Messages

1

General Discussion / Emerging from cryo-sleep - what's changed?

« on: November 30, 2016, 03:22:05 pm »

Hi all,

I built mine in Feb '16, and all working dandy.  Haven't been flying a lot and am a student anyway so thought my instructor would take a dim view, so it's been in a drawer.

On checking back in to the site, it seems much has changed - the bride, etc.  I presume I should now buy the bridge and antenna, re-flash my old SD card, and all will be well.

Can someone just give me a bit of a lowdown on what's changed - like, what does the bridge do that my old (first) system doesn't?

Also, my old licence expires in Feb 17.  Do I then need to buy a new one?  Will my old licence work with the new bridge, etc?

Cheers

2

General Discussion / Re: Battery advice

« on: February 21, 2016, 04:20:48 pm »

Magic darts, thanks both.

With regards to, say, the Anker charger, can I run a regular USB lead from this to the Raspberry Pi, or does it need to be regulated first?

3

General Discussion / Re: Battery advice

« on: February 21, 2016, 03:08:16 pm »

Right, I'm sorry to be a recurrent pain in the undercarriage.

Turns out the microlight does indeed have an aux 12v power socket.  I'd like to use this to power both my phone running SkyDemon (a Samsung Note 3) and the PA unit.  Am I likely to be able to power both of those from the same socket - something like this? Perhaps using the 2.1A for the Note 3 and the 1.1A for the PA unit?

However - does the power from this need regulating before it gets to the PA unit?  And if so, what would I need to achieve this?

Any thoughts and advice gratefully received

4

General Discussion / Re: Battery advice

« on: February 11, 2016, 10:00:28 am »

Thanks both.

5

General Discussion / Re: Battery advice

« on: February 11, 2016, 08:53:36 am »

Hi,

No need for a "cack handed bodge" !

The beauty of PilotAware is that it runs from a standard USB port. This means that the "Power Banks" that are widely available to recharge mobile phones can also be used to run a PilotAware. (about the same size as a mobile phone)

I get about 3 hours out of my power bank that is in theory a 3500mah battery.

There are some power banks out there that claim to be 500000mah for £10, so the only word of caution is to go for a reputable brand.

No need to wire it in, keep it portable, just use a power bank like you may use for your phone or your iPad.

Dave Styles
PilotAware Hardware.

Hi Dave - no, that's what I mean.  I have that, but whilst I could recommend others in group to buy the Anker like I have, I just wondered if I could put something together where they could just plug in some D size cells.

Paul - no, not at the moment.

6

General Discussion / Battery advice

« on: February 10, 2016, 10:38:39 am »

I built mine last night, and was absolutely thrilled that it worked first time, ready to go.  Amazing, and a huge shout out to the team that did this - and props to Ian Fallon for a great job on the manual.

I have an Anker 10400 power pack and it's a great solution, and I'm happy with it.  That said, it's in a shared Permit To Fly aircraft, and in an ideal world, I would either install it permanently with a feed through a step-down regulator, as previously put on here (which of course is fine, and one way to do it, but is a lot of faff), or alternatively to leave the PA unit in the aircraft and then get group members to bring their own battery pack.

Now that in itself I guess is fine - there's only four of us, but I was just wondering whether it's possible to wire up some kind of unit that takes 'every day' batteries and if so what type, or whether that's a cack-handed bodge, and whether the Anker is the most elegant solution all round. 

Any thoughts would be gratefully recieved!

7

General Discussion / Re: Which device into which USB slot..?

« on: December 10, 2015, 03:35:42 pm »

Apologi s

8

General Discussion / Re: Which device into which USB slot..?

« on: December 10, 2015, 07:38:07 am »

Doesn't say it there - that's software, not hardware..?

I haven't seen it anywhere in the official documentation, only on the boards, but I remember someone said that the wifi dongle worked best in a particular one of the four available USB slots, and I believe the same for the UBlox?

9

General Discussion / Which device into which USB slot..?

« on: December 09, 2015, 09:59:23 pm »

I vaguely remember there is something about how the GPS, the TV antenna thing and the wifi dongle are best placed into particular slots - can anyone remind me which is which?

Thanks!