Messages

1

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: August 30, 2023, 09:57:58 pm »

Oh Well, PWLongSut was down for a couple of weeks due to hardware failure of one of the routers I use for the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi bridge between the barn and the study. I've finally managed to get another compatible router to set to the correct parameters and it's up and running again at long last. I think I'll have to find another router as a spare just in case....

Regards all,

Frank.

PS. I still haven't had a chance to sort out the undervoltage issue yet, but hopefully very soon

2

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: May 07, 2023, 11:21:28 pm »

Hi Steve,

Originally the house-side bridge/router was located in the corner of the kitchen extension which was physically the closest point to the barn, but I had to use the powerline adapters to feed the network from the internet router in the study. Now the bridge/router is located in the study alongside the internet router, but the high-gain aerial on the barn is pointing directly at the study, so there's one less link in the data chain. I originally tried the powerline adapters between the house and the barn but the link was very unreliable, hence the wifi link solution.

Unfortunately I've not yet had time to replace the 5V regulator which feeds the Pi to cure the undervoltage flag, but hopefully that will get done soon.

Frank.

3

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: April 22, 2023, 02:01:38 pm »

Hi Steve,

Not sure what you mean by different life experiences?

I have to use a WiFi link, otherwise I would have to dig a 100 metre trench to lay a cable to reach the barn where the OGN-R station is set up. Removing the power line adapters takes out another possible bottleneck in the current link.

Regards,

Frank.

4

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: April 20, 2023, 10:11:03 pm »

Hi Peter,

Glad you had a good holiday and got home safely.

I've never been to India, but it seems to be a country of real extremes. A work colleague went a few years ago and unfortunately lost 5 stone in weight due to a severe case of delly belly. I'm sure it is an incredible place to visit, but my wife isn't keen so it's not on our list.
OK about the internet and 4G connectivity out there. We could do with some of that investment around here as we're stuck with about 5MB ADSL and no prospect of any improvement in the foreseeable future.

I've got rid of the powerline adapters, relocated the router/bridge in the house and put up a hi-gain 2.4GHz panel aerial on the barn for the wi-fi link. Next job when I get a chance is to sort-out the 5V regulator to get rid of the undervoltage reported by the Pi. Hopefully that will sort out my problem, but I've noticed we get complete loss of our wi-fi signal fairly regularly which I believe may be down to "something" interfering, possibly from the Holbeach air weapons range a few miles north of here. I'll have to fire up the Spectrum Analyser and see what I can find.

I'll update you as soon as I've got some more news.

Best regards,

Frank.

5

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: April 11, 2023, 10:11:18 pm »

Hi Peter,

I wonder if you're home yet? Hope you had a great holiday, or was it a jolly on expenses as a remote Pilotaware support engineer?

Well I've now got what I think is a genuine Motorola MC78T05 so I just need a bit of good-ish weather to rehash the regulator in the box up the mast. I've also sorted out a high-gain panel aerial for the wifi link to the shack so I can get rid of the power-line adapters. Hopefully these changes will solve the problems.

I'll keep you all updated.

Best regards,

Frank.

6

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: March 25, 2023, 09:32:27 pm »

Hi Frank (and Steve),

All noted, but I’m out in India at the moment, so a bit limited in terms of what I can do.

I will monitor the thread and come back on once I get back.

Regards

Peter

Hello Peter,

Hope you're having a good presumably holiday in India?

I think I'm getting to the bottom of the problems, but we'll see once I've made some changes.

Best regards,

Frank.

7

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: March 25, 2023, 09:27:55 pm »

Hello Keith,

I've not used or tried PoE before, but as I previously mentioned I've already got a good 12V supply available at the masthead.

Dropping the PoE 48V-ish to 5V @ 2A would dissipate a lot of power as heat and I want to use a linear regulator because switch-mode regulators are RF noisy. The Pi (already noisy) is mounted in a finned diecast box on the mast and contains a small fan to help keep it cool, so I don't want to create more problems.

I've ordered a 78T05 (5V @ 3A) linear regulator to replace whatever is currently in the box feeding the Pi. Unfortunately the Motorola MC78T05 I ordered is not what I received from the seller on fleabay, so I'm in dispute with them as I think they're passing off goodness-knows-what brands as Motorola parts. I know they are essentially the same device, but I paid for a (hopefully) genuine part!

I'm also about to remove another potential weak-link in the chain by getting rid of the Power line adapters and putting a high-gain directional WiFi aerial for the remote bridge/switch and relocating the other end of the link in the house.

I'll update here once I make the changes.

Thanks and regards,

Frank.

8

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: March 25, 2023, 08:46:33 pm »

I'll try a LAN reboot if and when the problem appears again and let you know if it's resolved. I've just had a thought that RFI getting into the PLA's would affect their performance and there is another amateur fairly local who uses a couple of KW on 80 metres!

An alternative method would be to plug a laptop into the switch with laptop WiFi turned off then SpeedTest on the LAN port?

Hi Steve,

I don't think it's bandwidth issues as I run a separate PC in the shack sharing the bridge/switch/router that the ATOM Pi uses and most of the time it's fine running iplayer, youtube or spotify apart from fairly frequent internet freezes/dropouts 

9

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: March 15, 2023, 09:19:20 pm »

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply and comments.

Yes, I have seen Kiosk mode at Sywell if I remember correctly - Really useful in a clubhouse or similar setup.

Interesting about the LAN bandwidth. I do have the occasional problem of the PLA's losing link and needing a power recycle to regain connection, so it may be those throttling the bandwidth. I'm not keen on them as they produce RFI around the HF 80 metre band and as a I'm a Radio Amateur it rather goes against the grain. I plan to get rid of them at some point and just use directional aerials for the WiFi link between the house and the barn. I'll try a LAN reboot if and when the problem appears again and let you know if it's resolved. I've just had a thought that RFI getting into the PLA's would affect their performance and there is another amateur fairly local who uses a couple of KW on 80 metres!

To be honest, I can't remember which regulator I put in the box with the ATOM Pi up on the mast - It may be a 78S05, but I'll  have a look when I get a chance. I think I'll put a current clamp on the 12V feed up to the ATOM Pi and see what peak current it's drawing on the 'scope. That should show whether it's the regulator limiting. The 12V 2A adapter I'm currently using is a stop-gap whilst I sort out other things that need 12V up at the masthead such as RF preamps and coaxial relays, so I will revert to the 8A PSU. Maybe I'll upgrade to a 3A 5V regulator for the Pi tweaked to give 5.1 V anyway.
 
Just looking at the system monitor ports 8080 and 8081 I thought the Pi supply voltage was listed, but I can't see it. Is it readable remotely? I imagine it is monitored to trigger the undervoltage flag, so can the actual voltage be read easily?

I've not used PoE yet, but picked up a security DVR and some cameras at a radio rally recently and it's another job to put those up ASAP. They've got the option of PoE and the DVR can feed them directly without an injector, so I may use that.

Best regards,

Frank.

10

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: March 14, 2023, 09:26:36 pm »

Hello Steve and Peter,

Firstly, Thanks both for your replies and comments. I'm sorry for the delay in replying, but family matters have got in the way.


In reply to you first Steve, the screens are on my phone, laptop and one of several PCs all connected on the same local network as the ATOM Pi. I'm sorry but I don't know what you mean by "Kiosk" mode, but I access the ATOM Pi through a Chrome browser and direct connection via local address 192.168.1.175 etc.

Yes, I reboot the ATOM Pi through the login screen and selecting option 10. The Pi reboots and after a few minutes I see the "Reconnect" window and on clicking that I'm taken to the home screen with the message" Attempting to connect to the ATOM Grid". When that clears, usually I can select the "Radar" tab and the ATOM grid screen loads fine. However, occasionally I just get an empty browser screen and no amount of refreshing will load the ATOM data. Navigating back to the Home screen, everything else works fine except the Radar tab which just leaves me with the empty browser.

In respect of the PSU and undervoltage indication, I've always seen that but only fairly recently got the reported problems. I will check the actual voltage at the Pi but can you advise at what voltage does the Pi consider too low and trigger the undervoltage flag?

The Pi is powered by a dedicated 12V 2A d.c. adapter in my radio shack and fed up the mast by decent (1.5mm^2 if I remember correctly) cable to the ATOM Pi mounted inside a waterproof diecast enclosure 12 metres directly above. There it is fed to a 5V 2A linear regulator (LM317 if I remember correctly) and on to the Pi.

It is possible there is not enough headroom from the current 12V supply and I did change the feed from a 12V 8A ex-Tait PMR repeater PSU I had previously been using. I will do some investigation and probably swap back to the 8A PSU.



Hi Peter, yes, it's been a while since I was on here last. I'm not up-to-speed on the intricate workings of the software, but thanks for trying to enlighten me.

Yes, the same thing happens whether connecting locally or remotely via the web and I have noted the delay in response due to the internet connection speed.

It seems the undervoltage may be the cause of the issue, so as above, I'll investigate and try to fix that first. No, not using POE - just 12V fed up from the shack to a local 5V 2A regulator by stout lecky string!

The data feed to the ATOM Pi is a direct Cat 5 cable connection from an ethernet switch/WiFi bridge router in the shack. The switch/router has a WiFi link to another switch/router in the house 50 metres away which then connects to the main internet router through a pair of power-line adapters. It's a bit convoluted, but short of digging a 50 metre trench from the house to the shack it was the easiest method.

I'll update you both on my findings once I've had a chance to investigate, but a more pressing problem to solve is the intermittent tripping of the RCD feeding the barn where the ATOM Pi is powered from and where our solar panels feed into the grid 


Thanks and regards,

Frank.

11

OGN-R PilotAware / Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: March 07, 2023, 11:11:44 pm »

Hi all,

I don't know if others are having similar problems, but my ATOM screen for OGN-R LongSut has become very hit-and-miss and seems to work when it feels like it.

I can get the Metar, Login and other screens fine and the Home screen refreshes itself, but when clicking on the "Radar" button, it sometimes works but often doesn't and just leaves a blank screen. Logging in and rebooting the Pi sometimes clears the problem and I can then access the ATOM screen, but shortly after it often freezes. My network is fine and I can always connect to the Pi so is this a server or firmware issue? All T's and P's for the Pi seem to be fine apart from an undervoltage warning, but I've always had that and it's never had these problems before.

Over to you learned gentlemen.

Thanks,

Frank.

12

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Remote monitoring of OGN-R/ATOM station

« on: June 11, 2022, 10:57:21 pm »

Hi all,

Thanks for your comments and I'll try to answer them.

Firstly, I was thinking I could share just access to the ATOM screen with a couple of good friends, purely for them to see what I can see in real time. If there was just a link to that, I would direct them to it. One friend in particular I've known for 40+ years and I completely trust him. He's an avid user of all the readily available flight-tracking apps and we often exchange screen-shots, but I just though an ATOM feed for him would be good. Anyway, if there's potential security risks to the system, I won't bother.

As for phone type, Android version etc. it' s Motorola G6 Play, Android V9 and Google Chrome browser.

I tried the VRS tab as you suggested thanks Lee and lo and behold the ATOM server is down. I'm having ongoing issues with power outages and after resetting the power today found I couldn't get the ATOM screen to work. This seems to be quite a frequent issue, but I just try again later and all seems fine...usually.

I didn't know the usual buttons seen on the local access screen didn't work when accessing through the remote login, but I do now.

Hopefully when the ATOM server is back up again, I can see it from home on my local network and remotely via remote login via the link.

Many thanks for all your help,

Frank.

13

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Remote monitoring of OGN-R/ATOM station

« on: June 10, 2022, 09:21:18 pm »

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply, but I've been away for a couple of days.

I'm trying to use the link Chris sent me at: https://data.pilotaware.com. I use the links at the top of the page after logging in with the password and selecting PWLongSut in the drop-down menu.

I select the "Status" drop down above where it says: "Dropdown menu inside a navigation bar", then "Grid" which gives me the "Home" page where there's the familiar "Home", "Metar", "Radar" and "Login" options.

When I select "Radar" as I would through a local connection, I get a message saying:
"Bad Request, Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand. Reason: You're speaking plain HTTP to an SSL-enabled server port. Instead use the HTTPS scheme to access this URL, please. Apache/2.4.52 (Ubuntu)Server at bogus_host_without_reverse_dns port 9000

I'm using an Android phone. Any ideas please?

Thanks,

Frank.

14

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Remote monitoring of OGN-R/ATOM station

« on: June 07, 2022, 12:59:18 pm »

Hello Chris,

Thanks for sending the remote login details which work to a point, but I seem to be having the problem Steve reports with maybe blocking of port 9000 to allow viewing of the ATOM display even on my own phone. This is particularly what I was hoping to view away from home, either via cellular network or other wifi connections.

Thanks,

Frank.

15

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Remote monitoring of OGN-R/ATOM station

« on: June 06, 2022, 07:46:12 pm »

Hi Lee,

Thanks for your reply. It's PWLongSutton.

I know I can log in when I'm at home and connected to my home network, but I would like to be able to do it when I'm away from home.

Thanks,

Frank.