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Rev. 20200728
GXAirCom 1.2.2
TABLE OF CONTENT
WHY IS THIS USEFUL FOR FREE FLIGHT? 4
ARE THERE OTHER SOLUTIONS OUT THERE? 4
POWERING ON AND OFF THE TTGO T-BEAM V1.X 7
CHARGING THE BATTERY ON THE TTGO T-BEAM V1.X 7
SETTING UP WITH LK8000 ON ANDROID. 15
SETTING UP WITH XCSOAR ON ANDROID. 20
SETTING UP WITH XCTRACK ON ANDROID. 25
EXTRA CONFIGURATIONS AND OPTIONS 29
BROADCASTING TO INTERNET (AirWhere Live Map) 29
GROUND STATION WITH OLED SCREEN 33
FIRMWARE UPDATE USING WEB INTERFACE 34
PRINTING A 3D HOUSING FOR THE HARDWARE 38
TROUBLESHOOTING QUICK SHEET 38
GXAirCom is a software solution written and programmed by Gerald Eichner to work in low budget hardware devices that uses LoRa frequencies.
It's main purpose is to send and receive the geographical position of other devices running any software compatible with the FANET protocol, in real time, using radio frequencies.
It' has been tested to have a direct useful range of more than 20km on flying aircrafts on ideal conditions, and can be expected to be above the 10km range when on visual line of communication.
It works on FANET (Flying ad-hoc network), a radio network protocol adopted by many flying aircrafts, specially on the free flying community, that uses the 868mhz or 915mhz band.
It also can be used to broadcast positions to internet from an internet connected device (airborne or ground station), that receives all the radio signals, process and upload their positions to a website where the flying aircrafts can be viewed from any web browser.
Other commonly used systems are ADS-B, ATCRBS transponder, and FLARM, but they tend to be more expensive, battery hungry, or heavy to carry.
Some nice explanation on FANET and FLARM can be found on this XCMAG publication.
https://xcmag.com/paraglider-reviews/naviter-oudie-5-pro-and-xc-review/
We copy / Paste the text about Flarm and FANET for this manual.
The FLARM system (FLight alARM) is all about making us electronically-visible to other aircraft for the purpose of collision avoidance. It has a working range of about 20km and is particularly useful if you fly in an area with a lot of sailplane traffic, such as in the Alps.
All sailplanes have it in Switzerland, Germany and France, and the Flarm (we’re done with all the capital letters from here on) website claims that more than 50% of general aviation air traffic, including planes and helicopters, have it in Europe (including the UK). More than 20,000 drones also use Flarm, according to flarm.com.
Flarm then does away with the need for expensive and power-hungry transponders, allows us to be seen by our fellow pilots, and goes some way to future-proofing ourselves against the rise of the drones.
FANET (Flying Ad-hoc NETwork) meanwhile is an open-source network designed to pass data between instruments over a low-power radio connection. The way the system is designed each instrument acts as a relay, so information can be passed much further by bouncing through intermediate instruments.
As well as positional data the system can be used to send messages between instruments, eg status updates. By adding ground stations into the network they can act as gateways to the internet, so you can receive up-to-date weather information, or send your position to live-tracking servers without the need for a mobile phone or satellite internet connection.
For airsports like Hang Gliding or Paragliding, where you want to keep your flying instruments to the lightest and cheapest possible, and with more crowded airspaces every day, and more pilots getting into the sport, keeping situational awareness gets complicated. Sometimes you are flying with 10 friends and when you start turning into a thermal, you lose sight of them and they blend into the landscape and makes it impossible to find them again even when you know that they are nearby. Til now, only workaround was to call them on the radio and ask for their location, hopping that their answer would be so clear and detailed that you can narrow their position and eventually find them.
Now with the use of this devices, instead of talking through the radio, you will see them in your flight computer screen.
It will also tell you when they are climbing, and how far, so you can fly to them with ease, even when you are having trouble spotting them in the air.
It also allows you to be aware of other aircrafts on the vicinity that you didn´t account for, and avoid close encounters.
It's like flying with a very expensive radar without the “expensive” part.
With this kind of devices, the radio communications are no longer needed for position reporting or for good climbing spots. You just need to see your screen and figure out if that pilot that is climbing really well is within your reach to join.
In fact, this improvement on situational awareness is so “quantum leap forward” that at the time of this writing, it's forbidden to use on Hang Gliding or Paragliding competitions because the one who uses it has a noticeable advantage over the other pilots.
So if we start using this kind of devices, there would be no more excuse of not seeing every closeby aircraft all the time.
It's important to add that this devices are not meant to function as Flight Avoidance collision system but it can help the pilot to avoid difficult situations beforehand.
As a matter of fact, GXAirCom is not the first software to implement the FANET or a similar protocol for free flying applications.
A few other good solutions are out there, offered free of charge, and with lots of pilots already using them from a while ago.
To mention two:
AirWhere.co.uk, by Phil Colbert, has a really good implementation of this software, with lots of pilots using it already all over the world, use similar hardware and has a lot of configuration options at the moment, and its 100% compatible with GXAirCom.
Its code is not open source at the moment.
SoftRF, by Linar Yusupov. It has a lot of documentation. Has been tested on Sailplane Races, and its code is open to the public, so any programmer can take a look inside it. It has an active GitHub website, with lots of documentation and information on this kind of devices, and it also implements more communication protocols with extra hardware equipment – Intended more for the sailplane community than the hang gliding or paragliding community.
The newer TTGO T-Beam models are arriving with SoftRF pre installed on it, and you can configure them to work with FANET protocol, making them 100% compatible with GXAirCom.
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Tested on: T22_V1.1 20191212 T22_V1.0 20190612 It also works without the Oled display.
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TTGO- TBeam T22_V05 (20180608) Tested TTGO T-Beam T22_V07 (20180711)
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Heltec Wifi Lora 32 (V1 tested)
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The newer TTGO T-beam units have a power push button instead of a switch. This makes a configurable switch that needs some understanding.
For powering on the unit you need to “Short Press” the power button (one or two secs).
On our printed 3d housing the power button is a small tab just to the right of the charging usb port, that if you press you will feel it “clicks” the power button on the board. It's a little hard to press but it's intentional, so it will be difficult to power on while stow on the harness during your ride to takeoff.
Next to the power button tab, there is a small hole for accessing the “soft reset” button, if the device gets locked or “software frozen” and you don't want to open the case to remove the battery.
For powering off the unit you need to “Long Press” the power button. This is tricky, as it´s takes about 8 seconds. On the TTGO V1.1. with OLED when you power off the device, it shows a “power off sequence” on the screen and then it turns off the screen. Keep pushing the button at least 4 secs after the screen is off.
If you fail to do so, you will see that even when the screen is off and the device stops working, there is a tiny red led behind the Oled Screen (on our printed 3d case you can see it through the charge port hole behind the screen). This means that the device is on “stand by” and we are guessing that it will drain the battery at a really slow rate.
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Device turned on, if you see blue and red light (not visible on pic because blue intensity) |
If you see a red light, then you did not push long enough and the device is on “stand by” and not fully off. |
In order to charge the battery on the TTGO T-beam we recommend to use a 5v USB source. This could be a computer or a standard cell phone wall charger. Try to avoid fast chargers, as they can send higher voltages to the TTGO and can damage it.
Once you connect the device to the power source it will power up. You can power it off (push and hold the power button for 8 secs) so it can charge with the screen off.
(Tested On TTGO T-beam and Heltec)
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(Locate the exe file inside /flasher)
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Look the unzipped firmware and select each bin file in a different line:
SPI SPEED set on 40MHz, SPI MODE set on DIO FLASH SIZE set on 32Mbit Checked DoNotChgBin
Click on the COM select list and take mental notice of what COM ports are available at that moment
Select BAUD: 921600 |
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On V1.0. and V1.1 TTGO Boards, you need to long press the power button at least during 7 seconds to fully turn the device off.
If you flashed the TTGO T-Beam with a battery installed, during the the first start after flashing, there would be a bright led that wont turn off on the first time.
The workaround could be to flash the TTGO without a battery installed, so it will turn off as soon as you disconnect.
You can also do two power cycles:
Unit turns off but light keeps on.
Units turns on again.
Unit should turn off and lights turn off too. |
In this guide we will use our smart phone to get into the configuration menu. The follow is intended for a TTGO T-Beam version V1.0 or V1.1, with or without oled, connected to LK8000 software by BLE running on an android phone as a main flight computer.
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Here you can access the config directly by hitting “Administrar Router” (Spanish fo Router Manager) There could be different presentations, or maybe just a “clickable IP” that will say: 192.168.4.1. If this is not possible, go to step 5. If it worked for you, go to the step 6.
Note: Sometimes this step will point you out to a wrong IP, like 192.168.4.250. Ignore this step and go to step 5.
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192.168.4.1
Hit enter, or Go, or Navigate. |
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Your device will reboot. Your wifi connection with your phone will be dropped.
Wait a few secs and then if your cell phone did not reconnect automatically it means that you are near another stored wifi router and the cellphone connected to that one. Go to your wifi settings on the cellphone and look again for the GXAirCom-XXXXXX network and manually reconect to it.
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You can now see that your Pilot Name appears on the main screen, meaning that your general configurations are fine. |
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Here we configure how the device will communicate to the flight computer.
Select output as “bluetooth ble”.
Save and reboot. |
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Go to next step to learn how to configure lk8000 under android to receive FLARM Data.
We intend to produce another section going through all the other configuration options. |
Its strongly recommended that you study the LK8000 documentation and manuals, to learn about the possibilities of FLARM that this software offers. This manual is not intended to explain any of that, as it´s only for connecting GXAirCom to LK8000.
(Short press on the power button should do the trick). It´s recommended to wait for a Sat Fix before proceeding. |
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Click over it to pair it with your phone. No password needed.
(Pull down the upper bar twice, look for the bluetooth icon, and press and hold should do the trick)
After pairing for the first time It's recommended that you restart your GXAirCom. Turn it off fully wait 5 secs and then turn it on. |
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Open LK8000 App.
Select FLY
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To enter menu, click on the lower right part of the screen. Select Config twice to get to Config ⅔. |
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Click “Close” |
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It means that the software is connected to the GXAirCom device and it´s receiving information.
If the software does not restart the com ports, try going into “Menu – Config 3/3 – Reset Comms” and it should to the trick.
That´s it. You are good to go. If there is traffic around you should can see it as per the next pics. |
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6.1. Main Screen with traffic enabled |
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6.2. Flarm Radar (Page 5) |
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6.3 Flarm list of received aircrafts |
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(Short press on the power button should do the trick). It´s recommended to wait for a Sat Fix before proceeding. |
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Click over it to pair it with your phone. No password needed.
(Pull down the upper bar twice, look for the bluetooth icon, and press and hold should do the trick)
After pairing for the first time It's recommended that you restart your GXAirCom. Turn it off fully wait 5 secs and then turn it on. |
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We tested on v6.8.15-Android
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Press OK. |
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You can also test it by clicking on Monitor. |
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6.1. Monitor testing should show text coming in from the GXAirCom. $PFLAA is actually the traffic information that is being send to the software. |
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7.Now you have traffic on your main navigation screen with a small radar on the lower right corner. If you click on it, it will open up the big radar info. |
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7.1. Radar page. |
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7.2. Details page |
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(Short press on the power button should do the trick). It´s recommended to wait for a Sat Fix before proceeding. |
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Click over it to pair it with your phone. No password needed.
(Pull down the upper bar twice, look for the bluetooth icon, and press and hold should do the trick)
After pairing for the first time It's recommended that you restart your GXAirCom. Turn it off fully wait 5 secs and then turn it on. |
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We tested on version 0.9.4.4-beta
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5.1. Verify barometer. When you select an external sensor on XCTrack, it assumes that it's a barometer, so it changes your settings to “Use External Barometer”. If your device has an internal barometer, (such as a samsung galaxy S series) we suggest that you select Use Internal Barometer. |
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You can see that on the main screen there is a new Bluetooth ICON saying that it´s connected to an external Bluetooth device and it´s receiving info. If you are within reach of other FANET devices, you now can see them on the main screen as a red dot, with the ID and the GPS altitude of the aircraft traffic. Also you will have the battery voltage of the GXAirCom unit on the main bar. |
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The full potential of GXAirCom is only seen then used with a good flight computer that can process all the information that GXAirCom recollects from other aircrafts.
We prefer LK8000 as our main flight computer and it “talks” really nice with FANET devices like GXAirCom, as it actually has a special protocol written by the same programmer of GXAirCom, in order to communicate seamless with the device. LK8000 software is free and it has a lot of support and documentation so you can learn everything about it online. (http://www.lk8000.org/)
Nevertheless, the OLED version of GXAirCom has some nice implementations for flying so it can be used (almost) as a standalone version. The only problem is that the current OLED screen is “too small” to be used while airborne. The programmer is looking at some bigger screen options at the moment that could be of practical use while flying, as a standalone version.
As of version 1.2.0 the programmer has implemented the following screens for using as a “standalone version”. You can switch between them by briefly (short) pressing the power button.
Main navigation screen. “76%” is the battery percentage. “G” means that you are on the ground, ie moving at less than 15km/h. If speed goes above 15km/h for 10 secs, it changes go “F” (flying). If you go below 15km/h for 60 seconds, it goes back to “G”. “1597m” is the height according to GPS data. “0.1ms” is the climb rate according to GPS data. “6” is the number of currently locked sats. “0kh” is the ground speed according to GPS data. |
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List Screen. It shows all the other aircrafts currently detected by the device. It automatically changes between them showing information on each of them. When you are not flying (ie below 15km/h) the radar graph shows north up to figure out the relation to the detected aircraft. When flying it shows the radar graph on Track Up, so the detected aircraft is shown in relation to your actual heading. |
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Closest Screen. It shows the same info that List Screen but it does not change between aircrafts. Instead it shows the closest one so you can keep track of it. The info displayed: “76%” Battery Status. “N or T” mode of the radar orientation. “LIST” – “CLOSEST” name of the page. “-39” the strenght of the received radio transmission. “78AC04” ID of the detected aircraft. “43m” the horizontal distance to the aircraft. “-12m” the vertical position of the aircraft in relation to your position 0. “0.0ms” the vertical speed reported by the other aircraft. |
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Now that we managed to get everything working, let´s take a look inside the other configurations that we can implement to explore all the possibilities that GXAirCom can offer.
Taking advantage of the network that Airwhere has managed to put already, GXAirCom can broadcast your position as other pilot positions to the internet, so you can see them on the AirWhere live map at http://airwhere.co.uk/live/live-tracking-paragliding.php
It can be used as an airborne broadcasting unit, connected to a mobile phone with internet service (data). In this configuration it will be dependant on cell phone coverage to broadcast efficiently.
This system does not store the tracklog so it does not work as a flight logger. It only works as a live feeder, to see the actual or “last known” position of any device that was received on the last 24 hours.
To configure broadcasting follow the next guide:
If you don't know how to do this, take a look at the previous section named “Express Configuration”, and go through steps 1-7. |
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A ground station is mainly used to have a stationary device with a good external elevated antenna and connected to the internet, so every pilot on the proximity that has a FANET compatible device would be received by that ground station and uploaded to the airwhere live map for internet tracking and following. This mode works not only on the TTGO T-Beam, with integrated GPS module, but also on the Heltec Lora ESP32 that does not have a GPS built in. In this mode, the device would not broadcast his own position to other aircrafts via LoRa, and will be limited to receiving positions.
To activate a working ground station that broadcasts the pilots to the AirWhere live map, you need to follow this procedure:
If you don't know how to do this, take a look at the previous section named “Express Configuration”, and go through steps 1-7.
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On devices with an Oled Screen such as “Heltec ESP32” or the TTGO T-beam with Oled, GXAirCom has some nice implementations as a GROUND STATION, as follows:
Startup Splash Screens |
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Then the device starts a loop of images of the ground station mode, looking for FANET packets to identify.
It shows off all the different types of aircrafts that are coded at the moment.
Obviously, any unknown type would be treated as a UFO. |
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Once a FANET package is received, the software will process it and will identify the type of aircraft, and then it changes to an information screen on that particular aircraft. If more than one aircraft is detected, the screen will start changing between all of them. |
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Ground Station mode with OLED is a great way of visually knowing what is the GXAirCom Ground Station receiving nearby, so if you have one of them at takeoff, you can check really fast and easy if your personal GXAirCom is transmitting and being received by the Ground Station. Just wait to appear on the screen.
It also has a nice feature associated with the way GXAirCom was writen. As it can show a device that is transmitting, but does not have a gps lock yet so it does not show on any flight computer, and is not being broadcasted yet to the internet airwhere live map. On this particular event, the device would be shown as UFO on the screen as its position is still Unknown.
Once you get a sat lock on the transmitter, then it will change the icon type to whatever type was selected on the general configuration of that particular transmitter.
It also works to visually see the strength of the transmission, so you can short out any antenna or transmission issues beforehand, only by looking and comparing the information on the screen from different devices nearby.
As this software tends to be a work in progress, you could find yourself wanting to update the firmware to the latest one, in order to get the newest improvements, bug corrections, or just visual and aesthetics that the programmer implements from time to time.
Luckily for you, there is a really easy way of doing so. Even for the common user that got the unit from someone and does not trouble itself with the flashing or the building.
So the step by step is quite simple:
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Put the extracted files “firmware.bin” and “spiffs.bin” on a place easy to access from the file manager of your device / computer. |
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If the update version also changed something on the web interface, you need to update “spiffs.bin” too, following the steps but selecting “spiffs.bin” in the step 8, instead of “firmware.bin”
That's it. You only need to check that everything went smooth.
If your device it has an oled screen you can check the newer version on the splash screen. If not, then you can log into the wifi again (steps 4-6) and you should see the version on the main page.
Usually you will also have all your configurations. But it´s wise to check them once more, entering each menu and if everything looks ok, just hit back (don´t update and reboot as its slow) to keep the config unmodified. |
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We have designed a “print and use” 3d housing to protect the TTGO T-Beam hardware running on GXAirCom. You just need to download the correct files for you specific model of board, and send them to a local 3d printing service shop or to your geek friend that has one on the garage and has run out of ideas on what else to 3d print.
Click the image to explore the files and download the STL that suits your needs.
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Workaround |
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GXAirCom does not power up. All the leds and the screen are off. No response. |
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GXAirCom screen does not display anything. |
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GXAirCom does not receive any sat info. |
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GXAirCom does not connect to my bluetooth. |
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GXAirCom does not show on my phone wifi for configuration, or drops out the connection. |
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This is a work in progress. It can change at any time. It´s prone to human error, and is really sensitive to hardware variations from the manufacturers. We can not give any kind of warrant for the operation of this software. Feel free to contact us for any issues that you find, bugs, suggestions, etc. We will try to find the time to address any problems or implement any upgrades necessaries to keep this project working.
P/