Topics

46

General Discussion / FL*RM Integration - Beta Testers

« on: July 17, 2016, 03:13:51 pm »

I am looking for users with access to Flarm, preferably Flarm Mouse.
I am in the process of performing an integration of Flarm into PilotAware, and I think I pretty much have this working.

The way this works is by having an RS232 into PilotAware from a Flarm unit, which will provide the Navigation tool with data from

- P3I (PilotAware)
- ADS-B
- Mode-S
- Flarm

all help gratefully received

Thx
Lee

47

General Discussion / Mode-S pretty good after all!

« on: June 14, 2016, 11:03:50 pm »

For those of you in the know, will probably recall I was pretty skeptical about trying to implement Mode-S detection, a number of recent alerts have certainly altered my opinion

I tend to take PAW on my commute to my office from Coventry down past Oxford, if nothing more than trying to uncover bugs or poor behavior. On my commute home this evening I got a Mode-S  danger audio alert, looked at the screen to see a traffic report at 154ft above me, and thought something screwy, at that time I was nowhere near an airfield, had a good (but careful) look around and could see nothing - and thought damn a bug, well at least I have the track files to investigate later. Took another look to be sure, and saw a Chinook, skimming the fields at 3 oclock about 3/4 mile away.

I am definitely A convert on the Mode-S capability, thanks to those who persistently pushed me to investigate, it definitely sharpens your wits when I hear those audio voice warnings !

Although I was only in my car, I well definitely sit up and take notice when flying

Interested to hear other experiences on Mode-S detecion

Thx
Lee

48

General Discussion / PilotAware in far flung Destinations

« on: June 10, 2016, 02:41:26 pm »

One of our users - I won't name him, he may not have told his wife he was going 

49

General Discussion / Ground Based Transponders

« on: May 27, 2016, 01:41:50 pm »

Pete Davies reported an interesting 'anomoly' that he was seeing a number of ground based Mode-S signals, which he suspected of being vehicles at Manx Airport.
After inquiring he got the following reply

As part of the new mode S radar system we have four ground based reference transponders which usethe 24-bit identifiers 43BF78, 43BF79, 43BF7A and 43BF7B so that would explain why you are getting these constantly. There are two at the airport, on in Santon and one on Snaefell. They should be using the mode A transponder test codes 7777 or 7776 so perhaps your app can filter these?

Ok, so this is interesting, it would be easy for me to filter out these squawk codes, but I wanted to open this up for discussion to get some other points of view, wikipedia reports ...

7710-7776    
    External ARTCC subsets (Discrete codes of blocks only except for first primary block, which is used as the ARTCC’s non-discrete code if all discrete codes are assigned) (USA)[15]

7777    
    Non-discrete code used by fixed test transponders (RABMs) to check correctness of radar stations (BITE) (Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, USA)
    DOD interceptor aircraft on active air defense missions and operating without ATC clearance in accordance with FAA Order 7610.4 (USA)[15][23]

interested on views, if I filter 7776 & 7777, then this will make them totally invisible.

Edit:
I also found this, so sounds plausible ?

7776 - 7777 SSR Monitors (See note 5)
Note 5: Ground based transponder equipment

Thx
Lee

50

Technical Support / Adding Posts - Please read before posting

« on: May 19, 2016, 11:49:11 am »

Please use the Technical Support Category for setup and operational questions / problems

Simply click 'New Topic', provide a Subject, eg "Cannot find WiFi HotSpot", then provide
the text description, detailing your problem

We want to try and answer the questions in one central place, so that other users can learn from each others experiences,
otherwise we tend to answer the questions many times on a one to one basis.

In addition, it means there are many other users who can chirp in to help in problem solving.

Please keep postings relevant and to the point
Please do not 'hijack' postings for semi-related issues, if necessary create a new posting

One final note the three BIGGEST user errors reported are
1. Ensure you are using the supplied power cable
2. Ensure your power supply can deliver 2.0 amps at 5v
3. The license never contains the letter 'O', only A - F, be careful not to mix 8 and 'B'

Many Thanks

51

General Discussion / RAeC Award for PilotAware

« on: May 17, 2016, 10:41:34 pm »

Dear All,

Well today many PilotAware Classics arrived on doormats in the UK and Europe, and after a few teething issues it seems as though all the installations are up and running using the Tablet Device & Navigation Software of your choice.

Tomorrow Wed 18/May responsiveness on the Forum from the PAW team, may be a little intermittent.

Following a gratefully received nomination from the LAA, the Team are all in London at the RAF Club to receive a Royal Aero Club Certificate of Merit from the Council of the Royal Aero Club.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the LAA for the great support they have shown to us over the last 12 months to help us get to where we are today, and also for the steadfast support of our fellow forum members from all forms of General Aviation.

Tomorrow we will raise a glass in your honour for all your support and commitment.
(and possibly even a second!)

Many Thanks
The PilotAware Team.

52

General Discussion / Paragliders - XCSoar/Kobo

« on: May 15, 2016, 11:11:26 am »

Just thought I would try this, works great with PilotAware!
WiFi connection - no hardware mods.

53

General Discussion / Flyer Live 28th-29th November - 1 day to go

« on: November 24, 2015, 10:27:11 am »

With just 4 days to Flyer Live the Forum said to me .....





http://www.flyerlive.co.uk/

Please come and see us at 3PM on the 28th November where we will be presenting at the Seminar Programme

54

General Discussion / Licensing Broken - Now Fixed in 20151107

« on: November 07, 2015, 05:07:43 pm »

Hi All,

I have just discovered that the licensing is broken.

If you have installed 20151030, and had to request a new license it will likely not be working.
I will be releasing a fix in the next 24 hours

Apologies for this mistake
Thx
Lee

55

General Discussion / PilotAware in the News

« on: October 03, 2015, 03:51:14 pm »

Great posting
http://fasvig.org/laa-opens-up-uncertified-gps-ads-b-out

56

General Discussion / Transmit power and range

« on: September 30, 2015, 10:32:20 pm »

There have been testing reports of only achieving 1-2 mile range over the 868mhz frequency.
during early trials I was achieving max 25km range, so decided to investigate

I compared my original prototypes versus the latest prototypes, and modified the software to run RSSI checks, this allows the receiver to indicate the signal strength in dBm.

Comparing my old prototypes to the new, I was seeing a difference of 8dBm, that is significant!
The main difference was the use of an end launch SMA on the original, and pigtail on the latest.

As an experiment I soldered an SMA onto one of my newer prototypes, and the power loss was recovered.

I need to get back in the air with the modified prototypes to see what range I now see.
I have modded 6 protos so that is a good selection to try out.

So this may be the cause of the shorter transmit range.

It would appear at first glance that the pigtails are quite lossy
Thx
Lee

57

General Discussion / WiFi Dongle issues - Massive Current spike

« on: September 28, 2015, 12:03:02 pm »

One of the members who had reported an issue with his WiFi dongle was kind enough to exchange with one of mine so I could investigate. I have discovered a very interesting piece of behavior

The Dongle in question reported as a Ralink RT5370 from the PiHut
http://thepihut.com/products/usb-wifi-adapter-for-the-raspberry-pi

I attached my USB meter which monitors peak V/A information.
When the PiHut dongle is configured as a Soft AP so that it can behave as an Access Point, there is a current
spike of 720mA
This is the cause of the bad behavior !

The RPi B+ by default, will only accept a current draw of 600mA from its USB ports.
This spike causes a soft reset of the USB ports, and hence the problem.

By comparison, the RT5370 devices I have been purchasing have a peak current usage of 270mA
well within the limits.

It is possible to reconfigure the PI to accept 1.2A on its USB ports, but this current draw I have observed
using these dongles, is ridiculous. So now I wonder how many other dongles have a similar issue regarding the
peak current usage ?

58

General Discussion / Digole 3.3v Regulators - anyone who needs them

« on: September 16, 2015, 08:07:12 pm »

Hi All,

I have an (over) supply of 3.3v Digole.com regulators, if anybody needs them, drop
me a PM/Email £4 incl P&P invoiced through PayPal.

thx
Lee

59

General Discussion / USB-GPS Working in PilotAware

« on: September 13, 2015, 12:47:54 pm »

Hi All

Just finished testing the integration of the UBlox-7 USB-GPS, one of these
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-GPS-Receiver-VK-172-Ublox7-Fast-10Hz-GPS-Glonass-RasPi-Win-7-8-CE-Linux-/252080341676?hash=item3ab128c2ac

And it works nicely.
This means I am now running the NAV software on my WiFi Ipad, position info and traffic info supplied by PilotAware, from the USB-GPS

At the moment this is hardwired to use a specific USB port on PilotAware

Thx
Lee

60

General Discussion / Android

« on: August 31, 2015, 04:52:49 pm »

Hi All,

Probably worth mentioning where we are on this topic.

The only thing holding back PilotAware from running under Android is the CollisionAware App
This is something I wrote which is only available on iOS.

Chris Mills is currently porting this to Android, and in Parallel I have been investigating the ability
to use off the shelf apps which send GPS/NMEA messages over WiFi.

On iOS there is an app called GPS NMEA
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/nmea-gps/id590868529?mt=8

and on Android there is an app called BlueNMEA
http://max.kellermann.name/projects/blue-nmea/

Both of these should provide the ability to stream the GPS data to PilotAware.

I am currently testing the iOS/GPS-NMEA application and I pretty much have it working, in which case I am
hopeful that I can use the same mechanism for Android/BlueNMEA.

This also means I can drop my iOS Developer License and save some money - Hurrah!

Thx
Lee