Messages

16

Technical Support / Re: No ADSB detection

« on: July 16, 2022, 11:23:36 am »

Hi,
I don't think Vector will help with troubleshooting why you're not picking up ADSB. It shows whether the ground stations are picking up ADSB broadcast from your aircraft. I've looked at Vector with your Hex Code and can only see a PilotAware plot, which indicates your aircraft is only broadcasting using PilotAware freq / network. I'm not sure whether this is normal or whether you have an ADSB out device and would expect to see an ADSB plot also?

As far as the wifi dongle is concerned, you should be able to tell whether it is working by looking at the HOME screen where boxes are GREEN on the IP row or RADAR screen where the GSM box is GREEN (see attached picture with yellow arrows showing this).

Admin / experts please correct me if I'm wrong on this since I've only just started using it too.

Hope this helps,
Chris.

17

Technical Support / Re: iGrid connection to hotspot flakey as hell. - An Update

« on: July 15, 2022, 01:34:11 pm »

Hi Lee,
I cannot be certain. I think during all the phaffing about I might have left the iphone on the hotspot page and that might have been when it finally showed on PAW and I was able to connect.
I will check more carefully next time and see whether this is indeed the determining factor.

If so then this is liveable with, since I can put my iphone onto the hotspot page before starting up my engine.

Best regards,
Chris.

18

Technical Support / Re: iGrid connection to hotspot flakey as hell. - An Update

« on: July 15, 2022, 11:08:21 am »

Hi Lee,
Yes I was running version PAW 20220626.
No I didn't try to connect to Skyview, it was just the only wifi that PAW was listing as available. I hoping that if I follow your procedure the PAW will always ignore Skyview and only show as available / connect to my iphone hotspot.

Thanks,
Chris.

19

Technical Support / Re: iGrid connection to hotspot flakey as hell. - An Update

« on: July 14, 2022, 09:12:13 pm »

Hi all,
I had similar problems trying to connect PAW to my iphone hotspot today after installing my PAW wifi dongle.

The network screen on the PAW interface seemed to be only showing the Skyview wifi as an available network. After many attempts at clearing cache, refreshing and phaffing about, I managed to get my iphone to show as an available network and connect to it using my password. I then hit SAVE! After this I could see iGRID / GSM showing green on the home / RADAR pages. So I was happy it was all working.

However I then powered everything off and went through the normal startup process only to find the iphone was missing again (nothing seemed to have been saved) and only Skyview was showing.

At this point I gave up and went flying!

Next time I will try the advice above to ONLY consider my iphone as the hotspot and see if I can get it to connect automatically. Otherwise it is not practical to have to manually connect each time PAW is powered up.

Best regards,
Chris.

20

Technical Support / Re: IGrid WiFi

« on: July 13, 2022, 10:16:31 am »

Thanks for the info about iGRID functionality. It's good to know that it is additive and none of the base functionality is lost if iGRID is inactive.

Another question please: I received my PAW wifi dongle and I'm planning to install it on my Rosetta tomorrow. Currently I have a 0.6m USB extension lead which connects to one of the Rosetta USB ports, which I use to plug in a memory stick for downloading logs / uploading software, since it is a permanent install and the unit is buried behind the panel and difficult to get to.

Would the wifi dongle work if plugged into this extension lead rather than directly into the socket on the Rosetta unit?

21

Technical Support / Re: IGrid WiFi

« on: July 10, 2022, 09:10:53 am »

Hi All,
Reading this thread it sounds like the new iGRID functionality will only be active when the wifi dongle / hotspot is active. My question is whether conversely the base functionality will continue to work normally without it?

I've just upgraded our group aircraft to 20220626 and ordered a wifi dongle. However one of our group is uncomfortable with relying on his mobile in flight and wanted assurance that the PilotAware system will continue to work normally without it, both now and in the future. Obviously the new functionality e.g. in flight rainfall radar would not be available but would certain traffic which was previously detectable now require iGRID for detection?

Please could you confirm this.

Thanks,
Chris Young

22

Technical Support / Re: Connecting to device

« on: May 01, 2022, 09:44:22 am »

Hi
I had the same problem recently and it was caused by the fact that SkyDemon after the latest update reset all the Third-Party Devices to OFF.

1. I had to go to SETTINGS (Gear symbol top left) in SkyDemon and
2. select Third-Party Devices and
3. then Turn ON PilotAware.

After doing this it worked fine and SkyDemon was able to use PilotAware as a GPS source.
Hope this helps,
Chris Young.

23

Technical Support / Re: Vector shows PAW but not ADS-B signals

« on: January 10, 2021, 09:09:36 pm »

Thanks Steve - that's a great tool and gives a good picture of the ground station coverage.

24

Technical Support / Re: Vector shows PAW but not ADS-B signals

« on: January 10, 2021, 03:24:35 pm »

Thanks Peter - that's interesting.

For such Vector plots for an ATOM station does the pattern represent transmissions picked up by other ground stations or other PAW units on aircraft? If it is the latter then I would expect more contacts to the South of Bidford since the circuit pattern is on this side.

Regards,
Chris.

25

Technical Support / Re: OGN-R uplink typical range

« on: January 10, 2021, 03:13:45 pm »

Hi Lee,
I've analysed a couple more of my flights where I there were gliders within 10km. I could see them via uplink from the local ATOM station and the good news is that they were tracked consistently without the dropouts I observed with uplinked traffic further out on other flights.

For info I've attached the Aircrew tracks:.
- On the left I saw 5 gliders ranging from 0.8 to 3.2nm near Hinton in the Hedges,
- On the right I saw 2 gliders on approach to Bidford at 3.8-4.4nm range.
In all cases their tracks were continuous during the time I flew nearby.

I'm happy that this seems to show 869.5MHz reception is working okay in my installation and supports your explanation, thanks. 

Regards,
Chris.

26

Technical Support / Re: Vector shows PAW but not ADS-B signals

« on: January 10, 2021, 02:28:00 pm »

Thanks Peter,
I think you are correct on the position of the 1090MHz Narco antenna from my transponder. That would explain the worse performance to the right.

Also understood on the uplink issues, I will re-analyse some of my track files in and out of Bidford to make sure I was getting good uplinks of glider traffic within 10km.

BTW interested that Vector could be used to review the transmission pattern from an ATOM station. What do you type into the ICAO code to get this? I tried PWBidford and it obviously did not work!

Regards,
Chris.

27

Technical Support / Re: OGN-R uplink typical range

« on: January 09, 2021, 08:42:29 pm »

Thanks Lee, that's good info for me since I wasn't familiar with this peripheral detection functionality.

It also probably explains why I don't see many uplinked contacts if they are only received when within 10km. Also considering that I was flying during the pandemic when there was much less traffic anyway.


Regards,
Chris.

28

Technical Support / Re: Vector shows PAW but not ADS-B signals

« on: January 09, 2021, 08:06:57 pm »

Thanks Peter that's helpful and it's great that Vector is helping me to understand and fine tune EC performance of my aircraft RVAH,

I think there are two issues which I'm exploring:
1. ADSB-out from my transponder is a bit uneven (better to left than right) and the range is not as good as the PilotAware-out.
2. PilotAware-in directly from ADSB contacts is significantly better than PilotAware-in via uplink which appears to be intermittently / short range.

I'm more worried about issue 2 (which I've raised on the other thread "OGN-R uplink typical range") since I fly from a gliding airfield and don't want to be missing glider traffic.

Regards,
Chris.

29

Technical Support / Re: Vector shows PAW but not ADS-B signals

« on: January 09, 2021, 04:22:54 pm »

Hi all,
I have a couple of related questions regarding the new Vector tool.
1. Does selecting "PilotAware" from the Type pulldown show the polar diagram for transmissions from my aircraft to ground stations using the 869.5MHz PilotAware antenna?
2. Does selecting "ADS-B" from the Type pulldown show the polar diagram for transmissions from my aircraft to ground stations using my existing transponder's 1090MHz ADS-B out antenna?

I'm interested because from the Vector plots I can see much better performance with 1. compared with 2. Whereas when I look at my reception performance (using track files) I see much better 1090MHz reception (albeit this would be using the PilotAware ADS-B in antenna) compared with 869.5MHz reception from ground station uplink.

I'm not an expert, but trying to understand since it seems counter-intuitive to me.

Thanks,
Chris.

30

Technical Support / Re: OGN-R uplink typical range

« on: January 09, 2021, 03:51:09 pm »

Hi,
I've analysed a couple more of my flights (ideal way to spend my time on a cold, foggy, Saturday in lockdown  )

See attached:
Slide 1 - Bidford to Wadswick 31-Aug-2020.
Slide 2 - Sandown to Bidford 16-Oct-2020.

Both flights show much better range and consistency receiving ADS-B contacts. Once again there were far more ADS-B contacts than uplinked contacts.
Slide 1 - the uplinked contacts were very inconsistent throughout the flight.
Slide 2 - the uplinked contacts were consistent around Basingstoke with gliders detected and staying in contact, however further north near Bicester I only received intermittent glider contacts (although they were further away from my track)

I'm not sure what to conclude, it was reassuring to see that on the later flight I did get some good uplink performance maybe due to OGN base station software improvements or perhaps the transmitter near Basingstoke was better or I was closer to it.

Anyway I will do further investigation next time I fly.
Thanks for all the assistance so far.
Regards,
Chris.