Messages

1

Technical Support / Re: Use in an R44 Helicopter

« on: January 23, 2019, 09:07:38 pm »

@seanhump - I'd still love to see how you made your mount attachment, if you wouldn't mind snapping some pics. Thanks!

And thanks everyone for all the advice, I'm getting there!

2

Technical Support / Re: Power Experiment

« on: January 18, 2019, 10:14:26 am »

Oh yeah, i'll take that point. I was getting annoyed with a glider on the ground when I was testing the other day, I hadn't considered that it would also be transmitting to other PAW users.

Still, that makes my battery life even better

3

Technical Support / Power Experiment

« on: January 17, 2019, 10:53:06 pm »

So I just got an Anker PowerCore 10000mAh pack to power my PilotAware Rosetta

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072MH1434/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Obviously I was interested to know how long this would power the device for so, being a programmer by trade, I wrote a little bash script to ping the PilotAware IP every 10 seconds and report when it was no longer available. I though people might be interested in my findings.

First off, reliability.. This was pretty impressive. All in all, the device was unavailable on 8 occasions over the entire test. On all of these occasions it only missed one ping, so I doubt it was actually unavailable (if it had gone down, it would have taken longer than 10 seconds to come back up), so I assume that it just took longer than the permitted 5 seconds to respond on these occasions, or (and I cannot stress this enough), it was some other factor of my test other than the PilotAware!

But, the main event.. how long did it last? Well, from a completely full charge on the 10000mAh battery to completely dying, it was....

10 HOURS, 54 MINUTES and 34 SECONDS!

I'm more than happy with that result, not only will it last for a full day of flying, for my typical use, I most likely won't even need to turn it off between flights, I can just leave it running all day!

I chose the PowerCore 10000 because of it's size, at 6cm wide and 9.2cm tall it matches the size of PAW perfectly so the fact it lasts this long is great. I'd be interested to see if it makes any difference actually using it in the air when it's sending and receiving more transmissions, but I can't imagine it will..

4

Technical Support / Re: Use in an R44 Helicopter

« on: January 16, 2019, 08:14:28 pm »

Oh! Seemed to be what most people were doing. In fact, I'm sure that's what the guy that came to do the talk recommended??

Anyone else powering this way?

5

Technical Support / Re: Use in an R44 Helicopter

« on: January 16, 2019, 07:07:47 pm »

For anyone coming to this post in the future, here's what I have so far:

Anker PowerCore 10000
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072MH1434/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Anker Powerline 1ft Micro USB Cable
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B019PZPYK6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

25cm velcro Benristraps
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CTWNW5M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00__o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As you can see from the pic attached, seems to work pretty well. The size of the 10k PowerCore matches the size of the Rosetta really well, it's the same width and comes up to just underneath the holes for the fan.

6

Technical Support / Re: Use in an R44 Helicopter

« on: January 13, 2019, 06:47:38 pm »

Great!

I'd be really interested to know where I can get one of the 1/4 thread adapters you are using then. From the pic you sent (attached), this looks like exactly what I need to stop it moving around as any sort of vibration seems to cause the cheap mount to loosen off and eventually just flop around.

I think I am going to go for an Anker PowerCore 10000. I think the longest day I have done start to finish so far is about 9 hours (3 hours flying) so if an 18000 pack lasts ~18 hours I should be good with this one and I can just leave it on all day. Also, the dimensions of this one seem to match the PAW pretty well (9.2cm x 6cm)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B019GJLER8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A2PGPJL0BBLHLX&psc=1

I'm also looking at an Anker PowerLine Micro USB 1ft power cable, seen as the power supply is to be attached to it.
https://www.anker.com/uk/products/variant/powerline-1ft-micro-usb/A8131011
The specs do say 20AWG power wire with 18AWG sheathing I think should be fine, looking at this post:
http://forum.pilotaware.com/index.php?topic=9.0

Thanks so much for answering all my questions, it's been really helpful. I'm back in the air tuesday so looking forward to trying all this out.

Please let me know if you see any issues with the power/cable I chose.

Cheers
Ryan

p.s Finally found the "notify me of replies" option

7

Technical Support / Re: Use in an R44 Helicopter

« on: January 11, 2019, 07:57:42 pm »

Sean,

Thanks for the amazing response. It's good to know I am not alone at least!

I've been using this mount for now, while I am trying it out, as recommended elsewhere on the forum:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0725H9JY4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm using a dual-suction proper RAM mount for the iPad but that was expensive so wanted to see how things went first. I have the Rosetta which looks a lot bigger than the one you are using and has two aerials so I definitely need to find a slimmer mount. I notice there are a group of 4 slots that look like they could be a better way to secure it (as the thread kept getting loose) but I haven't seen an attachment for the RAM suction for anything like this.

I definitely had bearingless targets enabled as I saw a couple of those on the top right of the RADAR and I had my range set sufficiently as I was picking up other aircraft in the area. I was flying around EGCJ at night and there were 4 aircraft in the circuit/immediate area and only one was getting picked up. I would think they would all be getting hit by Doncaster Radar (and probably even LBA also) around there...

I will have to try with the new positioning, and I need to get a smaller power pack that can be strapped to it too. Anyone know what the power requirement is? I'd like to know what the smallest power pack I could get would be to run it for x amount of hours

Thanks guys, really nice to see people from the community helping out already. I really want to get this working!

Ryan

8

Technical Support / Use in an R44 Helicopter

« on: January 11, 2019, 01:29:39 pm »

Hi Everyone,

First time PilotAware user here. I was already looking into PAW and attended the talk at Sherburn-In-Elmet last year and finally got around to purchasing my Rosetta over Christmas.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone that has used one of these in a Robinson Helicopter. I flew as a passenger last week to try it out for the first time and got mixed results. I suspect this was partially down to the positioning, as I was in the back it had to go high up on the passenger door, but it is quite bulky with the suction mount and I am struggling to see where I could put it in the front without obscuring view or running the risk of it interfering with the pedals should it fall off the windscreen. Does it need to be in plain sight? Could it sit on the rear wall or would the engine behind obstruct it too much?

I don't want to sound too negative in this post as I love the idea of PAW and truly appreciate what you are trying to achieve and I am sure that a lot of my issues are me needing to work out how to get the best out of it, but the first annoying thing was a frequent reminder about two gliders on the ground at a local gliding club. They were both noted as doing 0kts so is there any way to discount these targets?

In general I was very pleased with the connection, my iPad had solid GPS the whole flight and the targets it did find came up in SkyDeamon (which is also new) which was great, but the main problem I had was I visually spotted 5-6 GA aircraft on my test flight which were not picked up by the device and I struggle to believe that none of them were using at least Mode C.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Especially around where and how to mount for best coverage.

Thanks
Ryan