Messages

31

Technical Support / Re: CAP1391 shows as bearingless in SkyDemon via PAW

« on: May 02, 2023, 02:40:10 pm »

3) GDBOD is another aircraft that was just next to GNXOE. It is a club aircraft that also normally has a CAP1391 onboard, also was parked and completely shut down, so I am very reluctant to agree that something was not right with the transponder as both aircraft were definitely off completely. I need to see if I can reproduce the issue myself, but I don't have a 1391 device available, so need to ask someone.

The most common CAP1391 device is the SkyEcho 2, it is totally autonomous, and if not specifically shut down on the power button on the front of it, it will stay up and not go off with aircraft power. It will then stay up until the battery goes flat, 12 hours?

32

Technical Support / Re: CAP1391 shows as bearingless in SkyDemon via PAW

« on: April 21, 2023, 09:54:55 am »

Hi all,

Recently was trying to watch some aircraft through PAW while on the ground and noticed a strange thing - couple aircraft that I know for sure had an ADS-B out CAP1391 devices on (and no Mode S transponder as one was actually parked) were showing up as bearingless. What could be the reason for it? I believe they were showing normal after take off…

Do you mean no mode S as not fitted, or no mode as not flying/in standby?

Does the CAP1391 have the setting for flying/not flying enabled? I think the default may be 10 knots to switch over? Been a while since I looked...

33

General Discussion / Re: Best settings to reduce clutter

« on: April 21, 2023, 09:52:31 am »

Attached is current settings. Would be interested in comments from fellows who have had there's a while and have a happy balance.

Couldn't see an attachment. If I go to the strip today I'll post some settings. I use the PAW settings to reduce audio alerts.

34

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: April 20, 2023, 10:18:11 pm »

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.

We obviously have very different life experiences but I'd choose Powerline over WiFi any time...

35

General Discussion / Re: Enhancement Requests

« on: April 12, 2023, 10:41:43 am »

I'd like to suggest an enhancement to make Bluetooth more user friendly.

On the Radar screen, add another tick box marked BT or Bluetooth.

When this box is ticked, a number of things appear bottom right of the same screen.

There's a small status indicator to say if BT is connected.

There are buttons for up, down and mute for BT volume.

If space was a problem, the you'd stick with status and mute.

I realise that the necessary under the hood may not exist for these controls yet, but it can be controlled on the Pi, from my research.

This would get around the fact that the 3.5mm jack out of the Pi is often "dirty", and has low level interference on it in some installations.

Using a ground isolator results in a signal level drop that makes the audio too low level to be used... so it has to be boosted. That requires an active component.

Using BT gets around any earthing or interference pick up problems. It also makes for easy connection to any intercom with Bluetooth without getting into connector, balanced/unbalanced  and level rabbit holes...

36

Technical Support / Rosetta and USB hub?

« on: April 12, 2023, 10:06:04 am »

For those running out of USB ports, where only data is being used, does the Rosetta software support a USB hub, or would this confuse the configuration?

Could it, in future?

37

OGN-R PilotAware / OGNPAW took too long to respond

« on: April 12, 2023, 10:03:30 am »

I'm getting this message occasionally when using a kiosk Pi to browse the ATOM and look at in turn, Radar, METAR and XCWeather pages.

The kiosk Pi gets turned on then left on whilst we are at the strip.

The XCWeather page always shows, so the LAN and Internet connections are working.

Sometimes the Radar and/or METAR pages load as normal, and sometimes I get this.

The pages are rotated on a 45 second basis.

Is there an issue here that can be fixed?

38

Technical Support / Re: Ghosting again

« on: March 28, 2023, 10:07:12 am »

Suggestion for Dynon users - there is a screen dump function.

For Skyview, it involves having a USB stick in the USB port used for software updates.

With Skyview, and the stick in place, pressing buttons 2 and 7 simultaneously puts a screen dump on the stick, with messages confirming the capture is taking place, and when finished.

Not sure about others, but worth checking.

For diagnostics, set the sampling rate for all parameters to 1 or 2 seconds.

This can be useful for engine diagnostics.

Apologies for slight off topic, but will help Dynon users.

I think the continuous audio alerts gives the game away as a genuine ghost.

Need to double check the ICAO code in both the transponder and PAW.

I have seen a transponder with registration correctly set but ICAO code wrong.

Both ICAO codes must be a 100% match or there is a ghost.

Some people stop in the transponder once the call sign (G-ABCD) is set.

Probably wrong, but would rather be happy than right.

Cheers,

Steve.

39

General Discussion / Re: 4G Router iGRID

« on: March 22, 2023, 06:42:54 pm »

Any mobile phone geeks know how to improve signal strength with something to get outside the metal aircraft with an antenna as described above?

A lot of the bigger stand alone 4G routers have reverse SMA connector so a lead can be taken to the smaller aerials than can be mounted elsewhere. Most aerials for mobile are huge, though - some research would be needed.

Plenty of ideas here:

https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-4g-lte-usb-dongle-external-antenna.html

Very nice!
Ive not found a dongle that can use external aerials? We are looking to get 4G signal as high and reliably possible.

I have a 4G small Mifi router that will take an external aerial, and some of the older USB Huawei ones could also take external antennas. The connector is very small and somewhat fragile.

This is not USB, but takes external aerials:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-E5577-4G-Low-Cost-Super-Fast-Portable/dp/B011YM0QC4/

This is USB:

https://www.wispmax.com/bundle-4g-lte-usb-mobile-broadband-modem-magnetic-antenna-5dbi-pigtail-crc9-sma-f.html

40

OGN-R PilotAware / Weather station install on ATOM - from What's in the 20230228 software release?

« on: March 20, 2023, 07:53:04 pm »

From this topic:

http://forum.pilotaware.com/index.php/topic,2283.0.html

Noticed the ......

'airfields are now installing these weather stations to accompany their ATOM station'

I have 3 x ATOm stations and am interested as to the nature of this integration and how I can effect it.

Can someone educate me please? Thanks, Richard

I see that option 2 when you have logged into the ATOM ground station (there's a 12 option menu, type the number and hit return) is the installation of a weather station.

I selected it but dropped out out of as the stages were not totally obvious.

Do we have a link to any install instructions?

41

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: March 16, 2023, 07:43:11 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?

42

Technical Support / Re: PilotAware & Dynon.....An Update

« on: March 14, 2023, 10:12:10 pm »

The ONLY snag I can see is if I want a USB port in future (e.g. 978 MHz dongle). The only way round this is to have the USBs configured to transmit AND receive, that way the traffic and GPS can use one FTDI, freeing up a USB for something else. This will be necessary for anyone who wants to use a USB port for an FTDI (traffic out, GPS out to a Mode S transponder etc), as one of the ports is always going to be used for the GPS, one for the ADSB and, for anyone who wants to keep up with the latest capabilities, the iGrid dongle.

Would the Pi support a USB hub?

43

Technical Support / Re: What's in the 20230228 software release?

« on: March 14, 2023, 10:10:25 pm »

The 'over the air' update feature doesn't really interest me as the additional faff factor associated with iGrid is a step too far for me.

Over the air did my licence update, unless I imagined it.. Was well pleased.

iGrid is potentially complicated unless you have a separate Internet source - I do, and it's worked very well, turn Huawei Mifi on before start up procedure, turn off after shut down procedure.

44

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: March 14, 2023, 10:05:45 pm »

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.

Understood. By kiosk mode, I'm referring to a second RPi which runs Chrome from auto boot, no mouse or keyboard, looking only at the VRS via the relevant IP address.

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.

I've seen something similar when there is a problem with bandwidth in the LAN. Low hanging fruit, easy stuff, a ten minute attempt at a fix, can you reboot all the IP chain? I'd say turn off the switch with Wifi at the ATOM/shack end, then the Wifi receiver for the same in the house, then last of all the two Powerline adaptors. Leave off for 2 minutes, then fire up starting from the Powerline adaptors, then the Wifi bridge at that end, then lastly the switch/bridge at the shack end. I suspect the Powerline adaptors have gone low bandwidth, I've seen this before.

Then you can post that I'm a grasper of straws...

I've done a fair amount of work with PoE and think especially for cheap IP cameras it can save a lot of time, and cope with long runs... Maybe this might be a long term solution.

I also think that the LM317 is up against it... says 1.5A in the data sheet and doesn't mention anything above that. One solution might be to set the output slightly higher.

RPi 3B specs say 5.1V & 2.5A. I'm going to say the LM317 is out of its depth...

45

OGN-R PilotAware / Re: Intermittent ATOM screen

« on: March 08, 2023, 04:07:51 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.

Where is this screen? On your phone, a Pi running in kiosk mode, or some other device? I assume this is not on the ATOM Pi itself?

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.

When you talk of rebooting the Pi, I assume you mean the ATOM Pi?

How do we know that the undervoltage hasn't simply got worse and tipped over the edge?

What sort of PSU is it? PAW support may correct me, but it needs to be capable of 2A?

If the Pi is running at a lower clock rate because of the PSU, then it could just struggle with the data processing? Poor hypothesis?

If it were mine I would resolve the PSU problem - thtat's never going to help, it might not be the fault, but may as well run it properly?