Messages

1

Technical Support / Re: Power Outage / UPS/ Possible solution

« on: November 09, 2019, 08:48:15 pm »

Sorry to "argue", Jeremy, but the difference in the port shut-down voltages is not mentioned at all in the version of the manual I downloaded from your website a few hours before making my previous post. The document  is marked as :
 Part: C40B-M,
Version: 1.0,
Date: June 2017.
Record of Change: Initial release for CS-STAN (Harkwood Services Ltd).

is there any possibility the version available for download from your web site is not the current version you are looking at? I read it carefully before making my post above, and have re-read it again now and can state categorically there is nowhere that the different minimum voltages for the upper and lower ports is mentioned, the only feed voltage information is in the "Technical Specifications" section, which states "Input Voltage 11v - 30v DC; something seems not to be what it ought to be!

Out of curiosity I'll change my feed to Port 1, though now I have the Zendure as a robust UPS it's a matter of curiosity rather than necessity for me.

As an aside, I have the PAW GPS on a short USB lead so I can place it in an optimal position (near the top of the bubble canopy) where it gets a significantly better signal than the tablet or phone's internal GPSs which are both below the panel, but I had been wary of allowing the PAW GPS to be the GPS source for the tablet/phone because thereby the continuity of the GPS feed is dependant on the PAW and its wifi staying online. Now I have high confidence in the continuity of PAW operation thanks to the Zendure, there's perhaps a case for reconsidering that decision.

Best Regards

Stu

2

Technical Support / Re: Power Outage / UPS/ Possible solution

« on: November 08, 2019, 09:25:34 pm »

Two comments on this - having also had issues due to the supply volts to the Charge4 dropping excessively. I have a (filament) landing light and tests showed that that was causing low volts at low engine revs, but I have overcome that by some improvements to wiring configuration and connections/earthing. However, another cause of low volts that I still have to live with is due to the current draw for the electric flaps - which of course tend to be deploying while engine revs are also low. Not sure if the OP here has electric flaps?

There have also been questions here about "UPS" - I had fitted a 5Ah RS powerbank between the Charge4 and the PAW (mainly to allow the PAW and tablet to get up and running and all looking happy before getting as far as engine start, though also to provide power continuity if the flap current caused the Charge4 to temporarily shut the port ), having understood from the RS website that the device would function as a UPS. But that was not successful - the RS battery just ran down as it did not accept input current while it as giving output current, so every few flights I had to take it home and charge it up despite it being connected to the Charge4 while flying. On the suggestion of a pilot mate I then bought a Zendure A2 battery - and that really does operate like a proper UPS, maintaining a steady output to keep the PAW running irrespective of whether the Zendrue was being charged by the Charge4, or whether the Charge4 port was for whatever reason  offline and no current was feeding the Zendure, and no sign of any hiccups on the output when the input changed from one state to the other. So for me it has proved an ideal solution.

BTW - until reading it here, I did not know that there was any benefit in using ports 1 or 3 on the Charge4 to mitigate any supply voltage dips - I had assumed all ports were identical. The fact that 1 & 3 will work from supply voltages down to ~9.9V whereas 2 & 4 need ~10.15 is useful; also the tip that the ports power up in the sequence 1,2,3,4 could be useful in some situations. Perhaps those details could be added to the user Manual in a future edition?

Stu

3

Technical Support / Re: $PFLAA message in track file

« on: October 01, 2017, 11:33:25 am »

I was looking at PAW track and Planefinder about a week after the flight, not in real time so even if Planefinder does inevitably have some latency, I presume the times labelled on the screen are correct?
Thanks for the point about more tracking info, indeed the data source is MLAT, not ADSB as I had assumed. But one odd thing - although the Planefinder plot stops, and the PAW trace starts when the helicopter is at Old Sarum, the last datapoint on Planefinder shows 71kt and 2,300'! Looks more like he either just got out of range of one of the multilateration sites, or someone turned their multilateration sensor off? But it makes it all the more strange that the PAW trace starts just as the Planefinder one ends! Could of course be coincidence, but seems a bit unlikely!

4

Technical Support / Re: $PFLAA message in track file

« on: September 30, 2017, 12:19:03 pm »

Thanks, very helpful. Having seen this helicopter identified with its registration in my track file analysis spreadsheet with these (to me) odd values, I looked it up on the net and Planefinder.net had tracked its ADSB output for a while, then the track they displayed stopped (positioned at Old Sarum) so I presume from that it landed there (I believe it is based there anyway). My PAW record was while I was on the ground about 3 miles from Old Sarum, and PAW did NOT have this ADSB track - but if the helicopter was hovering or perhaps even in the circuit at Old Sarum it  would not have been within "line of sight" from my location so no surprise that I did not pick up the ADSB I suppose. Then, at the exact time that Planefinder.net showed the ADSB signal ceasing, my PAW record started showing these Mode S records, which continued for a short while (less than a minute) then ceased. It seems that perhaps in the helicopter's shut-down sequence the ADSB-out feed was turned off before the transponder itself was powered off, and that the PAW was able to make some sense of the mode S signal even though its reception of the ADSB was too weak to make sense of?

I created my track file analysis spreadsheet about a year ago, probably before I had a PAW version recording Mode CS contacts so now I'll need to upgrade the spreadsheet to handle thees records properly, which with the info above I will be able to do.

BTW, somewhere in your documentation I found a sentence saying a Track File analysis spreadsheet was available to download form your web site, but I have not been able to find any links to it - is it in fact still available?

VBR

Stu

5

Technical Support / $PFLAA message in track file

« on: September 30, 2017, 12:33:25 am »

Is there a published definition of the $PFLAA message as recorded in the track files? In most instances, I believe the first 4 elements after $PFLAA are alert state, Metres north of me, meters east of me, and metres above me, but I see several aircraft which have a suspiciously round number (e.g. 1500, 3000, 4500) in the field that I thought was "Metres N of me) and the "Metres E of me" field is then in each case blank. These cases appear to be flagged to generate alerts by PAW. From the Planefinder.net web site, these appear to be form aircraft that had indeed been flying in my immediate vicinity but which were actually probably landed at the times these messages appear in the track file. I am wondering if perhaps ADS-B outputs a different message string after an aircraft has landed - if so, how is that handled in the track file?

6

Technical Support / Re: PAW Hardware failure

« on: September 06, 2017, 01:39:45 pm »

Delighted to be able to report that (almost) all now seems to be in order after giving it sufficient time to fire up on the first launch. In fact the wifi came on after about 5 or 6 minutes and then I could put in the new licence code. Also had to put the aircraft hex address and registration letter back in, of course,  re-set the wifi password and give the GPS a while to find itself as it had not run for 2 months so doubtless its satellite database needed to be refreshed. So I left it running for 40 minutes and all the home page flags were green except ADSB (and that was to be expected as my ADSB antenna and its cable was still installed in the aeroplane and not at home with me!) and the upper row flashing LEDs were giving one red flash then 3 green, again I presume the one red related to the ADSB status?

I restarted it a couple more times, same as above. I'll be able to test with the ASDB antenna at the weekend I hope.

Thanks again for the very quick support which allowed me to sort it out!

7

Technical Support / Re: PAW Hardware failure

« on: September 06, 2017, 10:17:20 am »

Thanks for the quick and helpful replies, I'm now having another go at it and will post some news when completed.

Perhaps the instructions should warn of the length of time this first start will take (perhaps they do if you red them as if you are starting for a brand-new "straight from the box" unit, I just homed in on the section about reformatting a card and  installing a full card image download).

VMT

Stu B

PS - so the lack of a "Format size adjustment" option with V5 of the formatter is a red herring? If so it would be good to remove that bit in your next update to the manual.

8

Technical Support / Re: PAW Hardware failure

« on: September 06, 2017, 12:24:11 am »

I seem to have a similar problem - start-up stalled with the green disc-access LED on. I checked and removed and refitted teh SD card several times, it clicks in positively and no amount of re-fitting it could clear the problem.
I met with you at the LAA rally at Sywell (with my PAW and SD card). You temporarily swapped in another SD card and it appeared to now be starting OK, but we did not wait for the whole light sequence to run through. I was advised to go home, download the formatter and reformat the card and then install the latest software. First problem was that your manual says install version 4 of the SD formatter, but the current version is v5 and v4 is no longer  available. This may not be significant but your instructions are to use the Options button to select "Format Size Adjustment" - but with v5 there is no such option available. Does that matter? I did set the "full" format and it took quite a while to work so I hoped it was correctly set up even without the FORMAT SIZE ADJUSTMENT selection. I downloaded the latest software and copied that onto the formatted card and now it appeared to be going through something more akin to the proper start sequence (previously it had just "stalled" with the green disk access LED on all the time).  But it does not reach the stage of the flashing lights which progressively change from 4 red flashes to four green flashes as the various status items come on line, and no wifi network can ever be detected. Might it be significant that while it has been not working my licence has expired. I had renewed the licence and got a new code but of course until I can use the wifi to view the settings pages on my tablet I cannot put in the new licence code!

9

Technical Support / Re: Bits needed to connect to FLARM Mouse?

« on: January 30, 2017, 08:23:55 pm »

I'm pleased to see there is some activity on this thread now, but TBH I was expecting that the PAW team would be marketing an approved interface kit of the necessary cables and connectors all ready assembled. This current "knit it all together yourself" approach is fine for those who understand the details but will certainly not lead to any wide-scale uptake of this important extension of the scope and capability of PAW. As I said in my first post, I'm sure I had read somewhere here that there was an intention to market such a ready-made solution, but there now seems no indication of any appetite to do that?

10

General Discussion / Re: FL*RM Integration - Beta Testers

« on: January 11, 2017, 12:10:10 am »

Thanks, both - again all useful stuff! I have the PAW antenna ahead of the ADS-B in the hope that any loss in PAW performance caused by the ADS-B antenna might affect the rear hemisphere rather than the front one, but I suppose it may be that any effect from a nearby metal rod is global rather than directional? I'll have to do some testing. I do have two pilot mates locally who also have PAW so I'll have to arrange a trial.

11

General Discussion / Re: FL*RM Integration - Beta Testers

« on: January 08, 2017, 10:19:14 pm »

Thanks, both, for your replies. That is a pretty close frequency, presumably both systems need to use the same limited "public use" part of the spectrum but I presume that greatly increases the likelihood of interaction if the antennae are too close. I had tried some experiments with the PAW and ADSB antennae and from that concluded that there was no significant effect on ADSB reception provided PAW was about 3 inches away from it - but of course ADSB is listening for powerful signals and the two systems are over 10% apart in frequency. Due to absence of PAW targets I could not test if the ADSB antenna was having any effect on PAW reception.
As regards mounting an antenna on the underside of the aircraft, that probably is worth considering, I probably slipped into assuming an "on top of canopy" installation as a natural evolution from my present set up where they hang below the top of the canopy arch. However, I think there is one important consideration that very much favours a "top-side" installation rather than a belly-mount. Even inside the canopy, the antenna is very high above the top of the engine so it should have a view ahead down to perhaps 15 or more degrees below the horizontal, and of course unlimited view above the horizontal. A belly mount would have unrestricted view in the downward arc but would only be only a few inches below the engine 6 feet ahead of it so would barely be able to see above the horizontal at all. I think that is too high a price to pay. The other option I may be forced to consider is a fin-tip installation. That would give good separation though the cable runs would; be lengthy.

BTW - is there any received wisdom re the pros and cons of the red-box FL@RM unit vs the FL@RM Mouse? I have read a thread here somewhere taht said the GPS antenna in teh mouse is small and is a bit of a poor perfomer - not good if teh mouse becomes your primary GPS source for all the conspicuity and nav app systems, so the red box plus a GPS dongle sounds to me a better idea (but of course more wiring!)

12

General Discussion / Re: FL*RM Integration - Beta Testers

« on: December 30, 2016, 10:09:34 pm »

Thanks Richard. Power to your elbow! That would only leave the issue of getting it cleared to be fitted through a hole drilled in my bubble canopy 😉

13

General Discussion / Re: FL*RM Integration - Beta Testers

« on: December 30, 2016, 09:17:38 pm »

Thanks for the quick reply Ian. If I want to put ~35 cm between the two antennae I face a choice of having one in an excellent location and the other in a poor location - or having both mounted in poor locations as both will have to be on the cockpit. (Not sure whether the standard PAW dipole is even suitable for external mounting?) So that's a great pity. What frequency does FL*RM use BTW?

14

General Discussion / Re: FL*RM Integration - Beta Testers

« on: December 30, 2016, 06:40:13 pm »

Sorry if this is a daft idea, but ...
Given that good location is important for the PAW antenna, and, it seems, excellent location is essential for the FL*RM antenna, but that practical constraints may severely limit installation options, and given that the standard PAW end-fed dipole is said to be a good antenna for the FL*RM Mouse, might it be possible for PAW and FL*RM to share a common (PAW end-fed dipole) antenna? The two systems are obviously using different frequencies so should not interfere? Or would filters be needed? Apart from allowing both systems to exploit whatever is the best possible location that the aircraft configuration permits, sharing also simplifies the installation?

15

Technical Support / Bits needed to connect to FLARM Mouse?

« on: December 17, 2016, 10:05:58 pm »

I think I read somewhere a while back that a set of approved hardware would be specified (or sold via PilotAwareHardware.com) to allow the FLARM mouse to be connected?Is there any news on this now there is a formal release of a FLARM-enabled version? Clear hardware recommendations and installation/set-up instructions would be much appreciated!