Pilotaware is unstable RESOLVED

[LN-YPT]

Hi
My Pilotaware is unstable. The license is still active. But Flashing Green and Red flashes indicating that the License is expired. Sometimes the green light is stable.
Watch video. – Download video here from wetransfer.com:  https://we.tl/t-IyPy11sUQa

In test mode I have set up Long range, Dispaly all etc and in Skydemon have set up show everything (see picture) but still only a few planes is shoing. And sometimes notting.
Yesterday I plane flew over here. Sometimes it shows, sometimes not. In Flightradar24 the plane was there. So Pilotaware is very very unstabile, and does not show other pilotsaware.
Download video of Rosetta that I have filmed. Someone who can tell me what's wrong?

[exfirepro]

Hi LN-YPT,

From what I can see on your videos, your PilotAware is working as it should, (though see comments below - especially about your antenna orientation and possible screening from your building construction).

The flashing green lights you refer to don't indicate that the licence has expired here. These are the 'Status Lights', which show whether or not all the PilotAware Functions are working properly. The lights show as one Solid Green if all 5 functions are positive but if one or more functions isn't currently active these lights will show as 2, 3 or 4 Greens plus one or more Red. In your case no ADSB has been received for the last 10 seconds, perhaps because there are no ADSB aircraft in range, which makes the ADSB light on the Home Screen go Red and will cause the Solid Green LED to change to four greens + one Red - This is perfectly normal when no ADSB is currently being received.

You also refer to the red and green lights at the antenna end. The Red one at this end is the power LED, which should be always solid Red. The green one at this end is the disk activity light, which should only be on during the boot up sequence and for short periods when the unit is writing to the disc. If this green light is on constantly, that normally indicates a problem with the microSD card - usually that it either isn't properly seated in the unit or that the card may have become corrupted. Please power the unit down, carefully remove and reinsert the micro SD card then reboot the unit and see what happens.

In your configuration, you can only use Mode CS if you have no transponder (which you obviously don't at home). If using PilotAware in an aircraft with a transponder, you MUST use Mode CS + Filter.

I think the problem is two-fold. Firstly, you have the antennas horizontal - for effective reception - especially in a mountainous area like Norway, they both need to be vertical - and preferably outdoors. I also suspect much of the signal may be being masked, by  your building construction. The second issue may be with your SkyDemon Navigation Settings. The 'Long Range' and +/- 50,000ft settings in PilotAware are filters for the Mode CS Aircraft ONLY. The filter settings for ADSB are set in SkyDemon / Settings / Navigation Options / 'Show Within Vertically' and 'Show Bearingless Targets'.

Try checking these settings ad running the unit outdoors and let us know how you get on.

Regards

Peter

[PaulSS]

I would also say that comparing what your receiver is receiving versus FlightRadar is a bit optimistic. FlightRadar is being fed by many people, with dedicated ADSB receivers and more types of feeds. They have ADSB, ModeS MLAT etc, whereas you are just looking at ADSB at the moment (unless a PAW aircraft flies over or you're within range of an OGN-R station).

To try and demonstrate what I mean I will attempt to attach a couple of screenshots taken within a few seconds of each other from my house. One of them shows the FlightRadar picture and the other shows what my dedicated ADSB receiver is showing in my house. This is with a pretty big collinear antenna mounted above my house and about 35m above sea level, with flat ground/ocean surrounding me. I normally see aircraft out to 225nm. Compared to your antenna sitting indoors and lying horizontally I will be picking up many more aircraft but see how I only have one (the Flying Doctor) compared to the FlightRadar picture. You will see a lot more traffic if you do as Peter has said.