Messages

3271

General Discussion / Re: ICAO Code

« on: September 03, 2015, 04:34:54 pm »

Hi Rob

If you have a code, and you know what it is, then yes, go ahead and use it.
And yes it is the 6 digit hex code.

I think I was trying to be inclusive of aviators such as paragliders/paramotors/balloonists etc, I don't believe they have any such code allocated

Thx
Lee

3272

General Discussion / Re: Alternative Radio board

« on: September 03, 2015, 04:30:18 pm »

Hi

QUESTION 1: is my assumption correct that the B023 Slice of Radio can also be used (w/o the voltage modifacation boards etc etc

The Slice of radio does not have the Power Amplifier, and therefore only produces 10mW output rather than the 500mW of the ARF
The low power is the same reason it does not need a 5v-3.3v regulator

QUESTION 2: are software modifications required?

Probably not, they are compatible in the programming, but the power level is intended for room to room communications

QUESTION 3: are there other radio's one can use? (USB 'dongle' transmitters: http://www.elektor.nl/srf-usb-stick-140404-91)

This would appear as a different device to the software, and hence would not be programmed.accessed accordingly

QUESTION 4: Does anybody have experience in using the NooElec http://www.nooelec.com/store/sdr/sdr-receivers/nesdr-mini2-rtl2832u-r820t2.html
QUESTION 5: Does this require modifications in the Raspbian software config as provided by Lee

Its untested, it sounds like the correct chipset, in which case should be expected to work, but with all these things the devil really is in the detail. Lots of vendors claim their WiFi dongles are the RT5370 chipset, but when used they behave differently, indicating they are not quite the correct chipset.
Although in this case, it does look like the correct version rtl2832u / r820t

Thx
Lee

3273

General Discussion / Re: Question prompted by LAA Mag article

« on: September 03, 2015, 01:43:03 pm »

Hi Rob,

Current Situation:
PilotAware is given its GPS location from the Host device, ie iOS or (to be) Android

There is a small app which runs on the host which shares the GPS, this is called CollisionAware, and can be found on iTunes
PocketFMS/EasyVFR have now built this GPS sharing capability into their product (to be released) which means, for EasyVFR
it will provide PilotAware with the GPS info it requires

The source origin of the GPS co-ordinates is down to the Host Operating System itself. The Host has an API called Location
Services, which has GPS info lat/long/alt/track/speed. This can be derived from either
- internal GPS
- external GPS (vi BT)

So PilotAware is out of the control loop here really, it just takes what it is given, the selection of that data source is in the OS
itself

ok, Future (Possible) Situation:
PilotAware could have its own GPS source, and then the info could go the other way, ie PilotAware gives the GPS info
back to the NAV software running on the host.
There have been requests for this for support of things such as XCsoar/Kobo Mini for paragliders.
This is a future enhancement that could be made.

Thx
Lee

3274

General Discussion / Re: Altitude Accuracy

« on: September 03, 2015, 01:12:48 pm »

Hi Chris,
Interesting, I may need to think on this a little ...

For now, altitude is taken directly from the Location Services API on the iOS device, so it is completely independant of PilotAware.
The data is basedupon whatever iOS uses as its reference, this could be the internal GPS, or it could be an external GPS, such as Garmin Glo or BadElf.

I would hoped that the engineers at Apple (and indeed Google/Android) would have taken this into account when interfacing the GPS information through their Location Services API.

In the case of ADS-B, I am not sure how this would relate I have to be honest.
Just to clarify, are you saying that If I connect my GPS source to my transponder, then the altitude component is filtered out, and replaced by the altitude calculated by the transponder, and therefore some mismatch can occur - I think this is what you are saying ?


Thx
Lee

3275

General Discussion / Re: Only airline traffic in pilotaware

« on: September 03, 2015, 11:39:31 am »

Hi All

So to clarify here, PilotAware can detect ADS-B and P3I.
To detect ADS-B, the transponder must have a GPS source fitted in order to supply this data
P3I is Transmitted / Received by PilotAware.

There are 2 further possibilities
Transponder Mode C, Flarm

Transponder Mode C only transmits altitude, so the question is, what can be usefully displayed ?
Are you interested in traffic at the same altitude as yourself +/-500ft, which could be anywhere within 1-100nm away, this tends to generate a lot of false positives

Flarm, well what can I say - they continue to use their klingon cloaking device,
henceforth known as the
Flarmgon Cloaking Device

Thx
Lee

3276

General Discussion / Re: Questions

« on: September 03, 2015, 10:23:00 am »

Don't like connections in aircraft wiring if they can be dispensed with.

Why do people try to make things more difficult than they need to be?
In my experience when wiring, components etc. are soldered in an aircraft environment they become dramatically less reliable.
Proper connectors and/or crimps every time - as far as possible!
Soldering a PA together does rather limit the scope for future upgrades too!

Just a quick note here.
There is ongoing work to hugely simplify the PilotAware construction to nothing more that a simple plug n play.
No soldering and no fiddling.
In addition, there is likely to be a prebuilt & preloaded version available.

It is early days and nothing to announce right now, but hopefully soon
This is not intended to circumvent the option to 'build your own' at your own time & expense,
and in no way opposes the 'open hardware and open interfaces' theme of PilotAware.
This is intended to provide a more expedient route for those wishing to get quicker access to the technology.

Watch this space for announcements !
Thx
Lee

3277

General Discussion / Re: Questions

« on: September 03, 2015, 10:10:00 am »

Plan to be at the Rally so see you there.
Might it be a suggestion for the build .pdf to have one page with the latest components in a single list with known suppliers?
Cheers. John

Hi John
Yes this is a TODO.

I am also wondering whether to setup a page on the forum for people to indicate where they get their supplies from.
eg, eBay, AliExpress, DHgate etc

In particular things like the WiFi dongle, there are many reported as RT5370 chipsets, which are not, either bad clones or simply a different chipset.

Thx
Lee

3278

General Discussion / Re: Out and about

« on: September 03, 2015, 09:27:37 am »

Bob
  I'm hoping to fly in to the rally on Sunday arriving at 10:45
Richard

Hi Richard,
If all goes well, I plan to have a PilotAware running on the stand at the show.
Assuming I can get good locations for Antenna, if you let me know what time you plan to arrive,
we will certainly keep a lookout for you

Thx
Lee

3279

General Discussion / Re: Questions

« on: September 02, 2015, 02:07:08 pm »

Ah I was not thinking that clearly. I was thinking of dispensing with the dongle 'case' and soldering the gubbins bupassing nthe USB plug and sockes so elimination connections.
Thanks, John

Wow thats ambitious!
but would also void your warranty on the PI 
Thx
Lee

3280

General Discussion / Re: Building a PilotAware.

« on: September 02, 2015, 02:04:56 pm »

Same one as I ordered.
Think I'll verify the output before plugging the ARF in.
Lee, does this board still require the cutting of the JMP foil?

Allegedly, there was a bad batch of boards made in June, which unfortunately coincided with an order for
30 boards I made 
So I had a whole batch of bad boards.
Digole, assured me all other boards were recalled, if I were you, I would get my multimeter out and just
test to see if that jumper is in-place or not.

Thx
Lee

3281

General Discussion / Re: Questions

« on: September 02, 2015, 10:42:38 am »

Hi John

If (when) I build a unit for my Android will it or at least most of the components be compatable with future upgrades - Adding GPS, etc?

That is certainly the intention.
The idea behind the hardware platform is to leave plenty of room for manoeuvre,
in terms of S/W - we are not near the limits of the processing power
and H/W - we have 2 available USB slots, and some additional internal GPIO pins

Would it be possible to solder the 'dongles' direct to the main circuit?

Hmm, this is more difficult.
This is a possibility using a Compute PI approach whereby you create your own PCB,
including your own peripherals, which you then attach a PI compute module - the main
compute hardware.
Difficulty equates to expense, as soon as you start making bespoke hardware rather
than off the shelf, the costs increases due to the NRE (non-recurring engineering) work
and the additional manfuafacture costs. These costs are usually amortized over large
volumes for large markets.

Thx
Lee

3282

General Discussion / Re: Building a PilotAware.

« on: September 02, 2015, 09:53:06 am »

Please, Please double check this is the 3.3v board not the 5v board.
There are 2 versions of the digole board

Thx
Lee

3283

General Discussion / Re: Regulator board & ARF Board

« on: September 02, 2015, 09:51:36 am »

I also noticed that within the ARF documentation on the website it says "The ARF is not 5v tollerant, use 3.3v logic and power", so I might also look at adding a logic level shifter to go between the 5v logic of the Pi and the ARF, just to keep everything within spec.

5v tolerant ?
My understanding is that the RPi GPIO pins are 3.3v , not 5v.
Where have you seen that the GPIO is 5v ?
Thx
Lee

3284

General Discussion / Re: Traffic / Contact Filters

« on: September 02, 2015, 09:44:46 am »

Hi,

I have the same Versions and the flarm option.
But I can't get it run.

Joerg

Hi Joerg
Firstly let me confirm, you have followed the instructions here ?
http://forum.pilotaware.com/index.php/topic,13.0.html

do you have a monitor connected to the PilotAware so you can see any debug messages being produced ?

Thx
Lee

3285

General Discussion / Re: Up & Running

« on: September 01, 2015, 10:26:33 pm »

Hi Roger
How about the USB cable ?
this also makes a big difference

Were you using a different power setup in the car ?

I wrote quite an extensive analysis here
http://forum.pilotaware.com/index.php/topic,9.msg121.html#msg121

Thx
Lee