispatcher display and plot window title bar right-click menu options no longer disappear after the windows are restored from a minimized state. The redundant Configure | Options | Display | "Dispatcher display is always on top of other forms" option has been removed. Plot and dispatcher display window "on top" option reliability is improved.
Separate Dispatcher display inactivity timeout values for controls and indications are now available, useful for assigning a longer timeout when only controls are received for some MCP's.
Mnemonic maintenance no longer accepts standalone "K" or "Z" values.
The "Clear messages and replay MCP data" Active MCP window right-click menu option has been moved to the bottom of the menu.
3.5.0
X-axis labels on MCP data plots no longer overlay during resizing.
General options have been added to limit the number of plot points and enable/disable automatic plot height updating.
Plot and Mnemonics window location coordinates are now saved in the profile.
Minimized plots now remain minimized.
In mnemonic maintenance, bits which have seen a non-zero value during monitoring (or replay) are now shown in red if unnamed and blue if named. The bit history values for controls and indications are stored in new ATCSdb MCPActivityC? and MCPActivityI? fields. Bit history values are cleared when the "Clear bit history" options are selected, or when protocol, indication bits, or control bits values are changed.
A new rule condition allowing selection of control and indication messages with active but unnamed bits has been added.
FTP transfer routine for transmission of dispatcher display image capture files now recovers from dropped connections more reliably.
Dispatcher display station activity timestamps now appear in the station name control/indication colors.
Added Select All Messages and Copy from Message Window (to clipboard in tab-delimited text format) to main form Edit menu.
AAR_P1_Functions entries in profile (.ini) files will be transparently copied to a new P1Functions ATCSdb table. The entries and section header are deleted from any profile when saved.
When MCP updates are imported in the Configure MCP Maintenance dialog, the original MCP record is now stored in a new MCPRollback table. Use the new Rollback/Undo button in the Mnemonic Maintenance dialog to restore the mnemonic values from the MCPRollback table.
Servers will now send the most recently received control and indication for each MCP to clients at connect time if the new General option for this feature is selected.
MCP information will be added to the ATCS database for all packet types (with non-loco addresses). Previously, only addresses appearing in datagram packets were saved.
Client ATCSMon version number now appears in the server's "Clients Connected" dialog and server logs for 3.4.9 and greater clients.
Toolbar shortcuts have been added for Configure MCP Information and Start/Stop Capture to FIle.
Sound Card Device Name is now saved in the profile when data source is Sound Card, and ATCSMon will now first attempt to open devices by name, then by number.
The middle mouse button will now launch plots from the Dispatcher Display.
The default DDE relay and DDE data source server and topic values of 'DDEServer' and 'DDETopic' may now be overridden with a new General option. When selected, the values will be set to 'Srvxxxx' and 'xxxx', where 'xxxx' is the Server Mode Listener port value, allowing server operators to establish the level of upstream-to-downstream consolidation. So, if you've got four instances upstream that you want to consolidate to two publicly-available downstream ports, configure upstream instance 1 and 2 for 4800, 3 and 4 for 4801, downstream instance 1 at 4800, and 2 at 4801. To have all 4 upstream instances available on a single downstream feed, then configure all instances with the same listener value or simply deselect the option. If you are using one of Larry's external decoders and require this option, contact Larry for an updated version.
FSK (Genisys and
Since Genisys and
Microsoft Jet Engine version now appears in the About dialog.
Dispatcher Display resizing now works with very large displays.
DIspatcher Display station names are now assigned independent activity timers, improving display accuracy.
The error dialog option to supress display of further errors has been removed. Select Cancel on the dialog to terminate ATCSMon, or OK to ignore the error and continue execution.
ATCSMon will now terminate if ATCSdb cannot be found in the specified database path or in the installation directory.
Files scrwin.ocx, mmtty.exe, mmtty.ini, and UserPara?.ini are no longer required and have been removed from the distribution.
Added a Dispatcher Display option to allow non-control/indication traffic to change the station name color to a user-specified value. The change will occur only if the current station name color is the default value (i.e., not currently shown in the control or indication colors).
Added message-specific decoding for message type 100.0.2 IDOT Indications.
2.3.1/3 is now a supported 5-series MCP Control Information Message Number.
Version information in the About dialog may now be copied with Control-C.
In MCP Maintenance, control and indication bit counts now update properly when the protocol value is changed from ATCS to ATCS-Genisys.
Fixed overflow error when using Capture interval greater than 30 seconds.
Intervals in excess of one minute during which no packets have been received will now appear in server logfiles with a status of "Stall".
Note: All required structural changes to the ATCSdb database are performed automatically, therefore no new database is necessary for this release. Updated databases are not compatible with pre-3.4.9 versions, however, MCP exports from post-3.4.8 versions in either .mdb or .mcp format may be imported into earlier versions. In order to eliminate any pre-existing ATCSdb corruption that may prevent these updates from correctly executing, ATCSMon will now automatically run Microsoft's JetComp? compress/repair utility if it opens a pre-3.4.9 database. The utility is now included in both (full and upgrade) distributions, must be present in the ATCSMon installation directory, and must have exclusive access to the database. A new "Compress ATCS Database" option has been added to the Actions menu to facilitate manual database compression. During the compression process, the original source database is retained as ATCSdbyyyymmddhhmmss.mdb in the current ATCSdb path.
3.4.8
A dispatcher display option has been added to clear all non-switch indications at an MCP when resetting the Station Name color due to inactivity.
Signals may now be selected for clearing based upon a logical
A "Copy" button has been added to the "Configure MCP Information" dialog.
Rules may now be triggered by a logical
If the Rules | Log Messages to File filename is an executable file (.exe extension), that program file will be executed with a command-line argument equal to the Rule Name whenever the rule fires.
Replay filename will now appear in the replay Status dialog caption, and the last filename replayed will now be visible in the toolbar replay button tooltip text.
When opening a profile containing no ATCSdb location, the database in the installation directory will be used. Previously, any currently-opened database was used in error.
Replay file open dialog will now display in "Details" mode rather than filename mode.
An Apply button has been added to the Mnemonic Maintenance dialog.
Mnemonic changes are now propagated to active plots.
The "P" key will now launch a plot for the selected MCP in the Active MCP Window.
Server logfiles now contain additional state information to assist in diagnosing connectivity problems.
3.4.6
Switch Indications with identical NW and RW bit values (i.e. NW:0 and RW:0, or NW:1 and RW:1) now cause the switch to be outlined on the dispatcher display in the color selected in the new "Switch in Motion color" option. Active switch locks take precedence over switches-in-motion.
Dispatcher display switch position is now updated only when the NW and RW bits are unequal. Therefore, switches are no longer set to RW if the Test button is clicked when no switch bits have been set.
Inverted mnemonics now default to the selected state (yellow) in Mnemonic Maintenance.
TB station names and MCP names must now be identical (except for case).
ARES source and destination addresses with zeros encoded as "A" are now decoded correctly.
An "Enable Relay Output" DDE option has been added. Active only when the data source is Network, this produces a raw data output compatible with the DDE data source option.
Dispatcher display conditional "active text" mnemonics now operate correctly at stations using shared station call-up letters.
Error dialog captions are now set to the main form caption for easier identification of the instance in error.
Packets causing display of an error dialog are now logged to the logs directory as yyyymmddHHMMSS.err
Server logfiles now carry an .slg extension rather than .log.
File directories such as MCPs, Logs, etc. may now reside either in the installation directory or ATCSdb Path, selectable via new option buttons in the Configure | General dialog.
A General option to create new auto-capture log files each
Overflow errors occurring on dispatcher displays containing many active text fields have been fixed.
3.4.4
Data Source Sound Card and
Messages and Active MCP window fonts are now selectable.
The plot "Always on Top" setting may now be changed from the display's title bar right-click menu.
An option has been added to the "Station Names retain last color" feature that causes station names to revert back to their original color after a specified period of inactivity. A zero value deactivates this option.
Version information in the About dialog is now copyable.
Dispatcher display mouseovers now appear in a fixed location for each Station, and the Ctrl key now displays all mouseovers simultaneously.
Added message-specific decoding for ATCS type 107.4.3 CC_ID_MSG.
Dispatcher display title bar caption will now contain only the TB Territory Name when nonblank.
The Escape key will now close the currently-active child window.
Added Builder Toolbar option to edit current dispatcher display layout.
3.4.3
The Packet Window will now display all saved traffic for the selected MCP without truncation.
Packets which are neither controls nor indications have been eliminated from plots created from data in the Active MCP and Messages windows.
Genisys and ATCS-Genisys plot points for partial indication packets have been corrected on plots invoked from the Active MCP window
The Plot display may now be dragged by clicking on any area outside of the plot itself, not just the title bar.
Broadcast Type 01 messages are now decoded as 2.3.4 Indication ACKs.
In client mode, server connections are now handled independently. If a server cannot be initially reached or an operating feed fails, all other feeds continue to operate normally. If auto-reconnect is specified, only failed feeds are restarted.
Server IP address and port number have been added to the "Network Error" dialog.
Servers will now terminate client connection attempts if the connection sequence is not completed within 20 seconds.
An option to view the server connections log has been added to the main menu "View" option.
Session termination status information has been added to the server log.
Connection counts have been added to the system tray mouseover display.
Non-essential files in the ATCS Monitor distribution are now tagged as optional in the .msi file, so that their removal will not trigger automatic re-installation by Windows Installer.
Railroad abbreviation lookup now uses the
System responsiveness is much improved during replays with nonzero replay delays, and when replays are paused.
Added Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filtering option for both sound card input and wave file replays for ATCS, ARES, and 202T modulation. Select the DSP (Digital Signal Processing) tab on the Configure | Options dialog to enable filtering and configure filter tap coefficient values. Filters should have odd tap counts, and must have from 11 to 299 taps to be considered valid. Filters may be imported from the distribution atcsmon.ini, or use a freeware tool to design your own and use the Edit button to import the values via cut-and-paste. The Edit dialog will accept values in the format "tapname=value" or simply "value". A downloadable FIR filter designer may be found at dazyweblabs.com, or search the web for "fir filter design" and use one of the many many free Java applets available. WARNING: Substantial improvements in ARES and 202T packet yield have been seen during testing, however, poor filter design can certainly degrade yields. Using a filter with ATCS modulation is not recommended at this time. To evaluate the effectiveness of a filter, record a .wav file of representative audio and replay it with the filter enabled and disabled and compare the results. New DLL nbfir.dll is REQUIRED for this release.
The dispatcher display "Always on Top" setting may now be changed from the display's title bar right-click menu.
MCP names for auto-added 7-series ATCS MCP addresses ending in "01xx" will now be automatically created from the "0202" or "0102" address name suffixed with "c/c".
Active text mnemonics are now sorted by state (off first, on second) prior to processing by the dispatcher display, which is consistent with other mnemonic types.
Profile files greater than 32K but less than 64K are now supported on NT or later windows versons. If a profile greater than the supported length for the version in use is opened, a warning message is issued.
Profile progress status display now appears whenever profile data is saved.
Dispatcher display visibility status is now saved in the profile.
3.4.1
Messages window configuration dialog value "Number of messages to display..." is now saved in the profile.
A bug introduced in 3.4.0 causing runtime error 380 on TB2 layout files has been fixed.
3.4.0
Corruption of the Network Settings dialog that occurred after an address was added as been fixed.
Corruption of dispatcher display crossover colors has been fixed.
Corruption of the main display that occurred when the application was restored from the system tray has been fixed.
TB Station Name and Text colors with corresponding
At least one Hostname / IP address must be enabled in the Network Setting dialog in order for monitoring to be started if the selected data source is Network.
The annoying beep that occurred when sending messages from the messages window to the dispatcher display via the "s" keystroke has been eliminated.
The Mnemonic Maintenance tab order is now from right to left, mnemonic text is automatically highlighted (selected), and the "OK" button is now the default action when the Enter key is pressed.
User-defined mnemonics (without the leading "$", but ending with "K" or "Z") may now be entered in Mnemonic Maintenance. These may be used to control dispatcher display text by setting the text value in TB to StationCallupLetter?:UserDefinedMnemonic=DisplayedText, remembering that TB Mnemonics do not carry the trailing "K" or "Z".
It is also possible to specify two mnemonics separated by "|" (logical OR) or "&" (logical
Switch lock ("LZ" and "UL" base mnemonics) status is now shown on the dispatcher display as a color outline surrounding the switch when active. Specify xLZK or xULK in Mnemonic Maintenance, which will automatically associate with the TB switch named X:xNW; if it is necessary to override this default behavior, name the switch "X:yNW,X:xLZ" or "X:yNW,X:xUL" in TB, where "X" is the StationCallupLetter?. Outline color is selectable in the Options | Display dialog.
BK approach indication logic is now supported. Name the block(s) ":xB" in "TB Block Properties - General". The "From Station" and "To Station" supply the two station call-up letters. Specify xBK in Mnemonic Maintenance for each of the MCP's. BK blocks will appear as "FromStation-ToStation:xB" on the dispatcher display mouseover.
The "Servers Connected" dialog now displays the server-assigned remote port number for UDP communications.
The "Clients Connected" dialog now displays the server-assigned port local port number and the client's remote port number. A "UDP" column indicating "Wait" if no UDP has been received from a client or "OK" if UDP has been received has also been added.
The server base port number for UDP communications may now be specified in the Network Settings | Server Mode Listener Notes field in the format "Base=26000", facilitating establishment of firewall rules for inbound UDP. The port numbers assigned to clients will be the sum of the base value and the connection index. Set this option only if your firewall requires manually-established rules for inbound UDP.
When the packet display is held and the current message window sort sequence is by ascending time received, the messages window will no longer scroll but will continue to be updated.
Analyze Signal and "Data Sources" toolbar shortcuts have been added.
MCP plots now display control and indication data points only on their respective lines. Previously, a data point was plotted on every line for both controls and indications. Additionally, gray horizontal grid lines and right-side mnemonic legends have been added. A new Graphlite.ocx is REQUIRED for this release.
Plots may now be launched from the dispatcher display with a shifted (actually Shift, Ctrl, or Alt) right or left click on the station name when the station name mouseover is visible.
3.3.7
A bug preventing decoding of ATCS messages with address types 25h - Emergency Broadcast and 27h - Direct RF-RF User has been fixed.
A bug causing client overflow errors when remote port numbers exceed 32767 has been fixed.
A bug in the real-time connections logic that caused servers to crash when client connection duration exceeded 16 days has been fixed.
The Test button in the Mnemonic Configuration dialog is now disabled when no dispatcher display is running.
The Network Settings subdialog now contains check boxes to enable or disable specific IP addresses, and options to permit or deny server access based upon IP address have been added. Denied connections are now logged. Server operators will need to review default setting for appropriateness.
All Active MCP and Messages window column width settings are now retained.
The Messages window Received field now contains the full date and time.
The Messages Type Details and Configure MCP Information windows are now resizable.
Capturing now functions properly during non-wav file replays.
Client winsock 40020 errors that occurred when auto-reconnect was disabled and a connection to a malfunctioning server was attempted have been eliminated.
3.3.5
A General option to enable server connection logging has been added. Log files produced when this option is enabled will be found in the Logs directory with filenames consisting of the profile name (without extension) followed by the current timestamp in yyyymmddhhs