Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: Enhancement Requests

« on: October 30, 2015, 06:01:12 am »

As this forum becomes bigger and bigger, I start to loose my overview of what is going on on the development side. 

I suggest a fixed thread "captain's logbook", containing open points on your list, stuff in progress, and solved/implemented points and/or issues.

Only Lee should be allowed to post to keep it from drifting off topic.

2

General Discussion / Re: Hardwiring USB components to Pi

« on: October 14, 2015, 01:03:37 pm »

C

On my version 1 everything is plug and play. For my second version I have removed the plastic case from the DVB-T module and removed the USB connector, I have done the same for the GPS. I have then placed out all on a slice of Pi board ARF, Baro and psu on the face that is towards the Pi the DVB-T and GPS on the outside face.

ould u please post a picture of your build?

3

General Discussion / Hardwiring USB components to Pi

« on: October 13, 2015, 07:01:20 am »

Has anyone put some work or thoughts into hardwiring the USB-components and put them all in one case? For use in an aircraft, I would really like to get rid of every loose connection and cable possible.

I spent some time thinking about it, should not be a big problem. I am pretty good at soldering, but I have concerns about the heat beeing produced by DVB-T and WiFi dongles cooking each other (and the Pi...).

4

General Discussion / Re: USB Dongles fit and Overheating

« on: October 13, 2015, 06:55:09 am »

I have the same problems as described in post #1. Worst placement is DVB-T and WiFi on top of each other, but even nex to each other the WiFi drops out after a while (>2hours). I will order a larger WiFi dongle the next days.

I thought about hardwiring all the components and put them into one case to get rid of wobbly connections and cables, but as long as the devices produce that much heat, I better keep them on the outside.

5

General Discussion / Re: Enhancement Requests

« on: October 09, 2015, 07:23:49 am »

As the strength of the received signal may vary with placement/quality/... of you're antennas, etc, it might be a good idea to implement a user setting "gain" of the Mode-C signals. So everybody could adjust the range for Mode-C-listening, or set it to "0" to fully discard Mode-C-signals.

6

General Discussion / Re: Updating PilotAware Software Version

« on: October 07, 2015, 06:42:37 am »

Just a quick tip for everybody experiencing the same problems I have, every time I want to update:

When I take the SD card out of my PA-unit and plug it into my Win7-PC, I can only see a 3xx MB size partition, nothing else. Even after formatting with SDformatter v4 with correct settings as proposed by Lee, I can't use its full size.

Only thing that works for me is to plug the SD into a digital camera and format it in there.

7

General Discussion / Re: Does ARF module decrease ADSB sensitivity?

« on: September 24, 2015, 11:45:29 am »

my colleague said reception of the receiving antenna/module might get blocked while the other one is sending, if both are more or less on the same frequency (within or close to the bandwith of the transceived signal)

But there should not be a problem as 868 MHz (P3i) and 978/1090 MHz (ADS-B) are far enough away from each other.

Maybe your problem is more due to power loss at the DVB-T-Stick, as power consumption of the ARF increases when transmitting?

8

General Discussion / Re: Does ARF module decrease ADSB sensitivity?

« on: September 24, 2015, 06:30:26 am »

From the little I know about antennas, receiving of two antennas side by side is not an issue.

But you can run into problems when one of them starts sending, because it couples in on the other one, and will thereby decrease range of the passive one.

I will talk to one of my colleagues who is our antenna/wireless-guy at work later, what he thinks about its. maybe he can do some measurements i he has the time to.

From my personal experience with the PA-unit, I did not recognize any problems. Indoors I have a range of 20-30 NM on the ADS-B with no dropouts, but I can't tell what the P3i side does, because there has not been any othe P3i device in range so far.

9

General Discussion / Re: Pi Model B (not B+)

« on: September 22, 2015, 06:46:37 am »

Yes, it's an easy mod, though I used the HobbyTronics board not the Adafruit one - the HobbyTronics board is a bit smaller.

I'll try and get a photo or two up later - but I have just attached it to the upper side of the SoP board and wired across - the pads on the SoP are plated through so you can use either side of the board to attach.

Can you please post a link or closer specs on the sensor you use? thx

10

General Discussion / Re: Enhancement Requests

« on: September 17, 2015, 07:21:03 am »

Might be a cool idea for a standalone box, w/o tablet. Just to draw your plane in center and then 1 mile-circles around it to display other aircrafts positions in.

so funny, here is version 1 of PilotAware from two years ago running on a WindowsCE device

haha, cool! It would be perfect like it is on your picture, displaying on one of those 2,5...3,5" Pi-Displays available for less than 30€! Question is, if the display uses the I/Os we need for the ARF?

11

General Discussion / Re: Wireless Things ARF board optional extra

« on: September 16, 2015, 10:19:51 am »

It is an alternative to the digole board. Used it on my device to save shipping for the digole, and the powerpod itself is cheaper, also. Needs some wiring to it instead of plug and play, but it works well.

I attached a quick sketch of how it's gotta be wired if you wanna use it instead of the digole board. The numers at the bottom are the pin-numbers of the PI's connector.

12

General Discussion / Re: Android

« on: September 15, 2015, 04:02:53 pm »

Tried to jnstall on galaxy tab mini gt-p3100, but play store says it is not compatible. Any solution?

13

General Discussion / Re: Licence Expiry and future Prices

« on: September 15, 2015, 11:56:59 am »

Thanks a lot for your quick respond!

In my opinion, announced costs are more than fair!

14

General Discussion / Licence Expiry and future Prices

« on: September 15, 2015, 10:45:11 am »

I am wondering, how all this will develop in the future, what we have here is a well running project, with lots of effort from different sides.

Now we have the first software version with a licence expiry set, and as lee wrote on the webpage, pilotaware will probably not remain free of licence charge forever. People around keep asking me if I can build up hardware for them. So I am interested in lee's thoughts and plans about future pricing, before I build all that stuff and every second party is gonna scrap his device because of high costs when the tests licence expires.

Please don't get me wrong on this, Lee, i really appreciate your work, but I would like to know where we are gonne end pricewise.

15

General Discussion / Re: Switching On and OFF Is there an ideal sequence

« on: September 15, 2015, 06:30:13 am »

I have the same two "fails" (....mount_unionfs... and ...checkroot-bootclean.sh...) on startup, but the device runs fine anyway.