Bug Fixes When working with PIC 1.03 or older, prevents an erroneous failsafe trip. This fix should only be applied if your Satlink has version PIC 1.03 or older and is occasionally tripping the failsafe. Satlinks with PIC 1.03 and older were manufactured in 2001. PIC version can be read via the Communicator's Firmware menu.

January 2004

Satlink Communicator: 3.12

Improvements • Modem dialing improved.
• Satlink supports ARGOS and SCD satellite types.
• NDBC 40W Mode support.
• Support for Satlink display
• Various minor fixes and improvements.

Bug Fixes:
• Occasional log download failures fixed (bug would manifest with the YModem
• Progress dialog showing no progress & no log being downloaded).
• CmdListAutoSave.cmd file created only when necessary.
• Two Communicator programs can download logs from two Satlinks at the same time.
August 2004
Satlink2 6.04

Bug Fixes
Analog fix:
There were intermittent failures in some units to make accurate analog measurements or to turn on the switched 12V output.

August 2004
Satlink Logger Communicator Version 3.10.01

Support for Satlink2 6.04 and Satlink Logger 5.09

May 2004
Satlink2 6.02

This is the first released version for Sutron's Satlink2 product.

May 2004
Satlink Logger 5.09

New features & enhancements
• Dramatically improved the amount of time previously required for a Satlink with a Trimble GPS to make the first (since cold bootup) satellite fix.
• Better overall GPS performance.
• Measurement averaging and sampling implemented. The result of a measurement can now be the average of multiple readings made at an user set interval.
• Equation processing added to measurements (the result of each sensor reading can be processed through complex user set mathematical equations).
• Various status information can be appended to the end of a transmission (including station name and amp temperature).
• Improved handling of massive time changes.
• GOES 100 preamble defaults to short (rather than long).

Bug Fixes:

• There was a very slim chance that Satlink would crash if the user started a log download.

May 2004

Satlink Logger Communicator Version 3.8.16
Support for Satlink2 6.02 and Satlink Logger 5.09

Enhancements
• Averaging/sampling support added.
• Equation processing support added.
• Analog measurement support added (Satlink 2 only).
• Enhanced append options for scheduled transmissions added.
• Auto-enabling and disabling of controls in the measurement and transmission tabs help ensure a proper setup.
• Exporting setup and status allows both to be exported at the same time.
• Quick View window is optionally shown when user exits Communicator
• Graphing options added. Graph access put into tools menu.
• Graph will show bad data to the user (previously, bad data was simply not graphed).
• Forward and reflected power readings of last transmission may be accessed through the diagnostic tab.
• Battery Voltage shown on Quick View window.
• Start/Stop button updates properly
• Cancelling log download and Satlink upgrade will first prompt the user. .cfg file is no longer created in the local directory. All the settings are kept in one .ini file.
Bug Fixes:
• Tipping Bucket dialog was not remembering user entered settings.

March 2004
Satlink Logger 5.08

Bug Fixes
Units setup to do INSAT transmissions (only INSAT) would occasionally trip the failsafe. This bug was introduced in version 5.05.

March 2004
Satlink Logger Communicator Version 3.8.11
Support for Satlink2 6.02 and Satlink Logger 5.09

New features & enhancements
• Averaging/sampling support added.
• Equation processing support added.
• Analog measurement support added (Satlink 2 only).
• Enhanced append options for scheduled transmissions added.
• Auto-enabling and disabling of controls in the measurement and transmission tabs help ensure a proper setup.
• Exporting setup and status allows both to be exported at the same time.
• Quick View window is optionally shown when user exits Communicator.
• Graphing options added. Graph access put into tools menu.
• Graph will show bad data to the user (previously, bad data was simply not graphed).
• Battery Voltage shown on Quick View window.
• Start/Stop button updates properly.
• Cancelling log download and Satlink upgrade will first prompt the user.
• .cfg file is no longer created in the local directory. All the settings are kept in one .ini file.

February 2004
Satlink Logger 5.06

New features & enhancements
• INSAT transmissions allow the use of two satellite IDs, one for the first three, and the second for the last three transmissions in a six transmission batch.
• GOES international or MSG data are no longer filtered using the International Alpha 5 character set. Instead we use the standard ASCII character set as defined by NOAA which is used for other GOES transmissions.

Bug Fixes
• Units setup to do INSAT transmissions would always make 6 transmissions, even when they were given data for only three.
• The time displayed for "Last Frequency Discipline" was actually the time of the last GPS sync.
• Opcode 3 previously could crash Satlink if too many errors had been recorded.
• In previous versions, if a user setup a Satlink that could not log (either a bad log chip or no log chip on board), Satlink used to try to log measurements, with could lead to undefined problems.

February 2004
Satlink Logger Communicator version 3.07

New features & enhancements
• Support for entering a second satellite ID for INSAT transmissions added.
• The quick view window will warn the user if any active measurements are not being transmitted.

Bug Fixes:
• Self test results were being misinterpreted. When the Self Test button on the diagnostic page was pressed, the confirmation dialog would show an incorrect result. If the user hit the OK button on that confirmation dialog, the self test would be run and the proper result would be shown. Note that there was never any misinterpretation in determining whether there was any error, just in which error there was.
• Communicator was upgrading both the main application and the bootloader when auto upgrade was selected (even thought it should only have upgraded the main application).
• Minor cosmetic fixes.

January 2004
Satlink Logger 5.05

• Fixes bug introduced in 5.03 and present in 5.04: When working with an 8210 Sutron Data Logger, Satlink would transmit old data. It would transmit data which should have been transmitted in the last transmission.

October 2003
Satlink Logger 5.04

New features & enhancements
• Support for the India satellite INSAT added.
• Log download speed increased drastically.
• Satlink can now show the user what a formatted transmission message would look like after it was received by the base station.
• Dumb logger mode implemented: a Satlink in this mode treats all non-packetized data coming into the serial port as data to be transmitted.
• Bootloader version 4.31 which ships with 5.04 allows increased firmware upgrade rates. Instead of taking about four minutes to upgrade to 5.04, it takes only one.
• Opcodes added for reading forward and reflected power.
• Added functionality that allows user to find out how long a transmission would last. This was partially present in previous versions (see documentation for Opcodes 222, 227, 317, 322).
• GPS time syncing is now periodically done even when Satlink is stopped.
• Behavior change: autostart is no longer an option. Whenever the user hits start, Satlink will autostart if rebooted. Whenever the user hits stop, Satlink will not autostart when booted. This is equivalent to autostart being enabled whenever the user hits start, and disabled whenever the user hits stop.
• Tipping bucket count can be set even when the system is running. Bug fixes:
• Pseudobinary encoding was truncating instead of scientific rounding the transmitted values. This means that there was a discrepancy between logged and random transmitted data.
• Getting last measurement for measurements index 9 and 10 now works. Before, even though Satlink would log and transmit the values, it would not show them to the user.
• Potential problem with transmission timing due to too much sensor data being selected for transmission fixed.
• Discrepancy between actual Satlink voltage and that shown to the user fixed.
• 8210 Satlink combo automatically turns on autostart so that if Satlink crashes (and the 8210 does not), the system keeps running.
• Transmission count display was incorrect when more than 32768 transmissions were shown.
• Concurrent (and only concurrent) SDI-12 measurements would sometimes (one out of several hundred readings) ask for data from the sensor before it was ready. This would result in zero being recorded as the measurement.
• Measurements index 9 and 10 were not being shown properly in Satlink Communicator's Data tab. The data was properly transmitted and logged.
• Previously, a canceled log download would cause Satlink to consider the canceled data 'downloaded', such that the next time it was asked to download since last download, it would not give the data that got half-transferred.
• ARGOS intervals of less than one minute now work correctly.
• ARGOS was not accepting external data for transmission.
• Fixed Opcode 219 (Get Time until Data is Accepted into the Scheduled Transmission Buffer) which was broken by version 5.03.
• Fixed a bug introduced in 5.03: if the user were to stop Satlink while it was preparing a transmission (this is a window of just a few seconds), Satlink would claim it stopped, but go ahead and make the transmission. Note that it is still impossible to stop Satlink from making a transmission if it has gotten to the loop lock phase (green LED comes on in this phase).
• Another bug introduced by 5.03 causes a Satlink take about 2 minutes to boot up for the very first time (and only the very first time). Customers are not affected by this - only test personnel.
• SDI-12 reliability improved (interference by PIC communication caused a 120ms blackout).
• The error "Missed scheduled measurement" used to be recorded whenever Saltink could not make the measurement exactly on time. With this version, the error is not recorded if Satlink can catch up and make the measurement after it finishes whatever it was doing that caused it to be late in making the measurement. Basically, the error is logged only if Satlink truly misses the measurement, not if the measurement is late.
• Serial communication collision resolution changed such that Satlink will not abort a response packet if he gets a retry while responding. Satlink will only abort sending debug packets in case of a collision.
• Handled HC12 XIRQ bug with a workaround.

October 2003
Satlink Logger Communicator version 3.06

New features & enhancements
• Quick View Status gets displayed on Communicator startup to show the user a at-a-glance status of Satlink.
• Communicator can now graph measurements and log files.
• Communicator can now show what the transmission data looks like.
• The user now has the option of forcing all measurements by clicking a single button on the data tab.
• The user can now see the last reading of each measurement (instead of 32 readings of one measurement).
• Bootloader self test results can be seen without running the self test from the diagnostic page (they are automatically displayed when the user checks Satlink’s version).
• Upgrade failure cause is displayed when an upgrade fails (assuming Satlink can be talked to); it is also displayed in the firmware upgrade dialog.
• Communicator remembers whether user wants to work connected.
• The option of not showing the startup dialog is made available.
• The downloaded log separates date and time with a comma instead of a space.
• Log download results are given more detail.
• Log download speed increased.
• Production calibration features enhanced.
• Satlink's version information is prefixed to the exported status.
• Changing the slope and offset on the Tipping Bucket Count window changes the measurement setup. Bug Fixes:
• Intermittent crashes while running on Windows XP Professional have been fixed.
• Communicator would not close if it could not write its .ini file. This would happen to users of Windows 2000 and Windows XP who did not have write privileges to the Windows directory.
• Fixed bug that may result in the Communicator complaining about Satlink's setup being different (even though it is not) when the user hits force measurement.
• When the check version button was selected and Communicator was talking to a Satlink older then 5.03, an access violation sometimes came up.
• The download log button no longer tries to download the log if the Satlink it is talking to has no log chip.

May/June 2003
Satlink Logger 5.03

New features/enhancements:

• As a part of the status, Satlink reports whether the system is malfunctioning.
• Red LED heartbeat synchronized with the clock (the LED blinks on the second at the top of the minute and then every 5 seconds if running, or every 10 seconds if stopped).
• Green LED blinks on the top of the minute (this is caused by checking battery voltage).
• Battery voltage of last transmission reported in status next to current battery voltage.
• ARGOS/SCD satellite support added.
• Support for Trimble GPS added; Satlink is capable of figuring out whether it has a Leadtek or Trimble unit on board and acting accordingly.
• GPS time syncing and frequency discipline is done in parallel with transmissions (allows shorter transmission interval; lowers chance of transmission failure due to lack of GPS signal).
• GPS signal strength checked for more often (gives user better idea of the satellite tracking status).
• Watchdog added to low power mode (increased system reliability).
• PIC error handling improved; if the failsafe is tripped, the reason why is visible to user. PIC comm issues are no longer recorded as errors.
• Made change to transmission scheduling that allows the user to set the offset to be less than the interval.
Bug fixes:
• GPS communication will no longer collide with SDI. This was a potential bug that had an extremely rare chance of occurring.
• Packet collision handling improved (if Satlink was outputting a debug messages at the exact time that a command was sent to it, a collision would occur and a retry would not fix it). This is not an operational issue as debug output is disabled when Satlink is deployed.
• Memory fragmentation issue fixed.
• A variety of fixes to system stability implemented.

May/June 2003
Satlink Logger Communicator version 3.05

New features & enhancements
• ARGOS and SCD satellite support added.
• Supports Satlink Logger embedded software version 5.03.
• Ability to export Satlink setups and status into an ASCII format added.
• Printing options added.
• Option not to search any further after Satlink is found added.
• Closing the debug output window tells Satlink to stop debug output.

Bug fixes:
• Bootloader upgrades were failing when the upgrade file was in a path that contained a space in its name.
• Sometimes when the user selected a valid upgrade file, the open file dialog would reappear.
• Problem with selecting upgrade file when upgrading fixed.

January 2003
Satlink Logger 5.02

New features & enhancements
• Log may be downloaded/cleared while the system is running.
• Select portions of the log may be downloaded.
• GPS 'health' indicator
• GMS and FY satellite types added.
• Failsafe cause and time displayed in system status.
• Status now includes PIC failsafe info, whether debug output is enabled, whether the build is a debug build, whether INSAT hardware is present, and if the build is a debug build, then heap memory usage is displayed.
• Error list has been changed to contain 10 bins: each bin holds one error type, the times it occurred first, last and the number of times it occurred.

Bug fixes:
• Satlink with Sutron 8400 DCP: Clock was not being set properly
• Satlink with Sutron 8400 DCP: A rare bug that would cause errors when fetching data from an 8400 DCP was fixed.
• A random transmission following a failed random transmission due to GPS problems used to schedule itself too soon.
• Unaccounted for random transmissions are now accounted for.
• Garbage appearing in the log as a result of a power down during a log erase was fixed.

January 2003
Satlink Logger Communicator version 3.2

New features & enhancements
• Communicator can talk to Satlink transmitters version 4.11 and older.
• Communicator automatically upgrades main application and bootloader when upgrading from version 4.11.
• Communicator window size and position remembered between sessions.
• Satlink log chip status kept track of - user warned if he tries to do logging on a unit w/o a log chip.
• Bootloader self-test can be invoked from the Communicator.
• Satellite ID editable only from main page.
• Debug capture can be turned on w/o being connected to Satlink.
• Multiple Satlink Communicators can simultaneously download logs from multiple Satlinks.
• User given access to GPS UTC offset.
• Tipping bucket dialog improved.
• The "Enable auto update" setting is stored between sessions.
• Log filename changed to include date and unique suffix.

Bug fixes:
• Fixed bug which showed times of 24 hours as 00:00:00.
• Start test transmission would claim a test transmission was started when it was not.
• Updating connected status made to immediately effect main page.
• Setup got from Satlink checked for validity.
• Random and STS channel validation fixed.

September 2002
Satlink Logger 5.01

The first released version of Satlink Logger embedded software.

September 2002
Satlink Logger Communicator version 3.01

This was the first release of the Satlink Logger Communicator visual program.