Topics

1

OGN-R PilotAware / VRS glider symbol question

« on: July 28, 2020, 01:46:16 pm »

Why is it that Glidertracker invariably shows gliders with a symbol that resembles a glider, whereas on the VRS Display these self same targets are commonly shown a Jet (Hawker Hunter) shape? It’s not even consistent, as some glider targets are depicted correctly. Can post screen shots, including traffic table, if required.

Thx,
Chris

2

OGN-R PilotAware / Shobdon ATOM Station failure

« on: June 26, 2020, 10:53:47 am »

Hi Keith and Lee,

The installation at Shobdon has been down for about 2 weeks. Initially appeared to have no Flarm reception at all. It has been completely off air for several days as not showing up on the OGNRANGE sites. Plugging in an HDMI monitor yesterday it is clear that the unit doesn’t boot up fully. See screenshot.

Advice please on how to get it up and running again?

Thanks,

Chris

3

OGN-R PilotAware / 360Radar VRS Display of MLAT traffic

« on: January 10, 2020, 06:48:46 pm »

Hi team,

I installed a second SDR to PWKingsto groundstation just prior to Christmas. My location is fairly quiet regarding GA but today the WX was fine and there were a few aircraft in the general area. I noted from the VRS traffic table that there were many MLAT contacts though most were over 20 km distant.
Can anyone advise the maximum range that MLAT contacts will display on the VRS from my location?
Also,without referring to the traffic table, is there any way to determine what type of contact (O,P,A,M) is applicable?

Thx,

Chris

4

Technical Support / Analysing track/ traffic post flight

« on: September 03, 2019, 01:02:57 pm »

Hi team,

I had a close encounter on the way to the Rally with a bearingless target (Mode C presumably) as I received solely an Audio Traffic alert of the bogey. The PAW is fixed behind the aircraft panel and I tried to download the track file to a USB stick. However the browser page was telling me that a USB stick was not detected. Plugging the stick into a Windows laptop today, Windows wants the drive to be formatted, so any data downloaded would be lost, anyway.

I read somewhere on the forum that you can download the track file direct to your tablet from the PAW browser. I did this also, but cannot subsequently find the file on my IPad Mini 2. Sorry to be so thick, but I presumed that it would have been stored, so I could check it via the Aircrew web-site.

What am I doing wrong? As the alert was for a bearingless target, would analysing the track file give me any further info regarding time/ position / height etc of the encounter?

5

OGN-R PilotAware / OGN-R with VRS, not displaying ADS-B targets

« on: April 17, 2019, 08:36:32 am »

Hi all,

I Updated the software per Keith’s recent e-mail request. Then tried out the VRS function with the one OGN SDR connected and all fine for displaying PAW and OGN targets. Then decided to add a spare SDR from my original spare PAW and re-ran the Config script. This hangs indicating that 2 SDRs were found, but “device 0 with serial number 00000001 cannot be found. Most likely the serial number has been altered and the Pi rebooted without running this script. Reboot required”. I try this but config hangs again as above.

If I disconnect the second SDR and re-run the config, it finds the one OGN SDR ID=0 which it says is allocated to OGN/ FLARM reception on 868Mhz.

If I connect the second SDR (with a long body that doesn’t get so hot, with side mounted MCX socket) to my spare PAW it works fine, pulling in ADSB!

Any ideas how I can get the second SDR to work with VRS?

Thx,

Chris

6

General Discussion / PAW ID changing when viewed via Glidertracker

« on: September 26, 2018, 01:58:56 pm »

Hi Lee,

You informed me by PM the other day that our Eurostar appeared to be transmitting a different Hex code from the PAW compared with our Mode S ID. This appears to have been for a portion of the flight only, as recorded via a screenshot taken from Glidertracker.

I have just witnessed another aircraft apparently doing the same thing (screenshots available if required), and wonder if this maybe something to do with processing via OGN or Glidertracker and not related to PAW at all?

The aircraft did a round trip from Halfpenny Green today, landing at Shobdon. it’s Hex is variously reporting as 62F271, 627071, 627275, 627271 when I touched on the different aircraft symbols on the track, but all appear to be the same aircraft. I tried checking it on its return to EGBO via glidernet.org but it gave an ID of 4a31dd37.
None of the Hex codes above are identifiable via G- INFO.

Hope this may give a pointer to this phenomenon.

Thx,

Chris

7

OGN-R PilotAware / Registering OGN-R Station into List of OGN Receivers of wiki.glidernet.org

« on: July 08, 2018, 10:54:06 am »

I have tried on several occasions to register my receiver and add my contact details should a problem arise.

Had another go today. Got edit permission to update UK list. Copied the Ready-to-copy-and-paste-line-of-Code but don't see how/where I can paste it (for Kingstone) into the UK list.

Exfirepro Peter seems to be the only OGN-R user to have got his head around this and entered details of Balero ground station. I'm sure its simples but its eluding my very scant abilities. How did you do it Peter? (step by step instructions appreciated). I realise its probably more appropriate to post this in the glidernet discussion group but I feel its something we PAW OGN-R operators need to get up to speed with.

Thx

Chris

8

OGN-R PilotAware / Tower real time traffic displays

« on: June 12, 2018, 02:59:04 pm »

Hi Keith,

I note Turweston has a comprehensive setup, but they are Air/Ground service. What setup do they have at Wellesbourne (AFIS)?

9

Technical Support / Swapping SD cards between PAW units

« on: April 09, 2018, 08:00:18 am »

Hi Lee,

Quick question. If I have reformatted an SD card and loaded latest Software and had it running in my spare PAW (PAW1). Can I transfer that SD card to PAW2 that lives in the aircraft? Tried it yesterday and home page shows MAC address etc of spare PAW still, when checking PAW2 homepage. Is there an easy way to get around this without having to go through the reformat process once again and then placing the SD card directly into PAW2?

Thought process; if I left the SD card (as it is currently) for longer in PAW2 will it reconfigure so that the software will run OK, like an initial boot up or doesn’t it work that way?

Thx,

Chris

10

General Discussion / GA APPG Airspace Working Group

« on: April 07, 2018, 11:21:42 am »

Have just read the GA APPG response to the Brize Norton and Oxford Airspace ACP consultations via their twitter feed.

Delving further to the work program they have identified for their Airspace Working Group, I noticed Keith Vinning’s inclusion in this group. Hearty congratulations Keith, this gives me confidence in the program that appears well thought through and will hopefully bring to bear an innovative approach to the airspace problems that beset the UK and the use of affordable EC as a strand in the solution.

I wish you and the APPG every success in its endeavours.

Thx,

Chris

11

Technical Support / Software version and PiB+

« on: March 27, 2018, 10:58:24 am »

Hi guys,

Our PAW in the aircraft is running an early kernel 3.18.7. To get a later kernel I downloaded a complete installation image yesterday at home and thought I’d try it in my spare PAW that has a Pi B+ processor. Didn’t get a PAW WiFi hotspot so connected an HDMI monitor and it just gets as far as Noobs page that needs a keyboard to go any further. Is this likely to be correct? Just wanted to check the SD card/download to check all is OK before travelling to the airfield, especially as my PC is currently a bit flakey! The spare PAW normally runs fine on version 20170721.

Thx,

Chris

12

Technical Support / Connecting PAW to a Becker BXP6401 Transponder for ADS-B Out

« on: March 11, 2018, 12:48:32 am »

Hi Guys,

Does anyone have any experience of connecting this type of Transponder to PAW? I finally bit the bullet and had our mode S Transponder modified at the factory to latest hardware and software spec including setting of SIL and SDA = 0. I reinstalled it into the aircraft and wired it to the PAW using the FTDI USB - RS232 converter cable (orange wire to Plug 9 pin8, and black wire to Plug 9 pin9). I also grounded Plug 9 pin2 (GPS Enable) as specified in the installation diagram.

When I switched the Transponder and PAW on, the Transponder performs a self test and this indicated FAILURE. If I disconnected the ground to P9/2, the Transponder recovered and the failure mode disappeared. I confess that The aircraft was in the hangar but I did have good GPS fix of 7 satellites as shown on PAW home screen and was able to view CAT traffic on Easy VFR on the tablet.

I didn’t see any LED indication at all on the FTDI converter of data transmission and did try configuring port 3 of the PAW into which I’d plugged the converter, to 4800 baud.

Thinking about the Transponder self-test several days later, I think that possibly the failure indication might disappear once the GPS source requirement is seen to be compliant/ stable and I might need to wait longer for this to occur, so will try this when I can get across to the airfield again.

Lee,

I noticed that the config page port configuration has a number of drop down options such as GPS, Trig, Funke etc. Can you say what the difference is between say Trig and Funke, if selected and what might be the best setting to use for the Becker Transponder. The manual says it will interface with serial asynchronous transmission parameters: 4800, n, 8, 1 and transmit data with NMEA-0183 protocol GGA and VTG sentences.

Thx,

Chris

13

Technical Support / Updating software for several aircraft from same USB stick

« on: February 16, 2018, 06:47:38 pm »

Hi folks,

I updated my aircraft (Aircraft A) to latest software a week ago. Updated a friend’s PAW today
(Aircraft B) using same memory stick, as it was to hand. His Home page shows new software version OK, but with Licence Expired. Also his Configuration Page shows details from Aircraft A. Unfortunately we didn’t take a screen shot of his config Page first so cannot re-enter his details easily. Is it not advisable/permissible to use same memory stick to update multiple PAWs?

Thx,

Chris

14

OGN-R PilotAware / Latest Software Version

« on: February 02, 2018, 11:30:09 am »

Hi all,

I updated to ognpaw version 20180119 yesterday evening. I was looking for the 2017 November version that I assumed was the latest but couldn’t find any way to get to the software via Pilotawarelode website. Finally got to it via the link in the OGNPAW set-up instructions.

Can the current/ latest software version be highlighted in some way via this forum please? I only realised there were different versions out there from Lee’s recent post regarding station detection range and overlap.

Thx,

Chris

15

OGN-R PilotAware / Aircraft in close proximity but received by different Ground Stations

« on: November 09, 2017, 10:08:01 pm »

Hi Keith,

I frequently check glidertracker.org to see what is being received by PWKingsto OGN-R ground station.

Yesterday I saw tracks for two aircraft, one a glider and Flarm equipped, the other PAW equipped, at a similar height and in close proximity. Aha, at last, the PAW user should receive a rebroadcast of the glider location and relative height, I thought to myself. To my consternation I saw that the glider was being received by UKUSK Ground station even though PWKingstone is closer and in theory should be receiving higher signal strength (based on reception of the PAW signal), so NO rebroadcast as not working the same ground station!

I took the two screenshots below, showing the receive data for each aircraft. The glider has effectively passed my ground station and was consistently being picked up by UKUSK out to his Port side whereas the PAW aircraft was consistently being received by my station. In fact, the glider went out of reception for 1 min 46 secs so in reality would be slightly further West when their paths crossed but still didn’t appear to get picked up by the closer ground station. Being at the same location and height I don’t think the problem can be terrain shielding, I seem to be able to receive Flarm contacts OK, so wondered if this could be due to antenna shielding/masking problem with this glider or is there likely to be another explanation? I have noticed with the RAF Tutor aircraft, when in a turn, they frequently get received by OGN stations dependent on which direction they are pointing so perhaps this isn’t as silly as it sounds?

Chris
 sorry but unable to attach screenshots as files too large. Will post as soon as I’ve worked out how to do it or post JPEG which also gets thrown out!