Messages

2401

General Discussion / Re: Order of precidence - PAW and ADSB

« on: June 10, 2016, 04:37:36 pm »

Giles,

In very basic terms, if more than one signal is received carrying the same ICAO 'Hex' address the content is compared and the lower priority (in information terms) signal is filtered so you don't get two or more reports of the same aircraft. Hence ADSB and P3i are both higher priority than Mode S because of their GPS derived positional information.

Because ADSB and P3i in effect both provide the same information, they are displayed and reported on using the same positional triggers and terminology. The only reason Mode S is reported differently is because we have no positional or directional information to report.

If it's important, you can tell the difference by reference to the traffic screen: Basically, entries having a DISTance in KMs and a defined SIGnal strength are ADSB, those with a DISTance and SIG = 0 are P3i. Mode S have ' - ' in the distance column.

Whilst I can appreciate that it is 'nice to know', I'm not sure the extra work required to create 'different' audio alerts for ADSB and P3i would be beneficial (or indeed desirable) in the longer term and could lead to additional confusion.

Only my opinion

Regards

Peter

2402

General Discussion / Re: COLOUR CHANGE

« on: June 10, 2016, 04:03:09 pm »

Lee,

Can we move the 'bluetooth' stuff to a different thread before we get things even more complicated than they already are.

This is getting messy and I have a feeling bluetooth will run on and on.

Peter

2403

General Discussion / Re: COLOUR CHANGE

« on: June 10, 2016, 02:20:52 pm »

From the Mode C thread but very relevant here so dragged it across -

There was a discussion on another thread regarding Mode-S and the fact that we could display the following data

REG + ALT
or
ALT

Now call me a sceptic, but I believe if you are told a REG and an ALT, eg G-ABCD +200ft, you are much more likely to believe the validity of the information as opposed to an <ANONYMOUS> ALT, which I am sure many would put down to bugs / RF noise, if after many attempted sightings, nothing was forthcoming.

Lee

Good point Lee, you are of course correct, though for bearingless targets, threat level will always outweigh almost anything else (except relative height of course) - especially as we already had the threat levels displayed before you added the displayed 'REG' back in January - which is where this thread started.

Looks like we need to try another approach to Tim to try to persuade him to help sort this out. Maybe the 'threat' of customers moving over to EasyVFR might encourage him to work with you. Not that I'm suggesting trying to threaten him - obviously.

Regards

Peter

2404

General Discussion / Re: Enhancement Requests

« on: June 10, 2016, 01:35:32 pm »

Thanks Paul,

I see what you are trying to do. I knew it would be important - just wondered how! I certainly wouldn't want to 'lose' the raw counts as they confirm that all is OK (or otherwise) even if the 'aircraft' never make it to the 'Nav' screen.

Regards

Peter

2405

General Discussion / Re: Enhancement Requests

« on: June 10, 2016, 12:37:27 pm »

Oh, sorry, I didn't word it very well, I meant the current number of aircraft visible in each field!

Paul,

Are you not going a bit deep here. Bearing in mind we should be looking at the Nav Display when flying, the current Home Page to my mind provides exactly the information required to confirm that your PAW is operating properly, so what is it you are trying to achieve? Presumably changing to numbers of aircraft rather than simply numbers of received transmissions will involve a fair bit of work for Lee and I can't see what significant gain we would get from this. Your request for the GPS info on the other thread however, I can fully appreciate.

Not being negative, just confused.

Regards

Peter

2406

General Discussion / Re: Tuning the DVB Antenna for 1090MHz Specific reception

« on: June 10, 2016, 12:18:24 pm »

Hi Vic,

Another fine 'homebrew' mod. I'm all in favour of 'tuning' the ADSB antenna to its correct (shorter) length or replacing it with a short, lightweight alternative such as Yourself and Deker have both shown earlier in this thread, which are more practical for use on top of cockpit coamings, etc., but you do need to be very careful in your drive for 'miniaturisation', that you don't attenuate 1090MHz signals so much that it starts to have a negative effect on the reliability of the Mode S alerts.

You say you are still getting (presumably ADSB) signals from 200 Km out. This is not surprising as they are transmitted at up to 500 Watts at the antenna and can generally be received on the proverbial 'piece of wet string'. Mode A/C/S signals are however substantially weaker and due to the vagaries of fit in different aircraft much more variable. In testing for example we found that they can be significantly reduced by the antenna position in relation to your own receive antenna, being easily blocked by aircraft metal bodywork, engines or even people.

Rather than cut antenna length to a level which may significantly attenuate received signal strength, it's much better to keep the antenna just a bit longer and utilise the altitude filters in your 'Nav' software to eliminate unwanted CAT above the height of your choice and let the antenna provide sufficient signal to ensure your 'Mode S Detection' continues to warn you of nearby danger.

Not a criticism in any way - merely a note of caution. Keep up the good work!

Fly safe.

Best Regards

Peter
(Mode S Development Tester)

p.s. Please keep us posted on any Mode S issues you might find.

2407

General Discussion / Re: COLOUR CHANGE

« on: June 10, 2016, 11:10:43 am »

Tony,

PAW audio needs to be wired from the Pi audio jack. There have been a couple of requests for bluetooth, but Lee has said that would require major rework of the software, so not imminent.

Sorry, I don't know what SD provides by way of audio out. Flying an open cockpit flexwing I have always just relied on SD's banner alerts for prompts. I will investigate.
 
Regards meantime

Peter

2408

Technical Support / Re: Seeing Airlines only

« on: June 10, 2016, 11:00:53 am »

Hi again Bobby,

Remind them that FR24 is NOT real time! It is subject to collection, decoding and transmission delays, gaps in their receiver network and the vagaries of internet accessibility. OK, usually only minor delays, but I have seen some significant 'gaps' and variations in aircraft position which would certainly not be acceptable for collision avoidance and the unreliability of internet connection in the air might prove a bit interesting too! What you are showing them is 'LIVE - DIRECT FROM THE AIRCRAFT ITSELF' and not affected by anything outside your control. And all for the measly sum of £200. That usually works.

Regards

Peter

2409

Technical Support / Re: Downloading New Software Releases;

« on: June 10, 2016, 10:50:29 am »

Steve,

As Paul says, your home router's network address has no effect on the auto updating procedure itself. If your home router uses 192.168.1.x, that only stops you logging onto your PAW during the update to see whether it has finished - because the PAW can't use the same IP address for a wired and WiFi connection at the same time. Mine obviously doesn't use 192.168.1.x because I can still log onto my Pi during update, but that's not essential. Paul and Lee have given an alternative for those computer minded among us, but if you are not, just keep it simple.

Use the:

 'FIRST plug in your Ethernet , then power up your paw (very important), wait 20 minutes, power down and unplug' method.

You can then power your PAW back up, connect with your tablet/laptop as normal, check for the update and tell it to install. You don't need to be connected to the router for that bit. In fact as you will have read, you can even do it later using the surrogate install method.

Regards

Peter

2410

Technical Support / Re: QNH 1305mb

« on: June 10, 2016, 10:15:55 am »

Paul,

Mine's reading 1017mb at present which is about right for EGPH. Haven't heard of any other reports of dodgy readings, so unlikely to be software. Looks like you've got a dodgy unit.

Regards

Peter

2411

Technical Support / Re: Seeing Airlines only

« on: June 10, 2016, 10:02:19 am »

Bobby,

Likewise! I have been flying with PAW since last year fairly intensively (especially when testing as part of the Mode S development) and flew with various other systems for several years before that. It seems that whenever we have some important tests to do we struggle to find any simple mode C/S transponding aircraft. Worse still when you try to show PAW to colleagues you often can't see anything - and would be glad for the odd CAT or 2 to fly by. Worryingly, that's probably a reflection of the poor take-up of 1090 MHz transponders throughout GA and especially at my end of the GA community, which is of course the whole reason for pushing the take-up of PilotAware.

Don't despair. Keep your filters open to draw in whatever is there - even CAT is reassuring! As the number of PAWs out there increases we will all start to see them appear more frequently very soon.

Best Regards

Peter

2412

General Discussion / Re: Ground Station

« on: June 10, 2016, 09:40:50 am »

Hi Jeremy,

There is a setting in (Configure) (Aircraft Type) for 'Base Station', which transmits this information as part of the P3i data. Some Nav Systems can apparently display this, but I don't know which ones.

You 'can' put something other than your 'Reg' in the Flight ID box to identify yourself. It has 12 character spaces so 'Jeremy Base' for example is possible.

(Page 27 of the new Operational Manual refers)

Regards

Peter

2413

General Discussion / Re: 192.168.1.1 and all that jazz

« on: June 10, 2016, 09:22:17 am »

At half past one in the morning?  Paul, you must be even more of a 'night owl' than me!

Useful bit of information though - nice to know you're not wasting your time watching all night TV 

Best regards

Peter

2414

General Discussion / Re: COLOUR CHANGE

« on: June 10, 2016, 09:00:10 am »

Hi Chris,

I totally agree, being able to see the REG of the other aircraft can be very 'useful', especially with multiple or 'known' contacts - if you know you are on the same frequency you can put out a position report, for example, to let the other aircraft know where you are. Knowing the level of risk presented by an aircraft you can't see, however, I regard as essential.

My point is that if (as seems to be the case) we can't have both I would always recommend default to the colour changing threat level warning we previously had until we can get Sky Demon to give us what we actually want. So far, for some reason, Tim Dawson doesn't seem to want to play - and he does know what we are trying to do because I told him!

Don't look at it as a potential loss, simply a short term sacrifice for (hopefully) long term gain for us all. Remember, you might just be the aircraft we SkyDemon users don't 'see' quickly enough and there are an awful lot of SkyDemon users out there!

Happy and safe flying

Regards

Peter

2415

General Discussion / Re: Ground Station

« on: June 10, 2016, 12:02:00 am »

Eric,

Rx = 86...... Somebody else is finally out there !

Peter