Topics

1

Technical Support / Upgrading Pi

« on: June 30, 2019, 07:12:26 pm »

I'm looking to upgrade the Pi in my groups shareoplane while I'm updating the software.

Am I right in thinking that I'll need to get in touch to update the licence somehow?

I'm planning to run the update at the airfield - do I need a usb drive to update it?

2

OGN-R PilotAware / Old PAW 2B what do I need to go OGN-R?

« on: June 24, 2019, 08:00:59 pm »

Is there any call for a station 5m SW of EGCN?

I’ve recently cannibalised my old PAW to set up a 360radar station.

I’m just getting round to installing a mast which should take antenna height to ~8m AGL, possibly higher, so potentially have a much better base for rebroadcast.

Other than a nice outdoor aerial for the PAW rebroadcast, what else do I need?

3

General Discussion / Pilotaware unit going spare

« on: April 08, 2019, 12:24:56 pm »

Having just bought a share in a plane with a PAW installed, my portable unit is now surplus to requirements.

I've just advertised it as a complete setup, but realised that there might be some use in it towards the network.
Is there any use for a base station setup around EGCN at all?

4

General Discussion / Ships power and Skydemon Logging

« on: March 27, 2019, 12:20:37 pm »

Hi all,

I've been trying to solve an issue with logging engine start times in SkyDemon whilst using PAW connected to ships power.

Previously I used PAW on a powerbank, but now I am using one connected to ships power, I have stumbled on the issue of logging engine start when the PAW is not yet booted.

See discussion on SkyDemon Forum here...

It would appear that the only way to use PAW on ships power is to start the engine and then start flight logging 2-3 minutes later once the PAW has booted.

Are there any other users of installed systems that use SkyDemon that have come up with a better process for startup?

I'm wondering about a pass-through powerbank and separate switch, but I know Anker don't do that and I know PAW issues are frequent when homebrewing power supplies!

5

Technical Support / Boot time

« on: March 26, 2019, 12:13:38 pm »

How long should it take to boot up a pilotaware on Pi2B to Wifi communications?

Mine takes just over 2 minutes.

6

Technical Support / Using PAW to provide traffic info only

« on: March 20, 2019, 12:40:49 pm »

Hi all,
Prompted by a discussion ongoing on the SkyDemon forum...

I've just bought a share in an aircraft with a permanently fitted PAW (previously I was renting with a carry-on setup).
Because the PAW is powered from the avionics bus, it cannot be running prior to engine start as per my previous battery powered setup.
As I have become used to using the engine start and off blocks logging feature on SD, this is a bit of a pain as you can't 'go flying' until the GPS has warmed up on the PAW.

I was querying whether there was a way to start a flight using internal GPS then switch to PAW once booted up, but someone has suggested using internal GPS for navigation and use the PAW to feed pure traffic information to SD.

Not having got involved in the technical details of the transmission between PAW and SD, can the two bits of information be separated or are they intrinsically linked?

7

Technical Support / Multiple position sources

« on: October 13, 2018, 11:44:21 am »

As a carry-on user in multiple aircraft I have recently upgraded my classic into a Rosetta-esque case.
I’m contemplating putting an externally accessible USB port on the case to allow me to connect the gps dongle remotely (or a dedicated mouse, but I already have a spare standard dongle) for aircraft where placement makes it harder to get a good gps reception.

What would the RPi make of having two dongles connected at the same time?
Would it run both (I assume this would cause an issue due to location discrepancy)
Would it start one in preference to the other?

My gut feel is that it will grab the first to wake up and communicate or by port number.
I will be having a play at this later on, but wondering if anyone else knows first!

And Yes, I could just remove the accessory cover, remove the dongle and plug in the mouse, but I’m trying to make something a bit slicker than that!

8

Technical Support / Failed GPS dongle

« on: September 03, 2018, 07:44:26 pm »

Is there any history of GPS dongles going TEC?

My PAW has been intermittently failing and when it does the dongle appears to be dead (no LED).  This has been anywhere from instant to an hour into a flight.

I’ve bought a new dongle and fitted it this evening and so far it is holding steady after two hours so it looks plausible that the original dongle is somehow faulty.

I will add that my PAW is carry-on and until this weekend has been in the original case (albeit with the usb devices partially protected by the end of my Anker 22000 power-pack, so there may have been some physical damage to the package - but nothing is apparent.

9

General Discussion / Too many announcements

« on: May 22, 2018, 07:14:58 am »

Coming back south close (but separated and aware) of Sutton bank, we were bombarded with adsb/p3i targets on the ground.  These were hiding the warnings of aircraft that we had spotted at similar levels.

I assume this will be an OGN-R station rebroadcasting, but the strange part of it is that I had separation set to 1000ft and we were @ 3500ft.  I even went into the config page on my phone and set the separation to 500ft but they still persisted.
After a minute of constant alerts, we pulled the plug on the audio to remove the distraction while we were in such busy airspace.

Any ideas why we were getting alerts that appeared to be outside my separation level?

10

Technical Support / Audio options for rented planes with no audio input

« on: April 21, 2018, 09:56:11 pm »

Tried my PilotAware for the first time today using an amplified speaker.
Although this setup seemed ear piercingly loud at home, was more or less inaudible in flight.

I’ve seen that people link the output into the speaker wiring with a splitter and cable, but would ideally like to share the audio with a passenger too.
Any ideas if I can connect the output into the microphone circuit without blowing anything up?

I think it will need some impedance matching building in to ensure that my microphone doesn’t end up loud/quiet and possibly something to block the dc voltage from the audio output. 
Then also a mute switch for circuit/ground use.

Any ham/avionics gurus care to shed a little light?