Boost PowerFLARM Range with Better Antenna?

Thanks! I now have the center-fed dipole for the "B" connector (not the same antenna connector as for the "A" connector for US Portable PowerFLARMs, btw) but haven't flown with it yet. I'm hoping this boosts the range.

I'll also take a look at Luke's method as the range I got on a few test flights last summer before the Elmira stealth contest seemed to be higher than what I've experienced since then.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"

On Monday, August 1, 2016 at 7:25:31 PM UTC-7, Luke Szczepaniak wrote:
On Friday, 22 July 2016 16:05:10 UTC-4, wrote:
So 2 of us have FLARM CORE - and we put it in Stealth a long time ago and then back to normal - but when we get about 1 or 2 miles apart the other glider disappears - I can see 747's but can't see the other glider? any suggestions?

I've had issues with my FLARM since putting the in stealth mode at the 2015 15m Nationals at Harris Hill. After the contest the range dropped considerably. This morning completely blew away my config by loading a flarmcfg..txt that only contained a single line;

$PFLAR,99


After that I put in a fresh config file generated using the flarm website and my ranges came back to what I was seeing before Elmira.

FWIW
Luke Szczepaniak

#$PFAR,99 = Reboots the device, all settings will reset to default values,
#user configuration is lost
$PFLAR,99

Richard

On Monday, August 1, 2016 at 10:25:31 PM UTC-4, Luke Szczepaniak wrote:
On Friday, 22 July 2016 16:05:10 UTC-4, wrote:
So 2 of us have FLARM CORE - and we put it in Stealth a long time ago and then back to normal - but when we get about 1 or 2 miles apart the other glider disappears - I can see 747's but can't see the other glider? any suggestions?

I've had issues with my FLARM since putting the in stealth mode at the 2015 15m Nationals at Harris Hill. After the contest the range dropped considerably. This morning completely blew away my config by loading a flarmcfg..txt that only contained a single line;

$PFLAR,99


After that I put in a fresh config file generated using the flarm website and my ranges came back to what I was seeing before Elmira.

FWIW
Luke Szczepaniak

Interesting. I seem to be having a similar problem. I thought it might be due to the firmware update. I'll go do a little more digging and compare a couple of log files from before/after using the range analyzer.

It looks like the single sentence just "reinitializes" the unit to default settings?

If the output of the FLARM configurator would have an explanation of each of the parameters we might have a chance of figuring out what is going on.
This is the document link:
http://flarm.com/wp-content/uploads/...ation-1.03.pdf

Here's my latest config file. Vorsicht! It still warns me of myself...
Thanks to John Carlyle and Chris Hostettler, Evan Ludeman and Tim Welles for providing info.
Jim

################################################## ######################
# This configuration file must be text only and reside in the top
# directory of the USB stick. It must be named FLARMCFG.TXT
# Insert stick before power up, remove when normal display is seen,
# (but don't do this if you are writing a debug file - see below)
################################################## ######################

# clears PowerFlarm, sets all parameters to default values
$PFLAC,S,DEF

################################################## ######################
# dataport configuration
################################################## ######################

# nmeaout1 = RJ45 connector, nmeaout2 = DB9 connector
# 71 = v7 GPS + Traffic, 72 = v7 GPS only, 73 = v7 Traffic only
# baud1 = Baud rate on RJ45, baud2 = Baud rate on DB9
# 0 = 4800, 1 = 9600, 2 = 19200, 3 = 28800, 4 = 38400, 5 = 57600

# configure RJ-45 port
$PFLAC,S,NMEAOUT1,73
$PFLAC,S,BAUD1,5

# configure D-SUB 9 port
$PFLAC,S,NMEAOUT2,73
$PFLAC,S,BAUD2,5

# warning horizontal range and vertical range in meters

$PFLAC,S,RANGE,65535
$PFLAC,S,VRANGE,2000
$PFLAC,S,ADSBRANGE,6000
$PFLAC,S,ADSBVRANGE,1000
$PFLAC,S,PCASRANGE,3000
$PFLAC,S,PCASVRANGE,800

################################################## ######################
# transponder and PCAS configuration
################################################## ######################

# do Mode C signal processing, ie, PCAS mode (0=no, 1=yes)
$PFLAC,S,MODEC,1

# own Mode C signal filtering (to eliminate your own xpdr)
# 0=aggressive (use w/ Mode C Xpdr), 1=normal (no Xpdr or Mode S)
# normal in my ship results in false PCAS alerts about every 10 min
$PFLAC,S,OWNMODEC,0

# PCAS antenna gain (30=default, higher makes PCAS targets closer)
$PFLAC,S,PCASCALIBRATION,30

# transponder type (0=None, 1=Mode C, 2=Mode S)
$PFLAC,S,XPDR,2

# use Mode S barometric altitude for PCAS height calc (0=no, 1=yes)
$PFLAC,S,MODESALT,1

# create PCAS beeps (0=no, 1=yes)
$PFLAC,S,PCASBEEP,0

# PCAS output to RJ45 (0=no, 1=yes)
$PFLAC,S,PCASPFLAU1,1

# PCAS output to DB9 (0=no, 1=yes)
$PFLAC,S,PCASPFLAU2,1

# audio out (0=no, 1=yes)
$PFLAC,S,AUDIOOUT,0
$PFLAC,S,AUDIOVOLUME,100

################################################## ######################
# aircraft configuration
################################################## ######################

# aircraft ICAO code (hex)
$PFLAC,S,ID,A2F493

# aircraft type (1=Glider, 2=Towplane, 8=Reciprocating Powerplane)
$PFLAC,S,ACFT,1

$PFLAC,S,PILOT,Jim Staniforth
$PFLAC,S,LOGINT,4
$PFLAC,S,GLIDERID,N292JS
$PFLAC,S,GLIDERTYPE,ASG29-18
$PFLAC,S,COMPCLASS,18m
$PFLAC,S,COMPID,JS

# Stealth Mode (0 no, 1 yes)
$PFLAC,S,PRIV,0

# Third Party Tracking (0 Track, 1 No Track)
$PFLAC,S,NOTRACK,0

On Monday, August 1, 2016 at 7:25:31 PM UTC-7, Luke Szczepaniak wrote:
On Friday, 22 July 2016 16:05:10 UTC-4, wrote:
So 2 of us have FLARM CORE - and we put it in Stealth a long time ago and then back to normal - but when we get about 1 or 2 miles apart the other glider disappears - I can see 747's but can't see the other glider? any suggestions?

I've had issues with my FLARM since putting the in stealth mode at the 2015 15m Nationals at Harris Hill. After the contest the range dropped considerably. This morning completely blew away my config by loading a flarmcfg..txt that only contained a single line;

$PFLAR,99


After that I put in a fresh config file generated using the flarm website and my ranges came back to what I was seeing before Elmira.

FWIW
Luke Szczepaniak

WX, Walt Rogers here...

Luke, I've had a similar problem all year (2016 north american season) ever since I installed firmware 6.06.

My PowerFLARM seems to act like it's constantly in stealth mode. When I run the analyzer from FLARM on the Nephi contest for 65 glider over 7 days... my PF shows 0.5-1km range! ... just like it's in stealth mode. The SYSTEM FLARM setting from my Buterfly v3.4 firmware display shows stealth is OFF. Yet over the previous 3 years, my PF consistently detected 5-9 km range.

I've just did a factory reset using $PFLAR,99 this evening. Tomorrow I will fly with another PF buddy, Jim Staniforth JS. Perhaps I have found the fix..

BTW, I'm driving my SN10B from the PF . The PF is also driving a Butterfly v3.4 display. Could this be the cause of the problem... two devices that can talk to PF?

Anyone else out there with the same limited range symptoms who have TWO devices hooked up... a PF display and another flight computer?

Walt Rogers WX

On Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 9:36:02 PM UTC-5, WaltWX wrote:
On Monday, August 1, 2016 at 7:25:31 PM UTC-7, Luke Szczepaniak wrote:
On Friday, 22 July 2016 16:05:10 UTC-4, wrote:
So 2 of us have FLARM CORE - and we put it in Stealth a long time ago and then back to normal - but when we get about 1 or 2 miles apart the other glider disappears - I can see 747's but can't see the other glider? any suggestions?

I've had issues with my FLARM since putting the in stealth mode at the 2015 15m Nationals at Harris Hill. After the contest the range dropped considerably. This morning completely blew away my config by loading a flarmcfg.txt that only contained a single line;

$PFLAR,99


After that I put in a fresh config file generated using the flarm website and my ranges came back to what I was seeing before Elmira.

FWIW
Luke Szczepaniak

WX, Walt Rogers here...

Luke, I've had a similar problem all year (2016 north american season) ever since I installed firmware 6.06.

My PowerFLARM seems to act like it's constantly in stealth mode. When I run the analyzer from FLARM on the Nephi contest for 65 glider over 7 days.... my PF shows 0.5-1km range! ... just like it's in stealth mode. The SYSTEM FLARM setting from my Buterfly v3.4 firmware display shows stealth is OFF. Yet over the previous 3 years, my PF consistently detected 5-9 km range.

I've just did a factory reset using $PFLAR,99 this evening. Tomorrow I will fly with another PF buddy, Jim Staniforth JS. Perhaps I have found the fix.

BTW, I'm driving my SN10B from the PF . The PF is also driving a Butterfly v3.4 display. Could this be the cause of the problem... two devices that can talk to PF?

Anyone else out there with the same limited range symptoms who have TWO devices hooked up... a PF display and another flight computer?

Walt Rogers WX

Walt, I think I've been having the same problem with my PF, also hooked up to a BF display, an SN-10, and an Oudie2.

There is only one other PF equipped glider where I fly, so data is a bit scarce, but the detection range seems a lot closer (like Stealth) since the 6..06 load. I too will try the PFLAR 99 trick and see if it helps.

Kirk
66

Results of PF hardware reset then test flight today with Jim Staniforth JS:

Strange...

We flew together from separated frequently less than 1-2km... sometimes 0.1km and up to about 10km.

I "WX" never saw Jim's PF target on my Butterfly display... except before takeoff when we were 150 feet apart on the ground.

Jim saw my PF target most of the day. Jim's FLARM analyzer results for our flight averaged 2-3km... max 7.6km.

Both of us show STEALTH OFF

My, "WX", Analyzer FLARM graphic showed "Not Enough Data"

Very strange result.

BTW, I also changed my FLARM antenna... but I don't think this has any bearing on the results.

Walt Rogers WX



On Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 7:36:02 PM UTC-7, WaltWX wrote:
On Monday, August 1, 2016 at 7:25:31 PM UTC-7, Luke Szczepaniak wrote:
On Friday, 22 July 2016 16:05:10 UTC-4, wrote:
So 2 of us have FLARM CORE - and we put it in Stealth a long time ago and then back to normal - but when we get about 1 or 2 miles apart the other glider disappears - I can see 747's but can't see the other glider? any suggestions?

I've had issues with my FLARM since putting the in stealth mode at the 2015 15m Nationals at Harris Hill. After the contest the range dropped considerably. This morning completely blew away my config by loading a flarmcfg.txt that only contained a single line;

$PFLAR,99


After that I put in a fresh config file generated using the flarm website and my ranges came back to what I was seeing before Elmira.

FWIW
Luke Szczepaniak

WX, Walt Rogers here...

Luke, I've had a similar problem all year (2016 north american season) ever since I installed firmware 6.06.

My PowerFLARM seems to act like it's constantly in stealth mode. When I run the analyzer from FLARM on the Nephi contest for 65 glider over 7 days.... my PF shows 0.5-1km range! ... just like it's in stealth mode. The SYSTEM FLARM setting from my Buterfly v3.4 firmware display shows stealth is OFF. Yet over the previous 3 years, my PF consistently detected 5-9 km range.

I've just did a factory reset using $PFLAR,99 this evening. Tomorrow I will fly with another PF buddy, Jim Staniforth JS. Perhaps I have found the fix.

BTW, I'm driving my SN10B from the PF . The PF is also driving a Butterfly v3.4 display. Could this be the cause of the problem... two devices that can talk to PF?

Anyone else out there with the same limited range symptoms who have TWO devices hooked up... a PF display and another flight computer?

Walt Rogers WX

Just guessing here...

Some of this strange behavior being reported could be due to RF noise interference from other devices on your panel. All of the digital stuff on our panels can and will emit lots of RF noise. The amount of noise in any particular radio band can vary by huge amounts depending upon clock frequency harmonics and nuances of how your gadgets are wired up and how close the offending emitter is located with respect to your PF antenna. The presence of a closeby RF noise source can potentially overwhelm the low level radio signal from another PowerFlarm unit that's a few kilometers away. In such an instance, your PF transmissions would be unaffected while your reception performance is diminished.

One way to investigate this is to turn stuff off and see if you can get back to decent range performance. If a particular offender is thus identified, then you can start thinking about how to deal with it (and that may not be easy). At the design level it's often possible to slightly shift the clock frequency of the device processor with a simple code change. At the wiring level, sometimes using ferrites and twisting wires together can make a big difference. Or the answer may be to get the PF antenna further away from the offender(s).

My remarks here are based on related industry experience; I have no actual experience of PF noise interference to base this on. My own PF is working pretty good.

Discouraging, Walt. I had only a few flights last summer to play with my new PowerFLARM but the range seemed OK. Not so much shortly after at Elmira under stealth (expected) but about the same at Fairfield a few months later without stealth (unexpected). Identical avionics. And no better this summer with the software upgrade at Nephi (frustrating).

I haven't flown with the dipole antenna yet. And I will definitely do the reboot/reset that Luke suggested. Hoping to get back where I was.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"

Just received an email from Dave Nadler who reassured me that having two devices connected to the PF, in my case (and it's his setup also), an SN10B and Butterfly display... absolutely works fine.

I was beginning to think that might have been my range issue.

He suggested I swap out my PF core with a known good one. Perhaps the receiver is faulty. That would account for my friends seeing my PF on their displays just fine... but I'm not getting reliable received PF tracks. Finding a local "friend" to swap out their PF core may be difficult since these are the same people I have to fly with to test things in the air. My next step may be to re-install the PF v6.06 firmware (can firmware be rolled back to earlier version?) and firmware on the Butterfly display (v3.4).

BTW, Steve Koerner... thanks for the "heads up" on the RF interference. I did get an increased issue with RF interference that caused a vhf radio squelch break ... that has since almost disappeared. You are right, the slightest changes in wiring routing can cause problems. My panel wiring was changed in a big way and that's when the problem started. In my case it was the power converter causing RF that converted 12V to a usb input on my PDA (Vertica V2).

Walt Rogers WX