Show Posts

You can view here all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas to which you currently have access.


Messages - FlyingPastor

Pages: [1] 2
1
Hi Peter,

So I cleaned the outside of the aerial as you suggested, the only other difference was I wasn't running SkyDemon.

The flight was up to the south-east of the Malverns, then back to just west of Huntley, then returning to Over with quite a bit of manoeuvring between 1800' and 2700' in that triangle.

I notice there are gaps in the trace you sent, but not many. Is that usual or might it point to a continuing problem?

As ever thank you for your continued help.

n

2
Hi Peter,

I flew today, Friday 10th January, from about 13:10 to 14:10. Does it look any better?

n

3
Hi Peter,

Absolutely nothing changed apart from changing the Hex-ID. It takes 40 minutes to get the aircraft apart and back together again to access the unit so I tend to leave it well alone. Everything is cable tied down, the PilotAware unit itself velcro on the aircraft and doesn't move. I will clean the aerial and see what happens, I have a lesson in just over an hour.

I must confess I find the whole failure utterly bizarre. SkyDemon would suggest it is working perfectly as far as GPS and power are concerned (it is my GPS source for SkyDemon). The SkyDemon logs are bang on and no gaps. When I've had GPS gaps in the past SkyDemon has complained, there were no complaints in respect of the logs ...

n

4
Hi Peter,

Thank you for looking at that, my uninformed eye would read that as I still have a problem. The aerial was replaced in September, but given I'm flying around Over Farm for most of it even the dodgiest aerial in the world wouldn't have those many gaps surely?

Hope the child minding went well ...

n

5
Hi Peter,

I flew around Gloucester for 105 minutes yesterday morning (about 10:40 onwards with a short break finishing about 12:35) on my correct HexID. Height up to about 2500' at times.

As it is the first proper flight test with everything set up I wonder if you would have a moment to check that the unit is transmitting as it should?

OverFarm PAW ground station is now active so it should certainly be pinging off that

Thanks

n

6
So, what a journey that has been.

Ashley tested the unit and there was no error, but he reinstalled the software and I bought a new aerial cable from him (they have changed the make of cable they use). It is uncertain what the actual fault was, but given it worked on the bench for Ashley it is highly likely it was the old aerial cable (not that old, only 18 months, and it buzzed out ok, but they have changed make of cable they sell).

I fitted the new aerial cable and did two flights under the wrong hex-id then realised I hadn't checked it since Ashley reinstalled the software; the trace on the incorrect hex-id is perfect and it was definitely me given the location.

Thank you to all who have helped.

7
Thank you Peter, no response yet but hopefully soon (can you nudge him to check junk next time you speak if he hasn't seen my email)

ta

n

8
Hi Peter,

I buzzed out the aerial lead today and noticed slight resistance from the PAW end to the ground plane so I cleaned up and refitted the aerial. From PAW end to aerial there are no short circuits and zero ohms resistance for both the ground and the signal. Climbed in all excited and flew, and no job :( The only flight on the vector is the morning one, not my afternoon one after I did the above, and it is intermittent.

I've gone through my SkyDemon logs for the last 6 months and out of all of them I have 2 where SkyDemon complains of drop outs of GPS position, and all the rest are rock solid including the flights today.

That leaves me thinking the classic maybe is dead. I've emailed Ash to ask if he will test it, just waiting for a response. At least if I have to trade in he will already have it :) Just hope it all happens fast enough not to miss the bigger discounts, it's a lot of money!

Thank you for your help

n

9
Hi Peter,

I took the unit out the plane (well buried so that took a while!) and dismantled it. The radio bridge board wasn't securely pressed down, I could see some of the pins on the connector. So I pushed it down fully, reassembled and put in the plane.

Sadly that doesn't seem to have fixed it. There is the spurious trace from 11th November, but nothing else. The aerial is new (I broke the other one in a ground handling incident), and the connections are secure. The cable came from PAW and definitely isn't short circuit, need some extra hands to check for open circuit.

I flew yesterday around d 13:50 for 25 mins in the circuit at Over and today just after 10:00 from Over across to the west side of the severn valley, down south a bit and then back to Gloucester for 35 mins (just incase you have any other tools to look).

Not sure what to do next, can I send the unit in for testing somewhere?

n

Thank you,

Neil.

10
That is interesting. I posted on 6 October as I wasn’t seeing flights over the previous weeks. I looked again a couple of weeks later when in conversation with someone else, but clearly before 26 October. So definitely an intermittent fault. I can say nothing has changed in my setup during that period, nor have I done any maintenance to the aircraft that might have affected connectors.

Will be in touch, thank you for your help. Sad I can’t make the EoSM Christmas Dinner this year :(

11
Hi Peter,

Odd that I can’t see PAW on the vector analysis yet the playback does show some.

Anyway, thank you. I use PAW as GPS on SkyDemon and I never lose signal so I suspect it is neither the power or the GPS. The aerial is new (the old one failed mechanically loading onto a trailer, so my guess is the bridge board has come loose. I’m currently on holiday so will check later this month when I get back.

As I understand it the Over Farm station is being relocated and is down, it was uninstalled some time ago and the person doing it hasn’t yet reinstalled it, hence you can’t log into it.

Best,

Neil

12
Thank you. I’ll look.

13
I can see traffic, and I’m not connected to a mobile phone, so receive is ok, just transmit that isn’t happy. Hmm, may have to send the unit in for testing … if PAW do that.

14
I should add both aerials are new and bought from Pilotaware

15
Which radio is it? I’ve got a PAW classic, the USB radio was replaced a couple of months ago, the one inside the case (which I assume is on the Pi circuit board) hasn’t been (and I don’t know if it can be)

Pages: [1] 2