Messages

1

Technical Support / Re: Upgrading the Rosetta GNSS dongle

« on: July 28, 2019, 09:41:44 pm »

Ah, that's interesting. Thanks! Looking on the articles online though I think it should have been back online today? I'll try again next week and see if the results are any different!

2

Technical Support / Re: Upgrading the Rosetta GNSS dongle

« on: July 28, 2019, 08:36:24 pm »

I got my Rosetta yesterday having traded in my classic.

I noticed fairly quickly that the GPS chip was having difficulty getting a fix when I was playing with it inside where my classic would get a location straight away. Looking in the case, the chip it shipped with is the DIYMALLS U-Blox 7, which I assume all Rosetta's come with.

With my classic, I had bought a GPS mouse on a long lead which I threw over the back seat of the aircraft to get a good 'view' out of the back window. I removed the DIYMALLS chip and plugged the GPS Mouse in to the Rosetta and it was a drastic improvement (i.e. back to how the classic behaved)

From seeing it mentioned on this thread, I downloaded the U-Blox application for windows and out of curiosity compared both USB receivers against each other. I noted that the one that ships with the Rosetta is a U-Blox 7 and seems only to connect to GPS and nothing else. The GPS mouse that I had been using with my classic comes up as a U-Blox M8/8 and connects happily to both GPS and GLONASS (which may explain why it seems to pick up a fix quicker and in more places)

As comparison, the receiver that ships with the rosetta wouldn't acquire a fix in my house under a window (it would intermittently see about 3 GPS satellites and then lose them)
The 8/M8 picks up a fix in the centre of my house with 12 satellites (a mix of Russian and American) It's night and day so I have left the mouse plugged in and used the hole in the bottom of the Rosetta case (covered by the labelling) to run the cable out of, and stuck the mouse to the front with a 3M command strip.

I didn't see any of the Gallileo satellites at all, so wonder if the firmware is old as Firmware 3.01 for the 8/M8 introduced this ability. Or it could be a fake, as mentioned above somewhere.

I'm sure the 'original' would be absolutely fine in the air looking out an aircraft window, but the stronger performance and willingness to connect to GLONASS as well as GPS means I'll be keeping the stronger performer.

With my 8/M8 GPS Mouse:


Standard U7 under a window:


Rosetta in my flight bag:

3

Technical Support / Re: Replacement ADS-B Aerial

« on: September 06, 2017, 08:59:13 am »

Haha!! I'll see if the guy that built the house in 1826 is still knocking about so I can complain ;-)

Thanks for the comments - positioning in the aircraft isn't an issue, I mount the PAW on the side portion of the windscreen in the Cessna 172 that I'm training in using a universal smartphone suction mount and then the battery pack sits nicely in the storage pouch down by my legs with the bundled power lead. Keeps everything in an ideal position

I was impressed with the OGN last week, spotted a glider at our altitude heading towards us over Grafham Water before we had visual. 

I might give the current set up a go then this weekend - and see what happens. If I have issues I'll follow some of the suggestions on here. I'll be mindful to keep the P3i antenna pointing up, perhaps I should angle the 1090mhz one downwards so it's not sitting right against it...

4

Technical Support / Replacement ADS-B Aerial

« on: September 05, 2017, 09:54:17 pm »

Hi All,
I bought a Pilot Aware recently but broke the small aerial when the unit was in my bag. I found it's probably the most vulnerable component on the device.
I purchased a new 1090mhz SMA ADS-B aerial on Amazon and I'm seeing many magnitudes more traffic on Sky Demon.
My question is this - being fairly non technical, is there likely to be any drawback to what I have done?
Many Thanks,
ST

Pictures: