FAQ

Yes. This may sound a overly confident but we have two things on our side. One, logger software and hardware vendors need their customers to be able to use the data they create in order to be valuable. Two, we have been doing this for over five years. There are times that we needed to be creative like with ContourGPS when we had to pull the data out its video stream but these are exceptions.

We recommend saving data from your logger into one of these popular formats: GPX, TCX, FIT or NMEA.

If these are not an option, export your data as a CSV file.  From within DashWare, you can easily open the CSV and tell DashWare about the data and save a profile for future imports.

Below is a sample of loggers that we support. The full list of loggers and software that customers use with DashWare would fill our entire website.

2D
Aeris Compumask
AiM
Alfano
APM 2.5/2.6 (using Flytrex)
Appareo
AR Drone
Blade 350 QX (using Flytrex)
ChaseCam (we auto-extract data from their video files)
ContourGPS, Contour+, Contour+2 (we auto-extract data from their video files)
DashCommand
DashDaq
DashWare iOS Logger
DJI Naza (using Flytrex)
DJI Phantoms (using Flytrex or Vision Plus Utility iOS/Android apps)
DL1 – Race Technology
Driftbox
Drift HD
Garmin Loggers
Garmin VIRB Camera
FlySight
Flytrex
Flymaster GPS
FuelTech
G2X – Racepak
GoBandit (we don’t auto-extract their data, but we support their NMEA data
files)
GPX
Haltech
Harry’s Lap Timer
Holux
HP Tuners
MaxQData
MoTeC
MotionX
My Tracks
Nike Fuel
NMEA
Polar .HRM
PowerTap
Qstarz
RaceChrono
RaceLogic
Racepak IQ3
RLC
Run.GPS
SM-Modellbau
Shimano CM-1000
Sony Action Cam GPS — HDR-AS30V/B
SpeedAngle
SpeedCoach
SRM Power
Stack
Starlane
Suunto Ambit Watch, Foot Pod, and Heart Rate Monitor
TCX
Torque App
TrackAddict
Trackaroo
Trail Tech
Traqmate
Traxxas
Ultra GPS Logger
Vision Plus Utility iOS/Android apps
XT Racing

Here are some notes on making a DashWare-friendly CSV data file:

-It’s good to have a static line of text at the top declaring that it is your data format. Something like “Some Cool Logger Data File”. The DashWare Data Profile for your format can then be easily set up to automatically detect one of your data files.
-We require a CSV header line: A line of text containing the column headers/names.
-Then the raw data lines would follow after that.
-There should be a Time column (full timestamps work great, e.g. “2011/08/07 20:10:02.200”, or the total running time in seconds e.g. “1.1”)
-Latitude and Longitude should be in +/- decimal degrees
-Be consistent with your data units, or at least change the column name when you use different units. DashWare can be used to create calculated data columns for other units.

You will then need to make a Data Profile that understands your format. Bring up the Data Profile Editor (File Menu > Edit Data Profiles…) and press F1 for detailed help. Tips:
-The column mappings (bottom right area of dialog) are used to map your column names to known DashWare data types. Set up the mapping for your time column first, so you can use the “Test File / View Data…” button. It is very handy. “ / Data Running Time, Seconds” is the mapping you need.
-To get a map to show up, you need to use our “Degrees to Cartesian Converter” (calculators/converters are in the bottom left area of dialog) to create X and Y units in feet. You must map these new X and Y output columns to our “Positional \ Longitude / X Position (Feet)” and “Positional \ Latitude / Y Position (Feet)” data types.

Have a look at an existing data profile, such as the GPX one, as an example.

Changing DashWare to handle arbitrary text fields is actually a very big change. All of the code is optimized for handling, and storing numbers.

Here is a way you can work around it:

We have a component type called “Digit”. The Digit component is really meant for letting you make your own numerical digits in image files, then using the Digit type to display them.

You get to specify an image file for every digit, 0 through 9. Normally your image files would show digits, but they can really show anything you want. What you can try is… instead of using text values in your CSV file like “motor burn-out”, you can use a number to specify the state.

0 –> motor burn-out
1 –> parachute deployment
2 –> landing
etc..

Create an image file for each state that shows the state’s text value. The appropriate one will be displayed by the Digit component, depending on the numerical state value.

If you have more than 10 states, you can use 2 digit components placed over top of each other. One will handle the 0000001.0000000 digit position, the other can handle 0000010.0000000.

In your first Digit component, 0 would be a blank/fully transparent image, 1 through 9 would handle the first 9 states.
In the second Digit component, 0 would again be blank, and 1 through 9 would handle 9 more states.
And so on.

So state 00 in the CSV would mean nothing is shown.
State 01 would mean Digit component 1’s first state would be shown, 09 would be the last.
State 10 would mean Digit component 2’s first state would be shown, 90 would be the last.
etc..

The Google/Bing Maps license pricing makes it impossible for small companies to use their maps API in a pay-for PC application. Hardware manufacturers can get around it by having free software to go with their hardware.

However, as a workaround, you can take a screen capture of a Google/Bing map. Then add it as an Image Component behind a Map Component. It takes a little tweaking to size it properly, and line it up. But the result is cool. Here’s an example:

Double click on the NAME of the gauge (in the project tab) that and this will bring up the Gauge Input Mapper dialog. Here you can manually assign data file channels to gauge inputs.

How to make ground based altitude–it will be a single step at the start of every project for you:
-Figure out what the ground altitude is (for example, 750 meters)
-Make a clone of the data profile you are using, so that you can edit it. This can be done in the Data Profile Editor (File Menu > Edit Data Profiles…)
-In this clone add a Math Calculator (bottom left area) that takes the Altitude in meters and subtracts 750. Call this new channel “Ground Based Altitude”, or whatever you want.
-Map your new channel to our appropriate “Positional \ Ground-Based Altitude” type, based on your desired units.
-Save the new data profile.

Every time you make a change to a data profile, or want to use a different data profile in a project, you need to remove then re-add your data file to the project. So re-add your data file to your project and select your new cloned data profile.

Add a gauge to your project that shows ground based altitude, or edit an existing gauge and change the gauge’s input data type to ground based.