Topics

1

General Discussion / Ofcom EMF licence changes

« on: August 20, 2021, 06:10:10 pm »

Earlier in the year Ofcom 'consulted' on changes to radio licences to bring in checking of EMF limits that might harm members of the general public (i.e. passengers we carry).

The BMAA and LAA both intervened as the Ofcom process was extremely confusing,  which resulted in a much clearer set of guidance from Ofcom https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/220797/emf-licence-condition-what-you-need-to-know-aeronautical-radio.pdf and this summary from the BMAA and LAA https://www.bmaa.org/news/bmaa-news/ofcom-electromagnetic-field--emf--licence-conditions

I received an email from Ofcom today advising that they are now varying my licence following this EMF consultation.

The PDF process covers what you need to do to be compliant for hand-held or panel radios and for transponders,  but for other equipment you have to run the EMF calculator on Ofcom's website https://www.ofcom.org.uk/manage-your-licence/emf/calculator
It asks a lot of questions about power output, etc,  which for my pilotaware I don't know.

Has the calculation been done already for PAW so we can share it and don't all have  to go through the same process?     Would need to be done for Atom ground stations as well I would imagine?

Thanks, Geoffrey

2

Technical Support / Vector shows PAW but not ADS-B signals

« on: December 28, 2020, 08:34:08 pm »

Firstly thanks to all at PilotAware for the new Vector facility (and I see there’s a useful new explanation video on YouTube today https://youtu.be/VOoZPhzFNDY

Owing to bending my Quik-R in July and a long repair process I have only recently been able to try it out and see what results I got, and this was from the single post-repair check flight so it’s interesting to see the results with limited data.

PAW mounted in the front pod (on top of the battery) with the PAW antenna extended and in the front windscreen (this is actually a photo of the plane post accident, note the retractable undercarriage mod, but the antenna is back in pretty much the same position, perhaps a little more vertical):

Trig TT21 transponder, antenna underneath at the bottom back of the pod, connected to PAW for ADS-B

The PilotAware diagrams show I’ve got good 10km visibility (I was flying round the Everton base station), and some signal received at 40km.  Strongest is front and left, right is good as well, a definite black-spot at about 30 degrees (which I’m guessing is the front strut attenuating the signal) and poorer behind where my body and the fuel tank are in the way.
Think I will try moving the antenna further forward to see if I can resolve the front strut issue, but I’m fairly happy with this

3

Technical Support / Enhancement suggestion: traffic alert ‘memory’

« on: August 09, 2020, 09:43:19 am »

Been meaning to post this for some time, finally remembered...

One of the few annoying things with PilotAware i find is repeated audio alerts.  You’re flying along in loose formation with other aircraft, ahead or behind you, and so of course one or the other of you will invariably be blocking the signal depending on the antenna position.  Usually with paw in the front of the aircraft it’s the lead aircraft’s pilot that causes this, his body absorbing the signal as it radiates out to aircraft behind.

What I find happens is that paw will often not see the aircraft, and then of course the track/ signal shift slightly and the other aircraft is seen and you get an audio alert.  Signal blocks and when it resumes you get another alert.

Repeat this over the course of a flight and you can get a lot of alerts for the same aircraft.  Having a transponder and paw on of course gives twice the opportunity for such repeating alerts.

I don’t think it does but it would be useful if paw had some form of memory of what alerts it has recently given out.  If the “new” traffic is the same as a traffic alert in say the previous 30 seconds (and the distance/bearing is constant ie no relative movement) or it’s for the same traffic that was seen say 15 seconds ago (and momentarily disappeared) then the alert is suppressed.

Geoffrey

4

Technical Support / Pilotaware firmware updater

« on: June 19, 2020, 02:02:02 pm »

Great to see the PAW firmware updater on the UK Apple App store last night,  shout out to Neil Hathaway for his great work in developing it.

Should make it a lot easier for novice PAW users to upgrade the firmware in their PAW's,  am looking forward to new PAW features to try it out for real.

Geoffrey

5

Technical Support / Dead PAW, Pi advice

« on: May 16, 2020, 09:54:02 pm »

A couple of times I found that my PAW wouldn’t boot up when I went flying.  Unplugging and plugging it in it then worked one occasion but next time I tried this trick it didn’t.

Brought the PAW and all it’s leads home with the intent of sorting it out during lockdown, but of course didn’t !

Now we’re flying again there’s the impetus to sort it out.   Plugged it into the tv and no matter what power lead I use it doesn’t do anything at all.  No lights, nothing.  Power lead works on other things so my conclusion is that the Pi has died.

Checking prior messages it seems that both the 3b+ and the 3b are supported now.  I have a PAW classic so should I just get the 3b+ as the newest, or I think someone said that they draw more power?
Price the same from Farnell https://cpc.farnell.com/raspberry-pi/rpi3-modbp/raspberry-pi-3-model-b/dp/SC14882

And then I’ll need a new licence key from Lee

Thanks

6

Technical Support / Limited range for PAW traffic - hardware issue?

« on: April 23, 2019, 08:01:18 am »

I have a PAW classic that’s suffering from poor reception and transmission range for the PAW signal.
Typically I can see other traffic up to about 3-4km away, much more than that and they disappear from SkyDemon.   Talking to my flying buddy he says that he can only see my PAW signals for about the same range as well.
My PAW antenna has a 1m extension lead on it, enabling the antenna to be positioned in the nose of my flexwing.  I’ve tried connecting the antenna directly and didn’t make any appreciable difference so I don’t think its the lead.
Could this be a hardware problem with the PAW bridge board, or any other ideas?  I’d rather not have to buy a whole Rosetta to fix the issue (upgrade kits seem not to be available?), but the PAW range is definitely much less than it was last year when I toured on FlyUK and I would like to fix it.
Any ideas?

Thanks, Geoffrey

7

General Discussion / uAvionix and Flarm Electronic Conspicuity Collaboration

« on: September 10, 2018, 07:51:01 pm »

Just read an interesting article on this month's Gasco mailout on https://www.gasco.org.uk/flight-safety-extra/flight_safety_extra_september_18/electronic_conspicuity_collaboration, in summary they have agreed to collaborate, and share and embed their respective technologies into their products.

They plan collaboration on Detect and Avoid solutions including manned and unmanned aircraft.  The drone angle is particularly interesting because to date they've been their own private ecosystems.

I did feel like pointing out to Gasco that their opening fails to acknowledge the existence of PilotAware EC - "The GA world has been searching for some time for a device that will accommodate all systems: Mode C/S, FLARM and ADS-B. So far success has been elusive, especially when low cost, low consumption and portability are included in the specification".

8

Technical Support / PAW occasionally loses GPS signal

« on: May 25, 2018, 11:37:53 pm »

I've been using PAW for just over a year now,  firstly with the inbuilt radar display and more recently with EasyVFR basic.

When using it with EVFR I noticed that occasionally the GPS lost signal.   My PAW was using the standard USB GPS and is mounted under the base bar of my flexwing, rear of the transponder.   Most of the time it got a good signal but occasionally it would lose and regain it - I guess because my legs shielded from time to time.

Mentioning this to Peter at Popham he suggested a separate GPS dongle which I bought and connected to PAW, placing it above the dashboard, just under the windscreen.

My next series of flights was a tour into Germany and for the first time I tried using SkyDemon.

All was good and I enjoyed the extra visibility of planes on the navigation display (although I think the antennae or filtering was off because I only saw relatively close targets).

But my problem was that on about 4 or 5 occasions I lost GPS connectivity on PAW.   On each occasion I got a message on SD something like "lost GPS signal, 9 satellites found" (which makes no sense to me),  and the only way to fix the issue seemed to be to reboot my PAW.

I tried leaving the PAW for a minute or so to see if it reconnected, but it never did,  and powering off the power brick my PAW is connected to and turning it on again to force a PAW reboot was the only solution.

No obvious pattern to the loss of GPS signal, it happened once 30 seconds after takeoff,  on other occasions it happened whilst in steady flight after an extended period of time.

As PAW lost the GPS this stopped SD navigation and also the GPS coming through to my Trig TT21.

On one occasion I was able to look at the PAW config on my phone.  It showed green for all bar the GPS which was red.  GPS showed "DGPS fix" mode=3D and Satellites=9

Any ideas?  This was the first time I'd used the external GPS dongle so it could have had an intermittent fault or the plastic of the screen be shielding the GPS,  but for almost all of the 25 hours of flying I did it worked perfectly and the screen and the SD error message still showed that it had a decent number of satellite fixes so I don't think that was it.

9

General Discussion / Full screen PAW Radar display on Android

« on: May 15, 2017, 11:36:40 am »

When using PAW Radar view with the stock Chrome browser on my Motorola Moto G/E phone's I couldn't find a way of hiding the address bar - so in landscape mode approx 1/5th of the screen is unusable.

Full screen mode is a configurable option on Android but relies upon the application to "request" it, but Chrome doesn't do this and from Google searches it seems not be able to turn it on.

I have found a free very useful "Full screen browser" that solves this issue perfectly,   https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.isolator.fullscreenbrowser2&hl=en_GB

Geoffrey