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AirNav Comstation Teardown

Started by GregoryGHarding, September 13, 2015, 08:08:55 AM

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0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Anmer

Poor old Brandao, CEO of AirNav Systems.

Writing to all his "Friends", imploring them to apply for a free Comstation to improve his global coverage:

Dear Valued Airnav Customer,

Thanks to your support, we have shipped over 400 receivers since the start of the year.

We are still giving out the Comstation receiver, but priority will be given to customers living in the following region:

•   India
•   Middle East
•   Turkey
•   Asia
•   South and Central America
•   Greenland
•   Africa

All you need is a clear sky view, internet and keep it on for 24 hours. Just click on www.radarbox24.com/addcoverage and follow the instructions to get a ComStation receiver shipped to your address.

Do note that the Comstation receiver will only feed data to the network, it does not allow you to view air traffic on your computer. If you would like to monitor your own receiver, click here to purchase out our AirNav RadarBox at a low price: www.radarbox24.com/store

Once again, we would like to emphasize the importance of aviation enthusiasts like yourself to the aviation industry. You are not just a hobbyist, but a crucial part of the global aviation network.

As always, we hope that you join us today to build a better global aviation network.

Tell us what you think about it. We would love to hear from you.

Airnav CEO
Andre Brandao

PS: You may also let us know if you need any help with any existing products, or even general feedback. We will do our best to help and we appreciate your help to improve our products and services.


Only to find that the Comstation is faulty  8)

Hi Kevin,

Yes there have been faulty Units sent to both Australia & NZ with the very same problem you are having !!

I would contact Pedro via email as he looks after returns which will not be at your expense !!

Pedro Sousa:  psousa@airnavsystems.com

Cheers
James


You pays peanuts..........

http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=8500.msg120878#msg120878
Here to Help.

GregoryGHarding

On my 3rd unit, and second antenna.
So far it's working now.

cttrondonia

Hi for all.
Have a possibility of share the data in PlanePlotter using the option Radarbox log in the I/O settings of the PP?

karona

Here's whats available at the local IP from the Commstation.
I know you can put the GPS coordinates in Google Earth and look down my chimney if you wish :-)
The live ATC uses a fair chunk of bandwidth, but the feed was very interesting a few nights ago (Istanbul and Sofia en-route)

The box itself runs very hot (77c at the moment, way too hot for cats to wee on) and shouldn't be mounted anywhere you can see it at night, unless you like to read by the light of flickering LEDs.
It doesn't pull in anywhere near as much traffic as the FlightAware box mounted right beside it, with the antennae on the same mast.
If I can assist with further investigations, up to and including pulling it apart, I'm happy to help.


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Anmer

Welcome to the forum and thank you for an interesting first post.

My question is:

"Does hosting an AirNav Comstation offer you anything worthwhile compared to hosting a FlightAware, FR24 or Plane Finder receiver and is it worth the extra electricity and internet bandwidth that you have to provide?"

I host FlightAware and FR24 receivers in addition to my own RPi's and SBS setups.  I registered to buy a Plane Finder receiver but that option seems to have disappeared.

I value the FR24 Premium and FlightAware Enterprise accounts and use them extensively.  What does AirNav offer that's as useful?
Here to Help.

karona

Thanks Anmer, long time lurker :-)

The Airnav deal gives you 'Elite' access to their website, and their Android App, but, side by side with the FlightFeeder box the Commstation picks up far less traffic, and has a much shorter range, so the Elite membership is really of no use to me. I have a paid subscription to PlanePlotter thanks to hosting the FlightFeeder, comparing the two displays shows just how poor the CommStation is.
The CommStation also feeds live audio from ATC, using up more of my bandwidth, but listening to it via the website, the audio is very poor, they've selected the two worst frequencies in a very active sector.

It's all moot anyway, I live within sight of the Turkish Border, and I'm told that border guards were taking photographs of my antennae this morning, so everything's dismounted 'til the political situation cools down a bit.

Anmer

#96
I see AirNav has finally admitted the ComStation doesn't do what it says on the tin:

As stated by Ingo and also elsewhere in this and other threads VHF was not applied to any further units as it was causing problems with ADS-B coverage.  As ADS-B is the primary reason for receivers with VHF a nice to have add on the decision was taken to stop the VHF transmissions until a fix was found.  I believe that work is on going to re-instate VHF coverage and to give users control over the frequencies they cover but have no idea when that will be.

Alan


But it's still advertising the ComStation with VHF:

ADS-B, VHF Airband and GPS Receiver with Free access to award winning RadarBox Windows software.

http://www.airnavsystems.com/adsb-receivers/radarbox-comstation

Nothing changes at AirNav.  Always making claims it can't deliver.

Even Amazon is showing the ComStation with VHF!

https://www.amazon.com/AirNav-Systems-RadarBox-ComStation/dp/B01HJ8Z3DO

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Here to Help.

G-CONC

Hi Mike. Just finished reading this section about weather or not one can obtain data from the Com Station. After giving us a look at what was inside of a Com Station, Mr Harding went on to say that data was available to see if used with RB24 Ver6.00 software, then the thread stopped abruptly after he was questioned by jmaurin about his claim.  Did anyone manage to achieve this claim? I still have a Com Station manufactured around 2016/2017 and I cant get any data using Version  6.00 software.

Anmer

Having re-read all the posts in this thread, I don't think the ComStation, running AirNav's software, makes any data available for other use.

But that's just my reading.
Here to Help.

birdie

Quote from: Anmer on February 28, 2018, 08:10:38 AM
Having re-read all the posts in this thread, I don't think the ComStation, running AirNav's software, makes any data available for other use.

But that's just my reading.

A Thief is still a thief - even after so many years.
To give "Unique Coverage of WSSS" in www.Radarbox24.com !

cttrondonia

I have a Radarbox Comstation and the station don't acess the internet.
I can't acess the station, because he don't get IP.
Have a IP adress if we can acess the station.
If the station have a reset, what is your IP?

Anmer

Surely the ComStation has a connection to the Internet?

Are you uploading data to the AirNav server?

Do you see it connected to your local network in the router admin?
Here to Help.

cttrondonia

Quote from: Anmer on May 24, 2018, 06:07:44 PM
Surely the ComStation has a connection to the Internet?

Are you uploading data to the AirNav server?

Do you see it connected to your local network in the router admin?

-> The Comstation have a internet conection, but he is not connecting.
-> Yes, a send data to Airnav (I use Planeplotter to send, using data from my another antenna)
-> I see in my router, but the Comstation not connect.

In this image you can see two light on when the internet is connected, but in my case, only the green light is on, the orange not.

Anmer

Thank you.

Have you tried a different Ethernet cable? 

And have you contacted AirNav Systems Support?
Here to Help.

cttrondonia

Quote from: Anmer on May 25, 2018, 02:47:52 PM
Thank you.

Have you tried a different Ethernet cable? 

And have you contacted AirNav Systems Support?
I have tried with 3 different cables, but don't connect.
I have contacted the support, but no solucion.