SoftRF Skyview device database

[Gary Jones]

I'm building out trackers to go in our club ships and playing with the Skyview EZ so each ship has a rudimentary display of the tracker's received data. I have one working well and showing radar and traffic info screens nicely, connecting to both the t-beam and t-echo devices. BUT.... i'd love to get the OGN database downloaded and working. I followed the instructions from github but the databases at https://github.com/lyusupov/SoftRF/tree/master/software/data/Aircrafts look to be 4 years old. Does that seem right? Not being able to get an updated version I can't establish if the file is being opened/read and giving CN/Tail instead of the devices hex-code. Anyone have any advice?

[Moshe Braner]

On 3/19/2023 6:37 PM, Gary Jones wrote:
> I'm building out trackers to go in our club ships and playing with the Skyview EZ so each ship has a rudimentary display of the tracker's received data. I have one working well and showing radar and traffic info screens nicely, connecting to both the t-beam and t-echo devices. BUT.... i'd love to get the OGN database downloaded and working. I followed the instructions from github but the databases at https://github.com/lyusupov/SoftRF/tree/master/software/data/Aircrafts look to be 4 years old. Does that seem right? Not being able to get an updated version I can't establish if the file is being opened/read and giving CN/Tail instead of the devices hex-code. Anyone have any advice?
>

I've modified the SkyView software in several important ways. Most
importantly, redesigned the traffic warnings. But also I have replaced
its use of an SQLITE database. Instead, it now uses the CDB data
format. Put the file ogn.cdb in the Aircrafts folder on the SD card. A
recent copy of ogn.cdb is in the software/data/Aircrafts folder. And an
up to date copy can be downloaded at any time from
http://soaringweather.no-ip.info/ADB/data - updated daily, I have no
idea who put that service up. At this time only the OGN data is
available in this format, not Flarmnet.
https://github.com/moshe-braner/SoftRF/tree/master/software/firmware/binaries/ESP32/SkyView

[kinsell]

On 3/19/23 4:37 PM, Gary Jones wrote:
> I'm building out trackers to go in our club ships and playing with the Skyview EZ so each ship has a rudimentary display of the tracker's received data. I have one working well and showing radar and traffic info screens nicely, connecting to both the t-beam and t-echo devices. BUT.... i'd love to get the OGN database downloaded and working. I followed the instructions from github but the databases at https://github.com/lyusupov/SoftRF/tree/master/software/data/Aircrafts look to be 4 years old. Does that seem right? Not being able to get an updated version I can't establish if the file is being opened/read and giving CN/Tail instead of the devices hex-code. Anyone have any advice?

How good are these receivers? I wouldn't expect them to be as good as a
Flarm, but wonder if they're useful for low-time pilots flying club
ships occasionally.

[Gary Jones]

Keep learning about the product. It's being adopted by the SSA who are providing free receivers to clubs to encourage the uptake. However you don't need a receiver on the ground to get proximity warnings. Two gliders carrying a device each will be able to see each other on the flarm screen in XCSOAR, OUDIE or one of the buildable display units. I'd say that alone was worth the ~$60 spend to build one and honestly they're a run project to do. Are they as good as FLARM? I'm sure no... you get what you pay for. Dad always taught me that. But the cost of FLARM prevents the frugal from adopting anything at all. Perhaps this is the answer in the meantime so that OGN AND FLARM traffic can see one another, and certainly better than nothing!

[kinsell]

SSA is providing ground-based receivers for tracking purposes, that's
quite different than receivers in ships for collision avoidance. We're
talking about the latter. I'm just interested in how readable the
displays are, how good the audio alerts are, whether you get continuous
proximity alarms when thermaling with other gliders (like the old PCAS
systems), things of that nature.

Dave

[Gary Jones]

Correct, receivers are on the ground, trackers (per the wiki) or FLARM compatible devices in the ship. The latter will talk to one another without the need for the ground receiver. That was the point I was trying and failing to get to. I have my t-beam connected to XCSOAR for visual indication. A majority of the SOFTRF devices can be configured with an external speaker to give audible warnings too. There are some development forks that are exploring this functionality more, using different announcement lengths and voices to indicate level of urgency. I think this will only continue to improve as the community continues to adopt the tech. At some point I want to connect my lxnav S80 to the device output ( i have to purchase the bluetooth dongle), to see what visual and audible indication that gives me, thus replacing my temporary xcsoar setup.