Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: METARS download facility

« on: September 28, 2020, 05:59:08 pm »

All, managed to get a short trip out today to test the latest software release and also the METAR capability. The iOS App upgrade process was rapid and smooth and by far the easiest upgrade to date - definitely a positive!

Was on the South Coast so flew close to the PWSelsey ground station (see the SKD picture) and then took screen shots of the METAR page and also the Radar view as well. Working very much as expected and a tremendous upgrade in functionality. Well done to the whole team.

Integration to SKD would clearly ease the cockpit workload so hopefully that's feasible and on the roadmap somewhere (happy to BETA test if needed!).

2

Technical Support / Re: Frequency Warning under hot weather conditions

« on: July 27, 2019, 06:00:42 pm »

This Raspberry Pi documentation may answer my own question! For the 3B+ it suggests a soft limit of 60 degrees at which it starts lowering the frequency and a hard upper limit of 85 degrees. I saw a maximum of 83 degrees that day so suggests that frequency throttling helps lower the core temperature. That said Throttling = OK is also shown.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/frequency-management.md

3

Technical Support / Understanding Aircrew Playback Nomenclature / ModeS3D

« on: July 27, 2019, 01:37:01 pm »

I've been lucky to complete about 5 hours of flying with the latest software release. This includes flying within range of at least three OGN-R ground stations. I'm trying to understand what additional traffic I may have received as a result of the latest software. In the attached I show an example of an a/c close to Compton Abbas. In Aircrew it shows:

Registration
A = Mode A
C = Mode C
S = Mode S
P = Pilotaware???
U =
M = MLAT

Is there any documentation for the Mode letters / indicators we would see in Aircrew and/or also in the Traffic Status screen of PAW?

Similarly, what might I see in the Track file that shows "uplink" data?

Lastly, in Aircrew Playback, as you move close to a Ground Station, it illuminates with a green beacon - does this indicate receipt of uplink data? If so, the range seems very limited.

Sorry for all these questions in the Technical section of the Forum but the latest release is an amazing piece of work bringing a lot of in-flight information - I'm keen to understand how the ModeS3D is helping! Thanks for the great work.

4

Technical Support / Frequency Warning under hot weather conditions

« on: July 27, 2019, 12:27:41 pm »

Can anyone explain the significance of the Frequency=Warning status and also the two temperature indications? (See attached)

I've a good quality Anker power supply and cable and recently swapped with a Pi 3B+. Fitted with a single RTL-SDR (low power unit). I get no warnings in my home testing up to about 60 degrees. This was a very hot day (which day hasn't been!).

I flew two segments and although the Frequency=Warning was displayed most of the time I can't say I experienced any issues with use (connected to SKD). Just want to check the meaning of the warning and whether this is just temperature related.

5

Technical Support / Re: Wi-FI failure

« on: July 12, 2019, 06:18:22 pm »

I have a spare USB WiFi adapter from my old Classic setup you are welcome to. DM me your address and I'll drop it in the post. I'd encourage a full upgrade to the Rosetta though when you can.

6

Technical Support / Re: What's a Good Temperature?

« on: July 10, 2019, 05:34:13 pm »

Peter, Paul, Lee, thanks for the feedback. I'll do some further flight tests over the next 2 weeks and report back my findings.

7

Technical Support / Re: GPS Signal Lost 0 found

« on: July 09, 2019, 05:49:39 pm »

Oddly I had the same experience today after loading the new release. Albeit situated at home it took the best part of 30 minutes to start identifying satellites. On subsequent restarts it's been absolutely fine. I have seen this previously as well. I'm sure there is a good explanation to this somewhere. 

I've noticed something similar on the Stratux on other notice boards which implies first initialisation takes a long time.

8

Technical Support / What's a Good Temperature?

« on: July 09, 2019, 05:34:06 pm »

I had the day off so have been "refurbishing" my PAW. I've upgraded to a Model 3B+ and continue to use my Rosetta low power SDR and also a Stratux GPYes ublox 8. In addition of course loaded the latest and greatest software. I was hoping the temperatures would be more reasonable than before but they seem the same.

I placed the unit on a windowsill in the sun with an ambient temperature of 24 celsius and after a couple of hours the unit peaked at around 71 celsius. I had an ipad and SKD connected throughout. There was no throttling reported. In the cockpit of our PA28 on a hotter day I could see this going higher.

Is there any guidance or experience on what a more normal temperature would look like and in particular at what temperature will the processor start throttling? I am also assuming its the close proximity of the Bridge that affects this as well?

Lastly, any experience on fitting heatsinks and/or fans? The 3B+ has a much better metal screen on the SoC and I doubt there is space to fit anything due to the Bridge piggyback. I saw some prior comments on the use of fans affecting the Bridge due to changing the air pressure in the case but these seem to have been not proven. I've a couple of 30mm case fans and was considering wiring these into the 3B+.

Welcome any feedback and experience.

Well done to the PAW team by the way for the new release (I've already done a flight test and was impressed!).

9

Technical Support / Re: Yet again - ghost target 100 feet above

« on: September 08, 2018, 09:02:49 am »

Lee, yes, happy to do some beta code testing. I’ve got a few flights coming up so good timing, thanks, David

10

Technical Support / Re: Yet again - ghost target 100 feet above

« on: September 07, 2018, 10:53:43 pm »

Lee,

Almost all of my logs (the last 8 at least) contain these PFLAA sentences. To confirm your theory not a single sentence shows a relative vertical distance of less than 100 feet. If its of interest I noted a lot of the PFLAA alarm level 3 messages seem clustered around a relative vertical distance of 59m to 62m. Or is this a function of sensitivity setting? Some of the alerts are seen when descending or climbing.

I concur these are most likely my own target. I've a new bridge now as I've upgraded to Rosetta but haven't flown with this yet.

Not sure I opened the door during flight or dangled my PAW unit out of the window so unsure there was any sudden change of air pressure 

If you want any more track files let me know. I'll retest with Rosetta shortly and advise if I am seeing the same ghost targets.

Thanks for the email btw.

11

Technical Support / Re: Strange false positive

« on: September 01, 2018, 05:30:59 pm »

I posted recently the same issue with ghost targets. In my case it would happen just with straight & level flight and has been a fairly common occurrence for me for some time. The PFLAA sentence in Gareth's track file being consistent with the ones I have, i.e. same Relative North distance, no Relative East, no track, turn rate or groundspeed, and an ID starting "FF". I've just upgraded to Rosetta so will try again soon.

$PFLAA,3,1500,,-46,1,FF01F2!C-01F2,,,,-10.2,8*18
AlarmLevel = 3
Rel North = 1500
Rel East =
Rel Vertical = -46
ID Type = 1
ID = FF01F2!C-01F2
Track =
Turn Rate =
GroundSpeed =
ClimbRate = -10.2
Aircraft Type = 8*18

below an extract of a similar PFLAA sentence from one of my recent logs:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pptipmxkgt7i4ii/2018-08-17_11-56.trk?dl=0

$PFLAA,3,1500,,-33,1,FF0A60!C-0A60,,,,0.0,8*04
AlarmLevel = 3
Rel North = 1500
Rel East =
Rel Vertical = -33
ID Type = 1
ID = FF0A60!C-0A60
Track =
Turn Rate =
GroundSpeed =
ClimbRate = 0.0
Aircraft Type = 8*04

12

Technical Support / Re: Yet again - ghost target 100 feet above

« on: August 22, 2018, 09:39:20 pm »

Lee, sorry for the delay, attached.

13

Technical Support / Re: Yet again - ghost target 100 feet above

« on: August 18, 2018, 02:02:09 pm »

I've also suffered fairly frequent Mode C alerts although I've started to learn to ignore them due to the callsign format (e.g. C-0A60) and the fact they appear instantly as a red ring and fairly quickly disappear again. They are random in nature and I'm unsure what triggers them. On a trip to Newquay yesterday I had several. See a screen grab of SKD and the track file.

Example extracts from the Track file below. I'm assuming these are ghost targets. I've a GTX330 Mode S.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pptipmxkgt7i4ii/2018-08-17_11-56.trk?dl=0

$PFLAA,3,1500,,-33,1,FF0A60!C-0A60,,,,0.0,8*04
AlarmLevel = 3
Rel North = 1500
Rel East =
Rel Vertical = -33
ID Type = 1
ID = FF0A60!C-0A60
Track =
Turn Rate =
GroundSpeed =
ClimbRate = 0.0
Aircraft Type = 8*04

$PFLAA,3,1500,,-37,1,FF0A60!C-0A60,,,,0.0,8*00
AlarmLevel = 3
Rel North = 1500
Rel East =
Rel Vertical = -37
ID Type = 1
ID = FF0A60!C-0A60
Track =
Turn Rate =
GroundSpeed =
ClimbRate = 0.0
Aircraft Type = 8*00

14

Technical Support / Re: Profile Issue with 20161124

« on: December 04, 2016, 12:19:17 pm »

I had the same experience. Until you save your current settings (profile) you can't access the available profiles - you get a blankish screen. For those of us that may fly several aircraft this is a great facility as it saves having to edit the Reg-ID and Hex ID prior to flight.

15

Technical Support / Re: Update of Latest Software

« on: December 03, 2016, 05:15:39 pm »

Hi,

I've just updated to the latest release and switched to using a USB thumb drive instead to perform the update. Its incredibly quick and a very reliable method of upgrading with the benefit of being able to do this without the need to connect the PAW until to an ethernet. If you have the PAW unit partially or permanently fixed to the aircraft this is also the obvious way to go. Instructions at:

http://www.pilotaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/160901-Software-Upgrade-via-memory-stick-1.pdf

I'll be performing all future updates via this method for sure