Topics

1

Technical Support / GPS acquisition fail - due high pressure?

« on: December 27, 2016, 09:01:13 pm »

Strange scenario today. I've found the PAW can take some time to acquire GPS position, especially if I try this at home vs airport (60 miles away). But today I found the GPS would acquire 3D Lock, but this wasn't being reported/accepted by SkyDemon.

I wondered if this was because of the very unusually high pressure today (QNH 1044).

Screenshots of SD and PAW status and config pages attached

2

General Discussion / Flight experience with Mode C

« on: December 11, 2016, 08:39:13 am »

I thought I'd share some general feedback and experience from a recent flight.

I flew up to Wellesbourne on Friday with the latest PAW software loaded. It was relatively easy to switch profiles while the engine warmed up at the hold, useful because I often fly different aircraft. Audio was plugged into my headset (which gives it lower priority than the aircraft radio). Physically, I still have some issues with separate PAW box and battery, loosely arranged on the coaming. The antenna are too big and don't fit vertically on the coaming of the PA28 - I'll consider trimming one down as per another post here. The audio cable was also clumsy - I overheard one PAW expert at Flyer Show say they use a Bluetooth link for that, so would like more info on that.

I saw my second ever PAW box onscreen which was the Wellesbourne tower. This showed up initially without, then with the hash marks on SkyDemon. Not sure why they appeared only later, when closer.

There was another aircraft rejoining the circuit as I was performing an overhead join and it was very useful to see and hear visual and audio warnings, allowing us to look carefully for where it should be - a bit further out that I might have expected from the radio calls. There were other aircraft around and I got a stream of other warnings/notices etc. Clearly some related to aircraft stationary on the ground. This was also the case on departure, where we got warnings about ground based/stationary craft. It was a fairly busy day, so there was a stream of activity and I'm sure plenty of transponders switched on.

On the return leg I got periods with several warnings of a Mode C 100 feet below us. It seemed to me this was almost certainly our own aircraft. It was quite disconcerting to think it might not be.

I didn't see any other PAW aircraft on the screen, only Mode S/C.

I believe that some (not all) Mode S equipped aircraft indicate a ground mode, driven by the GPS and enabled below a certain speed. Does PAW ignore those, and is it a significant proportion of Mode S equipped GA aircraft anyway?

3

General Discussion / Logging Screen Content Format and Meanings

« on: November 28, 2016, 05:28:37 pm »

The logging screen available to view at 192.168.1.1 on the tablet web browser lists "targets" - presumably this is everything the PAW detects but not necessarily all appear on SkyDemon. For example, the attached screen only displayed a single aircraft (the Norwegian Boeing) despite the widest filter settings on the SD configuration page.

I wondered what the various column headings mean and which ones I might expect to see warnings for.
I couldn't find any documentation that explains this

I'm guessing that

Hex = the unique ICAO code for the aircraft, as stated on G-INFO or elsewhere.
Reg = aircraft registration letters
SQ = ?? (Signal Quality? Seems to be used to rank/order the list)
Mode = Transponder modes active, C = Mode C, S = Mode S, A = ADS-B (these are all independent).
D (km) = Distance to target in kilometers
A (FT) = Altitude in feet
BR ?? (Only shown for the ADS-B aircraft)
SIG = Signal Strength (guess)
Ver
MACp
SDA
NICa
SIL
SILs

Not sure what other transponder modes might be shown (FLARM and PAW perhaps?)

I believe SIL is related to the quality of GPS data source used to drive an ADS-B out

EDIT: I have realised that there are several Mode C rows almost certainly related to the same aircraft at around 8200 feet. I think the altitude has been adjusted from the Mode C Flight Level (which is to the nearest 100 feet) based on the current barometric pressure. So some correlation would be used to determine if that's heading towards me (signal getting stronger) at a similar altitude before warning.

Mode A traffic wouldn't be shown.

The squawk code isn't shown for any entry.

Finally, is it possible to have Mode S enabled to identify and aircraft but Mode C disabled so you don't know the altitude (eg if someone selected ON rather than ALT on a Mode S transponder).

4

Technical Support / Downloading track log file

« on: August 23, 2016, 09:30:03 am »

I saw there is a Java program to analyse track log files for previous flights.
http://forum.pilotaware.com/index.php/topic,535.0.html

Could someone explain how to download/access track log files in your PAW and whether these are overwritten for each new flight or deleted after a set time/disk space/other factor?

Thanks

5

General Discussion / Minor comments and suggested corrections re operations manual

« on: August 22, 2016, 12:54:00 pm »

Given the latest software update, I read through the Operations manual and noted some minor errors and possible corrections/clarifications for consideration. It suggested to post feedback on the forum so I've done it here. Many of these are trivial (and pedantic), some less so. Feel free to ignore/skip/disagree as you wish.

It is quite extensive document - I appreciate it's a difficult trade-off between containing enough information to cover everything while not being so daunting for newcomers. Sometimes I found it a bit wordy but generally very comprehensive.

Biggest omission for me was the low visibility of how to find out and configure the Hex Code for your own aircraft. i.e. look it up on G-INFO and enter on the config screen (this is buried in the config section on Page 33). The FAQ answers about how long them system takes to boot suggest this is a common area of confusion. I think these should be more prominent as part of the "how to get up and running section". The hex code needs to be updated every time you fly a different aircraft which can be easily overlooked or forgotten.

This latest version has the feature to download your flown track onto a USB stick but I couldn't find out quite how to do that. Page 37 is a bit vague. I wondered if it is also possible to download/view the aircraft that PAW has seen recently. If so, useful if could be explained somewhere.

Trivia:

First line refers to Page 55 for latest software changes, first line of contents on Page 3 refers to page 54 (it should be 55)

Page 5: Make pilotawarehardware.com an active HTML link

Page 5: Pilotaware Classic Units. Is there any other product variant? This isn't Coke (yet). Maybe you have some future plans but it seems slightly confusing to have a "Classic" product without stating the context. Clarify this is the only complete product available at the moment. The older B+ based products would be homebuilt only (and are presumably no longer encouraged but will continue to be supported).

Page 6: Must the Wi-Fi dongle be connected into the bottom right USB socket? Or is this just a preference. I wasn't aware the system cared which USB sockets were used for any of the peripherals.

Page 6: ADSB receiver. Presumably this also receives Mode C now too, not just ADSB and Mode S as stated. It's really a 1090MHz receiver and captures anything in that band.

Page 7: Picture description. Is this a Pilotaware Classic unit? If so, say so.

Page 9: ..includes your MAC code. Explain this is a unique hardware serial number specific to the physical wired Ethernet port on the Raspberry Pi module, and not of the Wi-Fi dongle. Replacing/upgrading the Pi hardware (eg to upgrade to Pi 2 to receive Mode S/C) will require a new software licence and will appear as a different Wi-Fi hotspot/SSID.

Page 13: "Flight ID or if not available, their hex code". I would think a registration (G-ABCD) is most likely for GA aircraft.

Page 13: Are Mode S or C now shown on SkyDemon? If so, worth a picture and what to expect (or add that later into the Mode S/C section).

Page 13: Seneca's should not have an apostrophe

Page 21: Header changes from this page forward to earlier software version 01c July 2016

Page 28: I think this should attach more importance to configuring the correct Hex code for each aircraft you fly in than some of the points here

Page 30: "When the licence expires, the software will sleep". Presumably it will still operate as a Wi-Fi access point and you can access the configuration pages, it just won't actively transmit your position via P3i or stream traffic data to your navigation App.

Page 33: last line. "select a save and get a refresh" -> "press save which will refresh the page"

Page 34/35: Capitalisation of Traffic/traffic and Page/page. Full stop not comma after issue.

Page 35: Distance-KM row... mode S or C. Ditto BR and Sig rows.

Page 39: Updating software via "pen drive memory stick". I usually call these USB memory sticks which I thought was the more common name. It doesn't say where exactly to get the .pgp file from, just pilotaware.com. Since I think this could easily be confused with the zip file (linked to from pilotawarehardware.com), this should be spelt out very clearly. I guess it needs to be copied onto the top directory of the USB drive without any other files.

Page 44: "Please note How" -> "How"

Page 44: A picture diagram illustrating what is shown on your tablet for Mode S/C traffic would be very helpful.

Page 51: Base station (ie clubhouse/tower installation). Clarify what to set the "Flight ID" to and why you'd make this a TX/RX rather than RX only device. I guess the TX/RX would be very useful if I was based on an aircraft carrier I don't really understand what a Base configured as TX/RX does differently from a mobile unit in an aircraft.

Page 54: "It's not possible ... FLARM". I thought this latest version did support FLARM reception via an external FLARM receiver? No mention of what kit is needed and how to configure to get that to work.

Various spellings throughout of WIFI, Wi-Fi (I prefer the latter), Pi and pi, Raspberry and raspberry, license and licence
The screenshots of the configuration page are a bit small and difficult to read.
There seems to be an excess of "Please note" comments which I feel become distracting and counter productive if the text is well written.

I appreciate a lot of work has gone in to this document, so these comments are entirely meant to be helpful rather than critical or negative. Keep up the good work!

6

Technical Support / 16 digit licence key field for 12 digit number

« on: July 09, 2016, 09:03:16 am »

In upgrading to the latest version today, I had to re-enter the licence key. Somewhat more difficult that I'd expected:

1) I finally found it in an email from support@pilotaware.com subject "Your software key". I could have found it more easily if the subject was "Pilotaware Licence Key"
2) The email contains a 12 digit hex number that I've used successfully before
3) The entry field is 16 digits, 4 x 4digit boxes.

Tried to enter the 12 digits in various ways, first four digits zero, last four zero etc, but with no luck. Saving the page doesn't show the updated licence expiry date.

Any suggestions?

7

General Discussion / Several flights with PAW this week

« on: July 07, 2016, 08:51:02 pm »

I have a home-built PAW based on the RPi 1 rather than RPi 2 but with the production RF bridge using SkyDemon on an iPad.
After a few flights, I'd make some observations.

Generally, it picks up airliners at 10 to 40 thousand feet, and up to 100 miles away. Rarely been close enough to see anything other than vapour trails. Useful to confirm it's working though, and I know I can configure those out.

Have seen (onscreen) very few aircraft. Very occasionally they are shown with hash marks before and after the registration; sometimes just the six digit hex code; mostly with the normal registration. Do the hash marks mean anything - ie PAW? Attach screenshots of both for the same aircraft.

The Wi-Fi link goes down intermittently. I found this happened more often in one aircraft than others, perhaps due to more interference. SkyDemon stops navigating and I've typically just unplugged/replugged the power cable to reset PAW, and it starts working again in a couple of minutes. In those cases, I've more often just given up and reverted to the iPad GPS.

Powered by a compact ANKER battery - claimed 10,000mAH capacity - seems to work quite happily for 4 hours or more. I have an inline USB power meter and it shows 0.4A during normal operation, so it should last for ages. I even left it running over a lunch stop once, and it wasn't a problem.

It does let you spot traffic some distance off - say 2-3 miles - which you probably wouldn't have seen before. I've attached a screenshot and photo of one we saw crossing above us. It wasn't a close enough to be a threat at any time.

There is a natural tendency to focus on spotting the aircraft shown on your screen. You really have to remember that 90%+ of aircraft won't show up and be disciplined to retain your normal scan. But if something is converging (including out of sight from below) then it is helpful.

The long/large antenna that I have really don't fit easily on the combing. The unit overall is much more clunky/fragile than a single fully enclosed FLARM box, and I may revisit how to package it up. Perhaps smaller antenna could be used, but I haven't really explored the options.

One of our aircraft has ADS-B out installed. I was surprised I couldn't pick that up easily when it was in the circuit - it only briefly showed up rather than all the time like airliners. Perhaps this was the orientation (can't "see" though the engine).

Lastly, I have flown about six different aircraft in the last few weeks. It would be really nice to have a simple method of selecting the correct hex code instead of looking it up and entering fresh each time. I'm using 160307 software version, so apologies if that's already been addressed.

8

General Discussion / Do I need to upgrade to Pi 2?

« on: May 25, 2016, 01:13:32 pm »

I'm a bit out of date with the latest developments. Have been using PAW for some time in ADS-B receive mode only and looking forward to getting one of those new bridges.

The current hardware document states that the design in built on a Pi Model 1 B+, but in the Classic model it uses Model 2 B

I can't find the Forum thread that discusses that (I think there was one before about supporting Mode S, which requires more processing power). I recall an earlier explanation that differences in the software libraries mean the software may not work on all models of Pi, and that power consumption on the latest models is considerably higher (so not a good thing for battery life).

Do I need to upgrade my Pi board to make use of those latest features?

Will the same software work on both hardware versions?

Are there any plans to work on the Pi 3, which includes onboard Wi-Fi thus saving component count?

Thanks for any insights and answers. I read elsewhere that the documentation is being updated and recognise its difficult/hard work to keep everything up to date and aligned.

9

General Discussion / Dead ARF

« on: October 08, 2015, 10:45:23 am »

My ARF board has failed (or reports as such on the web interface). I can't see any obvious mechanical reason for that, and the baro board still works OK. Am considering if worth sending back under warranty, but wondered if anybody else had a reliability issue. I really haven't used it that much. Wondered if plugging into/out of the power unit might have caused a glitch/spike (although no effect on the main Pi board or other devices).

The other point to note is that unless I'd looked at the web interface very carefully, I wouldn't have noticed. The unit still detects and reports ADS-B traffic. It would be useful to have some visual indication of healthy operation, e.g. an LED. I found the 4 LEDs on a certain F***M product very useful, showing ON, GPS locked, Tx and Rx respectively.

10

General Discussion / Groundstations... a few thoughts

« on: September 29, 2015, 01:05:12 pm »

I've read of a few people who are thinking of installing Pilotaware on the ground, say at a club base or even in the tower, for situational awareness.
It would need a Pilotaware box, mains power supply, iPad/Nexus tablet and SkyDemon/other charting app.

The standard build broadcasts position messages all the time but I would think that's unnecessary and even misleading for known static receivers.

So one possibility is that the system only broadcasts position when actually moving. Like some Mode-S transponders which only go active after takeoff (detecting speed from the GPS). Clubhouses would not then be see as potential collision risks as you come in on short final 

The downside of that is that if you build a unit and want to test that it's transmitting, you have to fly. You can't check it onboard before take-off or in the clubhouse first.

So at the risk of being cheeky, I'd propose a good solution might be to make this configurable between "Always on" and "Only when moving" (default = always on). It still means that people could use one in their cars and cause potential false alarms if they chose to, but less of a risk.

Another simpler option is to set it to a code that is ignored (eg all zeros)

Perhaps not the most urgent feature to implement, but hopefully not in the too distant future.

What do others think? 

11

General Discussion / Antennas too large for the coaming

« on: September 28, 2015, 06:08:07 pm »

I flew with a unit recently and placed it on the coaming next a F***M box. I have two antennas at the moment, one for the ADS-B and another for 868MHz. By comparison the unit and antennas were both large, cumbersome and awkward. There wasn't really enough space to have the 868MHz antenna vertical as it should be.

1) Do I need both antennas? The ADS-B dongle on the hardware manual doesn't have one attached, so I wondered if I could dispense with that one.

2) There was another thread about using a smaller stubby one. Does anyone have any experience/results from those and how much do they affect range/performance.

3) How important is it to have the antenna vertically oriented?

Thanks in advance

12

General Discussion / Installing new versions of software - any shortcuts?

« on: September 27, 2015, 01:02:34 pm »

When installing the last software update I just ran through the full build process from scratch, erasing/formatting the SD Card and re-installing.
So it forgot parameters such as the licence code and transponder Hex ID which had to be re-entered.

Are there any shortcuts that allow updates to be installed more easily/quickly?

13

General Discussion / Aircraft reported underground

« on: September 19, 2015, 05:22:04 pm »

Tried the unit in the air for the first time today as pax. Plenty of aircraft seen around Bristol and Exeter, but these showed up as 7,000 feet below us when we were at 4,500. So something's not quite right. I did enter the QNH of 1024, but that should at most only affect the reported altitude by about 250 feet. I tried both 1013 and 1024 including rebooting the box with no significant effect.

Has anyone else seen this behaviour?

14

General Discussion / Slice of Pi - a simpler construction method

« on: September 19, 2015, 07:54:38 am »

I was intrigued by ianfallon's pictures and build of a Pilotaware box using the Slice of Pi adaptor instead of Digole board (or POD module).
Since I'm still awaiting the Digole board in the post from China, I went ahead and got one which I built last night. All good to go.
I thought this was much neater than the other two methods, since it simply plugs into the Pi (although you still need to solder four wires).

Some pictures below show the construction method I used. I stuck the ARF board to the Slice of Pi with four little sticky pads (used for card making) and put some insulating tape over the metal HMDI socket. The whole assembly fits neatly into the standard red Pi box sold with the Pi itself from RS.

Now I just have to find someone else who's got one to see if it really works, although the diagnostic screen messages look promising.

15

General Discussion / Can any more details shown about other aircraft

« on: September 16, 2015, 11:54:28 am »

Skydemon currently shows other detected aircraft with a little box showing the relative altitude in 1000s of feet.
If you click on one, it shows the actual altitude, speed and track.

Is it possible (or considered) to show any other information?

Specifically, I would think Call Sign would be very useful - eg. a tower controller could look at the screen and see where each aircraft they are talking with is positioned. Similarly useful for non-manned airfields when self-announced with call signs.

Perhaps this can be derived from the ICAO code for aircraft, either by users manually specifying the mapping for the few they might be specifically interested in, or by incorporating a full lookup database table somewhere. A full database lookup would probably be best done on the iPad rather than in the device because it could be maintained - a factor that would probably take time/money to keep up to date.

Alternatively, the callsign could be added into one of the optional/extension fields in the protocol. It's not specified there at the moment in the PPT presentation.

And if it were available, is it something that SkyDemon could/would display? I'm unclear if SkyDemon displays that for other ADS-B inputs.

Oh, and do Pilotaware aircraft display any differently to ADS-B ones? I'm guessing not.