We have all received I guess the latest email about the new hardware release. It seems though that all are sold out instantly.
On top of this there is confusion on what exactly is required.
Last December I purchased all the elements required to build a PAW without the ARF as it was advised it was not satisfactory to do this and just go for ADS-B. This assembled all worked fine and advice was to wait until the new ARF Bridge Unit is available. Well apparently it is available (but not in stock on the hardware site) and all we have to do is request an email when it is in stock. I have done this a few times over the last month or so and don't get emailed and on the day it is announced available it is NOT. This is madness, please someone state clearly what the situation is.
To make matters even more confusing my system was built on a PiB+ as per advice on hardware. Now it seems that I need a Pi2B, which I do actually have which would then provide all the functions. I don't have an ARF to return as advise was not to purchase.
And then to confuse me even more there is dialogue about a License number, I do have one but am not sure what relevance it is if I eventually get a Bridge and then connect up all my existing bits to the new Pi2B.
Somebody for heavens sake who is not so wrapped up in tech speak spell this all out simply. I cannot believe I am the only one who is becoming more and more confused.
Let me firstly apologise to you and those who are genuinely confused and secondly provide this explanation of the journey that we have all been undertaking over the past year to provide the answers to the confusion. It is a very dry bullet point summary but I hope it does help. If you know most of it apologies again but some don’t so they can pick up the thread.
• In the Summer of 2013 Lee Moore starts the development of what is now called PilotAware
• In 2015 PilotAware was offered to a wider audience than the small group of testers who had been working on PilotAware for the previous 12 months.
• This was, as is normal in software and hardware development, called the beta trial.
• In this trial, participants were given an insight into the open nature of the project and invited, if they were so inclined to build a unit for themselves by collecting a variety of disparate parts together and building them at home. Caveat emptor, order of the day.
• The software was updated regularly, often daily, involving a tedious reformat of the disk each and every time. Twenty minutes of your life you would not get back.
• The PilotAware Forum was then formed where ideas, mainly technical were discussed.
• In September 2015 a Barometer chip was added for accuracy and manual QNH input on each trip was now redundant.
• In early October 2015, thanks to the help of Ian Fallon, a list of ‘known good hardware’ was published to reconfirm what the specification of the bits were and where to get them. PilotAware was developed solely for the Raspberry Pi B+.
• In October the availability of the ARF, always spasmodic, became very spasmodic. PilotAware met with the manufacturers of the ARF and we were not convinced of either their, or its long term suitability for the project.
• In October the core testing team undertook extensive air to air and air to ground testing using the ARF. Whilst giving a better range than some other conspicuity systems it was not spectacular nor repeatable across the various home built systems, and various aircraft types.
• It was therefore decided that the ARF was not future proof and on 15th October 2015 we instructed that this should not be used further and that new PilotAware units should be built as ADSB receivers only until and alternative was found. This is known as the PilotAware State of the Nation Address.
http://forum.pilotaware.com/index.php/topic,150.msg2174.html#msg2174• In this latest news item, it was also recommended that all users fit a GPS and that we were also looking for an ARF replacement and also investigating opening up a web shop to make it easier for people who didn’t want to make their own units on the kitchen table.
• In November 2015 Both android and iOS tablets were supported.
• PilotAware Ltd also decided to invest in the development of a bespoke replacement for the ARF and produces a specification including the requirement for it to meet the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standard for this type of equipment.
• PilotAware Ltd engaged with Aviation Technology and Hardware (ATH) to develop and produce the certified radio module, design a plug in board, integrating the barometer voltage converters and other peripheral electronics as a stand alone Bridge.
• AHT agrees to provide a fulfilment service for complete PilotAware units, Bridges and peripherals using the URL pilotawarehardware.com.
• At the Flyer show we confirm that ATH will make ready built units available at the introductory price of £139.99. plus vat to include the first year licence at £15 plus vat with a license of £12 plus vat per year thereafter.
• In addition, it announced that whilst the failure of the ARF was not a PilotAware Ltd issue it would in good faith provide a discount against the new radio units, for beta trialists who bought, installed, used and registered ARF’s before the State of the Nation Address on October 15 2015.
• From December 2015 The Bridge was developed, bench tested, parametrically tested, range tested, flight tested several times over a 3 month period. Then submitted for approval testing. It failed. Further development and testing was undertaken and it passed.
• It was recommended that all units be fitted with a Glonass GPS and the Collision Aware app that gained access to the GPS on a tablet was withdrawn.
• Funding was sought to complete the development, set up the manufacturing and testing process and to buy up front, raw materials, finished goods and consumables.
• Over the Winter 2015-16 Lee Moore continues to develop PilotAware functionality. Two developments stood out as highly desirable, voice alerts and Mode S detection, both fairly difficult and not in the original roadmap.
• April 2015 PilotAware Ltd agrees to further reward beta trialists by offering to extend their existing licenses for a full year to 1st May 2017 free of charge. This complimentary license continues to give the original functionality available on the Raspberry PiB+ in preparation for the availability of the PilotAware Bridge after volume manufacture and further parametric and range testing.
• PilotAware decides to bring forward the newly developed functions and offer them in the fully built units to be available in May as PilotAware Classic.
• This new functionality requires additional computing power and requires an upgrade in processor to the Raspberry Pi 2B. This processor is therefore included in the new complete unit called the PilotAware Classic. The new functionality, glonass GPS, improved antenna and more expensive processor increased the introductory price to 159.99 plus vat.
• Existing customers operating on the complimentary 1 year licence now have the choice of keeping it as an ADSB only unit, buying a Bridge (no additional licence required) and using this on their Raspberry PiB+ processor. This will give them the original functionality plus automatic software upgrades. The cost of the Bridge without license is £69.99 ex vat
• If existing customers want to gain access to the new functionality, Voice Alerts and Mode S detection they they need to upgrade to a Raspberry Pi 2B and buy the Bridge plus the upgraded Licence and an antenna. The cost of the Bridge and a first year licence is £84.99 ex vat. They also have the option to buy a PilotAware Classic ready to go.
• For beta trialists who qualify for the ARF discount the above 2 options are open to them but in addition they can apply for a promotion code which will give a £33.33 discount off the pre vat price of the Bridge. This discount can also be redeemed off the price of a complete PilotAware Classic Unit giving a third option. Details of how to apply are found at
http://forum.pilotaware.com/index.php/topic,372.msg5052.html#msg5052• The latest software will detect which version of Pi on which it is installed and enable the functionality accordingly. Why is this the case? Please see the explanation here .
• ATH (pilotawarehardware.com) released the hardware as soon as possible with 50 complete PilotAware Classics and 50 shields released for sale on 11th May 2016 after sending out emails through an automatic server to those who requested them.
• A further 400 Bridges will be available very soon for purchase as either complete PilotAware Classic units or Bridges.
• A forward ordering facility has been added to the website for PilotAware Classic units.
• Further sales items will be added for the standalone Bridges and peripherals.
Sorry that this has been a long list but hopefully it answers your questions.
Keith
