#fanet-vario.
Posts on the Alpisto engineering blog filed under #fanet-vario.
- 01#flybeeper #fanet-vario #sun-vario
When does a vario beep? How a FlyBeeper vario decides, and what you can change
Between a climb tone and a sink alarm there is a band where a vario has to make up its mind, and pilots disagree about what it should do there. Some want silence the moment a thermal fades, some want to keep hearing a weak core, some want a tone almost all the time. This is how a FlyBeeper vario makes that decision, step by step: the averaging, the tone curve, two thresholds on each side, a memory of which tone is playing and an early exit on a weakening climb. Every example plays in the page, and opens in the configurator with one click.
16 min read - 02#flybeeper #fanet #ads-l
One radio, two networks: how my FANET vario splits each second with ADS-L
My vario has one radio and two networks to serve. Every second it has to decide which network to listen to and when to transmit, and that decision affects who you see on the map. Bench results: if the vario listens to ADS-L for the whole second, FANET reception drops to zero; if it stops listening to ADS-L, it receives 40 to 140 % more FANET frames; if the ADS-L listening window is cut from 550 to 300 ms, the share of seconds in which another maker's transmitter is heard falls from 61 % to 34 %.
13 min read - 03#flybeeper #fanet-vario #fanet
The lift does not fade: where 11,046 competition thermals end and how to see it coming
In 11,046 competition thermals the lift hardly fades: pilots climb at full rate almost to the top, so your own vario cannot warn you. The pilots who left before you and the day's earlier tops can, about a minute ahead.
11 min read - 04#flybeeper #fanet-vario #fanet
The thermal leans, then it drifts: 8,409 thermals rebuilt from competition tracks
From the tracks of 28 competitions I rebuilt 8,409 thermals. Near mountain terrain the column stays put and leans at 45°; higher up and over flat land it stands nearly straight and drifts at two thirds to three quarters of the wind.
22 min read - 05#flybeeper #fanet-vario #sun-vario
The note that never sounds: what a piezo vario actually plays
Small varios beep in a way nobody would call pleasant, and it is not because nobody cared. A piezo disc is a bell with one note of its own, and a vario plays a tune on it by feeding it square waves and letting the bell pick what it likes. I put one in a desk drawer with a microphone: at 1000 Hz the note that was asked for comes out 33 dB below its own third harmonic, loudness swings 16 dB across the tone table, and the obvious way to soften a beep turns out to make it sharper.
17 min read - 06#flybeeper #fanet-vario #fanet
See and be seen — a solar FANET vario you never have to charge
The FlyBeeper FANET Vario is a wireless, solar-powered FANET beacon and barometric variometer in one. No GPS inside — it reuses your phone's, works as a plain radio driven by the app, and puts you on the map for nearby pilots. Full app, BLE protocol and specs. A quiet pre-order at €149 with free shipping.
13 min read