Project: PAW Rosetta+Flarmbat+3D Printed Box

[Kurt37]

Hi all,

Forums live from people receiving and equally sharing. So after receiving lots of information from you (especially Ashley,Keith and Peter/ExfirePro) its time for me to share the result of my little project:

Goal: Build a EC carry on device for a SEP (Cessna 172), that can receive/send and that is compatible with Skydemon. + Flarm Direct was a requirement.

Timeline: Idea born to completion 3 months. 

Parts:
- PAW Rosetta
- Flarmbat (Powerflarm), 10h internal battery
- 2xJetvision Flarm Booster (to increase the Flarm reception)
- Powerbank Anker 10.000 Redux
- Cables: Juicybitz USB to MicroUSB + FTDI USB-RS232-WE-1800-BT 0.0
- Flarm+PAW are SUPERFANT Antennas.
- Self Printed 3D Case


Solution:
The Flarmbat sends FLARM and GPS to Rosetta via RS232 Cable.
The PAW Rosetta picks ups ADSB/ModeS/P3I and relays also the Flarmbat results to Skydemon
The Powerbank powers the PAW Rosetta. The Flarmbooster needs 60mA @ 5V-18V and is powered by one PAW USB output. The Flarmbat has 10h of internal battery life.
The Flarm Antenna is on a 1m cable and placed at the top of the windshield, the second Flarm antenna is on a 3m cable and placed with a suction cup in the middle of the read window.
The PAW Antenna was replaced by a SUPERFANT Antenna to reduce obscurance and is directly mounted to the device via SMA.
All works flawless, stable Flarm range with internal antennas in a metal body A/C is allround 15km. PAW Range to be analysed, but looking good


Important to me, that everything is in a contained box, therefore I printed a 3D case. Pictures attached.
I will upload pictures of installed unit in the A/C soon.
https://ibb.co/vs4Pkx9
https://ibb.co/F7kG3N0
https://ibb.co/HXFgnVr
https://ibb.co/nCQwf2B
https://ibb.co/Dw3WrQj
https://ibb.co/g7TXQPg

If further infos/pictures are out of interest, just reply and will try my best to provide asap.

So bottom line: Thanks to ExfirePro, Ashley, Keith and especially my dad, who put in lots of hours and clever ideas a successful project!

Kind Regards,
Patrick

[mariko]

Great work!

Please let me know more about the SUPERFANT antenna; what is it?

[Kurt37]

They are Dipol antennas omnidirectional, with two 90 degree "legs" and sma connectors. Advantage the signals are equal in all directions and still are fairly small (each leg is 10cm). They can be tuned to work at flarm or paw or ADSB frequency, but mostly used for Flarm in gliders to improve range.

Here is the website:
http://www.gliderdesignparts.de/ant_flarm.en.html
http://www.gliderdesignparts.de/ant_vergl.en.html

Just want to make clear that the superfants are not associated with PAW. I found them in a glider here in Germany and was curious. They work well in my set up.

Kind regards,
Patrick

[mariko]

Thanks for your answer!
Do they sell well tuned antennas for paw frequency?

[Kurt37]

Yes they do. He made a special PAW antenna on the exact frequency and I'm using it. You can see on one of attached pictures.

[steveu]

It looks brilliant but I would just be slightly concerned about the alignment of the hole and the Rosette fan.

When it's installed , it would be interesting to see what the heat situation is...

[Kurt37]

Agreed, that measurement was unfortunately misplaced.

I hope the vent on the side and at the bottom will help (it will hang under the coaming, so it will be free).
What is the max acceptable temp? And what happens if exceeded? Throttle down?
Otherwise I might need to open it up or print another case.

[mariko]

Yes they do. He made a special PAW antenna on the exact frequency and I'm using it. You can see on one of attached pictures.

I beg you pardon. I know my questions are out of topic. Did you get a considerable improvement in stations and PAW traffic detection and communication with this kind of antenna?

[Kurt37]

I cannot say for sure, because my experience with the original antenna is very low. And for PAW air to air traffic I have no experience, since there is hardly any paw equipped traffic in Germany. Hopefully that will change in future.

I can say that ground station reception has improved due to the fact that the horizontal antenna covers the areas left and right of the cowling + thru and down the side windows. Everything else in my c172 is metal and obviously reduces signal strength immensely.

Kind regards,
Patrick

[Captain Fourbars]

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!

I am relieved and delighted to report that the fix just happened autonomously. All I did was go to the App Store on the iPad and I ran the SD Update (to 3.14.4.260) and it all just WORKED! No involving Flarm or other protocols or workarounds.

From that I imagine there's a good chance the problem lay in SD rather than PAW and so the brilliant marriage of the two services is restored. I am praying the fix does not revert and that all the rest of us on this Forum will enjoy the same successful outcome.

Many thanks to all those who contributed their experiences and suggestions.

[Kurt37]

Your welcome to be my guest in this thread, but I think you wanted to post this somewhere else