Messages

1

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 31, 2016, 08:07:43 pm »

Hi Folks,

Latest update from Dave:

The Pi was melted I'm afraid. I can't tell why, but the power circuit has gone u/s. It didn't get pulled to ground at all straight from a USB did it ? They have over current protection, but the poly fuses don't always make it in before the damage.
(Not our design !)

The bridge was fine.

It all checks out on a new Pi.

I'm not sure why the unit melted, don't think I scared it to death with my flying.... Looking forward to the arrival of the replacement unit. Thanks to Dave for the assistance.

Safe Flying.
Richard W.

2

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 26, 2016, 09:23:38 am »

Hi Dave,

E-mail received, many thanks.

I'll send the dead unit off to you today.

Safe Flying,
Richard W.

3

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 24, 2016, 08:09:40 pm »

Hi Lee,

Was there anything specific that preceded the failure of the PI ?

Nothing obvious, although there was quite a bit of changing things around going on while trying to resolve the NMEA out issue. If I've managed to break it by my own cack-handedness I'll cover the repair costs.

I've emailed Dave to find out what he wants sent and where to send it.

Thanks for the assistance.

Safe Flying,
Richard W.

4

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 24, 2016, 07:35:16 pm »

Well Folks – It Works….

The data appears on the display of the Trig TT21 transponder, which according to Trig means that the ADS-B signal is being transmitted.

I checked it out with Farnborough LARS, who seemed to be getting the data. Unfortunately an unrelated audio problem made detailed discussion impossible. I asked Headcorn to have a look on FlightRadar24, but they couldn't see me on there*. I'm not sure if there’s another step in the process to achieve that.

Thanks to everyone for the help. The two main problems were the old software in the TT21 and having the wrong port set up on the Configuration page.

Hopefully there is enough information in the posts above to prevent anyone else having the same problem. If you have a TT21 with old software, the nice people at Trig will update it at no cost.

Thanks again for the help.

Safe Flying,
Richard W.

* Edited to say that for some reason FR24 shows 'WK as a twin engined airliner, rather than a light aircraft. If you see an airliner on FR24 doing 70 knots at 1,500' it's probably me....

5

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 24, 2016, 12:10:45 pm »

Hi Lee,

The only way to diagnose if it seems really dead is to connect to an HDMI monitor

As mentioned to Paul above, I finally found a monitor and hooked it up. Only got No Signal showing on the screen.

Is this a PilotAware Classic (which is under warranty), or a homebuild.

PilotAware Classic ordered 11th May 2016 order No #337

Thanks for your assistance.

Safe Flying,
Richard W.

6

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 24, 2016, 12:04:45 pm »

Hi Paul,

I'm using the original SD cards as supplied, the only thing I can think of is that in my misguided bumblings I've managed to inadvertently re-program something at a low level. Swapping cards with the other (working) PAW doesn't cure the problem.

Frustratingly it did work, as you can vouch for at Starlight Day.

Just tried it with a monitor and HDMI cable. All the monitor showed was No Signal.

Safe Flying,
Richard W.

7

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 24, 2016, 11:13:41 am »

Hi Lee,

Many thanks for that, it does explain some of what I’d observed.

Am I right in thinking that with the Farnell USB > RS232 cable plugged in, the PAW would know that there was a serial device attached, but not what to send? In that case it wouldn't send anything, hence the lack of flashing lights on the cable.


My original PAW still remains resolutely dead, apart from the two unblinking lights that is. Do you have any more ideas about how I can resuscitate it?

Thanks for all the assistance.

Safe Flying,
Richard W.

8

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 24, 2016, 08:37:38 am »

Hi Ian,

Many thanks for that, I think that might be the problem. In effect the NMEA out is from Port 1, which is the only Port not used in the basic set-up.

I'm surprised that changing the setting for Port 4 didn't stop the WiFi, which is plugged in to that Port. Does the software of the Raspberry Pi over ride any manual settings?

Just to make sure I've got this right:

Port 1 – Not used in basic set-up – Now used for position data to transponder.
Port 2 – RTL-SDR Dongle
Port 3 – GPS Dongle
Port 4 – WiFi Dongle

Physical layout:

Port 1 – Not used in basic set-up   Port 3 – GPS Dongle Port 2 – RTL-SDR Dongle                Port 4 – WiFi Dongle

Worth a trip up to the airfield later today to try it out.

Thanks again for the assistance.

Safe Flying,
Richard W.

9

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 23, 2016, 11:16:42 pm »

Hi Ian,

I’d made the rash assumption that the Trig / NMEA Out was Port 4. This was based on the Quick Start Guide, which seemed to indicate that:
Port 1 was the RTL-SDR Dongle,
Port 2 was the WiFi Dongle
Port 3 was the GPS Dongle.

I've set the Port 4 on the Configure page to be Transponder Trig at 9600 baud. I've set the transponder to receive NMEA at 9600 baud. I've also tried both at 4800 baud, with equal lack of success.

Setting the trp Log Interface Messages flag shows various NMEA messages being transmitted, although there’s no connector in that port at the moment (because it’s wired in to the Trig transponder and is in the hangar).

I do worry that I've got the wrong Port designation, which would be the easiest solution to the problem.

Thanks for the assistance.

Safe Flying,
Richard W.

10

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 23, 2016, 09:44:17 pm »

Hi Ian,

Sorry, I don't have a HDMI cable, or a telly for that matter. Many years of working offshore worldwide lead to a minimalist approach to home entertainment....

Thinking about the ADS-B / NMEA data out to the transponder, with the 25 way D type connector disconnected from the transponder, would the PAW try and send data and hence flash the light in the USB end of the cable?  The other thought was if one of the flow control signals RTS / CTS floated up ( the wires are not connected) would that stop the transmission?

Admittedly this is all guessing in the dark and perhaps I've killed off the USB > RS232 cable with the same efficiency I killed off the PAW…

Thanks for the assistance.

Safe Flying,
Richard W.

11

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 23, 2016, 08:30:03 pm »

Hi Lee,

I've tried that a few times and again just now. Sadly it's still the dreaded unblinking red and green lights...

Thanks for the assistance.

Safe Flying,
Richard W.

12

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 23, 2016, 07:47:10 pm »

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the Info.

Sadly I don’t have a monitor these days, having been on Notebooks and Tablets for a while now. I’ve tried swapping the WiFi Dongles, but it just sits there with its unblinking red and green lights, not talking to anyone.

I tried plugging the LAN cable in (which had worked previously for a software upgrade), but still the unblinking lights…

Do I just get a new board from Maplin, or isn't it that simple?


ADS-B connection (from the PAW that still works)

Black(GND) and Orange (TXD) and should go to Pins 6 (GND) and 5(GPS Position In) respectively on the 25 Pin plug.

Ah, interesting. I’ve got the Orange wire going to Pin 5 and the black wire to Pin 4, as per the Trig TT21 installation manual. To be honest there are two versions of the Basic Interconnect Diagram. The paper one I have in the manual that came with the transponder shows the ADS-B RS232 input to Pin 5 and the ground to Pin 4. It does show Pins 1, 6 and 14 all connected to ground. This manual is dated 2009.

The latest PDF down load of the TT21 Installation Manual (dated 2015) still shows the ADS-B Input connected to Pin 4 (Ground) and Pin 5 (GPS Input), but uses Pins 6 (Ground) and 7 (TIS Output) for the optional Traffic Display for TIS connection. Pins 1 and 14 are still connected to Ground.

If you have had success with GND (Black) Pin 6 and GPS In (Orange) Pin 5 I may just try that out. I guess your TT21 is an earlier one.

I may give my new best friends at Trig another call, I'm on first name terms and they must be heartily sick of me by now…

Thanks for the assistance.

Safe Flying,
Richard W.

13

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 23, 2016, 03:24:52 pm »

Sadly my wizard wheeze didn't work. No NMEA data being received by the Trig. Does anyone know if the lights on the Farnell USB > RS232 cable should flash when it's working? I did just check the plug on the transponder to ensure I'd got those wires correct - they seem to be. At least the spare is working, as Ridders can confirm, sadly not with ADS-B.

When I get home I'll try the various monitor options, as well as swapping over WiFi dongles.

14

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 23, 2016, 08:28:27 am »

Hi Ian,

Many thanks for the pointer to the settings on the Configure page.

I think I might have found the problem, as the setting for USB Port 4 was Auto. I'm assuming that Port 4 is the one that is used for NMEA Data out to the transponder. Looking at that box there is the option for Trig. I’ll try that later today when I head up to the airfield.

I noticed when testing yesterday that the TRX (RXTX) packet counter was increasing on TX, with obviously nothing on the RX count and no fails on the CRCFAIL counter.

Cheers,
Richard W.

15

Technical Support / Re: Lights are on, but PAW not at home....

« on: October 23, 2016, 08:10:30 am »

Hi Ian,

Many thanks for the reply.

Tests on PAW:

1. Remove al devices from the USB except the P3i antenna and the WiFi Dongle. Red and Green lights on, no other activity, nothing seen on WiFi.

2. If not swap the SD cards between the two PAW  Changed SD cards over, again nothing happened, Red and Green lights on steady, nothing on WiFi.


NMEA comms between PAW and Trig TT21

The TT21 will accept NMEA at either 4800 or 9600 baud. I've tried both PAW units. Obviously the ‘dead’ one doesn't do anything, the other one flashes the lights on the Farnell USB > RS232 cable but once what appears to be the boot process is complete the lights don’t flash. The TT21 gives a warning message and the test screen shows no NMEA position data.

Thanks for your help.

Safe Flying,
Richard W.