Tracker 5.0 installers for Windows, Mac and Linux are now available from both the Tracker home page (http://physlets.org/tracker/) and ComPADRE (http://www.opensourcephysics.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=7365).
This is a important upgrade and I recommend you install this new version. Here are the biggest changes and additions:
Tracker now runs right out of the box--no separate Java needed
Tracker Help is searchable--results include context and links
User-settable units (length, mass, time) are displayed in fields, plots and tables
Annotation drawings now include labels and easier control of appearance and visibility
Calibration sticks are faster to use: click, click, enter to calibrate
Tracker no longer requires "legacy Java 6" on OS X
Of course not all changes are additions: QuickTime support has been eliminated. RIP.
If you have any problems or questions concerning Tracker, please feel free to contact me :-)
I have installed Tracker 5.0 on Ubuntu and am not able to get the calibration stick to work. I can get one little "+" mark for the first end of the stick, but I can't get the second end to appear. Is there a trick I'm missing?
You're the 3rd person who has reported this problem but I can't reproduce it on my machine. At least one of them wrote that the problem disappeared after using, closing and restarting Tracker a couple times.
Could you please open the Message Log (Help|Diagnostics|Message Log) and see if there are any warnings or errors reported (in pink or red)? I appreciate your help.
Have any others in this discussion group had this problem? Doug
i have the same problem in win-10 instalation , in 2 different pcs... second shift-click on calibration stick tool does not work. no errors in message log
Thank you, Panos. Very good information. It's clear I'd better develop a fix for this issue. Expect to see Tracker version 5.0.2 within a week or two. When you see the notification on your toolbar, click it and choose Upgrade Now. Doug
I tried it again on both my Ubuntu and Win 7 installations and it worked in both cases. I don't think I was delusional or seeing ghosts, but the bug does tend to disappear with use, for some reason.
I think I found the problem. It works when you are marking the first frame of the video but not later frames. David and/or Panos, can you confirm? Thanks! Doug
Good observation. Moving to the second frame I cannot generate a calibration stick. Moving back to the first frame I can. As a work-around until you get it fixed I am guessing I could create a stick on the first frame, then go to the frame I actually want to use for calibration and move the endpoints. ...or I could use the calibration tape. (I am giving a presentation in two days, so the workaround may be relevant. On the other hand I look forward to 5.0.2.)
I tried loading previously calibrated older videos. I am glad to say they work fine. I also tried out my "create the stick on frame one, then move the endpoints later" strategy and it also worked fine.
David and others--here is a link to a new tracker.jar for which the calibration stick bug is fixed:
http://physlets.org/tracker/upgrade/tracker.jar
Just replace the existing tracker.jar in your Tracker home directory.
I have also added an option in the "Actions" tab (previously called "Tracks") of the preferences dialog that enables the previous behavior, ie immediately creating a stick of length 100 image units and placing it in the center of the view.
David, I hope you get this in time for your presentation :-) Doug
I prepared several trk files for my talk this evening. When I went to open them during my presentation about half would open. The other half froze, always at 79%. Most would pause at 79%, but if it went on to 80% they would go all the way. Does the freeze point give you a clue what may be happening?
I tried opening by double clicking on the trk files and by opening Tracker directly and trying to open the trk file from there. Tracker would open, but not the trk file (for the problematic files).
I have encountered a quite annoying problem in the Greek translation (version 5.0.2): In the Data Builder tool, when I add a new parameter and then try to change its default name, the procedure always finishes with an "if statement error" message. I have to change the display language to English to be able to add any parameter. I have encountered the same problem in the tool Fit Builder.
Thanks for reporting that bug. It affects not only greek, but all languages for which the default decimal separator is a comma. I have found and squashed the bug and will post an upgrade within a few days. Doug
Bill Noussis wrote:
I have encountered a quite annoying problem in the Greek translation (version 5.0.2): In the Data Builder tool, when I add a new parameter and then try to change its default name, the procedure always finishes with an "if statment error" message. I have to change the display language to English to be able to add any parameter. I have encountered the same problem in the tool Fit Builder.
Just installed Tracker 5.0.3 but when I tried to open an MP4 video, it showed an error message: "Xuggle has encountered the following error while opening this video: 'moov atom not found'". May I ask how I can fix this?
Try converting the mp4 to a different format like FLV. There are several free video converters that can do the conversion--maybe even online. Doug
> Re: Re: Tracker 5.0 ready for action! > > Just installed Tracker 5.0.3 but when I tried to open > an MP4 video, it showed an error message: "Xuggle > has encountered the following error while opening > this video: 'moov atom not found'". May I ask how > I can fix this?
