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April 7, 2020

Livetracking

This page describes the Livetracking menu of XCTrack. Check the other sections to lean more about the different features of XCTrack.

Videos have been produced to explain the different features of XCTrack Pro. Check the videos tuto page to learn quickly how to use XCTrack Pro.

The livetracking menu is only available in the menu after enabling livetracking in Menu/Preferences/Livetracking.

If Livetracking is enabled, next time you will start XCTrack, a new window will appear, asking if you agree to share your position. Sharing your position is obviously required for the Livetracking to work. If you disable sharing (until next start of XCTrack), you won’t be able to be livetracked. However, the Livetracking menu will still be available, in order to select pilots to see on the map, or to send a message. It could be useful when you’re in a car and want to see your buddies.

Note that livetracking will be enabled even when you select to temporarily disable it during startup when a significant flight is detected (150m AGL, duration > 2 minutes). If you don’t want to enable Livetracking, you can disable it in Menu/Preferences/Livetracking.

Check how to set Livetracking and messages in Menu/Preferences/Livetracking, how to check your Live status in the details of the Status line in the system subsection of the XCTrack Pro widgets manual and the details of the Livetracking widget in the Livetracking subsection of the XCTrack Pro widgets manual.

If you face problems getting Livetracking working, check this FAQ related to Livetracking

Livetracking sends your positions every 60 seconds to a server and obtains the positions of other pilots 20 km away. Very little data consumption, around 100 KB / hour.

If you want to see a track from another pilot on the map using Livetracking, you can select the pilot in the Livetracking menu. You will get the track from that pilot and its position when the server obtains his data.
You can send messages to other pilots also through the Livetracking menu.

Click on the + sign to read details below.

Xcontest live webpage

On the Live webpage of Xcontest, you can view all the pilots using livetracking.

Select which pilot you want to track by checking the small square on the right of the pilot either in the filter window or directly by selecting the pilot on the map.

By clicking on the pilot’s name, this will zoom on the pilot you want to track.

 

 

To see all pilots currently flying with Livetracking, just click on the main link: https://live.xcontest.org/

To see only pilots of a particular contest, the livetracking feature was fully integrated to the website (LIVE option in the left menu).

For example https://www.xcontest.org/bpc/en/flights/live/ will show pilots that hav registered for the Belgian Paragliding Cup.

 

 

Advanced filters

Click on the top left button to open the menu and access the filter options.

You can filter by nationality, take off site, Live or landed,…

 

 

Full details, get Google Maps direction

Right click on the pilot’s name (long click with a smartphone) or click again on the pilot’s name after clicking once to select him, to get full details.

Full details includes a new button to get Google maps direction.

 

 


 

Once selected with simple or full details, you can follow the pilot by checking the square on the right.

The full track since takeoff will appear on the map, as well as a new window in the bottom with altitude history.

To display the vario and speed history as well, open the menu on the right of that new window in the bottom and select what additional info you want to review.

By clicking anywhere on that history window, you can replay the flight at a specific time. Increase or decrease the replay speed by clicking on the “Play” icon (just above the history window) to get the Play menu and change the play speed.

By opening the settings in the top right, you can adjust the font size, as well as choose what info to display by using the Play mode.

 

 

Sat map, Rain radar

On the top right, open the map menu to select the sat map or display the rain radar.

 

 

Flights

The flights tab lists the different pilots that are currently “live”, starting with the closest pilot.

Check the square on the left to decide which pilot you want to track. Once checked, you will be able to see the track of such pilot directly on your map.

Don’t forget to enable the “display nearby pilots” and the “display tracklogs of selected pilots” in the configuration of the XC map widget or Task map widget.

Read details how to access the configuration of widgets in the customize section, and check the configuration details in these widgets in the XContest subsection and Competition subsection of the XCTrack Pro Widgets Manual.

Click on the pilot to send a prepared message.

Once you have clicked on the pilot, you will just need to choose one of the prepared message to send the desired message. Check how to set messages in Menu/Preferences/Livetracking and the details of the Livetracking widget in the Livetracking subsection of the XCTrack Pro Widgets manual to keep the history of the received messages.

Messages

After clicking on the pilot you want to send a message, you will land on the second tab of the Livetracking menu. Just click on the prepared message you want to send and click on “send message” button to send the message. On the right side of the window, you can read the history of the messages that you sent and that you received from the pilot.

Check how to set Livetracking messages in the Menu/Preferences/Livetracking and how to read Livetracking messages with the Livetracking widget detailed in the Livetracking subsection of the XCTrack Pro widgets manual.

FLARM

If you have connected a FLARM receiver that communicates FLARM ID’s to XCTrack, you can bind the Flarm ID with the username of the pilots. XCTrack will display the username instead of the FLARM ID on the map.

 

First of all, go to the Livetracking menu. This menu is only available if Menu/Preferences/Livetracking/Livetracking enabled is active. If this is not the case check here how to enable it.

You will see 3 tabs: Flights, Messages and FLARM. Click on the Flarm tab.

 

If a Flarm ID is detected, it will be displayed with no username.
If there is no Flarm ID, you can click on the “+” sign to add a new record.

 

To edit, put your finger on the record and swipe gently your finger towards right in order to EDIT it.

To delete a record, put your finger on the record and swipe gently your finger towards left in order to DELETE it.

 

 

 

 

 

Once done, the FLARM ID will be converted with the Username.

 

When someone has a flarm/fanet device that is connected to XCTrack , XCTrack asks the device for its address. With livetracking enabled, the information about the address is transferred to the liveserver and provided to other pilots. This allows XContest to deduplicate the pilots from XContest livetracking (received through the internet) and information from flarm/fanet received via radio (that contains only addresses).
So, the mapping between address and xcontest username is maintained by livetracking server.

 

 

 

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