PowerFlarm and Mode C

Wondering if someone here might be able to answer this question.

Does PowerFlarm need to have a good GPS fix before it will respond to a Mode C alert?

I have been flying with a Zaon MRX PCAS for years now. Many of those years I used the ZAON in parallel with PowerFlarm. My experience has been that the Zaon completely out performs the PowerFlarm in picking up Mode C signals.

This past weekend, with the glider in the hanger, the Zaon alerted to every single towplane departure. PowerFlarm scored a zero. Nothing.

So, while I know the ADSB antenna on the PowerFlarm does receive (ADSB targets and other Mode C targets) it should have had no trouble receiving the towplane signals with respect to signal strength as the towplane was only 300' away laterally.

As a result, I'm wondering if the PowerFlarm simply ignores all Mode C info if it has not been able to lock on to satelites OR if this has to do with the towplane being at the same altitude as my glider in the hanger. Is it the issue of "same altitude" that's been mentioned many times before where the PowerFlarm may ignore same altitude alerts.

This is the relevant portion of my config file...

$PFLAC,S,ADSBRANGE,65535
$PFLAC,S,ADSBVRANGE,1500
$PFLAC,S,PCASRANGE,7000
$PFLAC,S,PCASVRANGE,600
$PFLAC,S,MODEC,1
$PFLAC,S,OWNMODEC,1
$PFLAC,S,PCASCALIBRATION,30
$PFLAC,S,XPDR,2
$PFLAC,S,MODESALT,0

Either way, I will not be giving up my Zaon any time soon and I even went on ebay and picked up a backup since they are no longer in production. Fantastic little units.

Mark

On Thu, 28 May 2015 04:58:00 -0700, mzivley wrote:

This past weekend, with the glider in the hanger, the Zaon alerted to
every single towplane departure. PowerFlarm scored a zero. Nothing.

As a user of a bog-standard Euro FLARM system, I'd be surprised if my
unit did light up of beep while its stationery and on the ground. Thats
because the standard FLARM is designed to avoid transmitting and showing
alerts while it is stationery on the ground.

Are you sure that the PowerFLARM doesn't do the same?


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

What do you mean when you say alerted to every towplane departure? The Zaon showed the transponder and the PowerFLARM didn't? Or the PowerFLARM didnt show the transponder at all? If the towplane wasn't getting closer to the hangar on its takeoff why would you expect an alert?

The original poster does not understand the configuration of his Flarm unit. Target distance recognition and display are configurable.
When properly set-up for maximum display my unit will show every commercial jet passing overhead and every towplane in the area.

Read the manual.

My PF Core picks up all ModeC/ADSB targets perfectly well, while stationary in my city street in front of my house. Most of the traffic is on approach into a major airport at 3000ft, 3.5NM laterally displaced.
If I open up my ranges in the configuration file, I can see also departing traffic much further away and much higher.

There have been reports here on RAS from people evaluating the PF and MRX side-by-side, who have concluded that the latest PF firmwares outperform the MRX.

Do you understand what your $PFLAC,S,OWNMODEC,1 is for ? (I have mine set to 0)

3U.

On Thursday, May 28, 2015 at 1:02:44 PM UTC-7, wrote:
My PF Core picks up all ModeC/ADSB targets perfectly well, while stationary in my city street in front of my house. Most of the traffic is on approach into a major airport at 3000ft, 3.5NM laterally displaced.
If I open up my ranges in the configuration file, I can see also departing traffic much further away and much higher.

There have been reports here on RAS from people evaluating the PF and MRX side-by-side, who have concluded that the latest PF firmwares outperform the MRX.

Do you understand what your $PFLAC,S,OWNMODEC,1 is for ? (I have mine set to 0)

3U.

I also flew with Zaon for years, and then with both for at least a year, in which the Zaon out performed the powerflarm significantly at the beginning until my powerflarm went through couple of firmware upgrades and eventually I also replaced a faulty antenna, after that the powerflram consistently outperformed the Zaon, especially in altitude difference which the Zaon often did poor job. I eventually sold the Zaon.

As for what you noticed on the ground, this is in purpose. When powerfalm detects you are on the ground, it shuts off Mode C alerts completely. This was confirmed to me by Flarm support when I noticed this couple of years ago..

Ramy (over 1000 hours of flying with Powerflarm and Zaon MRX)

My Flarm seems picks up every C or S transponder in the are that is being interrogated. That's a critical qualifier where I fly because there is absolutely no ATC radar coverage anywhere near our field so the transponders stay silent unless a TCAS equipped aircraft is passing overhead. Even though that doesn't happen the majority of the time I still find the PCAS function of the Flarm quite valuable.

I just had my first ADS-B equipped traffic a few weekends ago when a club member flew through the area in a borrowed turbine powered bird. The ADS-B equipped craft showed up with the same precise location that the Flarm equipped gliders and tow planes do. Nice. (prior to this the only ADS-B traffic I ever saw were airliners passing by miles high and miles away)