[Vk5-wx-sonde] Fwd: radiosonde_auto_rx v1.5.2 Released!

[Mark Jessop]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Mark Jessop <vk5qi at rfhead.net>
Date: Sat, May 1, 2021 at 3:02 PM
Subject: radiosonde_auto_rx v1.5.2 Released!
To: radiosonde_auto_rx <radiosonde_auto_rx at googlegroups.com>


Hi all,

I have just released radiosonde_auto_rx v1.5.2!

This release of auto_rx brings the following new features & changes:

We have now cut-over to the new SondeHub v2 (
https://github.com/projecthorus/sondehub-infra/wiki) database! This means
no more overloading of the Habitat database, which was intended for only a
small number of amateur high-altitude balloon launches. The Habitat
uploader has now been disabled permanently in this release. Habitat will
stop accepting uploads from auto_rx stations around the end of May.

The Sondehub Tracker (https://tracker.sondehub.org/) has been switched over
to use this new database, with the following changes:
 - Update rates are increased, with 1-second resolution telemetry available
for sondes currently in the air (telemetry over larger time periods is
decimated to avoid overloading browser clients).
 - The telemetry graphs will work for all provided telemetry fields
(temperature, pressure, humidity, battery voltage, satellites)
 - The Signal-to-noise ratio observed by each received is shown next to
their callsign in the list of radiosondes.
 - The radiosonde type is shown next to the serial number in the list of
radiosondes.
 - Chase Car position uploading has been updated to use the new SondeHub
listeners API (
https://generator.swagger.io/?url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/projecthorus/sondehub-infra/main/swagger.yaml).
Chasemapper (https://github.com/projecthorus/chasemapper) has also been
updated to be able to use this API to show chase car positions on the new
tracker.

The Sondehub v2 database is currently handling ~4 million telemetry packets
per day, with peaks above 200 packets *per second* during the major
radiosonde launch times. Running this database system is definitely not
cost-free, so if you'd like to help support the ongoing running of the
Sondehub DB and tracker, we have a Patreon page here:
https://patreon.com/sondehub

Other updates in this release include:

- More improvements to the Web Interface (Thanks @LukePrior !). There are
now some basic controls over the scanning & decoding system available from
a button at the bottom of the Settings pane. These allow the user to halt
the scanner, and manually stop/start a decoder on a provided frequency. I
expect this functionality will mainly be useful for testing purposes, as
the current scanning system works pretty well. These controls are only
functional if web_control is set to True in the station.cfg file, and a
web_password is set. **Note: Stations that have their web interface exposed
to the internet should use this feature with caution - no guarantee of web
interface security is provided!** You may need to Shift-Refresh the page,
or clear your browser cache for full functionality after updating.

- Fixes to SNR reports from radiosonde signals that are fading. SNRs are
now calculated using a 'peak hold'.
- Fixes to handling of telemetry from DFM radiosondes when the serial
number has not yet been received. (Should stop the 'xxxxxxxx' sondes from
appearing on the map)
- Fixed to e-mail notifications for radiosonde types that don't report
ascent/descent rates.
- Update the URLs in the email notifications and the web interface to work
with the new Sondehub v2 database. The main change here is the stripping
off the sonde type prefix that is used on some serial numbers (DFM, M10/20,
iMet...).
- Map movement in the web interface has been smoothed. This does increase
CPU load in the browser - let us know if you experience issues on
low-powered systems.
- Re-named the white/black/grey-list entries in the configuration file to
have more sensible names: `only_scan`, `always_scan` and `never_scan`.

Refer to the Configuration File Changelog (
https://github.com/projecthorus/radiosonde_auto_rx/wiki/Configuration-File-Changelog)
for details on what has changed. As always, auto_rx should be
backwards-compatible with old station.cfg files, though you will see
warnings on startup.

The pre-built Docker Image (
https://github.com/projecthorus/radiosonde_auto_rx/wiki/Docker) is now the
recommended way to setup radiosonde_auto_rx on a new station. Using Docker
avoids issues with updates to dependencies, like is occurring in this
release.

**IMPORTANT UPDATE NOTES:**
* Once again, if you haven't updated to Python >3.6 - **now is the time**
(auto_rx will no longer work on Python 2.7 or 3.5.). If your station is
running on Python 2, please either do a fresh install (ideally with the
latest version of Raspbian), or follow the Python 2 -> 3 upgrade guide
here:
https://github.com/projecthorus/radiosonde_auto_rx/wiki/Performing-Updates#upgrading-a-station-from-python-2-to-python-3

Please report any problems encountered either on the mailing list(
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/radiosonde_auto_rx), or by [raising
an issue](https://github.com/projecthorus/radiosonde_auto_rx/issues) on
this repository.

**PLEASE DO NOT USE THE GITHUB GENERATED RELEASE ZIP FILES - USE THE
INSTALLATION/UPDATE STEPS (
https://github.com/projecthorus/radiosonde_auto_rx/wiki/Performing-Updates)
DESCRIBED IN THE WIKI**

73
Mark VK5QI
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