[RELEASE] Slopey's BPC Market Tool! - New version!

[-Ice]

Sorry, TL;DR... just started with trading and I found this tool. A couple of questions...

Does it upload/download data to somewhere? Does it benefit from being open while I am playing E? How does it get prices from the stations I visit? Does it do it automatically or do I have to manually input the data?

I just used this tool today and have already found a few inconsistencies regarding prices. Thanks for any help!

 

[Alexios Komnenos]

Are there any plans to add round trip back in? It would be quite helpful for some of us!

 

[LaserFace]

So I just did my first attempt at adding a new platform, and it's commodities. Bouvard Ring, a platform in Badbadzist (System and station was listed, neither platform was. Though only one platform even sells anything). A few categories worth of goods at a time (Oh god, going through metals/minerals). Yes I'm V 4.2.1.0. Yes, I have verbose logging on.

Stopping to check for typos on the end result once I got down to metals, I realized it lists everything I had put in until then TWICE, with different timestamps. 120 minute difference each time. This has continued the whole way through.

The concept of this thing is really cool, and while I haven't used the existing trade data to plot out routes yet (I'm just checking out some areas that caught my interest based on silly names in my Cobra for later, before I buy a type 6), from the sound of things when this program works right, it works incredibly well. My main worry with this whole duplicates thing is that I'm ruining the database for other people.

So, on the one hand. I'm worried I'm screwing something up for people with these duplicate listings (that think another entry is always made exactly 120 minutes in the past). On the OTHER hand, the BPC refuses to acknowledge the existence of the station or commodities to me until I enter them in myself, so I had to finish the job if I want to be able to use the trade calculator to do its actual job for me and calculate trades. I figured if waiting, restarting the game and BPC, coming back the next day, waiting, restarting the game and BPC, waiting, and a platform STILL wasn't showing up, I'm stuck entering it myself regardless of how wonky it wants to be.

Because at a glance, no idea why it's deciding I've traveled back in time to enter things two hours in the past every time. I tried Deleting the "older" ones, but that deletes BOTH. (Delete, 120 minutes older than most recent Agri-meds... oh it killed both, time to add that again! aaaand it's duplicates, with one 120 minutes older). I sort of trailed off triple checking for number entry typos because of all these shenanigans.

I may stick to hand written notes when it comes to unlisted stations, unless there is some easy fix to this not shown in the OP (and the suggestion to delete extra entries a quick searched turned up, was for extra STATIONS. Plus deleting one commodity entry killed both). I grabbed this more for the fact it's supposed to auto sort data than find or calculate trade routes, so all the duplicate stuff that floating around is a bit awkward for that even if I'm not screwing something up for other people.

Unrelated QOL Suggestions: Don't make the system list reset to 1 i Centauri after entering price data. Don't switch it from a specific station to "Any" when it auto updates. Especially since I currently can't increase the auto update timer past 5 minutes (which I saw mentioned as "That's next patch). I hope the next patch also comes with an OP that has info beyond "Turn on verbose logging. Use the add prices button". Considering the launch readme points you to the OP and then you find basically nothing there.

 

[spleeneater]

So I just did my first attempt at adding a new platform, and it's commodities. Bouvard Ring, a platform in Badbadzist (System and station was listed, neither platform was. Though only one platform even sells anything). A few categories worth of goods at a time (Oh god, going through metals/minerals). Yes I'm V 4.2.1.0. Yes, I have verbose logging on.

Stopping to check for typos on the end result once I got down to metals, I realized it lists everything I had put in until then TWICE, with different timestamps. 120 minute difference each time. This has continued the whole way through.

The concept of this thing is really cool, and while I haven't used the existing trade data to plot out routes yet (I'm just checking out some areas that caught my interest based on silly names in my Cobra for later, before I buy a type 6), from the sound of things when this program works right, it works incredibly well. My main worry with this whole duplicates thing is that I'm ruining the database for other people.

So, on the one hand. I'm worried I'm screwing something up for people with these duplicate listings (that think another entry is always made exactly 120 minutes in the past). On the OTHER hand, the BPC refuses to acknowledge the existence of the station or commodities to me until I enter them in myself, so I had to finish the job if I want to be able to use the trade calculator to do its actual job for me and calculate trades. I figured if waiting, restarting the game and BPC, coming back the next day, waiting, restarting the game and BPC, waiting, and a platform STILL wasn't showing up, I'm stuck entering it myself regardless of how wonky it wants to be.

Because at a glance, no idea why it's deciding I've traveled back in time to enter things two hours in the past every time. I tried Deleting the "older" ones, but that deletes BOTH. (Delete, 120 minutes older than most recent Agri-meds... oh it killed both, time to add that again! aaaand it's duplicates, with one 120 minutes older). I sort of trailed off triple checking for number entry typos because of all these shenanigans.

I may stick to hand written notes when it comes to unlisted stations, unless there is some easy fix to this not shown in the OP (and the suggestion to delete extra entries a quick searched turned up, was for extra STATIONS. Plus deleting one commodity entry killed both). I grabbed this more for the fact it's supposed to auto sort data than find or calculate trade routes, so all the duplicate stuff that floating around is a bit awkward for that even if I'm not screwing something up for other people.

Unrelated QOL Suggestions: Don't make the system list reset to 1 i Centauri after entering price data. Don't switch it from a specific station to "Any" when it auto updates. Especially since I currently can't increase the auto update timer past 5 minutes (which I saw mentioned as "That's next patch). I hope the next patch also comes with an OP that has info beyond "Turn on verbose logging. Use the add prices button". Considering the launch readme points you to the OP and then you find basically nothing there.

This is essentially the same thing i mentioned one page ago.
The stations you entered were already in the database but they were older data. When you either first download the database or if you clear and then redownload the database it only downloads the stuff that was entered in the last 48hrs. This is to save you from having loads of historical data that may not be current anymore. When you added the data you forced it to bring the old data back up again. And for some odd reason rather than replace the old data on your view it shows you both the old data and the new data. If you go to options tab and clear your DB and then force download youll get all the data from the last 48hrs including the stuff you just typed in , minus the duplicate entries. I have faith that slopey will nail this down so that everytime someone enters data for a station thats "fallen off" the view it will replace that data on our end rather than show both sets of data.

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Regarding duplicated commodities. I still have a screen of data of a single station to a single station with 1 commodity. Seems to be the same 7 values in various combinations with another 7 values from the other station. A lot of these have blank times in the from and to fields. So I went into the options page and clicked the option to manually remove data older than 168 hours. I was informed that to do this the blanks need fixing and this would take a while. This was 7 hours ago and it has just passed 418600 and is still going. It would of been nice if it said how many it was out of. I could kill the task but I don't want to kill it if it has almost completed.

UPDATE: Broken 500,000 and has been going nearly 9 hours. What is it doing to the database?

you must have a very full db. mine took 15ish minutes.

I've had the same thing - it seems that when you enter data it is saved to your local db - when the db is then updated, it adds the data again instead of replacing what you have, thus giving you duplicate data. The only way to get rid of the duplicate seems to be to clear your own db and start again - which is fine until you start entering data again!!

Yeah this method worked for me as well. It doesnt do it with stations that were never entered (or at least thats not my experience) only stations that were in the DB but didnt propogate to my database because they were older than 48hrs since i cleared my db.

 

[LaserFace]

This is essentially the same thing i mentioned one page ago.
The stations you entered were already in the database but they were older data. When you either first download the database or if you clear and then redownload the database it only downloads the stuff that was entered in the last 48hrs. This is to save you from having loads of historical data that may not be current anymore. When you added the data you forced it to bring the old data back up again. And for some odd reason rather than replace the old data on your view it shows you both the old data and the new data. If you go to options tab and clear your DB and then force download youll get all the data from the last 48hrs including the stuff you just typed in , minus the duplicate entries. I have faith that slopey will nail this down so that everytime someone enters data for a station thats "fallen off" the view it will replace that data on our end rather than show both sets of data.

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you must have a very full db. mine took 15ish minutes.



Yeah this method worked for me as well. It doesnt do it with stations that were never entered (or at least thats not my experience) only stations that were in the DB but didnt propogate to my database because they were older than 48hrs since i cleared my db.

Ah, yeah I glanced across that "Just last page" thing. I just figured if it was not the case of digging up "Old data". Because every duplicate getting dated "Today, except 120 minutes in the past compared to when you hit save" meant it looked more like an entry bug than trying to recall old data that was totally already there honest.

The platform and commodities never showed up in slopeys after multiple restarts, forced updates, and hours of waiting around (windowed mode makes multitasking so much easier), split across two days. Before I got around to finally entering things thinking I had given it enough time to actually put in any old data somebody else would have. Even if outdated, I'd have expected it to at least list the station after giving it that much time and chances to list them if any old data really existed.

Again, my bigger worry was that I'd be screwing something up for others if I kept trying to use the thing. The database clear and force download after the fact did sort out my current duplicates situation, so now that I know doing so will not completely screw up the database I'll look into entering any stations that catch my fancy not being listed. Though I do wish there was a better way to confirm ahead of time "Oh, that station is already in there" When nothing you do will make it show up in the first place.

I'm sure this program is a lot of hard work to make and maintain, and I already know several known bugs are slated for the next patch. So hopefully the lives of those working on this thing get easier soon.

 

[Fogazi]

Sorry, TL;DR... just started with trading and I found this tool. A couple of questions...

Does it upload/download data to somewhere? Does it benefit from being open while I am playing E? How does it get prices from the stations I visit? Does it do it automatically or do I have to manually input the data?

I just used this tool today and have already found a few inconsistencies regarding prices. Thanks for any help!

Sorry, TLR... if you can't be bothered actually working out/learning how the tool works than why should any one explain it to you sire?

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

So I just did my first attempt at adding a new platform, and it's commodities. Bouvard Ring, a platform in Badbadzist (System and station was listed, neither platform was. Though only one platform even sells anything). A few categories worth of goods at a time (Oh god, going through metals/minerals). Yes I'm V 4.2.1.0. Yes, I have verbose logging on.

Stopping to check for typos on the end result once I got down to metals, I realized it lists everything I had put in until then TWICE, with different timestamps. 120 minute difference each time. This has continued the whole way through.

The concept of this thing is really cool, and while I haven't used the existing trade data to plot out routes yet (I'm just checking out some areas that caught my interest based on silly names in my Cobra for later, before I buy a type 6), from the sound of things when this program works right, it works incredibly well. My main worry with this whole duplicates thing is that I'm ruining the database for other people.

So, on the one hand. I'm worried I'm screwing something up for people with these duplicate listings (that think another entry is always made exactly 120 minutes in the past). On the OTHER hand, the BPC refuses to acknowledge the existence of the station or commodities to me until I enter them in myself, so I had to finish the job if I want to be able to use the trade calculator to do its actual job for me and calculate trades. I figured if waiting, restarting the game and BPC, coming back the next day, waiting, restarting the game and BPC, waiting, and a platform STILL wasn't showing up, I'm stuck entering it myself regardless of how wonky it wants to be.

Because at a glance, no idea why it's deciding I've traveled back in time to enter things two hours in the past every time. I tried Deleting the "older" ones, but that deletes BOTH. (Delete, 120 minutes older than most recent Agri-meds... oh it killed both, time to add that again! aaaand it's duplicates, with one 120 minutes older). I sort of trailed off triple checking for number entry typos because of all these shenanigans.

I may stick to hand written notes when it comes to unlisted stations, unless there is some easy fix to this not shown in the OP (and the suggestion to delete extra entries a quick searched turned up, was for extra STATIONS. Plus deleting one commodity entry killed both). I grabbed this more for the fact it's supposed to auto sort data than find or calculate trade routes, so all the duplicate stuff that floating around is a bit awkward for that even if I'm not screwing something up for other people.

Unrelated QOL Suggestions: Don't make the system list reset to 1 i Centauri after entering price data. Don't switch it from a specific station to "Any" when it auto updates. Especially since I currently can't increase the auto update timer past 5 minutes (which I saw mentioned as "That's next patch). I hope the next patch also comes with an OP that has info beyond "Turn on verbose logging. Use the add prices button". Considering the launch readme points you to the OP and then you find basically nothing there.

I believe, and could be wrong but I think it is adding entries for your local time and for UTC time. Essentially doubling up...

 

[spleeneater]

Regarding duplicated commodities. I still have a screen of data of a single station to a single station with 1 commodity. Seems to be the same 7 values in various combinations with another 7 values from the other station. A lot of these have blank times in the from and to fields. So I went into the options page and clicked the option to manually remove data older than 168 hours. I was informed that to do this the blanks need fixing and this would take a while. This was 7 hours ago and it has just passed 418600 and is still going. It would of been nice if it said how many it was out of. I could kill the task but I don't want to kill it if it has almost completed.

UPDATE: Broken 500,000 and has been going nearly 9 hours. What is it doing to the database?

I've had the same thing - it seems that when you enter data it is saved to your local db - when the db is then updated, it adds the data again instead of replacing what you have, thus giving you duplicate data. The only way to get rid of the duplicate seems to be to clear your own db and start again - which is fine until you start entering data again!!

Ah, yeah I glanced across that "Just last page" thing. I just figured if it was not the case of digging up "Old data". Because every duplicate getting dated "Today, except 120 minutes in the past compared to when you hit save" meant it looked more like an entry bug than trying to recall old data that was totally already there honest.

The platform and commodities never showed up in slopeys after multiple restarts, forced updates, and hours of waiting around (windowed mode makes multitasking so much easier), split across two days. Before I got around to finally entering things thinking I had given it enough time to actually put in any old data somebody else would have. Even if outdated, I'd have expected it to at least list the station after giving it that much time and chances to list them if any old data really existed.

Again, my bigger worry was that I'd be screwing something up for others if I kept trying to use the thing. The database clear and force download after the fact did sort out my current duplicates situation, so now that I know doing so will not completely screw up the database I'll look into entering any stations that catch my fancy not being listed. Though I do wish there was a better way to confirm ahead of time "Oh, that station is already in there" When nothing you do will make it show up in the first place.

I'm sure this program is a lot of hard work to make and maintain, and I already know several known bugs are slated for the next patch. So hopefully the lives of those working on this thing get easier soon.

yeah if you had had the program all along and hadnt cleared your db youd see all the things listed that were not part of the previous 48hrs. I tend to leave mine on when im at work cause from what slopey said the longer its on the more of that historical data you wind up. but again even if the station was listed if the data is older than 2 days its probably off anyway. Especially since when the servers are reset commodities change , prices change etc. so you could see an old listing and go there only to find out the info is all wrong. personally i like the 2 day buffer. i personally like to clear it periodically so i dont keep getting the bad data when doing searches

 

[LaserFace]

I believe, and could be wrong but I think it is adding entries for your local time and for UTC time. Essentially doubling up...

I had considered that, but for starters I'm not allowed to change the time zone option, and the difference is wrong (Next patch, I know). Default is 00:00:00 Morocco standard, I live US Eastern Standard -05:00:00 (Why yes, I am typing this at 2 AM according to my life). While all the cloned entries were 120 minutes, two hours difference.

Or, maybe you are right but it just screws the time difference up too, who knows. Everything that is already in there looks like it works fine, I can punch in a system/station at random, set distance limit, and it will spit out a bunch of trade routes.

yeah if you had had the program all along and hadnt cleared your db youd see all the things listed that were not part of the previous 48hrs. I tend to leave mine on when im at work cause from what slopey said the longer its on the more of that historical data you wind up. but again even if the station was listed if the data is older than 2 days its probably off anyway. Especially since when the servers are reset commodities change , prices change etc. so you could see an old listing and go there only to find out the info is all wrong. personally i like the 2 day buffer. i personally like to clear it periodically so i dont keep getting the bad data when doing searches

I think around now, I haven't even HAD slopey's for 48 hours. I've only had the program on when I've been running elite anyways. I wouldn't mind outdated data showing up, especially considering the timestamps. It is also a lot easier to edit existing numbers than it is to have to create a whole station and it's commodities list from scratch. Not even counting this whole situation of places not wanting to show up as listed, but supposedly were already entered...whenever, you just were not allowed to see anything it until you started entering data.

I mean, I believe you about there probably being some old data lurking somewhere. But I wouldn't be in this situation if I could have gotten that old data to show up in the first place even after restarts, database clears, and forced refreshes BEFORE I started entering things in myself. You give the impression that had I cleared my database and forced a refresh in the first place, it would have shown up, while that didn't turn out to be the case for me. Maybe I'm misreading that?

EDIT: Again, this isn't a program breaking thing or anything, and I was more worried about contaminating the community data. I'm just getting the impression that the suggested method to have avoided this in the first place, is the exact same thing I already did.

 

[Slopey]

Hi everyone,

I've a problem with local mode :
- auto-update : uncheck
- db clear
- current localtion : detected

but my known systems stay empty.
I jump in few systems, dock in few stations, open/close market in game and i dont know what to do

My AppConfig seems ok :
<Network
VerboseLogging="1"
Port="0"
upnpenabled="1"
LogFile="netLog"
DatestampLog="1"
>

can you help me ?

thanks

You need to type them in. If you have auto-update off, you won't get other people's updates - the BPC does NOT get the data automatically from ED - you need to enter it, so of course you'll have no known systems if you clear your DB and turn off updates!

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Sorry, TL;DR... just started with trading and I found this tool. A couple of questions...

Does it upload/download data to somewhere? Does it benefit from being open while I am playing E? How does it get prices from the stations I visit? Does it do it automatically or do I have to manually input the data?

It uploads and downloads data from my online database. It has NO interaction with ED aside from read where you are from the logs. YOU HAVE TO ENTER PRICES YOURSELF, BY HAND (or by EliteOCR) - you have to do it manually.


I just used this tool today and have already found a few inconsistencies regarding prices. Thanks for any help![/QUOTE]

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Are there any plans to add round trip back in? It would be quite helpful for some of us!

Read up about 3 posts - it will be back in shortly.

 

[Lee Storm]

I must be missing something here.
Using BPC and eliteocr, I'm able to Ocr the station prices and export the .bpc file from eliteocr, (does not give the option to export as .csv) but BPC only accepts .csv files?
Do I just push the data to EDDN and not bother with importing to BPC.

Downloaded both programs yesterday so I'm guessing I have the latest versions.

Thanks in advance for the assistance.

 

[Cmdr Sharky]

Using BPC and eliteocr, I'm able to Ocr the station prices and export the .bpc file from eliteocr, (does not give the option to export as .csv) but BPC only accepts .csv files?

I've been importing .bpc files into EDBPC. Click the button, select the file.

 

[Slugsie]

I must be missing something here.
Using BPC and eliteocr, I'm able to Ocr the station prices and export the .bpc file from eliteocr, (does not give the option to export as .csv) but BPC only accepts .csv files?
Do I just push the data to EDDN and not bother with importing to BPC.

Downloaded both programs yesterday so I'm guessing I have the latest versions.

Thanks in advance for the assistance.

If your BPC only accepts .CSV files then you definitely don't have the latest version - v4.2.1.0.

 

[Slopey]

I must be missing something here.
Using BPC and eliteocr, I'm able to Ocr the station prices and export the .bpc file from eliteocr, (does not give the option to export as .csv) but BPC only accepts .csv files?
Do I just push the data to EDDN and not bother with importing to BPC.

Downloaded both programs yesterday so I'm guessing I have the latest versions.

Thanks in advance for the assistance.

Are you on 4.2.1.0 for the BPC? It hasn't accepted CSV extension files for two or three updates.

 

[Slugsie]

Sorry, TL;DR... just started with trading and I found this tool. A couple of questions...

Does it upload/download data to somewhere? Does it benefit from being open while I am playing E? How does it get prices from the stations I visit? Does it do it automatically or do I have to manually input the data?

I just used this tool today and have already found a few inconsistencies regarding prices. Thanks for any help!

You couldn't even be bothered to read the OP which you had to read to find the download link? The answer to your question is right there if you look.

 

[Lee Storm]

I must be missing something here.
Using BPC and eliteocr, I'm able to Ocr the station prices and export the .bpc file from eliteocr, (does not give the option to export as .csv) but BPC only accepts .csv files?
Do I just push the data to EDDN and not bother with importing to BPC.

Downloaded both programs yesterday so I'm guessing I have the latest versions.

Thanks in advance for the assistance.

My mistake.

Thanks for the quick reply's. I must have hit an old download link.

Great programs, could not play the Trade side of the game without it.

 

[Wisdomlikesilence]

Everytime Ive tried to access the web version it says offline, back in a while. Am I just unlucky or is it gone entirely in favour of the .exe version?

 

[-Ice]

Sorry, TLR... if you can't be bothered actually working out/learning how the tool works than why should any one explain it to you sire?

You couldn't even be bothered to read the OP which you had to read to find the download link? The answer to your question is right there if you look.

Wow, very helpful attitudes. Fogazi, maybe some people actually have other stuff going on in their lives. I dunno, maybe families, jobs, maybe even have to go to a special room in the house to clean up. 134+ pages of replies isn't a 5-minute read-through. The quicker I am to getting this thing to work (and understanding it), the quicker the community gets more info, right?

Slugsie, I did read the OP, however, after a few searches, a few tools are either no longer supported, not been updated in some time, etc. and most tutorials I find on YT are beta/gamma versions of the game. Sorry if I wanted to ask to get up-to-date info.

You need to type them in. If you have auto-update off, you won't get other people's updates - the BPC does NOT get the data automatically from ED - you need to enter it, so of course you'll have no known systems if you clear your DB and turn off updates!

Thank you for an actual helpful reply, Slopey! I am going to clear my data/DB and start fiddling with EliteOCR, hopefully that'll give me better prices.

 

[graham.reeds]

I killed it after 11 hours and 620,000 "things". I also ran it again for an hour this morning. Hopefully it doesn't have to start from scratch everytime...

An "N of M" message would be nice so you can get an idea of how long it will take.

 

[xenicle]

At first thanks for this tool : it is really useful !

I've encountered two BPC V4.2.1.0 freeze when I tried to update commodities prices from "Grid Update", just after hitting "Save Data". (can't do anything in the window and move or close it, needed to kill it) Before that I haven't got problem to make this and it work after.

Also, the calculation of "Amount" to take in different station don't consider "Avail Stock"...

 

[MeesterP]

For those struggling with commodities that are duplicated in the database with different timestamps

1) backup your ed4.db

2) make sure all your dates are in the new format (yyyy-mm-dd)

update sc
set SCStationLastUpdate = 
       substr(SCStationLastUpdate,8,4)||
         case substr(SCStationLastUpdate,4,3)
         when 'jan' then '-01-'
         when 'feb' then '-02-'
         when 'mar' then '-03-'
         when 'apr' then '-04-'
         when 'may' then '-05-'
         when 'jun' then '-06-'
         when 'jul' then '-07-'
         when 'aug' then '-08-'
         when 'sep' then '-09-'
         when 'oct' then '-10-'
         when 'nov' then '-11-'
         when 'dec' then '-12-'
         else '-00-'
         end
         ||substr(SCStationLastUpdate,1,2)||' '||substr(SCStationLastUpdate,13,5)
where substr(SCStationLastUpdate,1,4) <> '2015'

on my database:
Query 1 of 1, Rows read: 1, Elapsed time (seconds) - Total: 0.315, SQL query: 0.314, Reading results: 0.001
64,900 Row(s) Updated

3) delete the older duplicates

-- Remove rows that are updated by a later entry
delete 
from sc
where SCStationSystem||SCStationName||SCStationCommod in (select SCStationSystem||SCStationName||SCStationCommod
                                                            from sc
                                                            group by SCStationSystem, SCStationName, SCStationCommod
                                                            having count(*) > 1)
and SCStationLastUpdate <> (Select max(SCStationLastUpdate) 
                            from sc sc2 
                            where sc2.SCStationSystem = sc.SCStationSystem
                            and sc2.SCStationName = sc.SCStationName
                            and sc2.SCStationCommod = sc.SCStationCommod)

on my database:
Query 1 of 1, Rows read: 1, Elapsed time (seconds) - Total: 11.693, SQL query: 11.692, Reading results: 0.001
1,659 Row(s) Deleted

Good luck