PTHSonde v1.5.2 - minor bug fixes

Minor bug fixes

PTHSonde v1.5.1 — readable map prediction lines

Patch release on top of v1.5.0.

Fixed

• Map: flight prediction lines are now readable on every basemap. The predicted-path and baseline lines were thin, half-transparent, and gray, so they disappeared on the Satellite and Dark backgrounds. They're now drawn as a bold bright core over a dark halo — cyan ascent / orange descent, with the frozen GFS baseline as a lighter dotted reference — matching the flight-track styling.

All v1.5.0 features are included (Analysis ops panel + custom surface, self-contained SHARPpy, Open Past Flight, selectable basemaps).

Install

Download PTHSonde-windows-x64.zip, extract it, and run PTHSonde.exe inside the PTHSonde folder.

PTHSonde v1.5.0 — Analysis ops panel, custom surface, self-contained SHARPpy, map basemaps

Self-contained release — the download now includes the real SHARPpy SPC panel, no separate install needed. (Larger download than before: ~220 MB.)

What's new

Analysis tab

• New operational-products panel with color-scale ranges: severe weather (SCP, STP, SHIP, DCAPE, MLCAPE/CIN), moisture & deep convection (precipitable water, K-index, Total Totals, lapse rates), fire weather (Haines, Fosberg, ventilation rate), and icing / freezing levels.
• Surface card shows the pressure/temp/humidity/wind actually used. Set Custom Surface lets you edit the surface and start the sounding at a chosen pressure, then re-process. Custom runs save to data_CS.csv and never overwrite the raw data.csv.

Open Past Flight

• Browse your saved flights and re-open one in its own folder — re-processing (and custom surface) writes back there instead of creating a new dated folder every time. External-CSV import is still available.

Map

• Selectable basemaps: Streets, Satellite (with city labels), and Dark — remembered across sessions.
• Flight track redrawn with a bold core over a contrasting halo so it stays legible on any basemap; map overlay buttons made readable.

Under the hood

• Bundles the SHARPpy render environment so the genuine SPC panel works everywhere; render runs isolated from the app so there are no Python version conflicts, and no console window flashes during processing.

Install

Download PTHSonde-windows-x64.zip, extract it, and run PTHSonde.exe inside the PTHSonde folder.

PTHSonde v1.4.6 — Pair the next sonde after End Flight

Dashboard fix (follow-up to v1.4.5).

After Stop Flight, the next sonde now prompts to pair

v1.4.5 unpaired the flown sonde on Stop Flight, but the pair prompt was still gated by the flight-done state (which stays set until you hit Clear). So powering on a new sonde after ending a flight did nothing — no prompt. Fixed: a finished live flight keeps prompting for the next sonde, so you can pair straight into the next launch without clearing first.

Details:

• The just-flown sonde is dismissed on Stop Flight, so it won't instantly re-prompt while it's still transmitting during recovery — but a different (newly powered) sonde will prompt.
• Pairing the next sonde while the finished flight is still on-screen clears the old plots/buffer first, so the two flights never mix. (The prior flight's raw CSV was already streamed to disk during recording.)
• Clear now also resets dismissals, so any sonde can prompt again.
• Reviewing an imported CSV still blocks live pairing (unchanged).

Packet format unchanged — no sonde or ground-station reflash needed.

Windows build attached (PTHSonde-windows-x64.zip).

PTHSonde v1.4.5 — Pair-lock to the flying sonde

Dashboard fix.

Pairing now locks to the sonde in the air

Once you pair to a sonde ID, the dashboard ignores every other sonde on the air — a bench/spare unit powered up nearby can no longer be ingested, plotted, recorded, or re-paired to. Only packets from your paired sonde flow into the flight.

Unpair on Stop Flight

Clicking Stop Flight now clears the pairing to the sonde that just flew, so the dashboard is free to pair the next sonde for the next flight (a note is logged to the Console).

Packet format unchanged — no sonde or ground-station reflash needed for this release.

Windows build attached (PTHSonde-windows-x64.zip).

PTHSonde v1.4.4 — Header-parse fix (all-red / no-pairing)

Dashboard fix.

Partial CSV headers no longer corrupt the column map

A CSV header line split across two serial reads still begins with rx_ms, so the dashboard accepted it as complete and rebuilt its column map missing the trailing columns — every v_* sensor flag plus sonde_ch. The result was the intermittent all-sensors-red + no pairing popup while packets kept streaming.

The header is now trusted only if it carries the full column count and the trailing columns (v_ms, sonde_ch, crc_ok); anything short is ignored, the known-good map is kept, and a warning is logged to the Console. Applied to both the live serial and CSV-import paths.

Windows build attached (PTHSonde-windows-x64.zip).

PTHSonde v1.4.3 — Geopotential altitude + shared time-series axis

Dashboard update.

Geopotential altitude (GPS-anchored)

Altitude is now computed the way meteorological radiosondes do: hypsometric integration of the sonde's own measured (virtual) temperature, layer by layer, anchored to the launch altitude (pad-averaged GPS, or a manual override in Settings).

• Replaces the plain ISA formula, which ran ~500 m low at altitude on a real flight.
• Verified: at the first GPS fix the barometric altitude is within ~16 m of GPS; the baro and GPS altitude traces now overlap.
• Still works above the GPS ceiling — GPS is only the launch anchor; the altitude itself remains barometric, and it falls back to the ISA formula when no GPS anchor exists.

Shared time-series x-axis

All time-series plots now share one time axis [t0, tN], so the wind plot advances with the others before GPS lock and its data lands at the correct shared time position once locked — instead of restarting from the left edge.

PTHSonde v1.4.2 — Field Quick-Start Card

Documentation update on top of v1.4.1.

New

• Field quick-start card (§9.2.1) — a print-and-cut card sized 3.62 × 6.6 in (300 DPI, print at 100%): payload/ascent/link spec chips, the Kaymont latex fill table, a 9-step launch checklist, numbered prep photos (battery, zip-tie, flight line) and the flight-train diagram.

Fixed

• Spec table reconciled with the hardware — pressure-altitude range is now 0–31 km (the MS5611 barometric range, not the GPS envelope); wind is relabelled GPS-derived, 0–100 m/s.
• Removed implementation/marketing copy: the "valid above the GPS ceiling" claim, the "firmware already flashed" note, ESP32 / 3D-printed mentions, and the sonde-on-USB references.

Prebuilt manual PDF attached.

PTHSonde v1.4.1 — Manual polish + Inventory Tracker

Documentation update on top of v1.4.0 (Balloon Fill Calculator).

Manual

• Cover art — severe-weather backdrop (public-domain NOAA cumulonimbus), filled edge-to-edge; the hero sonde's sensor window is now transparent so the cloud shows behind the thermistor; logo balloon filled white; orange subtitle for contrast.
• Header — larger PTHSonde (left) and TracerLab (right) logos, now on every page except the title.
• Chapter 5 reorganised (balloon choice, fill table, and Fill Calculator in one section); flight-train diagram pinned in place; parachute drawn as a triangle.
• New appendix: Inventory & Stock Tracker — fillable sonde / balloon / lift-gas tables, one per page.
• Measurement spec table reconciled with the firmware — 3 s downlink (TX_INTERVAL_MS = 3000), 1 Hz internal sampling, 5 s wind average; fixed stale quick-reference figures.

Prebuilt manual PDF attached.

PTHSonde v1.4.0 — Balloon Fill Calculator + User Manual

Balloon Fill Calculator

A new Fill Calculator tab in the dashboard, next to Skew-T + Plots.

• SondeHub-style horizontal layout, themed to the dashboard.
• Own physics: gas buoyancy vs. aerodynamic drag with an ISA standard atmosphere.
• Manufacturer balloon lookup (Kaymont/Totex, Hwoyee, Pawan, latex, custom) and four lift gases.
• Payload-train preset (PTHSonde 80 g) or custom payload.
• Aim for a target ascent rate or a target burst altitude — the other is calculated.
• Send to Flight Predictor carries the numbers to the map landing predictor.

Flight predictor

• Launch elevation now defaults to 0 m.

Dashboard polish

• App-wide themed thin scrollbars; winds-aloft table no longer has a nested scrollbar.

Documentation

• Complete User Manual & Operations Guide (LaTeX + assets) in latax/ — the sonde,
  ground station, dashboard, flight predictor, balloon fill, launch, in-flight operations,
  and SHARPpy analysis. Prebuilt PDF attached.