More Traffic Screen queries on PAW

[Gary Nelson]

Hi

Firstly, I paste below 2 x different screenshots of my PAW Traffic page. Any idea why on the top  screenshot, it shows my own plane at the very top (highlighted red) and on the other screenshot below that, my plane is missing?  I assume it can't just be random. I also assume it is not meant to be showing my own plane anyway. They are both from 8th September taken at 13.55 and 14.29 respectively.

Secondly, is the below screenshot with the red showing what other planes see from me?  If so, then why isn't my full reg showing under the Reg colum (just a "G"); why isn't there also an "F" in the Mode column even though I am also transmitting Flarm and why does the last "Aircraft, Owner" column just has dashes instead of my details?

NB:  My set-up is Sky Demon with Pilot Aware Classic and a Flarm Classic mouse (made by LV Nav) plugged into the PAW. I also transmit uncertified ADSB through my Funke transponder using the GPS from a Kanardia Horis 57.

Any advice much appreciated.

[Ian Melville]

Gary, Can you post your config page?

[Paul_Sengupta]

The F is for stuff received through your Flarm mouse. While it's transmitting your position, it won't be receiving it!

[Paul_Sengupta]

Also I think the P means you're probably receiving an OGN-R uplink. I don't think Flarm transmits the aircraft reg, that's why you only have a G. P is the method through which you're receiving, so, and this is only a guess, I think you're receiving your Flarm through the OGN-R, uplinked on PilotAware, plus your own transponder. The PilotAware equates the two hex codes and thus you have CSAP showing. I would guess that where you don't have your own aircraft in the list, you're outside the area covered by an OGN-R station.

All just guesses of course!

Maybe the PAW software could be changed to display the reg from the transponder rather than the OGN-R if the hex matches.

[Gary Nelson]

Hi Ian

See two pages pasted below (1) Home Page and (2) Configure Page. Are either of these what you needed?

Gary

[Admin]

Hi Gary

you have posted the HOME and LOGGING pages, what we need to see is the CONFIGURE page.
I am guessing your own HEX ID is missing

Thx
Lee

[Gary Nelson]

Hi Lee

1.     I now have the Configure page as pasted below. The correct Hex code is there. I confirm it always has been there. So... that leaves the
       question as to why I was showing on my own PAW Traffic screen taken at 13.55 hours before I flew (but only as a letter "G") but then not
       showing on the same PAW screen after I landed at 14.29 hours. These two traffic screens appearing in the threads below where I pasted them
       on 11th Sept?  Presumably I should not appear at all?

2.    I am also hoping you can shed light on why this 13.55 hours PAW traffic screen only shows me as a "G" not "G-NILT" and why the "Mode"
      column shows CSAP not CSAPF and notwithstanding I assume I should not be on it at all?

Kind rgds

Gary

[Admin]

OK, I think I see what is happening here - (I think!)

So it appears you have the same ID used for your FLARM and for PilotAware.

PilotAware will not see the direct broadcast from your FLARM, and your FLARM (via FLARM-in) will not report itself, so that rules out anything there.

I am guessing that you were within rang of an OGN-R station which was capturing your FLARM, and rebroadcasting it to all PilotAware's, this was then picked up by PilotAware, which is why it appears in the display, it was also picking up your transponder.

This is actually correct behavior I think (for the traffic table), but I need to check - this was a requirement for the LAA/BMAA sign-off procedure to get a screen grab.

Now to the crux, this data should NOT be forwarded to any traffic device, or displayed on the PilotAware RADAR screen.
It should be filtered when compared to your own ID

Is this the case ?
Or did you see your own aircraft on a navigation device ?

I can easily check if you have your .trk file for when this was displayed, a search for your registration or ICAO number will clear up any ambiguity

Now there may be a bug here regarding the reporting of your own aircraft on the traffic screen, it could be that the transponder is filtered (when in isolation) but the rebroadcast of the FLARM is leaking through to the traffic screen, I think I need to check that for sure

Thx
Lee

[exfirepro]

Hi Gary,

Just noticed that Lee has already replied while I’ve been typing so I have adjusted my post accordingly.

It’s important to realise that - like most of the ‘Tabs’ screens - the PAW ‘Traffic’ Page was designed primarily to provide ‘diagnostic’ information on the internal workings of PilotAware rather than as an ‘in-flight’ user tool. For obvious reasons we encourage users to restrict themselves to using PilotAware Radar or their Nav System Screen in flight to maximise eyes out of the aircraft.

That said, the PilotAware Traffic Screen is effectively a ‘worksheet’ listing all traffic currently being processed within the PAW - whether it will subsequently appear as an audio warning or on your Nav System Screen or not. (This being defined by your range/relative altitude filter settings and other protocols - such as ‘own-Hex’ filtering.)

Looking back through my early records, ‘Own-ship’ Data was always listed in the Table and - being the closest and therefore usually strongest signal (unless there is high power CAT traffic in the vicinity) - normally appeared at or near the top of the Traffic Screen. As Lee has indicated, FASVIG specifically asked him to add Status data for ADSB-Out to assist with Mod approvals as this was found to be the easiest way to confirm the SDA and SIL Status of ADSB from an uncertified GPS position source. The use of PilotAware as the preferred verification tool is specifically referred to in the LAA /BMAA Mod Approvals Procedures.

From my early FLARM integration screenshots from early testing in 2016/17 - in pre-OGN-R days, I note that my own aircraft - at the time broadcasting Mode S-ES (ADSB), PAW and FLARM (with the FLARM Device directly integrated to my PAW and both using the same ID) - showed in the Mode Column of the table from my own PAW as ‘CSA - -‘, with no reference to PAW or FLARM. I have noticed during recent flights, however, that ‘Own-ship’ sometimes doesn’t appear at all or appears then disappears - which reflects your second screenshot. I need to look back through my (extensive) library of screenshots to see if I can see when this first occurred and may need to do some specific testing to confirm. I will speak to Lee about this!

The only issue I can see with the first entry is that your aircraft ‘Reg’ - normally derived by PAW from your ICAO Hex by consulting an internal database - appears incomplete. This may, as has been said, be due to your aircraft being reported as a ‘Glider’ (viz. FLARM-equipped Aircraft) via a local OGN-R or might be due to an anomaly in the database as it appears that not all aircraft are present. The best way to determine this would probably be for Lee to take a look at your track files if available.

Meantime I will search back through my screenshots to see what I can establish from them.

p.s. I note you are still running software version 20180129. You would be well advised to do an update to the most recent PAW software version (currently 20180520) which contains several improvements and ‘fixes’.

Best Regards

Peter

[Gary Nelson]

Dear Lee and Peter

Many thanks to date for on going advice:

1.  Firstly the good news is my plane does not ever appear on Sky Demon as a second image.

2.  It seems to me (unless I am misreading or overlooking something) that my HEX is correct and not
     incomplete.

3.  I will download the .tck file when I next go to the hangar (likely in the next few days if not today).

4.  Noted possibly OGN-R is sending details of "me" to me. I will check where I was at the
     time the  13.55 hours snapshot was taken to ascertain how near I was to an OGN-R aerial and
     report back

5.   Re the upgrade, (to only have to unscrew 40 access panel screws once to get to my built in PAW 
      ) , I have been waiting for a licence Key from PAW. Can I get this now to do upgrade and
      licence Key together (I got PAW at end of Sept 2017 and saw something about the Keys are send
      out around 2 weeks before renewal).

Gary

[exfirepro]

All good Gary,

It might be worth upgrading your unit to a Raspberry Pi3B (not the 3B+) which has on-board WiFi. This would free up a USB port to which you could fit an extension lead making access for updates, renewing licence key etc much easier.

Regards

Peter

[Admin]

Dear Lee and Peter

Many thanks to date for on going advice:

1.  Firstly the good news is my plane does not ever appear on Sky Demon as a second image.

Good

2.  It seems to me (unless I am misreading or overlooking something) that my HEX is correct and not
     incomplete.

It looks correct to me.

5.   Re the upgrade, (to only have to unscrew 40 access panel screws once to get to my built in PAW 
      ) , I have been waiting for a licence Key from PAW. Can I get this now to do upgrade and
      licence Key together (I got PAW at end of Sept 2017 and saw something about the Keys are send
      out around 2 weeks before renewal).

You can change your PI over any time you want, no need to wait for a new key to be generated, you will have whatever time remains transferred to the new key, when a new key is requested, it will be to whatever hardware is registered

thx
Lee

[Moffrestorer]

Hi Gary,

Regarding upgrading the software in your fixed PAW installation;

I have broadly the same set-up as you in my Eurostar. I have the PAW unit cable tied to the discrete aluminium angle crossmember behind the passenger side of the instrument panel. I also installed a short male to female USB extension cable from the PAW, the free end of which sits behind and at the base of the instrument panel just to the left of the throttle bracket, held in place by a Velcro cable tidy.  This was so I could easily perform software updates by plugging a memory stick into this cable without removing the scuttle panel with its multitude of screws.

When I eventually connected the PAW to the Mode S Transponder for ADS-B Out I connected the FTDI cable assembly to this same cable free-end and because the baud-rate remains the same (4800) for my Transponder I can simply reach under the panel, disconnect the FTDI and plug in the memory stick to still do an update.

OK, in your case you would probably need to set that port back to 4800 while you do the update, then reset it back to 19200 and reconnect the FTDI.

I hope this helps.

[Admin]

I dont want to spread this around too much but ....

If you are running PilotAware 20180520 (or later for future generations)
This version runs an ftp server, so using filezilla, you can simply drop the PilotAware.pgp file straight into /pub
This will then be available for installation

If you are uing an iPhone, you can install
FTPManager

download PilotAware.pgp to your phone (whilst connected to internet)
upload PilotAware.pgp to your PAW (whilst connected to PAW)

Goto PilotAware / Update page and select 'install'

Thx
Lee

[Gary Nelson]

Dear Lee and Peter

Using the same numbering as my (5 points) post of 17th Sept at 11.12am

3.      I now attach a Dropbox link to the 2 x .tck files so hopefully you can work out why I appeared
         on one and not the other. It is a link as they were too large to upload:
         https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kozrns9lgjqksmr/AAAiY4qcE86HzoIPOBwGbTWGa?dl=0

4.      At 13.55 on 8th Sept I had just landed at Plaistows after a short flight from Elstree, some 4
         miles to the south. At 14.29 when the second screen shot I posted was taken I was still on the
         ground at Plaistows. Not sure there is an OGN aerial anywhere near either

Many thanks

Gary