Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
User avatar
By G-BLEW
Boss Man  Boss Man
#1179009
....or a solid black aircraft showing it has limited info?


But where would you put that solid black aircraft? Power Flarm doesn't know where it is.

Ian
By Lefty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1179011
The reason they show it as a ring is because they don't have any data as to its position relative to the nose of your aircraft. They only know that it is "x" nm away and "y" feet above / below you you (based upon the difference between your transponder altitude and their transponder altitude.

Only the "Zaon XRX"has a directional antenna which plots relative bearings. Unfortunately the display is not wonderful - and the box itself has the antenna mounted on top of the electronics and display and therefore is (IMHO) a bit too large and clunky and in my a/c blocks out a huge chunk of my forward viz.

The directional antenna doesn't have to be that big. The professional directional antennas are pretty much a flat plate - just 3-5 mm high. i think Zaon could do better. They could also separate the antenna from the electronics. You could have a low profile directional antenna on the coaming, with a thin cable feeding to the electronics - which could display on your iPad or Aera / whatever.

There is a company in the US that make a standalone directional antenna system for this purpose - but last time I looked, they were competing with Zaon, not cooperating.

One could knock up a less intrusive directional antenna by just mounting 4 x 2" high ( very thin) antennae on a small aluminium plate - which would be far less intrusive than the 6"x 6" x 4" tall block that is the Zaon. You could use 4 x antennae from the Zaon mini.

Keef - fancy having a go?
User avatar
By Rod1
#1179016
In my test of the PF unit I compared it with a Zaon. On mode C there were two BIG problems with PF.

1st, No matter what you do the unit will lock on to your own Transponder and it will take 5 – 10 min in the air to work this out. During this time it will not detect any other mode c targets.

2nd, The unit only detected around 20% - 40% of the contacts detected by the Zaon. On a number of occasions I was following another aircraft at about 3nm, I could see it, the Zaon could see it, ATC told me it was there and the PF was just sat showing nothing. Given that right now this is the most common method of detecting other traffic I would not recommend this box.

The issues were reported and I was told that firmware fixes were in the pipeline. Many months later new Firmware arrived and I reran the tests with the same result! As I was finding this part of the test myself I was not impressed.

A lot of people are trying to get the ADSB out rules changed to allow this to become the standard solution. IF this happens then I can report that the PF unit is 1st class at detecting ADSB. It also works fine with FLARM.

With regard to a box that does everything and has all the connections, with the exception of running PFMS not SD, the MGL kit works for non-certified aircraft and offers 1800 NIT which is 6 x a typical tablet so you can see it in bright sunlight.

Rod1
By denopa
#1179209
Rod,
Did you have problem 1 (self echo) with a mode S or mode C xpdr? With Mode S and putting in the HEX code of my aircraft in the PF unit I didn't have any such issues.
On your second point - I was under the impression that PF suppresses clearly non-threatening returns, even for mode C.
By rholder
#1179291
As this is the latest SD thread I thought I would post this here. I expect there is a better place, but so be it - I may be getting shot down in flames for two reasons rather than one !

SD is great and I have my iPad horizontally on my lap. BUT - it is a touch screen and sometimes it gets touched by mistake. In the cruise most of the time SD can be left to get on with its work and doesn't need any input.

Would it be possible to have a button which turns off the touchability over the whole screen except for a small (corner) area where the icon would sit to turn the touchability back on ?

Standing back behind fire-proof screen !

RFWH
aka ANRMAN
User avatar
By Rod1
#1179305
Rod,

“Did you have problem 1 (self echo) with a mode S or mode C xpdr? With Mode S and putting in the HEX code of my aircraft in the PF unit I didn't have any such issues. “
Mode S – correctly set up. I have also verified it with another owner and PF have accepted there is a problem. It is possible that in some aircraft the transponder aerial may be so well shielded from the unit that you do not get the issue.

“On your second point - I was under the impression that PF suppresses clearly non-threatening returns, even for mode C.”
With mode C there is no direction so this function is of limited use. I did try to prove this but the unit just appeared to “see” less traffic. I was told it must be a faulty unit but I found a US forum which had a number of pilots complaining about the same thing. I was then told it would be fixed in Firmware, but the new Firmware made no difference at all. After many months I gave up and sent the test unit back.

I am now waiting to see if the rumored low cost ADSB unit appears and with it a change in the regulations.

Rod1
By chrisN
#1179308
A question, if I may - what benefit comes in practice from ADS-B in PowerFlarm? C
User avatar
By Peter Gristwood
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1179312
Sounds like it's a little too early to go for PF as there are too many questions still to resolve for everyday use.
By PiperArcher
#1189828
Peter Gristwood wrote:Sounds like it's a little too early to go for PF as there are too many questions still to resolve for everyday use.


I agree. The lack of direction detection for mode C / S makes PF as effective really as the small Zaon MRX.

For the money, its probably better to buy a Zaon XRX and the $600 connection that was noted on a recent SD Facebook entry, as that 'should' show direction (unless I am wrong). However, I wish the XRX wasnt so big and bulky and as another poster said, block the view outside the window.

It looks like nothing 'perfect' exists in the portable marker for use with SD. Shame there isnt a Zaon MRX Core, like the PF Core device that can be tucked away behind the instrument panel.
User avatar
By Tim Dawson
SkyDemon developer
#1189833
I've got a Zaon XRX and MX1090 here in the office for development purposes, but I'm trying to sound out whether that's actually a popular combination here in Europe before we invest the time to integrate with it.
User avatar
By Rod1
#1189899
PocketFMS supports the use of the Zaon XRX anti-collision device. The XRX will detect transponder equipped traffic and display it on your Moving Map screens along with the traffic's relative altitude!
By simon_gci
#1189920
As an avid SD user I would like to think that if they do manage to integrate with some kind of traffic vision box type thingy, that the said box could be remote, instead of the large (IMO) ugly box on top of the coaming that I've seen.
User avatar
By Moli
#1189924
Tim Dawson wrote:I've got a Zaon XRX and MX1090 here in the office for development purposes, but I'm trying to sound out whether that's actually a popular combination here in Europe before we invest the time to integrate with it.



Tim
I have an XRX but only use it occasionally coupled to a 695. If it were capable of being connected to SD/iPad, I would use it pretty much all the time.
Moli
By PaulB
#1189927
Moli wrote:
Tim Dawson wrote:I've got a Zaon XRX and MX1090 here in the office for development purposes, but I'm trying to sound out whether that's actually a popular combination here in Europe before we invest the time to integrate with it.



I have an XRX but only use it occasionally coupled to a 695. If it were capable of being connected to SD/iPad, I would use it pretty much all the time.
Moli


+1

Apologies, I've lost the plot... what does the MX1090 do?