Topics

1

Technical Support / Using PAW Classic's 5v header for fan power?

« on: October 06, 2023, 01:44:34 pm »

Hi,

I have a "classic" PAW in a repurposed Stratux case which has been working well since the earliest days of PilotAware.  I recently added a second wifi dongle to use iGrid, this works very well until the unit has been running for an hour or so when the wifi connection to my tablet starts to intermittently drop.  I have isolated the cause as excessive heat (primarily generated by the RTL dongle) causing the wifi dongle to drop out, and adding a small 5v fan to the case seems to entirely solve the problem.

As I'm using a Raspberry Pi 2 which does not have built-in wifi I do not have any spare USB ports to power the fan.  I've been testing with a separate cable running to the second USB port on my powerbank, but notice there are unpopulated pads on the classic PAW board JP2 header marked 5v and GND which appear to route directly to the GPIO pins on the Pi.  The fan only draws 60mA (though presumably has a slightly higher draw at start-up) - would I be OK to power it from these unused pads on the PAW board?

Many thanks,
Tim

2

General Discussion / Odd Mode-C traffic

« on: August 22, 2016, 10:14:59 am »

Hi,

I've just updated to the latest release which includes beta Mode-C detection.  I'm sure I'm misunderstanding something, but there are some very odd results showing on the traffic page (see attached).  Perched next to an upstairs window for a couple of minutes just to check it was working, a few things strike me as very strange:

- No hex-id is shown for any mode-c traffic
- No squawk is shown for any mode-c traffic
- One contact with an altitude of 16 feet (or possibly minus 16 feet) is shown!
- One contact with an altitude of over 62,000 feet is shown!

Are these in some way corrupted contacts, hence the lack of hex-id or squawk?  It seems highly unlikely that I am detecting an aircraft at 16 feet from my house in a built-up area, and it seems equally unlikely that there are many aircraft at over 62,000 ft - especially squawking mode-C!

I also noticed the "Noisy" test setting for sensitivity seems to have gone?

Thanks,
Tim

3

General Discussion / Ideal all-in-one case

« on: August 05, 2016, 04:45:06 pm »

Just wanted to share a very handy case for those who want to fully enclose the PAW including the USB devices:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/hammond-handheld-project-case-series-light-grey-165x100x32mm-n21gc

I have used one of these and packed the following inside:
- Raspberry Pi 2 and PAW bridge
- GPS dongle (removed from case)
- TV tuner (removed from case)
- Wifi adapter
- Short USB extension lead connected to a USB-powered Bluetooth audio receiver (removed from case)
- 2 x short antenna extension cables to move the connectors to the outside of the case
- Two volume controls connected to a simple passive audio mixer (2 x 10k resistors and 2 x 10k logarithmic pots)
- 3.5mm audio output jack
- Screw-locking DC jack for power - supplied in my case by an external USB battery pack

My iPad connects to the Bluetooth audio receiver to get Skydemon's audio alerts, which are mixed with the PAW audio alerts and sent to the external jack.  I intend to pipe this into the intercom somehow.

It's a tight squeeze but it's nice and robust, and even after running for several hours the temperatures are fine.

Hope that helps someone!
Tim

4

General Discussion / First flight - questions

« on: August 05, 2016, 02:15:29 pm »

Hi,

I finally took my PAW out for a flight yesterday evening and I have to say it performed well.  It was a quiet evening so mostly commercial traffic about, but I think it may have spotted two very relevant aircraft (one presumably ADS-B, the other Mode-S) and would like to verify a couple of things.  Can I do this from the track log?

First, ATC warned me of a nearby Kingair.  I spotted it visually some distance away and could also see an aircraft on Skydemon in the same direction - but it looked further than the one I could see.  I don't know the registration of the one I saw, is there any way of checking if the contact PAW picked up was indeed the same aircraft?  If I could find the contact in the log by time or approximate location it would be easy enough to check if it's the right aircraft!

Second, a helicopter overtook me fairly close by (we were in contact with each other on the appropriate frequency so we both knew each other were there and each other's intentions).  I was entering the circuit so not looking at Skydemon, and unfortunately have no audio set up yet - however I checked and there was no traffic identified before I entered the circuit when I know he would have been quite close behind (and said he was visual with me).  I did notice a red "danger" Mode-S ring when I glanced at the iPad a little later but by that time the helicopter was very close to and directly in front of me.  I'd like to know when PAW first picked up the contact - perhaps I need to change from "Medium" to "Long" range to get earlier warnings, or perhaps it didn't detect it at all until it was in front of me.

I did run the log through the post-processor, but I couldn't find the Kingair or any Mode-S contacts.

Finally, am I right in thinking this is another PAW?
$PAWRT,EA8935,0,0,0,0,1,0,*42

If so, how can I tell where and when this was?

Thanks,
Tim

5

General Discussion / Is a GPS dongle needed?

« on: May 23, 2016, 11:15:50 am »

Hi,

I'm afraid I'm a bit out of date with the latest situation - I was an early tester but things have moved on since then!  I used to use PilotAware with an iPad using the CollisionAware app which, I believe, passed the GPS location from the iPad's built-in receiver to PAW.  I know there is now the ability to use a USB GPS receiver on PAW, but have a few questions:

- Is a USB GPS receiver required or optional?
- If used, does it only provide a GPS fix to PAW or does it effectively also replace the GPS receiver in the iPad for use with navigation apps such as SkyDemon?
- If the PAW GPS replaces the iPad receiver, can this behaviour be changed so the iPad continues to use its own GPS and PAW uses the USB receiver?  I have no problems with the reliability of the iPad GPS, and would be concerned that lots of things could cause the PAW GPS to drop out in-flight resulting in loss of navigation as well as PAW functionality (flat PAW battery, wifi link failure, something falling out of a USB port, etc!)

Many thanks,
Tim

Thanks,
Tim

6

General Discussion / Testing ARF with a TV tuner

« on: September 17, 2015, 01:07:56 pm »

Hi,

I guess lots of people will be in a the same position as me - having built a unit which appears to be working but with no way of testing the ARF as there are no other units near by.  Is there any way of testing the ARF is transmitting using the TV tuner - such as via SDRSharp?  Obviously it won't help test receive but will at least show the Pi is talking to the ARF?

Cheers,
Tim

7

General Discussion / PilotAware driving demand for ARF modules

« on: September 09, 2015, 02:24:25 pm »

Just got an email through from Wirelessthings asking what I planned to use the ARF module for because they've had a massive increase in demand and want to understand why.  The example reply they gave was:

- For PilotAware
- For something else
- Don't want to say

Word is spreading!   

8

General Discussion / How many users?

« on: September 01, 2015, 04:32:45 pm »

Hi,

Do we have a rough idea how many people are actively using PilotAware today?  It would be interesting to see what proportion of traffic we can expect to pick up.  I'm expecting it to be pretty much limited to ADS-B in the short term but since "critical mass" adoption is key to usefulness it would be interesting to know how many P3I devices are out there.

Thanks,
Tim

9

General Discussion / Raspberry Pi Model B (not +)

« on: September 01, 2015, 04:18:35 pm »

Hi,

Really exciting project, I hope it picks up the momentum it deserves.

I'd like to have a go at putting a system together and already have an unused Raspberry Pi Model B (not B+) sat in a drawer.  It doesn't look like the changes between the B and the B+ are critical to get PilotAware running - can anyone confirm?  Only 2 USB ports (but only 2 are needed anyway - TV tuner and Wifi?), same processor and memory, etc, and I don't think the additional GPIO pin mappings matter as the first 26 are identical on the B+.  Lower power consumption and neater form factor would be nice, but again I don't think essential.

Many thanks,
Tim