Normal Operation

PAMGuard

Normal Operation

Overview

During normal operation, PAMGuard collects data in real time via sound cards, GPS feeds, etc.

The data are processed in real time by the PAMGuard modules and summary information is displayed on the PAMGuard GUI and / or written to the PAMGuard database.

Running PAMGuard

(If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already worked this out !)

If you’ve used one of the platform dependent installers, then you should start PAMGuard from one of the shortcuts placed in your system menus. This will check that you have a compatible JAVA virtual machine installed and will allocate additional memory.

If you are running one of the platform independent jar files, then you should tell the JAVA virtual machine to allocate as much memory as possible. For instance, under Windows, the command line for starting PAMGuard Beta version 1.3.02 with 1 Gigabyte of memory is:

java -jar -mx1024m PAMGuardBeta_1_3_02.jar PAMGuard

The PSFX File

PAMGuard saves it’s configuration between runs in PAMGuard Settings Files (.psfx).

Each time you start PAMGuard a dialog will open asking you to select the psfx file you want to use.

Start Dialog

Either select a recently used psf from the drop down list or press the browse button to select a psf file stored elsewhere on your system.

Sample psfx files may be downloaded from the www.PAMGuard.org web site.

PAMGuard WatchDog

When collecting and processing data in real time you can use the PAMGuard WatchDog to keep PAMGuard running whatever happens

Batch Processing

If you’re processing sets of data offline, you can use the Batch Processing Plugin to run the same configuration file on several different sets of data.

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Next: PAMGuard Viewer.