Power Flarm Display

On Monday, March 18, 2013 1:56:32 AM UTC-4, Ramy wrote:
Yes, the 2.7 beta works well for updating powerflarm display without the cable, for IGC and Flarm traffic.



Ramy

If there's a public 2.7x beta, please provide a link.

T8

On Mar 17, 6:03*pm, Evan Ludeman wrote:
*Sadly, my mode c/s pcas range on powerflarm still stinks, it's one or two miles *at best*. *Saw a bizjet rip by at less than 2 miles. *Not a peep :-(.


I'm glad to hear another report of this. It exactly matches my
experience. Head on traffic less than a mile away - in sight ,
alerted by ZAON PCAS, and Power FLARM portable indicated nothing!

I hope FLARM will eventually recognize this problem and correct it.
Until then I don't fly without my ZAON MRX.

Andy

On Monday, March 18, 2013 10:44:54 AM UTC-4, Andy wrote:
On Mar 17, 6:03*pm, Evan Ludeman wrote:

*Sadly, my mode c/s pcas range on powerflarm still stinks, it's one or two miles *at best*. *Saw a bizjet rip by at less than 2 miles. *Not a peep :-(.


I'm glad to hear another report of this. It exactly matches my

experience. Head on traffic less than a mile away - in sight ,

alerted by ZAON PCAS, and Power FLARM portable indicated nothing!

I hope FLARM will eventually recognize this problem and correct it.

Until then I don't fly without my ZAON MRX.

Andy

I seem to remember about a year ago Darryl Ramm wrote about the difficulties involved in doing what the Zaon MRX does so well. There are a lot of non-trivial problems to be solved, it's by no means straight forward.

I'll see if I can find his post; if I do I'll write again. Or perhaps Darryl will see this and re-post his excellent explanation.

-John, Q3

On Monday, March 18, 2013 11:37:46 AM UTC-4, John Carlyle wrote:
On Monday, March 18, 2013 10:44:54 AM UTC-4, Andy wrote:

On Mar 17, 6:03*pm, Evan Ludeman wrote:



*Sadly, my mode c/s pcas range on powerflarm still stinks, it's one or two miles *at best*. *Saw a bizjet rip by at less than 2 miles. *Not a peep :-(.





I'm glad to hear another report of this. It exactly matches my



experience. Head on traffic less than a mile away - in sight ,



alerted by ZAON PCAS, and Power FLARM portable indicated nothing!



I hope FLARM will eventually recognize this problem and correct it.



Until then I don't fly without my ZAON MRX.



Andy



I seem to remember about a year ago Darryl Ramm wrote about the difficulties involved in doing what the Zaon MRX does so well. There are a lot of non-trivial problems to be solved, it's by no means straight forward.



I'll see if I can find his post; if I do I'll write again. Or perhaps Darryl will see this and re-post his excellent explanation.



-John, Q3

Darryl had two really good posts on the Zaon MRX that I was remembering:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!ms...U/zhcTC9v2SpkJ
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!ms...E/edTRxve7aMAJ

Darryl's first post explains some of the problems Zaon deals with in detecting another transponder. His second explains some of the limitations of the Zaon.

It's pretty amazing that the Zaon works as well as it does, and it's also clear that FLARM had a pretty big technical problem on its hands in getting the PowerFLARM to work as well as the Zaon.

-John, Q3

On 3/18/2013 7:44 AM, Andy wrote:
On Mar 17, 6:03 pm, Evan Ludeman wrote:
Sadly, my mode c/s pcas range on powerflarm still stinks, it's one
or two miles *at best*. Saw a bizjet rip by at less than 2 miles.
Not a peep :-(.


I'm glad to hear another report of this. It exactly matches my
experience. Head on traffic less than a mile away - in sight ,
alerted by ZAON PCAS, and Power FLARM portable indicated nothing!

I hope FLARM will eventually recognize this problem and correct it.
Until then I don't fly without my ZAON MRX.

Are you using the Core or Portable (if so, has it had the recent
hardware upgrade)?

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)

On Monday, March 18, 2013 12:33:55 PM UTC-4, Eric Greenwell wrote:
On 3/18/2013 7:44 AM, Andy wrote:

On Mar 17, 6:03 pm, Evan Ludeman wrote:

Sadly, my mode c/s pcas range on powerflarm still stinks, it's one

or two miles *at best*. Saw a bizjet rip by at less than 2 miles.

Not a peep :-(.





I'm glad to hear another report of this. It exactly matches my

experience. Head on traffic less than a mile away - in sight ,

alerted by ZAON PCAS, and Power FLARM portable indicated nothing!



I hope FLARM will eventually recognize this problem and correct it.

Until then I don't fly without my ZAON MRX.



Are you using the Core or Portable (if so, has it had the recent

hardware upgrade)?

I have one of the first US Core models.

In addition to the problem with range, there is also a serious problem (imo) with presentation. My butterfly display (and so far as I know all of the flarm displays) simply gives a circle and a relative altitude. It's completely useless to me. What would be vastly better is digital presentation of range and relative altitude (like Zaon) and trend indicators on both range and altitude (I think Zaon only indicates trend on alt).

T8

I have one of the first US Core models.



In addition to the problem with range, there is also a serious problem (imo) with presentation. My butterfly display (and so far as I know all of the flarm displays) simply gives a circle and a relative altitude. It's completely useless to me. What would be vastly better is digital presentation of range and relative altitude (like Zaon) and trend indicators on both range and altitude (I think Zaon only indicates trend on alt).



T8

I would also be useful if it would show the code they are squawking i.e.

1200 - A VFR aircraft
1202 - Another Glider
02xx - A local IFR aircraft talking to the Local ATC.
03xx - A local VFR aircraft talking to the Local ATC.
43xx - Likely an Airliner or Jet.

Brian

Hi Andy,

Has your PowerFLARM Portable been upgraded as per the recent recall?

Thanks,

Paul Remde

"Andy" wrote in message
...

On Mar 17, 6:03 pm, Evan Ludeman wrote:
Sadly, my mode c/s pcas range on powerflarm still stinks, it's one or two
miles *at best*. Saw a bizjet rip by at less than 2 miles. Not a peep
:-(.


I'm glad to hear another report of this. It exactly matches my
experience. Head on traffic less than a mile away - in sight ,
alerted by ZAON PCAS, and Power FLARM portable indicated nothing!

I hope FLARM will eventually recognize this problem and correct it.
Until then I don't fly without my ZAON MRX.

Andy

On Monday, March 18, 2013 7:32:16 AM UTC-7, Evan Ludeman wrote:
On Monday, March 18, 2013 1:56:32 AM UTC-4, Ramy wrote:

Yes, the 2.7 beta works well for updating powerflarm display without the cable, for IGC and Flarm traffic.







Ramy



If there's a public 2.7x beta, please provide a link.



T8

2.7 beta is not public as far as I know.
PCAS issues still exists unfortunately. They are working on it. Those who fly with both Zaon and PF can help by turning on the log feature and provide the log file and time when there is major discrepancy. This is what I am doing.
As far as the butterfly display for PCAS alert, the butterfly folks are also working on improving it. Frankly I think it is important to provide constructive feedback to the Flarm and Butterfly folks so they can continue improving their products. Not sure what is the best channel for this though - RAS, email or the Powerflarm forum at
http://flarm.invisionzone.com/index.php?showforum=6
After flying with Powerflarm for 9 month now I must say that the flarm functionality is impressive.

Ramy

On Mar 18, 2:37*pm, "Paul Remde" wrote:


Has your PowerFLARM Portable been upgraded as per the recent recall?


No, but he recall relates to FLARM signal reception and has nothing to
do with PCAS performance. The PCAS reception and processing is done
in a separate module.

Andy