CollisionAware Dropout / Disconnect

[stephenmelody]

Hi All,

I've been trialing my PilotAware on my windowsill (trying to pick up BobD as he goes past).

Every 20 minutes or so, the "CollisionAware is Using Your Location" bar on my iPad disappears and I have to go back into the app and reconnect it.

Has anyone else experienced something similar?

I've got no way of seeing the terminal output at the moment, so I can't tell if any errors are coming up, or even if any errors would come up. I begrudge paying maplins £24.99 for a HDMI / DVI cable to connect it to my work monitor when I can get one from amazon for £4.99.

Any help would be, helpful...

Cheers,

SM.

[stephenmelody]

The ADS-B side appears to continue working... I've still got commercial aircraft moving around on my screen.

[Admin]

Every 20 minutes or so, the "CollisionAware is Using Your Location" bar on my iPad disappears and I have to go back into the app and reconnect it.

Hi Stephen,
That is definitely something I have not seen.

Can you describe your entire setup ?

When you say it stops using your location, is the app still running in the background ?

Thx
Lee

[trapdoor]

I get this too, but as far as I'm aware, it is only the status bar that disappears, and not the supply of GPS or Collision data, because as soon as I power off my PilotAware box, SkyDemon complains that GPS data is lost.

Do you get SD complaining too, or does it still have GPS lock?

Only other issue I've had is that the ARF has failed to Transmit on occasion, and that seems to be if you attempt to connect to the PilotAware too quickly - it probably could do with a 'watchdog' LED - the ARF does have a Tx on LED facility - I'll have a play, as the Tx burst is so brief I doubt the LED will be lit long enough to notice it'll need something to hold the LED for a bit or just latch it on (SCR) at the first burst, as once it's started to transmit it seems to be fine.

[Admin]

Actually there could be an issue here.

Stephen, are you saying that the green slider bar in CollisionAware has moved to the off position ?
This means that the connectivity to PilotAware was lost for this application.
Efectively we have 2 WiFi connections

1. CollisionAware <=> PilotAware

and

2. PilotAware <=> Skydemon

this would imply that connection (1) was broken, if you did have a monitor connected, you would see a message saying
listening for connection on 2001

Indicating that the connection was indeed lost

I am planning to replace CollisionAware on connection (1) with GPS NMEA, which can supply TCP & UDP connections,
then I plan to make (1) a UDP connection, this does not complain if there are intermittant drops, whereas TCP
connections require a connection to be remade, much less tolerant

One other note, PilotAware WiFi runs on channel 9 at a low 5mW power, I wonder if this could be suffering from higher
power WiFi routers in the same vicinity possibly on the same channel ?

Thx
Lee

[stephenmelody]

Hi Lee,

Here's my kit:

iPad mini 2 with Skydemon
PowerPOD and ARF
ADS-B receiver is this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311367816597?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Wifi is this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231483794170?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The app is working in the background, but P3I is showing Disconnected, I can flick it back to Connected and the status bar returns.

[stephenmelody]

Yes - it's moved to Off.

Could be affected by the corporate wifi here, not sure what channel it's running on (might be able to find out).

Wonder if Trapdoor had this issue in flight, as then I'd imagine that would rule out wifi?

[trapdoor]

Haven't flown with it yet.

Just monitored it on the console and it drops out with a 'socket Timeout' and as you say, the CollisionAware app then shows as being disconnected.

I hadn't actually thought about it being an issue because I've not flown with it yet, so assumed (wrongly?) because SD didn't complain about a loss of GPS and the fact that traffic was still being shown, it was working and I thought perhaps it was something overwriting the blue status line.....

I'm sure it's not being affected by other wifi here ... It's only my kit which is on Channel 1 and channel 10 ... But it's feasible that it's seeing a more distant wifi AP that is transient and kicking it off? I'll run up my InSSIDer app on the MacBook later and have a look to see what's about, but considering signal strengths etc, I'd be very surprised if it was a that.

[Admin]

Hi All

Can I ask how you are supplying power to the RPI ?

Thx
Lee

[trapdoor]

A nice big (12,000mAh 2.1A) Power Bank - RPi isn't complaining about power issues with the cable I'm currently using (although was with the first one I tried immediately after the build) and the WiFi podule isn't getting terribly warm.

Is it easy to change the WiFi Channel Number? I have a very low sig 40Mz bandwidth user (a neighbour judging by the SSID name) across channels 4-12 (git) and I'd quite like to change to Channel 1 which is one of my AP's I can switch off. Again, perhaps a config option in the web interface would be handy?

Mark.

[Admin]

Is it easy to change the WiFi Channel Number? I have a very low sig 40Mz bandwidth user (a neighbour judging by the SSID name) across channels 4-12 (git) and I'd quite like to change to Channel 1 which is one of my AP's I can switch off. Again, perhaps a config option in the web interface would be handy?

OK, looks like I need to add something into the web interface.
Maybe I should add a power level at the same time.
At the moment it is right down at 5mW, but I see a high signal strength

Thx
Lee

[stephenmelody]

Just been up in the sky, no drop outs. But I was flying over BobD's residence where he had his system setup and I got no hits.

Going to boot it off the power pack when I get home to see if there's anything on the console that's telling me it's got an issue...

[Admin]

Phew
Everytime i hear about dropouts I get very nervous
I have spent a lot of time tuning to mitigate these issues, ie power level
Mode g not mode n, etc

Hopefully interference in your home
As mentioned previously maybe a selectable channel and power level

Thx
Lee

[stephenmelody]

I was testing mine at work, I'm going to trial it in my house now. Nothing else round me on channel 9.

(there's nothing on BBC1, BBC2, ITV or Channel 4 for that matter...)

[stephenmelody]

Still getting dropouts at home. I'm going flying again tomorrow, I'll check it again in the air.

Today's airborne trial isn't very valid as I rebooted it a couple of times in the air, wasn't sure it had booted correctly on airplane power, so switched to my powerpack, which I know works.

I'll report back.

Interestingly, this didn't occur with ARF disconnected / not installed. With just the DVB-T receiver, it stayed up and stable for about 5 hours...