Ted's Toolbox Help
Version 2.1
Copyright © Ted Driver 2002-2007
General Help
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Introduction
I wrote Ted's Toolbox over several years and I have tested every algorithm in it. There were no good tools on the scene that allowed me to do all the different types of analysis that I needed to do, and I found myself writing one-off tools for different applications. I had a need for a consolidated set of tools that I could access easily. I created Ted's Toolbox to serve my purposes. I hope it serves yours too.
General Help
All of the tools in the toolbox can be accessed by either a button on the toolbar or by a menu option, your choice. Each tool comes up as a separate window in the toolbox frame. This help file is in a window that gets maximized when you open it. That's so you can have this help visible in the background while you work with the tools. Each tool type has it's own icon and color. The color is shown in the border around the tool window. Some tools even have pictures as their background. I did this only for those that made sense. Here's a list of the tools, their icons and colors and a short description of each, as of this release.
Note that with version 2.1, the Applet version of Ted's toolbox is now available. Some of the items in this help file reference things that can only be done with the application. The nature of applets do not allow control over a user's computer, so if you want all the functionality outlined in this help, download the application version of Ted's Toolbox.
| Tool Name | Description | |
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Time Analysis | This tool allows you to specify a common Date/Time or Julian Date and learn the Julian Date, common Date/Time, Modified Julian Date, Day of Year, Day of Week and leap year status. You can also have the displayed time or current time continuously update. |
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Time Interval Analysis | Just as in the Time Analysis tool, this tool allows you to specify a common Date/Time or Julian Date for two different and times and determine the difference between the two times. The difference cais displayed in Y:M:D:H:M:S format (Years:Months:Days:Hours:Minutes:Seconds) and in Decimal days format (days.fraction) |
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GPS Parameters | The GPS Parameters tool provides vital information to anyone working in the GPS community. Including, GPS Week, Time of Week, K-Points since epoch and GPS epoch dates. Additionally, the Z-Count corresponding to the input time is displayed in binary, hex and integer formats. If you like, you can continuously update the currently displayed GPS parameters. |
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Time Of Week | The GPS Time week tool calculates and displays the time of week in seconds, K-Points and Z-Counts. This too can be updated continuously. |
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Geodetic/ECEF Conversion | The Geodetic/ECEF conversion tool converts Earth Centered, Earth Fixed coordinates into Geodetic Latitude, Longitude and Height values and vice versa. Several display options are available for the geodetic type. |
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Geodetic Distance Calculator | This tool calculates the geodesic distance from one location to another. The output can be converted to several different units. |
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Daily Solar Tool | This tool calculates, based on your specified position and time offset, the sunrise, transit and sunset times. It also calculates the Rise and set azimuth coordinates the Maximum solar elevation and the Right Ascension, Declination, Azimuth and Elevation of the Sun for any given time during the day. This tool uses data for one day only. |
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Solar Plotter | This tool does produces the same information as the Daily Solar tool, but does it for a range of dates and allow you to plot or export the output. |
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Lunar Tool | This tool calculates the Moon's rise, transit and set times. It also calculates the rise and set azimuth coordinates the maximum lunar elevation and the Right Ascension, Declination, Azimuth and Elevation of the Moon for any given time during the day. Also, the phases of the moon are output (with percentages and pictures) as are the New, First Quarter, Full and Last Quarter dates. |
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Sidereal and Nutation Tool | The Sidereal and Nutation tool calculates the mean and apparent sidereal time (Greenwich hour angle) and Nutation parameters of the Earth (Nutation in Longitude (delta psi) and Nutation in obliquity (delta epsilon)) for a given date and time. The true obliquity is also output. You can choose to have the continuously update as well. |
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Number Converter | The Number converter provides an easy way to convert any of the following numbers into the others: binary, octal, integer, hexadecimal. For binary numbers, there is the option to pad the binary output for octal or hex readability. |
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Color Chooser | The color chooser provides a color palette where you can define RGB color levels and then apply them to different programming control types to see how the colors look. The color values are output in RGB, integer and hex formats. |
Menus
The File Menu has all of the tools listed by category. Additionally, you can exit the tool by selecting File | Exit.
The Options menu has two options; Show Toolbar checkbox and
Preferences. The Show toolbar check box is selected by default. If
you unselect it, the toolbar will disappear. To make the toolbar reappear,
select it again. If you didn't already know that you may not have much use
for this tool. The preferences menu item brings up a panel that lets you
define your default position in what ever coordinate system the location
selector accepts (see below), and your default
time offset. The first time you run the tool, these are all set to 0; your
default position is (0,0,0) (latitude, longitude, height), and the default time
offset is 0 hours. The default location and time offset parameters are
stored using the preferences utility in the Java SDK version 1.4 and will
persist between tool uses. Also, each of the tools that use these defaults
displays its Active Parameters on the tool's panel - so you know if they
are correct for your situation. These preferences are needed in the
following tools: ,
and
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The Help menu contains an item that brings up this help and an About menu item that displays the splash panel shown at the top of the page.
Toolbar
The toolbar hosts buttons that activate all of the tools in Ted's toolbox. Two additional buttons let you access the default preferences panel and this help file. The toolbar is floatable; you can click on the toolbar on the left and drag it outside of the toolbox application. the toolbar can be repositioned to the toolbox by dragging it back into place or closing it.
Inputs
Any white field in the tool is a data input field. It may also be a data output field. If you have data in the format that is required for any white field, enter it an press the Enter key, the other data outputs will be recalculated. Fields that are gray cannot have their data edited, they are strictly data output fields.
Continuously Updated Fields
Tools that provide the option of being continuously updated operate using a timer set to a 1 second refresh rate. Each time the timer is tripped, the currently displayed date/Time is incremented by 1 second and new values calculated and output. Because the calculations do NOT reread your systems clock each time the time trips, after extended periods of time, the time displayed in the Active Parameters panel may be off of your system time.
Active Parameters
These areas of the tool panels display the data used to make the calculations. The active parameters areas cannot be edited. To change the values in any of the Active Parameters fields , either edit one of the white background fields and press the Enter key, or press the Change... button and edit the fields there.
A Note About Algorithms
The algorithms used in this tool have generally come from the book Astronomical Algorithms by Jean Meeus. I have tested my algorithms outputs against the test cases that Jean provides in his book and, in so far as he is correct, I am correct. My algorithmic outputs match his to a negligible round-off error. for all cases for which he provides test data. Of course, while Jean gives algorithms for specific outputs, he does not give implementations. The implementations of his algorithms are entirely mine. I have implemented all of the code and algorithms in Java, version 1.4.2. Java is the best language I have developed in, having previously tried C, C++ and Fortran. There are some modifications that could be made to make Java an even better numerical language, but over all it is a fine language for programming, numerical or otherwise.
These tools lets you convert between time standards and find out the differences between two times easily.
Time Analysis
The Time Analysis tool will initialize with the current date and time from your machine. The time parameters are displayed on the top of the tool and you may enter parameters on the bottom. The Long Date check box toggles between the numeric version of the date and the text version. The 24 Hour check box toggles between a 24 hour timescale and a 12 hour, AM/PM scale. Sorry, no support for international users in this release.
Time Interval Analysis
The Time Interval Analysis tool will let you specify two dates in either common date format of Julian date format, and see the time difference between them. The Y:M:D:H:M:S field will give you the time difference in Years:Months:Days:Hours:Minutes:Seconds and will sometimes have negative values. When I have more time I'll do the time rollover math correctly so that negative values won't occur. The days display displays the number of days and fractional days between time1 and time2. If you enter a value in the field, the Time Interval Analysis tool will add the number of days you entered to time1 and display that as time2.
Version 2.1
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I added the applet capability to Ted's Toolbox. |
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I modified the Location Input JavaBean to be more robust in validations and movement from field to field. |
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Several GUI changes - better fit. |
Version 2.0 is completely rewritten from the previous versions. This section will record changes from version 2.0 forward.
