1090 Unavailable

[PaulSS]

I suspect I already know the answer (power throttling) but I just wanted to run this by the august members herein, lest I've done something really daft.

Before I fitted my PAW to the aircraft I tested the setup at home and it worked very well; so I don't think it's the equipment.

I installed everything in the flying machine and now I get the dreaded red blob saying 1090 is unavailable. I tried a different ADSB dongle (the same as I used for my ADSB home station) and I tried a different antenna (which was placed outside the cockpit on the engine cowling). In all cases I got the same indications.

I did open up the ADSB restrictions to allow all traffic to be shown but that did nothing......as expected if there's a red 'unavailable' blob.

To the power then. I am running my PAW from a Charge4 (top left USB). From the Charge4 to the PAW I probably have maximum of a 2m cable run. This cable is 18AWG, using the screw-on USB/min-USB plugs recommended by Jeremy in a post some time ago. I haven't run everything with the engine running yet but the battery seems to be full of volts so I don't think that is the problem.

Is this all about the power throttling or am I missing something else?

[PaulSS]

Silly 512kb attachment limit 

[steveu]

I haven't run everything with the engine running yet but the battery seems to be full of volts so I don't think that is the problem.

Engine running is going to be 13.8 - 14.4V into your USB step down.

Absolute best case engine off it's 13.2V but more likely something like 12 - 12.6V.

Worth eliminating if you can run the engine.

However, it may not be politically expedient to do so now.

[Admin]

Hi Paul

Fear not!

There is a power issue reported as you see a warning on the front page
When you were running at home - what was the power supply and power cable ?
The power source is different now as you are using a Charge4
What about the power cable

The warnings on the logging page are more interesting they do indicate an issue talking to the ADSB receiver, this could be a hardware fault with the receiver, or a power issue - we need to determine which

Thx
Lee

[A_Vinning33]

Hi Paul,

Please can you PM me with your contact details, we can then discuss the best ways to go forward.

Cheers,

Ashley

[PaulSS]

Just to draw a line under the original problem, in case someone searches for the same snag.

I fitted a Flight Aware Pro Stick between the ADSB antenna and PAW as my ADSB dongle. What is very strange is that it seemed to work very well at home and I picked up a gazillion contacts (pre-lock down). I was using the official Raspberry Pi power source, so had loads of Amps wiggling down the tube. When I installed the same set up in the aircraft I got the Red blob on 1090 and, despite changing the Pro Stick for another one, got the same result. This was using my Charge4 with 18AWG power cable supply to the PAW. Engine running and not running made no difference.

Enter Ashley The Saviour    He saw a snag with some of the gibberish in the logging page and said it was my ADSB Pro Stick dongle that was the culprit. A bit strange, as it definitely worked at home but I'm not going to argue as I don't have a clue about those log codes (parents, babies, $$$....who knows). Luckily I had an SMA to MMX adapter and Ashley sent me a new Nooelec dongle, the same type used in the Rosetta. Apparently these use less power, so that all sounds good to me.

The result: a green blob most of the time BUT an orange blob quite a lot of the time as well. I was concerned about the orange blob as I didn't want to put the seat pan etc etc etc back in and then have to take it all apart again. Another call to Ashley revealed the 1090 orange blob isn't a problem. Basically this means your ADSB has seen traffic in the past (green blob) but it's not seeing anything at the moment. Red is not good but orange really means it's just waiting. With the lack of traffic around at the moment that is not surprising. Relieved that I hadn't done something wrong the machine was re-assembled and fingers double crossed.

I flew yesterday and, according to the traffic log, I am pleased to note that my PAW saw many, many things. I also saw  quite a lot of traffic (especially to the north of Compton Abbas). I saw PAW and I saw ADSB and the lovely lady even warned me of the danger presented by the aircraft ahead of me on final 

So, if you get a red blob and 1090 unavailable, change your Flight Aware Pro Stick for something else 

[Admin]

Hi Paul

Yes I am getting the orange light all the time at the moment.
I am thinking of changing this, right now, it says it is 'not receiving ADSB', not the same as 'not receiving 1090'
So we should probably also count incoming ModeC and ModeS as valid input data

thx
Lee