iGrid connection

[peastlake]

Hi

I’d bought the dongle (direct from PAW to ensure the right chipset) for iGrid support, but up to now hadn’t really tried to use it because effectively you need three devices; a iPad or other tablet for your moving map, a phone to provide a hotspot for the PAW (Rosetta in my case) to connect to for iGrid services, and another device for the PAW radar display. But I’ve now been given an old iPhone 5 (with no SIM), to use alongside my iPhone 11 & iPad mini 5. The iPhone 5 can then be used for the radar display, my 11 can provide (theoretically) the hotspot, and the iPad used for SkyDemon.

So I ensure WiFi is “off” on my iPhone 11,& ensure “Personal Hotspot” and “mobile data” is turned on, then turn on the Rosetta. Once it’s started, I connect the iPhone 5 to it via WiFi, and logon to paw.local on the iPhone 5’s browser. I go to the “Network” page, and refresh the available networks - and it sees NONE, not even my home WiFi network ( I’m testing there, not in the aircraft), let alone the phone hotspot. All it shows is a greyed-out “Hotspot SSID” even after refreshing.

On the paw.local Home page it shows “eth0=down” & “wlan1=down”.

Thoughts on what’s wrong here? I followed the install instructions (even watching the video on YouTube).

Firmware is 20220805

[steveu]

Have you turned on the "Router" option?

I think it's on the network page....

[exfirepro]

Hi Paul,

A couple of comments here.

Firstly, I’m concerned that your Home Screen shows both 1090 and GPS ‘Unavailable’. This implies that the software can’t find the dongles. Can you check that they are present and fully plugged into their USB sockets please. It would also be useful to attach your Rosetta to a monitor via the HDMI port for the first boot up to see that the boot sequence runs right through to the login prompt (but you don’t actually log in).

Next, boot the unit up outside to make sure it gets a clear view of the sky to pick up enough satellites. Once it has done so, the GPS and Barometer indicators should both go Green. The 1090 indicator may also do so, but should at least show an increase in Received Traffic (the Rx indicator should start to climb), though the indicator may still show orange or even red depending on time since the last 1090 packet was seen (it drops to orange after something like 15 seconds with no 1090 Traffic).

With regard to the iGRID setup, I think you are falling foul of the phone’s inbuilt iOS security, which requires specific settings to allow ‘Non-Apple’ devices (such as PilotAware) to connect to the Personal Hotspot of your iOS device. In brief, you need to enable Mobile Data, then make the Mobile Hotspot Discoverable, enable ‘Allow others to Connect’ and set ‘Maximise Compatibility’ to ‘On’ and (where present’ Family Sharing’ to ‘Off’. Once you have done all this the phone should appear in the list of available networks (after refreshing the list of it doesn’t) and can then be selected, and the Hotspot Password entered and Saved. If it doesn’t appear, make sure the hotspot is still set to be discoverable and leave your phone on the Hotspot Settings Screen. As long as the Hotspot is enabled before starting the PAW it should automatically reconnect on future start-ups.

See this thread… http://forum.pilotaware.com/index.php/topic,2218.msg23128.html#msg23128 for further explanation and clarification of shortcuts which should help explain the process.

Oh and by the way - as you will see from @russp’s posts, it is possible to use the same device to provide the Hotspot and the PAW Traffic or Radar Display, but I would advise concentrating on setting up the Hotspot link first.

Please let us know how you get on - it can be a bit of a fiddle to set up, but it’s definitely well worth the effort!

Best Regards as always.

Peter

[peastlake]

Thanks Peter

1090 and GPS were showing as “unavailable” because the PAW unit was at home with me, and the (remote) aerials and GPS mouse aren’t removable from my trike.

Anyway, the trick with iPhones is, as you noted, to have the hotspot page in settings open while searching for it on the network page on paw.local. Then it’ll connect. I had no idea that this was required! And, yes, the iPhone will connect to the PAW via the normal WiFi at the same time too, so I can have the radar display on my iPhone 11 and it also provide the data connection for the iGrid dongle. Then I’ve just got my (Wi-Fi only, no SIM) iPad running SkyDemon.


So back at the airfield today, with the unit back in the trike, all seems to be well…

[exfirepro]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the update. That explains what was going on with the 1090 and GPS indicators. Great to see you have now got it all up and running the way you wanted to.

Best Regards

Peter

[owengordonmatthews]

The Igrid dongle is intended to enable receiving a mobile signal from your phones Wi-Fi  hotspot.
With some android phones you may need to change the phones hotspot network from 5GHz to 2.4GHz in order to be able to receive the signal in your PAW computer !

[DerekJ]

I use split screen on my tablet to show both SkyDemon and PAW Radar. If interested take a look at our Nynja.

[exfirepro]

Hi Derek,

Thanks for the info.

By the way, I notice that your device is showing a software update available on the bottom of the PAW Radar Screen. Are you aware of how this works?

For those not aware, if you are running iGRID, your PAW will check for updates via iGRID and if available, will download the new software over iGRID  in the background, while the PAW is running and then present you with the 'update available' message on the bottom of the PAW Radar Screen. PAW will only install the update once you instigate the installation via the PAW Update Screen.

After you see the new software alert, go to the PAW Updates Screen and select the option to install the new software then initiate the installation from there. This usually takes around 5 minutes and will cause the unit to disconnect and reboot during the process, so you need to watch for the PAW WiFi reappearing. JUST REMEMBER NOT TO POWER OFF THE PAW WHILE THE UPDATE IS IN PROGRESS AS THIS IS LIKELY TO CORRUPT THE INSTALLATION.

Best Regards

Peter
(PilotAware Development)