XC Soar free Android software and PilotAware

[Paul_Sengupta]

Spurred on by another thread, I downloaded XC Soar for Andoid on one of my cheap tablets (Asus ME173X) and tried to get it working with the PAW to display traffic. Well, it's not the best software for this purpose, but it works.

1 ) Download XC Soar here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.xcsoar

while connected to the internet, then connect your WiFi back to the PAW.

2 ) Double tap the display. Select "Config" --> "Devices"
3 ) Choose a position from A to F and select "Edit" on the left.
4 ) Tap the box to the right of "Port". Select "TCP Client" then "Select" on the left.
5 ) Under "IP Address" enter 192.168.1.1
6 ) Under "Port" select "2000"
7 ) Under "Driver" select "FLARM" then tap "OK" to the left.
8 ) The profile should just work, but if it's showing "Disabled", select the new profile in the list and click "Enable" on the left. It should connect and say "GPS fix; FLARM" if you have a GPS dongle on your PAW, or if you're running the PilotAwareAndroid software and have GPS lock on the tablet, once it's connected. If the first profile is the Built in GPS, you might want to disable that, though I don't know if there's a problem leaving both running.

Traffic appears on the map when you are zoomed in to a certain level - if you zoom out, it disappears.

The software should as default display a "FLARM radar" display on the main display when there's traffic. If you double tap it you can get just the radar display on which you can select North Up or Track Up under the various menus, and zoom in or out, up to 10km.

If more than one bit of traffic is displayed you can tap it and it'll tell you the relative altitude and the distance.

I suspect you'll want to download a map and airspace, so you can double tap the main display again, select "Config" --> "System" --"Site Files" --> "Site Files" and select map database and airspace data for your country. Do this when you're connected to the internet though, not the PAW! 

If you want height in feet, you can select "Config" --> "System" --> "Setup" --> "Units" and select Preset: British or American.

The rest I'll let you work out for yourself!

G'night!

Actually, just been playing, XC Soar TE is the same software but with a bit neater layout.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.xcsoarte

[ianfallon]

Nice work Paul ! Got to say I will stick with SkyDemon et al, but it's another option for some!

[Paul_Sengupta]

It's a free option for anyone who doesn't have one of the expensive options!

[GarethHorne]

Yup, working nicely on my phone (Smart Ultra 6, basically a Vodafone branded ZTE Blade 6), not as pretty as SkyDemon but showing all the traffic without the need for a subscription.

[ianfallon]

Can you filter traffic by relative alt ?

[Paul_Sengupta]

It's the first time I've used this software so I'm not sure. It's not obvious if you can!

[FERRYAIR]

Being nosy I took a look at XCSoar TE & it instantly found my position as the Long/Lat matched about where I was 😂


Having followed the set up instructions I never managed to get any ADS-B returns showing up on the screen ( anyone know why? )

Also before I stick XCSoar into Room 101 does it show terrain as I just got a white screen?

[r_w_walker]

Thank you Paul.

Finally got PilotAware working on a larger screen

System works on Hudle2,(Tesco)running Android 4.4.2, with PilotAwareAndroid and XCSoar.

[FERRYAIR]

Just managed to get Terrain & aTopo on Xcsoar TE so now I am a happy bunny.

I followed Paul Sengupta's instructions at the bottom of the " how to get XCSOAR " but having read the instructions on how to upload xcsoar I never read the rest ( until just now )

[Paul_Sengupta]

Ferryair - to get traffic (and GPS from the PAW) you need to follow the instructions on how to configure the interface rather than just using the internal GPS. Glad you found how to download the terrain and stuff...it's not the most intuitive software I find.

[Paul_Sengupta]

Airspace!

I found that for UK airspace, using the file selectable within the programme, it didn't display anything. So I went digging.

http://www.nvgc.org.uk/XCSoarData.html

There's a link here which says:

UK airspace files Apr 2015 (Click here to download)
save into your XCSoarData folder or the LK8000 Airspace folder.

Do as it says, download that file (preferably straight onto the tablet) and using some sort of file manager on your tablet copy it into the XCSoar data directory. When you select: "Config" --> "System" --"Site Files" --> "Site Files", and tap the box next to Airspace, you should see the file there and be able to tap on it then tap on Select. The airspace should then appear.

[Admin]

Hi Paul,
do you have sensible numbers annotated to the traffic in XCsoar, if this is intended to be relative altitude, I see this jumping all over the place, and not agreeing with SkyDemon, or RunwayHD ?

[Paul_Sengupta]

Yes, I've just noticed this. If you tap on the traffic, a screen comes up which shows what's in the vicinity and this seems to show the proper altitude for the aircraft, or reasonably close anyway. If you tap on the radar display it also shows the proper relative height.

However the numbers next to the objects on the main map seem to bear no relation to the actual relative height. Some targets don't even have numbers next to them.

Aha, having just tapped on the object and had a look at what comes up, this is shown as "Vario"...so the number next to the aircraft is how fast it's climbing or descending in knots, not the relative height.

[Admin]

Aha, having just tapped on the object and had a look at what comes up, this is shown as "Vario"...so the number next to the aircraft is how fast it's climbing or descending in knots, not the relative height.

Thats confusing then whan compared to the other tools 

[Paul_Sengupta]

Maybe you should suggest to the writers of XC Soar that this be made switchable.

Edit: They already had a debate on their forum, so I've lobbed in something there.

http://forum.xcsoar.org/viewtopic.php?p=11888#p11888