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

[darkcyde6666]

I'm trying your tool, but I found a lot of exagerately wrong prices, in many occasions.
Today I found Semiconductors sold @ 6,569 Cr in a distant system (exciting, so I made the travel) while actually the correct price was 736 Cr when I got there. Totally useless. Same yesterday for another couple of commodities, while the ones of today were missing, so apparently they are a new entry.

How does this happen? Maybe something wrong with OCRs or just jokes?

General rule is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Just use common sense.....you are unlikely to find a commodity profit per ton of more than around 2000cr (rare commodities aside), so just avoid anything like that.

For me, I have unfortunately got myself stuck in a rut.....I have found possibly the most profitable route in the fewest jumps possible, so going elsewhere is pointless, so I'm stuck in a grind of 2 jumps, dock, 2 jumps, dock, rinse and repeat....I have searched elsewhere, but nothing gives me the kind of round trip profit I'm getting right here.....I'm making 2040cr profit per ton within a 25Ly distance, which I can do in 2 jumps fully loaded with 104 tons.

I'm sure there are more profitable tonnages, but a longer distance, but this route is netting me a decent return trip profit, which can be tough to find.

I'm sure there is someone about to jump on me and argue they have better however. ;-)

 

[Slopey]

Not sure what the "mins aged" columns are supposed to be, I've never seen them before, but there are positive and negative numbers there. I guess it's supposed to be the age of the data, in which case negative numbers don't make sense unless there is a timezone discrepancy. If I update it now, and you're in Australia, it could look like data from 11 hours in the future, and it could override data that you entered afterwards because of that.

Minutes aged are how old the data is, in minutes. There is a timezone issue with 4.2.1.0 which I've resolved for the next update. Should have that out tomorrow PM UK time with any luck.

 

[Belsameth]

For me, I have unfortunately got myself stuck in a rut.....I have found possibly the most profitable route in the fewest jumps possible, so going elsewhere is pointless, so I'm stuck in a grind of 2 jumps, dock, 2 jumps, dock, rinse and repeat....I have searched elsewhere, but nothing gives me the kind of round trip profit I'm getting right here.....I'm making 2040cr profit per ton within a 25Ly distance, which I can do in 2 jumps fully loaded with 104 tons.

I'm sure there is someone about to jump on me and argue they have better however. ;-)

You're free to ignore the route for less profit. Its what I do, regardless of profit.
Screw A->B->repeat.

@Slopey: Are you planning to add a landing pad size to stations, so we can exlude stations our ships don't fit on?

 

[MummyX]

Error with memory when searching for systems.

When I search for any system BPC pops this error. IDK what else you need for error reports or if this is where is should go.

I would post the error report but every time its in here the site says

• Sorry, due to extensive link spamming from new user accounts, the usage of hyperlinks within posts and topics are not allowed for your user group.

 

[-Ice]

Was the first station in the BPC already?

Neither stations nor systems were in the BPC.

 

[iAmLegion]

If i use local mode, will it still upload data to the db?

 

[Surfinjo]

Hey Slopey,

I just wanted to send out a sincere thanks for the hard work you've done in creating such an invaluable tool. Great job so far. I can't wait to see what the new web version will look like.

Thanks,
CMDR Trystian

Me too. It makes the whole game better.

I'm currently surfing around some systems, which are not yet included in the database. I've been adding as I go, it usually only takes about 30 mins to do the whole market.

Anyway, I've discovered a lot of my entries have appeared double. I did an experiment and rounded up a couple of entries to a few credits higher. The doubles also reflected that same incorrect price.

Will these doubles be deleted automatically?

 

[Arexac]

Could be either - please update them to the correct values

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Hi All

If you're getting issues when searching with "Object reference not found" errors etc - can you please try the following:

In the BPC program directory - you'll see 3 Layout_*.xml files (Layout_BPC_Grid.xml, Layout_System_Grid.xml, Layout_Commod_Grid.xml).

Please delete them, then restart the BPC.

See if that helps. I think the errors are coming about after I changed the timestamp columns back to minutes from actual times, and the layouts haven't maybe been overwritten.

Cheers,
S.

Nope Slopey, still getting the "Object Reference not found" error, deleting those files didnt worked.

sorry.

 

[graham.reeds]

It starts from scratch - but I dunno why it should take so long. It's transaction based however so if you quit it, it won't do anything. If you're rocking 600,000 rows, you'll have a load of historical data in there. That's about 11,000 systems worth - might be an idea to clear down the ED4.db (or back it up then delete it) and let the BPC populate from scratch.

Okay. If you are interested the db is 300mb in size. I will hold on to it. If you have a private ftp I could upload it so you could profile why it took so long.

 

[Yokai]

Just want to say that v4.2.1.0 has been working flawlessly for me since you released it. This tool is SO useful. I use it every play session.

To other folks having problems with the prices:

1. Prune that database back to the most recent 48 hours to routinely clear out the bad data (either mis-fingered or intentional trolling)
2. If you see a "Unit Profit" higher than ~1850, it's simply too good to be true. That is caused by mis-fingered or intentionally bad data at one or both of the systems involved. Just ignore anything you see with a per-unit profit higher than 1850. The good data is there.

Finally, if you end up at a station where the prices are really old (approaching or exceeding 2000 minutes old), do the community a favor and update the prices for that station. Same deal for prices that are obviously wrong.

 

[mojonaut]

Hi

New to this so maybe am doing something wrong

Using BPC and EliteOCR, I frequently get a 'Unable to Parse File' error when importing a .bpc file created with OCR

I've tried exporting from OCR as a Excel worksheet and the table looks ok no obvious issues like 1's for I's or O's for 0's

Not sure which of the two programs is at fault, anyone else get this?


also the 'Show Distance' checkbox, I have this ticked but there is no Distance column shown

thanks

 

[Yokai]

Hi

New to this so maybe am doing something wrong

Using BPC and EliteOCR, I frequently get a 'Unable to Parse File' error when importing a .bpc file created with OCR

I've tried exporting from OCR as a Excel worksheet and the table looks ok no obvious issues like 1's for I's or O's for 0's

Not sure which of the two programs is at fault, anyone else get this?


also the 'Show Distance' checkbox, I have this ticked but there is no Distance column shown

thanks

Regarding "Show Distance":

1. Right click any column heading and choose "Column Selector".
2. From the box that appears in the lower right, drag the "Distance" item up next to one of your existing headers.

Regarding EliteOCR:

1. You must carefully check the "Station Name" that is created in the table on the lower right as you add things from the OCRed screenshots. Sometimes EliteOCR totally fubars the station name in the screenshot. You'll see a drop down menu below the "recognized" station name (up in the top OCR line section). Use that drop-down to select the correct spelling of the name.

2. Always move your cursor over to the right side of the Commodiities window (in ED) _before_ taking each screenshot. If any row is highlighted orange, EliteOCR will have trouble parsing it.

3. Scan the resulting table in EliteOCR carefully for mispellings or obivous goofs before trying to export it.

4. Always CLEAR the table in EliteOCR before doing the next station: if rows from the last station you OCRed are still there, the exported file will have two different stations in the export file and Slopey's will reject it.

Basically, it's really easy to screw up the EliteOCR results if you don't have good hygiene about your workflow. A lot of people were polluting Slopey's database with bad data because of this, so Slopey worked with EliteOCR's creator to ensure that Slopey's could do some basic validation and just reject obviously bad exports.

 

[SpySat1]

Slopey, after adding commodity prices, the add commod prices window won't close. I still get the text to speech alert that the data has been uploaded, but then the BPC starts doing something with the CPU, and there is no way to gain focus on the BPC after that. I have to shut it down through Task Manager.

After restarting it, I download the data and sure enough, the uploaded data made it to the DB ok... wonder what's going on with the client.

 

[Belsameth]

Hi

New to this so maybe am doing something wrong

Using BPC and EliteOCR, I frequently get a 'Unable to Parse File' error when importing a .bpc file created with OCR

I've tried exporting from OCR as a Excel worksheet and the table looks ok no obvious issues like 1's for I's or O's for 0's

Not sure which of the two programs is at fault, anyone else get this?


also the 'Show Distance' checkbox, I have this ticked but there is no Distance column shown

thanks

Untick "show distance" then tick it again. It shows up now

 

[Ian-C]

Morning Slopey

I have an odd error coming up today that was not there yesterday. I don't knnow if it's a BPC error or a EliteOCR error but neither programmes have been updated since i last used it.

When i try to load a file exported from EliteOCR, BPC tells me it can't parse the file and asks if the file is in the correct format. I'm using the *.bpc file format from EliteOCR as i was yesterday and apart from shutting down my PC and restarting this morning nothing has changed.

Unfortunately i can't try one of yesterdays file as i tend to delete all the export files and screen shots at the end of the day.

Any thoughts or anyone else having the same issue?


EDIT: After restating all the apps and deleting all the files it now seems to be working so i don't know what went on there.

 

[mojonaut]

Regarding "Show Distance":

1. Right click any column heading and choose "Column Selector".
2. From the box that appears in the lower right, drag the "Distance" item up next to one of your existing headers.

Regarding EliteOCR:

Thanks for the tips, Distance column now shows.

Still unsure re the file parsing as everything looks fine, System and Station names are there and consistent.

Looked at the .bpc file and can't see any obvious errors in it.

Would be handy in cases like this if the program could give a bit more info re. which line of data it's having trouble parsing.

Other than that, great job to all concerned - thanks for the time and effort you've put into it.

 

[Kevin2437]

Hiya all

I looked at BPC but decided to stick with Thrudd's tool at http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk as it suited my needs better - but this has just been updated to use EliteOCR.

I have now started creating .csv files for import into Thrudds but thought it would be good to also upload the files into BPC to 'share the love' as the main work had already been done.

Do I have to create a .bpc file at the same time as I create the .csv file export from EliteOCR for this? Do I also have to upload the file to BPC at the time I am at the station? I tried to do the upload to BPC and realised the .bpc issue - but also it picked up my last location from the log. How can I change the location to allow me to upload an earlier saved file for parsing from a station I have recently visited?

I am currently doing a Rare circuit in 'slow time' by taking the most economical route and exploring the systems as I find them so I am more than happy to update both tools as I poodle along each evening.

Any guidance thankfully received

 

[Montolioo]

Hi Slopey,

nice Tool. But Somehow i corrupted my Installation. I try to do a clean Install. But it doesn't work. Everytime i re-install your Tool all old Datas come up incl. the Skin.
Is there anything i can do?

Thx for your Help

Monti

 

[Slopey]

How can I change the location to allow me to upload an earlier saved file for parsing from a station I have recently visited?

You can't - that's by design so people don't update systems with screenshot OCR dumps they took 4 hours ago, overwriting more current data.

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If i use local mode, will it still upload data to the db?

Yes, anything you submit is uploaded.

 

[Kintch]

Hey Slopey,

Quick questions:

1. Having an issue with local time offset (I'm in GMT+1) all the data I upload is marked as 60 minutes old at the time it goes up; is that a known bug to you?

2. Would it be possible for the tool to automatically apply capitalization to names being added?
For example it would prevent typing in names in ALL CAPS or missing a capital letter in second part of a name, etc. (Ofc, it would have to take care of exceptions, such as names with "CD", "LHS", etc. but I'm thinking this might help preventing some rather messy data out there.)

3. Is storing info on the supply/demand level (High/Med/Low) for each station and commodity a reasonable thing to add?
(I realise that by now the database must be pretty big, as it is, though...)

Cheers for all the work you put into this!