PowerFLARM antenna mounts

On Monday, July 9, 2012 2:31:48 AM UTC-4, FLARM wrote:
We have published an Application note for the FLARM antenna installation:
http://powerflarm.us/manuals-softwar...release-notes/

Deep link:
http://powerflarm.us/wp-content/uplo...e_ANTENNAS.pdf

Still a bit raw, but we will update it with more pictures and examples.

Excellent,

How do I get one of the 1/4 wave whip antenna's shown on p6 of the Application Note? Who it the manufacturer and what is the part number?

QT

On Monday, July 9, 2012 2:31:48 AM UTC-4, FLARM wrote:
We have published an Application note for the FLARM antenna installation:
http://powerflarm.us/manuals-softwar...release-notes/

Deep link:
http://powerflarm.us/wp-content/uplo...e_ANTENNAS.pdf

Still a bit raw, but we will update it with more pictures and examples.

Looking at page 6, there is a much less offensive 1/4 wave antenna shown that Flarm folks say works well.
Any of you expert guys have an idea where we get on of these?
Thanks
UH

On 7/8/2012 10:31 PM, Chris Nicholas wrote:
We are all faced with fitting these things to legacy gliders of
varying geometry and materials. The carbon fibre fuselage seems to
pose most problems.

I hope glider designers in future make installation of transponders,
Flarm and PowerFlarm etc. easier, without dead spots or vision
impairment.

You can already order your new glider with a transponder antenna, and
I'm sure you'll be able to order it with PowerFlarm antennas, once
PowerFlarm settles on a design (some time next year?).

I like the idea of mounting the brick in the top of the tail, where a
lot of gliders have a place for battery. My glider already has a two
wire cable there with 12 volts on it. I'd still have to run a cable
forward to the display.

The antennas could mounted inside the box in some cases; otherwise, the
two antennas could be mounted on a short extension of the TE probe
mount. The TE mount location should give the antennas an awesome view of
the world, even on a carbon glider; mounting in the box could also work
well on gliders with non-carbon horizontal stabilizers.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Feb/2010" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm
http://tinyurl.com/yb3xywl
- "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation Mar/2004" Much of what
you need to know tinyurl.com/yfs7tnz

The human eye focuses at "infinity" from a around three meters on out. I don't think I can get a PowerFlarm antenna that far away from me unless I'm looking at it from the back of a tandem two seater. I mounted a mock up of the portable and its antennas on the glare shield of my ASW-15 and found it very distracting and obstructive (my compass is in the panel and my yaw string is only an inch and a half long and is mounted far forward on the canopy so only the string itself is visible when seated in the glider).

A friend of mine has been trying to purchase a portable for over a month but the dealer told him he wasn't shipping them because he was waiting for a(nother) fix from the manufacturer before selling any. He hasn't been able to get any updates on the situation since the initial contact.

I'm waiting until the brick is out and has gone through several revisions. I don't like the idea of being a retail customer and performing the duties of a beta tester. Whenever I get the brick I'm going to have to either ditch my mechanical vario so I can install the 57mm display or get a new electric vario/computer which can show the Flarm data on its primary display because there's no room left on the panel.

One question I have is if the range is seriously decreased by mounting the antenna at an angle, does banking the glider also result in reduced range?

On Friday, July 6, 2012 2:43:49 AM UTC-7, (unknown) wrote:
The human eye focuses at "infinity" from a around three meters on out. I don't think I can get a PowerFlarm antenna that far away from me unless I'm looking at it from the back of a tandem two seater. I mounted a mock up of the portable and its antennas on the glare shield of my ASW-15 and found it very distracting and obstructive (my compass is in the panel and my yaw string is only an inch and a half long and is mounted far forward on the canopy so only the string itself is visible when seated in the glider).

A friend of mine has been trying to purchase a portable for over a month but the dealer told him he wasn't shipping them because he was waiting for a(nother) fix from the manufacturer before selling any. He hasn't been able to get any updates on the situation since the initial contact.

I'm waiting until the brick is out and has gone through several revisions.. I don't like the idea of being a retail customer and performing the duties of a beta tester. Whenever I get the brick I'm going to have to either ditch my mechanical vario so I can install the 57mm display or get a new electric vario/computer which can show the Flarm data on its primary display because there's no room left on the panel.

One question I have is if the range is seriously decreased by mounting the antenna at an angle, does banking the glider also result in reduced range?

Why do you want to focus on the antenna? You are not supposed to be staring at it. Not focusing on it will (with the help of stereo vision) help it disappear from your view as you scan.

All of the vertically polarized radio signals we use (Airband VHF, transponders, FLARM, ADS-B, etc.) are affected by orientation differences between the transmitting and receiving antennas. By having antennas mounted as vertical as possible to begin with the largest extremes of relative antenna mis-alignment vs aircraft bank are minimized.

Darryl

I'm waiting until the brick is out and has gone through several revisions. I don't like the idea of being a retail customer and performing the duties of a beta tester. Whenever I get the brick I'm going to have to either ditch my mechanical vario so I can install the 57mm display or get a new electric vario/computer which can show the Flarm data on its primary display because there's no room left on the panel.


No need to wait for future revisions. The PowerFlarms are performing as advertised. I was mildly skeptical about the performance, but after flying with a brick unit for the past 2 weeks at a contest, it worked admirably. My only problem was a faulty Butterfly display (bad control switch). The unit worked, but the interface was toast. The display was replaced I was good to go.



One question I have is if the range is seriously decreased by mounting the antenna at an angle, does banking the glider also result in reduced range?


My PowerFlarm A antenna is mounted about 25 deg off of vertical on the top of my glare shield. I had no issues identifying ships out as far as 6 SM. When turning, a distant ship would infrequently drop out for a moment, but would reacquire very quickly as the turn progressed (carbon fiber cockpit blocks the signal). This was not a problem with closer in ships. I might revise my antenna installation with a more conventional mounting bracket than what I am currently using, but maybe not. It worked very well even though it wasn't set in the ideal position.

I took an in-flight photo of my PowerFLARM antenna installation (way
up in the nose of my DG-300). If you think the antenna obstructs too
much of your vision for safety, compare it to the yaw string! Glider
wings are much wider than either item, BTW - and I think you have a
better chance of seeing relative motion of the wings than picking out
the shape of a fuselage or vertical fin.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/noel_wade/7518094912/

For the record, my antenna sticks up slightly above my compass, and is
on a plastic arm that puts it 7" ahead of the compass so it has a
roughly 320-degree clear field-of-view. I can see targets 6-8 miles
away occasionally, and 4-6 miles away without any trouble - even at my
6 o'clock when the target is only 200 feet behind me, 100 feet below
me, and chasing my ass (ask me how I know!). The only time I lose lock
on sailplanes is when they're at least 2 miles away and thermalling
above my altitude. The target comes and goes; and I suspect that has
as more to do with their antenna and fuselage/internals than my
antenna.

My ADS-B antenna is mounted on the inside of my turtle-deck, and picks
up transponders at least 6 miles out.

I will admit that it took a solid day of work to install my PowerFLARM
and run all the wires and get all the cables working. There was
grumbling and cursing involved (mostly because I was having to mount
it under the seatpan as my DG-300 has no space left in the instrument
pedestal). However once I started flying with it, all was
forgiven. I flew with it in the Standard Class Nationals and I am
100% convinced that it was well worth the effort. I am VERY HAPPY I
have it. Because of the terrain and conditions, several tasks
included MATs with reciprocal headings - and on at least 2 or 3
occasions FLARM alerted me to head-on traffic near my altitude, flying
near cloudbase where I would NOT have seen the traffic until the last
moment.

I hope future generations of the product have a better form-factor and
become easier to install (or at least some enterprising distributor/
reseller starts offering custom wiring harnesses)... But the current
version is fine as it stands and offers a lot of value - and safety -
for the money!

--Noel
P.S. (OK, I _do_ wish they'd hurry up and get the logger
functionality working... I almost didn't have a valid flight trace at
the Nats and could have used a backup logger that's IGC-legal!)

On Friday, July 6, 2012 7:45:45 PM UTC-7, noel.wade wrote:
compare it to the yaw string!


I happen to like your yaw string! (grin)

bumper

Hey all,

I've read (and reread) the installation notes for PowerFlarm. All of the illustrations I've seen seem to show only one dipole antenna (the Primary Flarm Antenna) mounted above the glareshield. Does this mean that the ADS-B antenna can be mounted underneath? I'm assuming due to the higher power output of Transponders the answer to that is "yes"... Any clarification appreciated.

P3

On 08/13/2014 8:54 PM, Papa3 wrote:
Hey all,

I've read (and reread) the installation notes for PowerFlarm. All of the illustrations I've seen seem to show only one dipole antenna (the Primary Flarm Antenna) mounted above the glareshield. Does this mean that the ADS-B antenna can be mounted underneath? I'm assuming due to the higher power output of Transponders the answer to that is "yes"... Any clarification appreciated.

P3

I've had issues with the PCAS/ADS-B antenna mounted inside the
instrument pod of my 27. It was surrounded by carbon (both the
instrument pod and the fuselage..) on all sides but the top so I was
only getting traffic warnings from XPNDRs above me.. Other pilots I
know have reported success with this location but I have noticed a
significant improvement since I moved it out side of the instrument tub.

YMMV
Luke