Am I doing something wrong.

[flying_john]

So, I have latest version loaded and running and my altitude filters set and the display shows aircraft threats - all fine once running.

But when I land and switch off and return after the obligatory $100 burger and switch back on, no  traffic shown.

If I then go through the process of turning flarm on/off on Runway HD, and switch the PA GPS passthrough app on/off and reset the Pi, it starts working again.

It just seems that whenever it is powered off, it just wont all restart of its own accord and you have to go thorough this power on/off ritual to kick it back into life.

Is there a defined power off sequence I must adopt, followed by a particular start sequence I must use to make it all work reliably each time ?  The added problem is that you are never quite sure that it is working until you see the first ADSB traffic, so there is this nagging doubt it isn't on properly, so you mess with the filter to show Big Jet traffic and only after you spot a couple are you re-assured its actually working before you can re-set your own altitude band filter back to 1000 feet and fly.
 
 

[Admin]

So, I have latest version loaded and running and my altitude filters set and the display shows aircraft threats - all fine once running.

Good news

But when I land and switch off and return after the obligatory $100 burger and switch back on, no  traffic shown.

So firstly what have you switched off/on, I presume PilotAware and your iPad ?

If I then go through the process of turning flarm on/off on Runway HD, and switch the PA GPS passthrough app on/off and reset the Pi, it starts working again.

You just need to power up PilotAware, it will then be sat waiting to service new connections

It just seems that whenever it is powered off, it just wont all restart of its own accord and you have to go thorough this power on/off ritual to kick it back into life.

This is really down to the Software side of things.

With PilotAware up and running,

1. on the iPad check to see it is connected to the PilotAware-XXXXXXXX hotspot, on my iPad this re-connects automatically

2. if you are running the PilotAware GPS share utility, this should auto connect (once the wiFi is connected) and display 'connected', does this happen. BTW, I really recommend using a GPS dongle rather than the GPS Sharing APP

3. Runway HD 'may' need a power cycle, I am not sure if it is able to auto-connect.

Is there a defined power off sequence I must adopt, followed by a particular start sequence I must use to make it all work reliably each time ?  The added problem is that you are never quite sure that it is working until you see the first ADSB traffic, so there is this nagging doubt it isn't on properly, so you mess with the filter to show Big Jet traffic and only after you spot a couple are you re-assured its actually working before you can re-set your own altitude band filter back to 1000 feet and fly.

There is a builtin web server to give you lots of information about the system status, simply browse to
http://192.168.1.1 (and save it as a favorite for next time)
The Home screen tells you the state of all interfaces
The Traffic screen will show you if it is receiving any contacts

Thx
Lee

[flying_john]

So firstly what have you switched off/on, I presume PilotAware and your iPad ?

When we stop the aircraft and switch the master off, everthing is off, Pi,Ipad the lot.

You just need to power up PilotAware, it will then be sat waiting to service new connections

When the master is switched back on power is  applied to the Pi and the Ipad switches on and I restart Runway HD from the desktop.

This is really down to the Software side of things.

For sure - all the hardware is up and running.

With PilotAware up and running,

1. on the iPad check to see it is connected to the PilotAware-XXXXXXXX hotspot, on my iPad this re-connects automatically

Yes it  connects automatically to any hotspot that it recognises and has used previously.

if you are running the PilotAware GPS share utility, this should auto connect (once the wiFi is connected) and display 'connected', does this happen.

Yes it has a green slider and this shows "connected"

BTW, I really recommend using a GPS dongle rather than the GPS Sharing APP

Yes - I have seen you say this a number of times, but I dont know why. My Ipad is mounted  high on the panel with excellent view of the sky and runs the Navigation application without any glitches.

  Runway HD 'may' need a power cycle, I am not sure if it is able to auto-connect.

RunwayHD gets restarted after the ipad powers up when we turn on the aircraft master switch.

There is a builtin web server to give you lots of information about the system status, simply browse to
http://192.168.1.1 (and save it as a favorite for next time)
The Home screen tells you the state of all interfaces
The Traffic screen will show you if it is receiving any contacts

Yes I have three screens I can flip to, the webserver, the passthrough app and runwayHD. I can toggle between the three to see (try and see) whats going wrong. When I have no traffic on RunwayHD screen, there is no traffic on the webserver page. We get "loss of flarm data" on the screen of runwayHD in an orange/red banner.
The Home page table "Navigation" field tells me it is connected and the ADSB message count increments.
To make it work, I set Flarm to off in RunwayHD
Set the Passthough GPS green slider to off - then on again and then re-enable the flarm in RunwayHD, the screen then Blinks says loss of flarm data again and starts displaying Big Jet traffic, so I know it works, and then I reset the altitude filter.

[neilmurg]

It has been noted before that Android PilotAware can need to be recycled (off/on) after a GPS signal is acquired. I don't know if this applies to Collision Aware, or your circumstance.

[Paul_Sengupta]

BTW, I really recommend using a GPS dongle rather than the GPS Sharing APP

Yes - I have seen you say this a number of times, but I dont know why. My Ipad is mounted  high on the panel with excellent view of the sky and runs the Navigation application without any glitches.

I believe this is your problem here. On my Android system, if I use the app to send over the GPS from the tablet, it has to be restarted if the PAW is rebooted, i.e. you need to swipe to dismiss the app and then start it again. It's not about whether the GPS from the tablet is a good source or not, it's about the interaction between the tablet app and the PAW. I doubt that any bugs in the tablet app to supply GPS will be ironed out now, especially since you can get a plug in GPS delivered for under 6 quid if you get it on the slow boat from China.

I would suggest obtaining the plug in GPS as it'll probably make life easier in terms of usability.

[flying_john]

I am using an Ipad mini and the Pi is buried under the panel. I if I attach a GPS dongle it will be screened by a number of layers of metal as well as looking through two transceivers , a transponder etc.

If Pilot aware cannot use the GPS from the Ipad then it may be better to remove all reference and stop promulgating the two apps for GPS passthrough from tablet to PAW.

Has anyone else tried the GPS dongle using a USB extension lead up to the top of the panel.  I really was trying to avoid a plethora of bits stuck on top of the panel, including the aerial for ADSB reception, which is a spare transponder sharksfin attached to the fuselage.

John

[Admin]

Hi John

The ublox g-mouse and dongle work well with pilotaware

vk162/vk172
The g-mouse is a 1.5metre usb gps

The pilotawarehardware.com will stock both of these items
Thx
Lee

[Robski]

BTW, I really recommend using a GPS dongle rather than the GPS Sharing APP

Yes - I have seen you say this a number of times, but I dont know why. My Ipad is mounted  high on the panel with excellent view of the sky and runs the Navigation application without any glitches.

Why are you arguing with the guy you asked for help from, and who designed the system?

I am using an Ipad mini and the Pi is buried under the panel. I if I attach a GPS dongle it will be screened by a number of layers of metal as well as looking through two transceivers , a transponder etc.

I'm surprised you can even get a reliable WiFi signal through that lot!

Sorry to sound negative.
Lee and his associates have far more patience that I do!

If this post gets 'moderated' I will understand!

[flying_john]

Why are you arguing with the guy you asked for help from, and who designed the system?

For the simple reason that the option is there to use and as a tester of something new, want to feedback my experiences. Its not about arguing, but trying to point out difficulties and strengths of the device.

I'm surprised you can even get a reliable WiFi signal through that lot!

Why are you surprised, Wi-Fi works at higher signal strengths than the low power transmission from satellites many thousands of miles away. My reasoning is sound, that the Ipad GPS antennae is mounted at one of the most open and highest points of my cockpit and did not want to bury the GPS under the panel further screening it from, what is already, a small signal.

Nevertheless , I have purchased a Ublox, fitted it in the A/C this morning and cannot make the system work.

The browser screen shows "disconnected" and the logging shows that is is connected to the Ublox "Connected to /dev/usbp3" then GPS-USB sysdata.usbConfig.rstr=00000001
then
"TRX-SER: ERROR!!! Coms buf='' "

and there it sits doing nothing else.

The traffic browser screen is showing that it is receiving mode S traffic, but  there is no output to Runway HD.

Advice required please.

John

[Paul_Sengupta]

Is the green light flashing on the GPS?

What does the status web page say all in all? Does it show that it has a 2D ro 3D lock under GPS?

[Admin]

Hi John

"TRX-SER: ERROR!!! Coms buf='' "

Ignore this, it is unrelated to what you are trying to do, this is trying to communicate with the transceiver

So to the nub.
I think your PilotAware is working, to be sure can you post an image here on the forum of the web page at
http://192.168.1.1
This will show the status of all interfaces.

So the issue you now have is that RunwayHD does not display traffic.
You also say

The traffic browser screen is showing that it is receiving mode S traffic, but of course there is no output to Runway HD.

Do you mean ModeS or do you mean ADS-B ?
ModeS cannot be displayed in RunwayHD, so I think you really mean ADS-B, ie in the traffic table, each entry contains all information including Distance and Altitude. If Distance is '-', then this truly is ModeS and cannot be displayed in RunwayHD

Can you tell me what settings you have made in RunwayHD, does it agree with what Has been documented under the documentation guide ?
http://forum.pilotaware.com/index.php/topic,231.0.html

Thx
Lee

[flying_john]

Everything is the same as when I used the GPS passthrough App  on the Ipad. All I have done is switched that app off, plugged in the GPS dongle and looked at the screens on 192.168.1.1

The Ipad is in the aircraft so not easy to screen dump as it is in the middle of a field.  So I had to type in what the log screen was saying, but have attached a photo.

Previously you told me that no traffic is sent to Runway HD until GPS position is known to the PAW. Because the webpage is showing Navigation "disconnected" there can't be any conflicting traffic info being sent to RunwayHD.

In the traffic table there was both ModeS traffic (Dx = "-") and ADSB traffic.

[Admin]

Hi John

Thanks for the screenshot.
This tells me pilotaware is working correctly and you have a good gps connection

I would say the issue is the configuration within runwayhd

Thx
Lee

[Admin]

Hi John

In fact the absolute raw test is to connect to the message server which sends the data to your navigation device, simply paste the following address into the web browser which runs your nav software

http://192.168.1.1:2000

Thx
Lee

[flying_john]

O.k I will try again.

But what is the significance of the navigation field where it says "disconnected"

John