WindMaster 4.6.0

WindMaster 4.6.0 is now relased and is now recommended for flight use.
WindMaster 4 have the following features (compared to WindMaster 3):

• Main Window
  • MDI window in the main form has been changed to one window with split bars. The sizes of the Map/Altitude/Target areas are changed by dragging the split bars. The keys F2 and F3 works as before.
• Regions
  • Regions concept is introduced where maps, DEM and waypoints could from different geographical regions could be easily loaded and selected for presentation.
  • By default are shortcuts to DEM and Map directories under Program/WindMaster paced in Region “WindMaster 3”. This Region could be removed when all Maps and DEMs are in the new structure
  • A number of regions has been prepared for WindMaster 4 and could be found here!
  • Note that Waypoints that are stored in regions are only used for presenting. They can’t be used as targets or editing.
• Maps
  • Several types of maps can be presented. The following maps can now be presented:
    • Key D: Normal Digital Map
    • Key F: Aerial map
    • Key X: Road map
    • Key J: Terrain map (not used currently)
    • Key R: Elevation map based on DEM
  • It is possible to have overlay maps presenting roads and names on the Aerial and Elevation Maps. These overlay presentation can disable by unchecking the menu item “Maps”/”Show labels”
  • All maps are presented in uniform projection no mater the projection of the underlying maps.
  • The following projections are used
    • Transversal mercator according to the grid system that is set Options
    • Latitude/longitude
  • Transversal mercator is used when all the criteria below are fulfilled, otherwise is Latitude/longitude projection used
    • The display coordinates shall not be in Latitude/longitude (D, D.MM or D.MM.SS)
    • The center median of the selected grid system projection can not differ more than 30 deg from the longitude of middle of the whished presented area
    • The scale has to be less or equal to 1:1 000 000
  • Maps from other coordinate system can be presented in any grid or in latitude
    • UTM 32 maps can be presented in UTM 33 and vice versa
  • Maps from several sources can be combined into one map. Eg. Maps from a boarder area may consist of maps from two country
  • Faster map engine. The number of disk accesses needed for drawing maps has been reduced to a minimum
• GPS
  • Full support for Garmin USB GPS
  • More than 10 times faster communication with serial Garmin GPS (from 9600 kb/s to 115400kb/s)
• Digital Elevation model
  • DEM maps could be used up to 1:1000000
  • Faster DEM. Up to 4 full DEM files are stored in primary memory
• World Magnetic Model
  • The World Magnetic Model, which is used for calculating magnetic declination, has been upgraded to WMM2010. This model supersedes WMM2005 and is valid until 2015. The accuracy during this period is predicted to better than 1 deg.
• 3G Window
  • This function is still under development and shall not be used during flight.
• Others
  • A Time/Altitude chart has been introduced. Starting and landing time and statistics of the flight can easily be extracted

Known errors:

• Change grid system without restarting
• Shut off GPS during replay

WindMaster 4: To do list in

1. Update documentation
2. Windows 7 ready (might only require testing)
3. Using Binary protocol with Garmin OEM GPSes (GPS 15-20)
4. Uploading waypoints to Garmin GPS
5. Full Tablet PC functionality
6. Replace latitude/longitude projection with spherical mercator
7. Drag and zoom map with mouse
8. Draw objects of any shape
9. Get 3D to work