Messages

766

General Discussion / Re: Newcomer to Pilotaware who is just a bit too dense to understand the basics 😊

« on: October 28, 2015, 11:56:15 am »

Sky Demon probably needed to download something.

Having downloaded it, it's probably now ok to connect to the PilotAware.

767

General Discussion / Re: Transmit power and range

« on: October 28, 2015, 11:46:22 am »

Well, when everything works, we're getting 5 miles plus with 63mW (or is it 100mW?) and the rubber antenna stuck on the coaming.

We're allowed 500mW.

768

General Discussion / Re: Can I test half built?

« on: October 23, 2015, 01:15:03 am »

One thing missing will be the barometric sensor, so you'll have to rely on GPS altitude.

769

General Discussion / Re: Long Marston Test 17 October

« on: October 22, 2015, 09:48:03 am »

Just as a complete amateur, this may be a stupid question, but would the tv tuner interfere with the ARF at all?

It's been requested for the next set of tests that the DVB be removed for air-air testing to see if it makes a difference.

770

General Discussion / Re: Southeast test day

« on: October 21, 2015, 10:51:35 pm »

Interesting theory. CaptChaos, who couldn't receive my unit, was using the small DVB dongles, though I suspect most people are using those. I've been using these, as I had them already:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-DVB-T-RTL-SDR-Realtek-RTL2832U-R820T-Tuner-Receiver-Dongle-PAL-IEC-Input-HC-/281782206999?hash=item419b874217:g:Z24AAOSwPcVV3EI3

They have the advantage of having a decent aerial socket, but the disadvantage of being bigger and the wrong colour!

With mine plugged into my Pi B along with the Wifi dongle, I was receiving CC at 5 miles or so.

771

General Discussion / Re: wifi problems

« on: October 21, 2015, 10:35:18 pm »

Aha! I had this "wifi drop out" last night with a specific setup so I decided to investigate this evening.

In my attic, I have a DVB dongle connected straight into a coaxial collinear antenna, and thence to a 5m USB lead. It works great with my PC.

I received my Pi B+ through the post yesterday to replace my existing B, to make a proper unit which can take a USB GPS as well (on order). I was trying out the B+ with one DVB dongle and it was working fine here in the house. However, by the time I got it working it was late at night and there weren't many airliners around. So, thought I, I would go upstairs and plug my antenna/dongle/5m USB lead combo into the Pi to see if I could get any aircraft from further afield.

So what happened? Well, the Wifi wouldn't stay on, it kept dropping out and wouldn't connect back unless I rebooted the Pi. It stayed on from a matter of seconds to a matter of minutes, but drop out it did. I tried it with two different tablets. So then I went to bed...

This evening I had another go, and sure enough, same results. When I swapped the DVB dongle back to the one I was using before, plugged directly into the PI, the Wifi stayed up...and it's running up in my bedroom now and has been up for hours.

So it could be the DVB dongle, or the combination of stuff plugged into the USB ports may be overloading the power available on the sockets.

I meant to try using my Pi B instead of the B+ but I haven't got round to it yet.

772

General Discussion / Re: Nats airspace aviod by PocketFms

« on: October 21, 2015, 10:21:48 pm »

It doesn't support Flarm to my knowledge, unless you can find a magical setting somewhere?

773

General Discussion / Re: Long Marston Test 17 October

« on: October 21, 2015, 03:45:11 pm »

Not yet. On the cards!

774

General Discussion / Re: RFSolutions RF Board

« on: October 21, 2015, 03:42:25 pm »

+13dBm. About 20mW.

775

General Discussion / Re: adsb antennas

« on: October 21, 2015, 03:35:06 pm »

You can make a better antenna than a whip with ground plane. What's quite popular in ADS-B reception is a collinear made with coax. It's quite easy to make.

http://www.balarad.net/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkUYdCPFXXs

The other thing is that FlightRadar24 also has multi-lateration, so it'll use several stations to triangulate a mode S contact which doesn't have ADS-B. It won't show up on our setup.

Getting out in the open helps a lot though. The other day when driving from Popham to Andover with the little antenna (not cut to size) on the dashboard (not even on the roof), I was picking up aircraft from north of Birmingham down to France, from Wales to Kent.

776

General Discussion / Re: Nats airspace aviod by PocketFms

« on: October 21, 2015, 03:29:41 pm »

I've posted a query on their forum.

http://www.pocketfms.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=9610

If anyone else would like it, chuck in your tuppence worth!

777

General Discussion / Re: Long Marston Test 17 October

« on: October 21, 2015, 03:16:44 pm »

Yes, definitely something more going on than RF line of sight/obstructions/antenna placement. In the tests CC and I did, one unit could see another unit at 5 miles. The reciprocal unit couldn't see the first one until 40 yards away.

On the ground, we verified this with two units sited together...the one unit dropped out at 40 yards, another at 300 yards.

If we were actually getting 68mW/100mW all the time and everything worked as it should, we'd at least get a mile's notice, and up to 5 miles in good line of sight. I guess we'd get even more with fully working units at 500mW.

778

General Discussion / Re: FLARM

« on: October 20, 2015, 11:48:06 pm »

Saw that a Sun'n'fun this year. Have you seen how much it costs? 

https://www.gulfcoastavionics.com/products/4069-ngt-9000-lynx-ads-b-transponder.aspx

779

General Discussion / Re: Airborne testing - mixed results

« on: October 20, 2015, 11:03:56 pm »

Yes, it should be made law.

CC, what battery packs are you using?

780

General Discussion / Re: Nats airspace aviod by PocketFms

« on: October 20, 2015, 10:57:53 pm »

You mean does the free Airspace Avoid app support traffic-in?

It would be good if it did. I can't see any settings for it though. Maybe we should all e-mail the pocketFMS people asking for it.