When willl the PAW be ready?

[Bill Maxwell]

She may as well have been trying to jam them, Ian. Looks to be a matter of having zapped a hole through the mica cover but in so doing, it has carbon deposits on both sides of the cover that seem to be interleaved in the mica layers. I'll have to see if I can get a new cover. It would of course likely still work without the cover but she won't have a bar of that!

It's been a frustrating day. First it rained, continuing the pattern of the past couple of days. Normally, after the months of drought we have had, I would have been delighted with that but we had arranged to tackle some tasks that really need doing now. So instead, we tackled the replacement of the fuel hoses on our paddock-basher, the X-Air, after I had sourced what must be the last remaining 1/4" fuel hose to be found in northern Tasmania. What did we find when we got into that job but that the original builder and probably the kit supplier too, had used 7/32" hose in a couple of spots! End of progress there until I find some 7/32" hose. Probably rarer than hens' teeth now.

So, attention turned to getting the licences organised for the PAW units, only to have one of those fail miserably too. Now, the microwave. Sometimes, you just wonder whether it is all worth the effort ....................

Bill

[Bill Maxwell]

OK, panic is over. The microwave is still dead but my second Beta licence for the Pi B+ is complete, with a few hours to spare. My thanks to Ian, whose suggestion that I try the one SD card that managed to install PAW on the first Pi on the second, worked a treat. Luckily, since it looks as if I will need 2 working units for future development here in the Antipodes, with the non-availability of 868MHz here downunder.

Good to know my diagnosis of suspect SD cards appears to have been correct. Maybe some of the old electronics skill is still there after 50+ years!

Now for a glass of red or two over the evening meal, then maybe watch the population of Midsomer reduce by a couple more. Don't know what the population growth rate is for the UK but that village appears to have the game skun.

cheers
Bill

[Ian Melville]

I live in Midsomer county!! Where it is filmed. Often see filming in Thame or the local area.

With Morse and Lewis just down the road in Oxford, thankfully it is not a murder a minute around here. Though we did have a beheading with a Samurai Sword a few years back

Thame is sometimes a bit more like 'The Vicar or Dibley', which is also filmed not far away.

Lees office is also just down the road.

[exfirepro]

Of more immediate concern - your 'press release' implies that those of us who continued testing ADSB only units or doing Mode C/S development work and demonstrating / promoting PAW whilst waiting for the new Bridge will only be offered Bridges 'at the back of the queue' after the first 500 full kits have been put together, i.e. some two weeks after the first fully functional kits are released. This is in direct conflict with the fact that we were told from the start that all enquiries/sales would be dealt with strictly in order of registration on the PilotAwareHarware site and seems a bit of a harsh way to treat your loyal band of long-term testers!

This is not something that I recognise as the pilotawarehardware.com site registration was for communication when the units were available not for an allocation basis. To do this we would have had to distinguished between an enquiry and a sale by taking money which is something that we didn't want to do until we have product available.

I hope that this makes it clearer. More information will be available over the next week.

Keith Vinning
PilotAware Team

Keith,

I hate to labour the point but still feel a great sense of injustice on behalf of all the loyal beta testers who put their own time and money behind the project to further the testing and development of PAW and who have also been enthusiastically active unpaid ambassadors, demonstrating and advertising the product, encouraging people onto the PAW and Hardware websites, answering queries and supporting others through the forum or face to face over the past months without any thought whatsoever of reward - other than that by doing so we were helping to contribute to air safety and hopefully supporting and lightening the load of the 'Development Team'.

My original concern on reading your 'Press Release' was, as previously stated, based on my clear understanding from statements made during the presentations at Flyer Live that registration on the Hardware website would prioritise the allocation of kits or Bridges when they became available, thus ensuring that those who signed up early could expect to receive new RF boards or kits from the early batch.

From your reply, I was beginning to think I had imagined this, and was resigned to putting it down to failing memory, until I came across the report in the News section of the PilotAware Hardware site this evening, issued following Flyer Live, which clearly bears out my original contention.

Introductory Prices published
Posted by administrator on December 01, 2015  /   Posted in Uncategorized
We decided not to do a “Flyer Show Live special price”, we decided not to do a “PilotAware Forum members special price”, we decided to do an introductory price for everyone !

Register your email address on any of the “email me when in stock” buttons on the site. Either on the front page or on the products.

When we are ready to ship we will send you an email that stock is available.

We will do this in strict registration order, so register your email today.

Whilst not expecting any reward, we were as early adopters who signed up as soon as the Hardware site came on line, at least assured prioritisation when the new RF units became available, over those who simply sat and waited for others to do all the work.

I fully appreciate that the significant time taken to bring development of the new RF Bridge to market may have produced commercial pressures leading you to change your priorities, but am disappointed that this may mean early adopters like myself who registered immediately the Hardware site went live, having to wait even longer to complete fully working PAW units if for any reason we are unable to place formal orders as soon as the 'shop' goes live.

Nevertheless, as I have said many times, I remain supportive of the project though I will be disappointed if this situation cannot be satisfactorily resolved.

Best regards

Peter

[Bill Maxwell]

Hmmm, don't know where my earlier response went.

Lovely looking country, your county, Ian. Actually, I was a night early. 'Murders' is on tonight. Last night Father Brown saw the population of his village reduced too. Chances are that was also filmed in your area?

On Peter's post, I also recalled that advice in the bulletin of 1 December, although I also think it may have been made earlier too, closer to the October announcement but can't now find it. I still intend to get at least one bridge for the basis of my experimentation, even though it is using a frequency that wont be able to apply here. Obviously though, I won't have the same desire for early acquisition.

Bill
Powranna, Tasmania, Oz.

[SteveN]

I hate to labour the point but still feel a great sense of injustice on behalf of all the loyal beta testers who put their own time and money behind the project to further the testing...

I'm an early adopter. The PAW team are offering me a rebate for my old ARF. 

What's not to like?

[Moffrestorer]

Hi Peter,

I understand your frustration. You are correct in that Bridges and kits were due to be shipped in order of interest being registered. However I suspect that the realities of cash flow, bringing these products to market, require that kits must be shipped first as they will have greater mark-up and thus allowing more expedient manufacture of further units. There is also the fact that we Beta testers at least have ads-b capability for now. Those that didn't build a PAW don't have even this at the moment and we surely don't want them to drift away as we all want widest adoption as possible for the greatest safety benefit. I'm happy to wait  a little longer for a Bridge as I trust Lee and Team to satisfy demand in the most expeditious way.

[exfirepro]

Hi SteveN

Fortunately, I got involved in PAW just after the 'State of the Union Address' and so managed to avoid the 'ARF crisis'. Undeterred, I proceeded to build an ADSB PAW unit to run alongside my ADSB out Trig TT21. I was so impressed (e.g. by being able to tell my local ATC that... 'I can see the inbound traffic on my cockpit display'), that I went on to build a total of 4 to date (2 on Pi B+ and 2 on Pi 2B) to allow me to assess PAW's ADSB effectiveness using different component and antenna configurations and, after discussion with Lee and others at Flyer Live, to carry out fairly extensive testing on Mode C/S transponder signal alerts as part of the Engineering Sub Group.

I was delighted when the PAW team announced that those of you who went down the early ARF route would receive a rebate against the new RF Bridge to compensate you for your wasted outlay. In my opinion this was a gracious demonstration by the PAW Team of their appreciation for the work yourself and the other early beta testers had carried out. I of course will not benefit from any such discount when I buy my RF Bridge boards, but had the comfort of knowing that having registered my interest on the PAW Hardware site as soon as it went live, I should be offered the chance to buy a Bridge (initially just 1 - I'm not greedy) soon after they become available, to allow me to continue testing and demonstrating PAW to potential buyers.


Chris,

Yes it looks like commercial pressures and possibly also pressure of numbers (both of course good for PAW and in the long term therefore good for all of us) may have overridden the PAW Team's original intentions. If so it looks like we will just have to grin and bear it. PAW is still in my opinion the No.1 situational awareness tool for GA - and I have tried most, so I guess we will just have to let events take their course. At least I now have the satisfaction, such as it is, of knowing that my recollection of what was promised was correct.

Rant now over and toys firmly back in the Pram!

Best regards to both and to Lee and the Team for their hard work.

Peter

[Bill Maxwell]

Not really wanting to prolong this theme but it is interesting to observe the different interpretations that some of us had taken of the SOU messages.

On my part, at the date of the SOU bulletin,  I had just taken delivery of my first ARF unit direct from Wireless things  and had a second on its way to me at the time from Harkwell Services, the invoice for which was dated 6 October 2015 but which did not reach me here in Australia until a day or so after the SOU.

Once the SOU proclamation was made, I put both my PAWs aside to await further developments, since ADSB alone really didn't offer anything than already available via Flight Radar24 on my Android phone. Both were essentially built, as they had all bar the ARF installed but took them no further, waiting until I could get full functionality.

At the time, I thought my action was consistent with the advice in the SOU. I registered to be advised when the new transceiver had been identified but I did not proceed to obtain the licences. From the contents of Keith's recent post, I was in error in my assessment. I should have pushed forward and ran my PAWs as ADSB only devices, so as to qualify for the AFR trade-in scheme. Ah well....

Bill

[exfirepro]

Hi Bill,

ADSB in only PAW is far better than FR24 as the aircraft you are seeing on your main 'nav' screen via Skydemon, EasyVFR etc are 'live' from the aircraft's transmitter antenna direct to your PAW receiver, and are not therefore subject to delays or gaps in FR24 coverage. That was what Chris (Moffrestorer) was reminding me of by 'we beta testers at least have ADSB capability for now.' He is of course correct and having the beta engineering software in my main unit (which can also detect mode 'S' - though only as a bearingless target) gives me an added bonus, so I should really count my blessings.

Definitely back in the fold.

Best regards

Peter

[SteveN]

Keith mentioned in his recent Bristol Strut talk the PAW team have large sums of money out to pay for the initial production run. 

Compared to that our £30 quid each spent on an old ARF pales into insignificance.  Adding one allowed me to in a small way be part of the development process and means we now have a great bit of kit at our disposal.

Steve

[exfirepro]

Steve,

As I said above, great respect is due to all the guys like yourself who took that leap of faith and came on board at such an early stage. Without your work and testing down the ARF route, PAW might not have become the extremely powerful safety aid it now promises to be.

Looking forward to a very positive future and to helping Lee & Co's investment bear fruit!

Best regards

Peter

[Bill Maxwell]

Yes Peter. I was being a bit glib in my comment that ADSB from PAW added little to ADSP derived info on my Android phone, as I should have added "in my particular location here in quiet ( both aviation and environmental noise terms) Tasmania." Here the FR24 cover is good and all the big boys carry ADSB. It's the likes of myself in ultralights or GA that are the concern and ADSB there is virtually absent. Hence my interest in PAW. I freely concede the benefits of having the data in real time and also displayed on the nav screen though.

Bill

[nique]

All you guys have the great chance to have a PAW. It seams that I found that solution several days to late. I can't build my own - even ADS-B would far enough at the moment. My hope is now: please bring that bird to market!

I'm coming from a real different market - drone flying. My idea is: I want to have real time flight infos of aircrafts around my drone to avoid any problems. Ok, I go one step further as I fly only very low level (below 500ft). But also there is ADS-B-traffic. Medical helicopter, SAR and military. I will not see them on FR24... But I can see them with PAW. And the great benefit would be the co-work with SkyDemon what I use to plan my flight.

Greetings from Switzerland - a new country in your community (as I can see from the google-map )

[exfirepro]

Hi Nique and welcome to the PAW forum.

Technically there is nothing to stop you still building your own PAW as public licensing is now available, but as kits are due very shortly it might be safer to wait. Interesting to read that you want to use it as a 'set of eyes' for drone flying to avoid conflict with other aircraft. That is very relevant in view of recent news reports here in the UK about a drone striking a landing airliner. There has been a bit of chat over recent months in the forums about the use of PAW with drones, principally I think to make the drone visible to aircraft, though I see no reason for the reverse not to apply.

I know the development team have this on their 'research list'' but with the workload of trying to get PAW ready for release to the public, this is presumably down the list a fair bit.

Meantime search 'drone' on the forum and you will get an idea of what has been said to date.

Best Regards

Peter