USA PF Brick question

On Aug 12, 1:02*pm, Andy wrote:
On Aug 11, 5:58*pm, Andy wrote:

Anyone else see this amber LED after loading? If so, do you have an explanation?

The amber led was caused by the command

$PFLAC,S,PCASRANGE,9656

This command is documented in the data port addendum which states its
max value is 65535m.

However, experimentation has shown that the max value is between 9250
and 9300. *9250 gives a green LED after loading but 9300 gives an
amber LED after loading.

It appears that the amber LED indicates that a command line was not
parsed correctly but that does not seem to be stated in the
documentation.

GY

Mine behaves differently (but good catch!).

If I set pcas and adsb range to 9600m, the file loads with ten or so
green flashes, one red flash, amber very briefly then steady green.
If I set both ranges to 9000m, I get only green flashes, amber
briefly, then steady green. Too bad I have no way to inspect the
settings.

I'm also wondering what "XPDR Alarm" and "Farm UI" options do in the
display setup.

The first, presumably, turns on the warning chime for PCAS (and ADSB?)
traffic. The default, oddly, seems to be "off". Up til now, all I've
gotten from pcas contacts has been a single chirp. Totally useless as
"warning". But I thought that perhaps I just hadn't been bold enough
to let a pcas contact close enough to trigger the warning alarm. Now
I have it turned on, I guess we'll see. I would like to know what the
warning algorithm is for adsb and pcas. The "Flarm UI" default is
also off. The docs make reference to this (flarm external display
instructions, pg 11) but give no clues as to what might happen if I
turn it to "on". I don't recall seeing this option before I did the
2.40 update. It may have been there... scratches head... there's
just so very much about this device that isn't (well enough)
documented.

Opinion: We should not be having to experiment with a device this
expensive (and this difficult and potentially hazardous to test in
flight) in order to figure out what it does and what the optimum
settings are.

-Evan Ludeman / T8

On Saturday, August 11, 2012 5:58:25 PM UTC-7, Andy wrote:
I've been getting familiar with my PowerFLARM brick and Butterfly display before installing it. I created a flarmcfg.txt file and loaded it using a USB stick. The file loads ok as confirmed by the configuration indicating my glider ICAO address. However, after the expected flashing green/red LED sequence, the LED ends up being amber which is supposed to indicate the start-up sequence is still active. The unit operates normally and detects traffic. The LED stays amber whether the stick is removed or not. On the next power up with memory stick removed, the LED ends up being green and the ICAO address is retained. Anyone else see this amber LED after loading? If so, do you have an explanation? thanks, GY

I checked with PowerFlarm US and the current PowerFlarm firmware PF2.4_4100 is compatible with all the sentences in the dataport manual v6.0. and addendum.

I think that the setup could be difficult and have many unintended results, so I would suggest staying to the published FLARMcfg.txt on the PowerFlarm US website. I have tested some Port and Baud settings for my installation
in flight. I have not fooled with the range settings and think that it would be very hard to verify, I suggest staying to the defaults.

http://www.craggyaero.com/installation.htm

also check
http://www.craggyaero.com/cables_&_antennas.htm

for some antenna options.


Richard
www.craggyaero.com

FWIW (not much....) here's an excerpt from my dump file after changing
pcas and adsb range settings to 9000m and 650m vertical. the
organization of this file is by no means obvious -- it isn't
chronological! My reason for messing with this is that my pcas range
seems to be about 3km in practice.



00011.211 INFO Initializing external config...
00011.211 INFO Initializing Configuration from USB MSD
00011.655 INFO CONFIG: reading file FLARMCFG.TXT...
00011.680 INFO CONFIG: set ACFT to 1
00011.684 INFO CONFIG: set XPDR to 0
00011.692 INFO Setting FLARM ID: DF0077
00011.692 INFO CONFIG: set ID to FFFFF R  ë
ÿÿ #œF
00011.702 INFO CONFIG: set PCASRANGE to 9000
00011.703 INFO CONFIG: set PCASVRANGE to 650
00011.705 INFO CONFIG: set ADSBRANGE to 9000
00011.706 INFO CONFIG: set ADSBVRANGE to 650
00011.709 INFO CONFIG: set NMEAOUT2 to 1
00011.711 INFO CONFIG: 0 command(s) successfully executed
00023.031 INFO OK
00023.232 INFO System configuration:
00023.232 INFO freq = 1
00023.232 INFO cflags = 0
00023.233 INFO ui = 1
00023.233 INFO priv = 0 S  ë
ÿÿ #œ
00023.239 INFO thre = 2
00023.239 INFO range = 20000
00023.239 INFO acft = 1
00023.240 INFO logint = 4
00023.240 INFO vol = 3
00023.240 INFO pilot = undefined
00023.241 INFO copilot = undefined
00023.241 INFO gliderid = undefined
00023.242 INFO glidertype = undefined
00023.242 INFO compid = undefined
00023.242 INFO pilot = undefined
00023.243 INFO nmeaout = 1
00023.243 INFO nmeaout1 = 1
00023.244 INFO nmeaout2 = 1
0 T  ë
ÿÿ #œ0023.254 INFO baud = 2
00023.270 INFO baud1 = 2
00023.285 INFO baud2 = 2
00023.302 INFO ID = FFFFFF
00023.321 INFO pcasrange = 9000
00023.340 INFO adsbrange = 9000
00023.359 INFO pcasvrange = 650
00023.379 INFO adsbvrange = 650
00023.394 INFO xpdr = 0
00023.416 INFO rssi_threshold = 1023
00023.436 INFO rssi_bandwidth = 0
00023.452 INFO modec = 1
00023.471 INFO brightness = 100
00023.489 INFO batterytype = 0


More info:

It looks like (from older logs in the dump) the default settings in
v2.40 appear to be 8000m range and 1000m vertical range for both pcas
and adsb.

The default settings in 2.21beta, which is what we received at 15m
nats, were pcasrange=7408, adsbrange=65535, pcasvrange=610,
adsbvrange=1000

Having tampered this much with it, I think Richard is right: stick
with the defaults unless you have a really good reason to do
otherwise. I doubt very much that changing the pcasrange from 7408
(old software) to 9000 (maximum allowed in new software) is going to
yield the improvement I was looking for.

-Evan Ludeman / T8

On Aug 12, 10:58*am, Evan Ludeman wrote:

If I set pcas and adsb range to 9600m, the file loads with ten or so
green flashes, one red flash, amber very briefly then steady green.
If I set both ranges to 9000m, I get only green *flashes, amber
briefly, then steady green. *Too bad I have no way to inspect the
settings.

Yes, you can inspect them with this command that continuously writes
a diagnostic file to the usb stick:

$debug_out,fat,scheduler|config|baro|rf|gps|pffsm, all

If you see the vertical bar symbol replace it with a forward slash

Andy

On Aug 12, 3:09*pm, Andy wrote:
On Aug 12, 10:58*am, Evan Ludeman wrote:

If I set pcas and adsb range to 9600m, the file loads with ten or so
green flashes, one red flash, amber very briefly then steady green.
If I set both ranges to 9000m, I get only green *flashes, amber
briefly, then steady green. *Too bad I have no way to inspect the
settings.

Yes, *you can inspect them with this command that continuously writes
a diagnostic file to the usb stick:

$debug_out,fat,scheduler|config|baro|rf|gps|pffsm, all

If you see the vertical bar symbol replace it with a forward slash

Andy

Ah, I thought that was just for portable. Yes this is much easier
than sifting through the dump file.

-Evan / T8

On Aug 12, 10:15*am, wrote:
I had the same problem.
It is caused by the PCAS range setting.
This setting should be 9000 or smaller
Larger than 9000 will keep the orange LED on (indicating an error)

While that's almost true it is not quite accurate. 9250 is accepted
but 9300 is not.

Has anyone found out how to reset the brick to factory defaults? if
it's documented I haven't found it yet.

GY

On Sunday, August 12, 2012 3:36:31 PM UTC-4, Andy wrote:
On Aug 12, 10:15*am, wrote:

I had the same problem.

It is caused by the PCAS range setting.

This setting should be 9000 or smaller

Larger than 9000 will keep the orange LED on (indicating an error)



While that's almost true it is not quite accurate. 9250 is accepted

but 9300 is not.



Has anyone found out how to reset the brick to factory defaults? if

it's documented I haven't found it yet.



GY

The DATA PORT SPECIFICATIONS has all the default values underlined. There is no apparent single command to reset them all at once.

-Jim

On Sunday, August 12, 2012 3:36:31 PM UTC-4, Andy wrote:
On Aug 12, 10:15*am, wrote:

I had the same problem.

It is caused by the PCAS range setting.

This setting should be 9000 or smaller

Larger than 9000 will keep the orange LED on (indicating an error)



While that's almost true it is not quite accurate. 9250 is accepted

but 9300 is not.



Has anyone found out how to reset the brick to factory defaults? if

it's documented I haven't found it yet.



GY

The DATA PORT SPECIFICATION says the default PFLAC values are underlined. However, it also says:"Factory preset values can differ from default values."

There is no apparent single command to reset them all at once.

-Jim

On Sunday, August 12, 2012 10:58:03 AM UTC-7, Evan Ludeman wrote:
On Aug 12, 1:02*pm, Andy wrote:

On Aug 11, 5:58*pm, Andy wrote:



Anyone else see this amber LED after loading? If so, do you have an explanation?



The amber led was caused by the command



$PFLAC,S,PCASRANGE,9656



This command is documented in the data port addendum which states its

max value is 65535m.



However, experimentation has shown that the max value is between 9250

and 9300. *9250 gives a green LED after loading but 9300 gives an

amber LED after loading.



It appears that the amber LED indicates that a command line was not

parsed correctly but that does not seem to be stated in the

documentation.



GY



Mine behaves differently (but good catch!).



If I set pcas and adsb range to 9600m, the file loads with ten or so

green flashes, one red flash, amber very briefly then steady green.

If I set both ranges to 9000m, I get only green flashes, amber

briefly, then steady green. Too bad I have no way to inspect the

settings.



I'm also wondering what "XPDR Alarm" and "Farm UI" options do in the

display setup.



The first, presumably, turns on the warning chime for PCAS (and ADSB?)

traffic. The default, oddly, seems to be "off". Up til now, all I've

gotten from pcas contacts has been a single chirp. Totally useless as

"warning". But I thought that perhaps I just hadn't been bold enough

to let a pcas contact close enough to trigger the warning alarm. Now

I have it turned on, I guess we'll see. I would like to know what the

warning algorithm is for adsb and pcas. The "Flarm UI" default is

also off. The docs make reference to this (flarm external display

instructions, pg 11) but give no clues as to what might happen if I

turn it to "on". I don't recall seeing this option before I did the

2.40 update. It may have been there... scratches head... there's

just so very much about this device that isn't (well enough)

documented.



Opinion: We should not be having to experiment with a device this

expensive (and this difficult and potentially hazardous to test in

flight) in order to figure out what it does and what the optimum

settings are.



-Evan Ludeman / T8

I find the audio alert to be inadequate, especially when the cockpit is noisy with wind noise and/or vario beeping. It is set to the high volume, but I sure hope this can be made louder in the future. I understand this has to do with the display and not the brick itself. I recall the midair flarm simulation video had a very distinct loud alert, not just chimes. Did anyone compare the audio alerts between the portable, rectangular display and panel display?
The other thing I find inadequate is the PCAS functionality. Even after moving the antenna around, I get significantly less alerts than my Zaon. I was hoping to remove my Zaon but so far it looks like I will need to keep both..
I understand that it is all under development still, but will be great if we could get updates of what is coming up, known issues etc.

On Aug 13, 1:00*pm, Ramy wrote:

I find the audio alert to be inadequate, especially when the cockpit is noisy with wind noise and/or vario beeping. It is set to the high volume, but I

Ramy - What display are you using? I have the "rectangular" display
mounted on a gooseneck just in front of my panel and find it to be
plenty loud (even at 85+ knots).

--Noel