Messages

2281

Technical Support / Re: Bluetooth Tethering connection for SD Internet (METAR, TAF)

« on: August 28, 2016, 04:30:42 pm »

Hi Richard,

Unfortunately I'm afraid the answer to your question will almost certainly be 'NO'. What this does is allows the TABLET to connect to the internet via a Bluetooth link, using the phone's internet connection while the Tablet's own Wifi is tied up by PAW.

To download updates, PAW's WiFi would need to be configured as a 'Client' and as Lee has told us several times in the past, it has to be configured as a 'host' so it can supply the necessary data to the Nav systems.

Sorry

Personally, I will be using Lee's 'update via USB Stick' option for my 'In Plane PAW' once I have done the initial update to 20160820 to make this available. This also facilitates the downloading of PAW track logs for external analysis, so a double bonus!

Regards

Peter

2282

Technical Support / Re: Bluetooth Tethering connection for SD Internet (METAR, TAF)

« on: August 28, 2016, 03:41:18 pm »

Hi guex,

I have been following this thread with interest as I didn't realise you could connect an iPad via a mobile hotspot using Bluetooth - I have always been labouring under the misunderstanding that Apple won't allow their devices to connect to 'non-Apple' devices using Bluetooth. In the past, therefore, I have always used WiFi to link my 'non-3/4G' iPad Mini 3 to the internet when away from home using my 'Android' Samsung Galaxy S5 - which of course precludes doing so when the tablet is connected to PAW.

Out of interest, I just tried the following on my setup and have to say it works great.

Connected iPad Mini 3 to PAW (running 20160820) - via PilotAware WiFi as normal and all PAW screens are visible on the iPad.

Switched off WiFi on my phone (Android Samsung Galaxy S5).

Enabled Mobile Hotspot* and Bluetooth Tethering on the phone. (* This automatically disables WiFi on my phone anyway)

Connected the iPad Mini to the phone by Bluetooth.

Started up SkyDemon (latest version) and uploaded recent track logs to the cloud using the Bluetooth Link.

Initiated a 'flight' on SkyDemon using 'Flarm' connection to PAW - all running as normal.

Opened SD 'Airfields' Tab and added a random airfield chart to test the Internet access.

In addition SD has automatically updated several in flight NOTAMs and METARs while I have been typing this post on my laptop.

So the Bluetooth Mobile Phone Hotspot definitely provides internet access while SD is using the PAW WiFi.

Perhaps something is wrong with your phone or tablet settings? It certainly doesn't appear to be a PAW issue.

P.S. Not sure how well this method of Internet access will work in the air, though presumably plenty of people use 3G/4G to keep their Nav Systems updated in flight - I have always thought I couldn't do this with my 'Non 3G/4G Pad'. I will certainly give it a go next time I am airborne!

Thanks for (albeit inadvertently) bringing this option to my attention - I hope you get your own system sorted.

Best Regards

Peter

2283

General Discussion / Re: PilotAware Get Together

« on: August 28, 2016, 11:15:32 am »

Alan,

To be fair, I'm sure some of our English colleagues that did make it were also PAW equipped.

Unfortunately a power cut in Sherburn's Clubhouse forced Alan and I to seek sustenance elsewhere (many thanks to Alan's son and his family for the transport and company) and by the time we got back we had to rush away (already late!) to head back up to East Fortune as Alan's plane was booked for Sunday! That meant we didn't really have time to talk to many of the people who had arrived in the interim. They looked like a very lively bunch. We had an extremely 'interesting' flight home in two flex wings through the weather front which had by now firmly established itself all the way from Sherburn to Newcastle, but made it back in one piece (or should that be two?) just before dark after a very testing flight. Next time we'll plan for the overnight!

Regards to all

Peter

2284

General Discussion / Re: Odd Mode-C traffic

« on: August 26, 2016, 01:14:26 pm »

Thanks Tim,

In that case my theory is correct. The -16ft contact will be coming from a CAT aircraft on the ground at one or other of the airports - the signal strength is consistent with this - and the 62,000ft + signal will be coming from a 'Radar System Monitor Beacon', provided to allow ATC to check the accuracy of their radar systems.  We have come across these before. They do transmit a specific squawk code to identify them as beacons, though because this one has reported as Mode C, no squawk code has been associated with it. They must transmit a very high 'altitude' code so they don't get confused by other ATC or TCAS units as aircraft. Again the signal strength is consistent with my own local observations.

These shouldn't really be coming up as Mode-'C', I will discuss this with Lee to see if we can establish why this is happening. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Regards

Peter

2285

General Discussion / Re: Odd Mode-C traffic

« on: August 25, 2016, 06:54:40 pm »

I don't think that was the question asked. The question related to how Mode A only squawks could give some strange values of altitude and where that information was coming from.

Paul,

My reply was mainly directed to Chris's comment about altitude encoding coming from a four figure squawk code from a Mode-'C' transponder, hence why I tried to explain that squawk codes - whether Mode-'A', Mode-'C', or for that matter Mode-'S' do NOT give altitude information. Apart from ADSB or P3i, altitude information can only be derived from the 'Alt' component of a Mode-'C' or Mode-'S' transmission packet.

WRT Tim's original query, I am pretty certain that the 62,000 ft + 'high altitude' entry comes from a 'fixed' radar range setting beacon, which have been discussed elsewhere on this forum and my guess would be that the -16ft entry is probably derived from a nearby mode S/ADSB aircraft operating in ground radar mode.

To confirm whether this is the case, Tim, you have already said you were on the ground when you took the traffic screen grab. Can I ask whether you were close to a major airport  please ?

Regards

Peter

2286

General Discussion / Re: FL*RM Integration - Beta Testers

« on: August 25, 2016, 06:30:49 pm »

This is still in beta, but basically you need a USB-RS232 dongle such as a PL2303, this needs the RX/TX connected to the TX/RX respectively of the FLARM mouse RS232 Serial connector

Lee

Hi Lee,

Would this lead work? It was previously recommended in the forum for connecting PAW to a transponder to provide ADSB out?

http://shop.clickandbuild.com/cnb/shop/ftdichip?productID=97&op=catalogue-product_info-null&prodCategoryID=293

I like the fact that it comes with the chip built into the USB end and a decent length cable with bare wires at the other end to fit an appropriate data plug for the FlarmMouse. This version has an 'additional voltage output' of '0v', but also comes in alternative versions with 3.3V or 5V alternative voltages. A bit pricier than others though.

Regards

Peter

2287

General Discussion / Re: Pilotaware undertest

« on: August 25, 2016, 06:16:41 pm »

Hi Lee,

That's certainly how it has worked with me using the engineering software, though I might be wrong. I will speak to trig in the morning.

Regards

Peter

Postscript Having spoken to Trig, the answer to Lee's question is that my TT21 does 'respond' to Mode 'A' or 'C' interrogations as well as Mode 'S' ones, but the response is controlled by the pulses within the specific interrogations. In any case I do not get 'SELF' appearing in the traffic table (though I am as I say still flying with the 'Engineering' Test software not the latest Beta release).

2288

General Discussion / Re: Pilotaware undertest

« on: August 25, 2016, 04:34:58 pm »

Lee,

I took screen shots of the traffic page yesterday, looking back I do not see the word SELF. I will look again today.

We are full ADSB equipped and I had put in the hex code to Pilotaware.

Steve

Steve,

As you are ADSB out equipped (presumably via a Mode S Transponder) you should ideally be running Mode-C/S Select on the 'Mode-CS(Beta)' setting as you do not need the Mode-C filter. In this setting your Mode-S and ADSB are both filtered by your Hex ID. This means the 'SELF' label will not display in the traffic table, but your aircraft should appear at or near the top of the table in the 'ADSB' logs.

Regards

Peter
Mode S Development Tester

2289

General Discussion / Re: Odd Mode-C traffic

« on: August 24, 2016, 02:42:44 pm »

Hi Chris,

A bit of confusion creeping in here.

All 'Transponders' are passive devices, which only transmit when interrogated - normally by a radar unit or an aircraft TCAS system.

(This is the main significant difference between transponders and ADSB devices - which actively transmit relevant information independently of external interrogation.)

Old 'Mode A' transponders only transmit a squawk code. Although to our eyes this is a 4 figure numeric code, it is actually transmitted 'digitally' as a packet of '1's and '0's, which when received have to be decoded back to the 4 figure number to indicate the allocated Squawk, allowing the ATC operator to determine which of the many 'blips' on his or her radar screen is you.

When transponder technology moved on to 'Mode C', the old 'Mode A' squawk transmissions continued as before, but an altitude code was added to assist the ATC operator by letting him or her know at what altitude the 'blip' is flying. This additional information is ONLY transmitted if you have your transponder set to 'Alt' - which is what the ATC operator refers to when you hear them say to a Mode 'C' (or sometimes Mode 'S') equipped aircraft - 'Squawk (1234....)   '...with Charlie'. When 'Alt' is selected, the aircraft's altitude is transmitted in response to an altitude specific radar interrogation as well as the squawk code, both digitally expressed as packets of '1's and '0's, which need to be decoded at the other end - in our case in our PAW. It is these groups of '1's and '0's which Lee then has to compare with 'known values' to establish whether they relate to a squawk code or an altitude. In our case, without a radar screen, the 'squawk' from a Mode 'A' or 'C' transponder on its own is of very little use as at best all it will tell you is that there is an aircraft about but with no indication of where or of the other aircraft's relative height. Unfortunately, without a 'Hex' code - only provided in Mode 'S'- there is no easy way of grouping squawk and altitude information to represent a single aircraft. When assessed together with PAWs signal strength algorithms, however, the altitude information from Mode 'C' - with Charlie 'on', does allow us to provide meaningful information on the level of danger presented by the unseen 'bearingless' Mode 'C' aircraft.

So in the case of 'Mode C' the altitude information comes from the 'Alt' part of the Mode 'C' transmission, NOT from the squawk code part.

Hope this helps clarify the situation - believe me, although I've tried to keep it simple it is anything but!

Regards

Peter

2290

Technical Support / Re: mode s rings query

« on: August 18, 2016, 09:53:36 pm »

Nice one Lee, That should make a big difference.

Regards

Peter

2291

General Discussion / Re: Ideal all-in-one case

« on: August 17, 2016, 01:44:23 pm »

Hi Tim,

Nice job! You seem to know what you are doing so I'm sure you'll sort out the 'volume' issue. The pre-amp should do the trick. Presumably it has variable gain as you probably won't need much.

As you may have read elsewhere, Lee intends to sort the 'audio volume adjust' so it remains at the previous setting when the PAW is switched off, which will take that out of the equation. Hopefully that will be in the next update due for release shortly. I would be very wary of venturing down the route of back seat noise generator attenuation 😷 - might curtail your flying a bit !

Let us know how you get on.

Regards

Peter

2292

Technical Support / Re: Installation

« on: August 17, 2016, 01:19:42 pm »

Hi Ian,

Several have already raised that point. Lee want's to address the boot issue first. Grimshadow is aware of the licensing issues (see reply 20 above) and reckons 869MHz is ok in SA.

Regards

Peter

2293

Technical Support / Re: Installation

« on: August 17, 2016, 12:22:46 pm »

GrimShadow,

Lee is the expert here, which is why I decided to take a back seat once he got involved rather than hitting you with suggestions from all sides, but 'from the sidelines' I am starting to run out of options and as Lee can confirm I have had considerable recent experience tracking down weird boot issues which turned out to be due to a defective Pi rather than a PilotAware (PAW) issue, .....but you say you have tried more than one Pi2, so that should have eliminated a Pi hardware fault in your case.

Just to clarify the position, as I understand it, you have now tried the downloaded PilotAware (PAW) software in:

More than 1 different Raspberry Pi2s - without any attachments in any of the USB ports, and...

Using at least 2 different SD cards, both of which were pre-formatted using SD Formatter? with the format options set to 'Full Overwrite Format with Size Adjustment ON' before copying the software directly from the opened PAW software folder to the root of both SD cards.

...and you are still only getting the rainbow screen with the units attached to a monitor. Is this all correct?

If so, the common factors as I see it are:

Power Supply - are you certain it can supply 5v at 2 amps? Do you have an alternative you can try e.g. a 5v 2amp power pack?

Power Cable - this must be heavy enough to rule out voltage drop - can you try another cable?

Downloaded Software Image - What software version is it?  Have you tried doing a completely fresh download in case the original has become corrupted? - I have had one occasion where this resolved a boot issue - so worth a try. Also worth trying another freshly re-formatted microSD card (you presumably have spares available), to eliminate the possibility of faulty cards.

Regards

Peter

2294

General Discussion / Re: Pilot Aware returned

« on: August 16, 2016, 11:47:34 pm »

Hi Bob,

Likewise with our local Edinburgh ATC. They will usually advise of conflicting traffic even on a basic service and are also very good at calling up with traffic info if we are using the listening squawk. A bit embarrassing to have to tell them we already have the traffic on our cockpit displays.... You can almost hear them thinking..... 'What.... In a flexwing microlight'. That's the power of PilotAware!

Regards

Peter

2295

General Discussion / Re: Pilot Aware returned

« on: August 16, 2016, 10:35:17 am »

Hi Bob,

Glad you and Bobby managed to hook up at last. Lee, myself and others from our group have been working with Tim Dawson of SkyDemon on depiction of bearingless targets and as a result we should see a significant improvement in the next SkyDemon update. The Audio warnings are also a great help and well worth connecting.

I'm a bit confused about your reciprocal heading helicopter target, Bob - if it was a moving 'aircraft' symbol it must have been ADSB or P3i. You also say '200ft above us', then later '....we received no warning about it (Understandable as it was much higher). Did you mean 2,000ft above us? If it was only 200ft above you I'd say PilotAware certainly proved it's worth.

Best Regards

Peter