Viewing Shotmarker Strings Later?

[dnellans]

A buddy of mine sent me a few exported shotmarker strings (.tar), that I can uncompress to *.z files. I can't find any reference on how to try and extract the info from them (or use a web interface from Adam's website) to try and view them.

What good is exporting these these (recommended to do often in the shotmarker manual) if you can't view them offline later? =/

Any suggestions?

 

[rardoin]

The software to view them is on the SM access point. You must load them onto your, or any, access point to be able to open and manipulate/view them. I am unaware of any way to use any other app or program to view them. I hope I am incorrect as it would be more convenient to have a program on my PC instead of booting up the AP.

 

[Alexander-M]

Correct, "the software to view is on the SM Access Point".

The .tar extension denotes the file used for SM software updates, such as 'sm_software_1093.tar', which is the current update as of Apr 15, 2020. This file can be downloaded to your computer from the AutoTrickler website, and then to the SM Access Point with BlueTooth.

Page 11 of the SM Manual shows the 'buttons' for Software Update, as well as to export a file: [Export CSV]. I have exported the CSV file every time I have used my SM, and it has worked fine. The exported CSV file, such as 'SM_shotlog_May_12.csv' can be opened with Excel. After I do a few edits to the file, I save it as an .xlsx file, but this is not required.

Hope this helps.
Alex

 

[dnellans]

Since the software on the access point is just a web interface it would be awesome if Adam had that available on his website so people could look at strings, etc.

Unfortunately I'm not going to buy a SM just to look at my buddy's strings. But if I looked at a bunch of strings and loved it, maybe I'd buy one. If anyone knows Adam, they should put a bug in his ear =)

Thanks for the tip on the .csv export, I'll see if he'll re-export for me that way to look at

 

[rardoin]

The .csv file is the raw data, not the target image....just a heads up. It will give info such as at target velocity, bullet pitch, yaw etc. (a bunch of other measured parameters)

 

[dnellans]

Yup - thats ok, as a stats wonk I want to play with the raw data anyways =)

 

[F Class John]

Check this out. A buddy of mine made it. Ammolytics. Enter data from your Shotmarker and get a reproduced target without needing an actual Shotmarker unit.

https://ammolytics-targets.appspot.com/

 

[Ammolytics]

Check this out. A buddy of mine made it. Ammolytics. Enter data from your Shotmarker and get a reproduced target without needing an actual Shotmarker unit.

https://ammolytics-targets.appspot.com/

Thanks for sharing!
This is still a bit of a prototype, but it does work quite well and I'm more than happy to answer questions about it!

 

[Alexander-M]

There is another .tar file that is not for updating the SM software.
On the String Archive of the Access Point, there is an option to export; i.e., an [Export] button. To use it, you select a string, or several strings, and then click on [Export]. A file with the information for those strings (targets) is exported to the device that is communicating with the access the Access point. The file name is SM_export_May_14.tar (or whatever date the file is exported). The only purpose of the file is to be imported by another Access Point.

Alex

 

[Henryrifle]

@Ammolytics:

Thank you for a very cool tool and a great way to share data with others who have shot on my Shotmarker!

Henryrifle

 

[stork]

tagged

 

[chkunz]

Also, your buddy can make screen shots of the SM targets and send them to you as pictures. This is really easy to do.

 

[memilanuk]

Like @Alexander-M pointed out, getting to the point data in the CSV file isn't very hard.

Making it look nice, a little more so

@dnellans if you want to play with the numbers, be sure to check out shotGroups...

 

[Retired Grunt]

My Samsung Android Tablet is set up to screen capture, While still connected to the Wireless point, I find my saved strings and can either enter the image and capture it, also you into your data and screen shot it. At Practice I use my Labradar to measure at the rifle and then SM gives you velocity at the target. Ours is 500 Yards.

 

[243Mendoza]

Like @Alexander-M pointed out, getting to the point data in the CSV file isn't very hard.

Making it look nice, a little more so

@dnellans if you want to play with the numbers, be sure to check out shotGroups...

Monte
Is this software free and available or is it DYI software?

 

[Bottom Fodder]

The guy that runs our match did a print screen snap shot of the open file and e-mails the picture to me and I entered what data I need into a excel file

 

[memilanuk]

Monte
Is this software free and available or is it DYI software?

Yes... and yes

shotGroups is an add-on package for an open-source statistical programming language known as 'R' (www.r-project.org). Rstudio (also free) is a very popular tool/environment for making R a lot easier for people to use.

The downside is that because it is all free, and very modular (add-on packages, etc.) it's not quite as simple as the app that @Ammolytics has for viewing the data from the CSV file. There is a 'web app' version that the package author has hosted online which will spit out a variety of canned analyses... or you can download and install the software locally and get more customized results.

 

[243Mendoza]

Yes... and yes

shotGroups is an add-on package for an open-source statistical programming language known as 'R' (www.r-project.org). Rstudio (also free) is a very popular tool/environment for making R a lot easier for people to use.

The downside is that because it is all free, and very modular (add-on packages, etc.) it's not quite as simple as the app that @Ammolytics has for viewing the data from the CSV file. There is a 'web app' version that the package author has hosted online which will spit out a variety of canned analyses... or you can download and install the software locally and get more customized results.

I see code in the pdf file that you link to. Does the user need to copy that software as an add-on?

 

[243Mendoza]

I tried the web version with an SMT file and got an error: "An error has occurred. Check your logs or contact the app author for clarification."

Would you know where the logs are located?

 

[memilanuk]

I see code in the pdf file that you link to. Does the user need to copy that software as an add-on?

Probably the best idea would be to tinker with the web app version first (you can upload a CSV data file of your own) and see if it's the sort of results you're looking for. Wrapping your head around R (even with Rstudio) is a little bit of a time sink in and of itself.

But generally speaking, yes. As an example, in Rstudio one of the window 'panes' is a code editor window, and another pane is like a terminal running the R language. You can either type the commands in one at a time via the terminal prompt, or as a text file in the code editor and run them from there.

The nice thing about using a scripting language like this is that once you have the process worked out for what you want, you can save the code file and then the next time you want to use it, it'll run *exactly* the same way. If you email the code and data files to someone, and they run them, they should get *exactly* the same results. It makes test results more easily reproducible than wading through menu options trying to remember where feature 'xyz' is hidden... like all too often is the case with spreadsheets.