Mark and everybody,

The range defaults in PowerFLARM 2.40 are as follows:

FLARM: unlimited horizontal/1000ft vertical (*)
PCAS: 4NM horizontal/2000ft vertical
ADS-B: unlimited

(*) The vertical FLARM range cannot be changed.

Additional sensitivity restrictions for both FLARM and PCAS/ADS-B apply.

All values can be reset to the defaults using

$pflac,defaults

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.

That's a strong hint that there was something wrong with your configuration.. Glad that
it works better now.

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.

Yes, that indicates that your installation is otherwise OK.

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.

See above for defaults.

$PFLAC,S,PCASRANGE,10000

This is above 5NM and will be ignored (note to myself: it should be set to the maximum
instead, will fix that).

$PFLAC,S,PCASVRANGE,1000

OK
$PFLAC,S,ADSBRANGE,65535

OK

$PFLAC,S,ADSBVRANGE,65535

OK, but I'd recommend to reduce it to values useful for traffic awareness
in order to reduce clutter.

$PFLAC,S,RANGE,65535

OK

More testing and reports as weather and opportunity present.

Thanks in advance!

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.

Can you send my your original flarmcfg.txt and the dump file by personal mail?

Best
--Gerhard
--
Dr. Gerhard Wesp
Development Manager, Avionics
FLARM Technology GmbH
Switzerland
CH-020.4.033.059-8