PowerFLARM Range Issues - Part Two with info from todays flights

I had a chance to load a new config file and was able to fly today.

There was no "flarm range" in my original config file. With the file I used today the "flarm range" config was set to maximum with the statement below. I had several flarm detections that occured around 4 miles. This is between 2x and 3x what I experienced before so this is a noticable improvement. Still not 6 or 8 miles, but a nice improvement.

I re-set the PCAS ranges and the ADSB ranges and the PCAS function improved only a very small amount. I am still flying with my Zaon pcas and it reported many aircraft that the PowerFlarm did not show at all. A 172 that passed nearby was under 1 mile horizontal and if I remember the Flarm showed it around 1 mile. However it lost the contact only a few moments after it first reported the contact. I did see the towplane on PowerFlarm PCAS but a no more than 1 mile range.

After I put the glider back in the hanger I received one ADSB signal from an aircraft that was 8,000 feet higher and over 10 miles away. Since ADSB comes in on the same antenna that the PCAS receives on I think it's likely that the radio circuit and antenna are working fine and that there is real potential to improve the PCAS via the software.

I didn't see the message about the additional lines in the config file until tonight, but if I fly again this weekend I'll try to test those too.

The one pilot in our group who did not update his config file did not see the 4 mile Flarm performance so it appears that the "as shipped" settings in the brick may be limiting the performance.

The key elements in the config file that I used today are as follows:

# PCAS (transponder) range (meters)
$PFLAC,S,PCASRANGE,10000

# PCAS (transponder) vertical range (meters)
$PFLAC,S,PCASVRANGE,1000

# ADSB range (meters)
$PFLAC,S,ADSBRANGE,65535

# ADSB vertical range (meters)
$PFLAC,S,ADSBVRANGE,65535

# FLARM range (meters)
$PFLAC,S,RANGE,65535


I don't know what settings Flarm intended to have in the units as "as shipped" but I will encourage them to ship units with maximums. Far better to start off with more info and warnings and then pull back than fly around 1/2 blind.

More testing and reports as weather and opportunity present.

One side note, the data dump file that appeared on my USB stick after flying appears to be corrupted. When I got early dump files when I had just received the unit the files appeared neatly arranged with no extra characters. Currently there is tons of gibberish in the file. Not knowing how that file is created or appended, is there a way to reset or clear the file within the brick and hope for less gibberish? Might also just be my USB stick too.

Mark