Using skydemon and safesky on different devices - I'm not having much luck

Like a previous post, I have SkyDemon (SD) on a tablet which has no sim card, so want to have SafeSky (SS) on my phone and transfer the SS data to the SD display.
I’ve followed several lines of instructions from several sources, have both phone and tablet connected to the SkyEcho (SE) wifi but cannot get the transfer to work. I’m selecting “use GDL90 compatible etc” on the tablet when running SD and it sees SE traffic, but nothing else.
I’m using the Premium version.
Can anyone suggest what’s wrong, please? Do I have to create a hotspot on the phone and link the tablet to it? I’ve tried that with no success but could that be the issue? I have a very small cockpit and having to use 2 separate displays really isn’t very easy…

I cannot specifically help with your issue but suggest you email SD Tech support about your issue. They are very helpful and usually respond within 24 hrs.
Tony

Thanks, Antony. I’ll get on to them today. M.

I misread your answer and thought you’d suggested SS Tech Support - which doesn’t appear to exist. I’ll try SD.

For your information, the technical support of SafeSky exists on this forum…

Hello @Ogb,

Transfer trafic to SD is working pretty well with a phone. And use SafeSKy in addition of SkyEcho is really a very good configuration.

In order to see traffic from SafeSky and SkyEcho to SkyDemon, please check next steps here below:

  • Check Filter on SafeSky and SkyDemon and push them higher and lower (+ and - feet)

  • On SafeSky, be sure that the Settings for the traffic sharing is correct. It means Enable Traffic sharing and choose Skydemon as EFB.

  • External Traffic Device must be triggered on ON if you use a SkyEcho, Pilot Aware, or another device. See screenshots here enclosed.

  • As usual, connect The tablet to the SkyEcho WIFI and the phone running SafeSKy to the SkyEcho WIFI too.

  • Clic on TAKE OFF (SafeSky app). If not, traffic wouldn’t be shared with SkyDemon

  • On SkyDemon, clic on GO FLYING and use GDL 90 devices

Expecting that those information will be helpful.
I share with you some screenshots in order to help you with the configuration.

Accept to share the traffic detected by your SkyEcho and share it with SafeSky is a great step for more security for all pilots… Thanks for this.

If you don’t succeed to make it working properly, please don’t hesitate to send an email to dev@safesky.app. We will help you to configure SafeSky, SkyDemon and SkyEcho…

Best regards,

@Tristan to be followed.


Tristan - many thanks for your replies. I hadn’t realised this forum was also tech support; sorry!
I’ve carried out the process you described so well, but still no luck. Admittedly, I’m trying to do this at my desk with SkyEcho looking through a skylight - not ideal. The SafeSky app seems to freeze shortly after I select Takeoff, but even so the traffic it displays does not appear on SkyDemon.
I will keep trying and will continue the test when I can next fly - perhaps results will be better in the air. Let’s hope so. A great app otherwise, well worth the subscription.
My tablet is running Android v11…is this significant?

Following on from my post on 7 Feb 23, a number of us have found that the app is definitely not performing as expected.
To summarise:
Flight 1. SS traffic is sometimes shown on SD(SkyDemon) with both using SE (SkyEcho) GL90 positioning, but SD picture is very unstable. The track line is distorted and the aircraft position shown is constantly changing (once per second) by 20+ miles. After a reboot the position “dot” changed to red and traffic info froze. Another reboot updated position and tracks, but froze again after 30 seconds. Ignored for rest of the flight.
Flight 2. Same day, an hour later. No SS traffic visible on SD despite same setup. SS traffic visible on SS app. SE traffic visible on SD. SS radar view not updating. Position in SS remained at takeoff point despite transit of 35 nm. In flight messages sent to Fellow Pilots, none received. I did not receive their messages to me.
This isn’t very convincing, I’m afraid. Quite apart from the extra workload required to monitor and reboot this software, I find that I have to devote more time to managing it than is safe. My lookout is degrading as a result and unless I can find a way to let this app run without constant attention, I’ll dump it and not subscribe again. This is a pity - it has much promise, but the free version does as good a job so why should I bother to pay for an “upgrade” that clearly doesn’t work? Anywhere else, and I’d be asking for a refund. In fact, how about it, SafeSky? My money back, please.

Hiya.
The Birnie Flying Circus would appreciate some response to my post of 9 March…We are great advocates of the new EC tech, but need to be sure that it works As Advertised (and paid for!). If it doesn’t and we can’t resolve the issues highlighted above - and there are several more that we haven’t raised - Safe Sky might be losing us as customers, not to mention the Fence Sitters who are awaiting a resolution before subscribing. Over to you, chaps.

Hello @Ogb ,

Sorry for the late answer, your experience and feedbacks are essential to the quality of SafeSky indeed.

The latest version from today is addressing several stability issues with GDL90. Could you make sure you are running the latest 2.1.3 version?

For information, I am personally flying with a similar setup, but with a Stratux instead of a SkyEcho, but it’s working the same way:

From your description, everything seems fine in terms of setup. I would propose that you contact me direct on dev@safesky.app if you still have issues so that we can arrange for a call or something?

Thanks a lot for your patience.

Fly Safe,

Tristan

OK, Tristan, I’ll contact you privately. For the benefit of other’s who might be following this post, we’ve had a little more success in some areas but are still struggling with some of the points I highlighted.

Hi Tristan,

I also try to use the same configuration:
Skydemon, Stratux and Safesky

I want to use separate hardware for each part: Skydemon is running on an iPad mini, Stratux standalone, and Safesky is running on an Android smartphone.

I connect the iPad mini and the Android smartphone with the Wifi of the Stratux.

I start Safesky and press the “Starten” button. After this I start Skydemon and press the “Fly” button using the GDL90 connection.

Now I have some questions:

  1. Is it right that Skydemon uses the GPS of the Stratux?

  2. What happens if my Android smartphone with Safesky crashes or looses the mobile connection? Are targets from Stratux still transferred to Skydemon?

  3. What target information is using Skydemon if both Stratux and Safesky are transferring the same target information to Skydemon?

  4. Are there 2 seperate GDL90 flows from Safesky and from Stratux to Skydemon or is there only 1 flow from Safesky to Skydemon?

  5. I note that Skydemon shows Stratux and Safesky targets with different heights for the same target. Is this still the height problem discussed in an other thread?

Thanks for your help.

Regards Kai

  1. Is it possible to use Skydemon, Stratux and Safesky on three different devices, connect them via Stratux as Wifi hub and only use Skydemon as nav software in Safesky without using Stratux as traffic device in Safesky?

  2. Unfortunately all the targets displayed in Skydemon seem to appear as 2 oder sometimes 3 targets with different callsigns and different heights.

Hello Maverick,
I seem to be getting your queries forwarded via SafeSky. Is this an accident, or deliberate? I have some opinions about the subject you discuss with Tristan but would prefer to keep those between us for the moment as there seem to be a number of issues that need resolving. These might only be applicable to my situation. If you like, I’ll post something again soon, but I’d rather wait until Tristan has responded. Thanks.

Hello @Maverick ,

Thanks for your message.

You setup with SafeSKy, SkyDemon and Stratux is all fine.

I am actually using this setup regularly, which is happens to be documented on the Stratux Github:

Here are answers to your questions:

1 - GPS location comes from Stratux, not SafeSky

2 - If your Android crashes or no internet is available, Stratux and SkyDemon will continue to run as normal. SafeSky only adds up traffic that Stratux does not see, no more.

3 - Stratux traffic will always take priority, as its timestamp is based on air-to-air reception. Only when you actually loose the air-to-air ADSB signal, SafeSky will take over.

4 - You understood it exactly right: Stratux is using GDL90 to send location and traffic messages. SafeSky is also sending GDL90 traffic messages. This is received transparently by SkyDemon, regardless of the source.

5 - This is a known issue that will be addressed once we have sufficiently tested it. GDL90 mandates altitudes to be 1013hPa, where SafeSky is based on WGS84 standards. A fix is being tested with converts WGS84 altitudes to standard altitudes using local pressure information from cloud services.

6 - It’s probably possible to enable / disable services, but I’m not sure If that would be useful?

7 - This is not expected. All ADS-B and FLARM traffic should share a common ICAO24 hex. identifier, which regardless of being received from Stratux or SafeSky should be the same. This is how both SafeSky and SkyDemon are able to de-duplicate traffic. We will look into your case to see if we can easily reproduce, and I will come back to you.

Fly Safe,

Tristan

Hello @Ogb , indeed, we are completing testing :slight_smile:

Thanks for your patience,

Tristan

Hi Tristan,

thanks for your reply.

to 6.
When I disable Stratux as traffic source no more targets appear in Skydemon.
It seems like the traffic source must be enabled.
Is this correct?



To 3.

I tested this and I saw that the target in Skydemon is always switching between a Stratux target (ea****) and a Safesky target (sy****) - unfortunately with different heights shown.
As you mentioned only the Stratux target should be shown - but that wasn’t.

I installed testwise Safesky on my Skydemon iPad mini and used it with Stratux.

The good message: the near targets are shown as Stratux targets (ea****)

The bad message: my plane symbol in Skydemon always switches between the GPS signal from Stratux and the GPS signal from Safesky.

I’m testing on ground in sofa mode. That’s why the plane symbol jumps each second from North (Stratux) to the direction in which I hold my iPad mini (Safesky) and back to North and so on…

Thanks @Maverick ,

I think we have identify the issue. It is expected that air-to-air is updated more frequently, which triggers the priority. But if depending on the Stratux setup (in particular antenna), it’s possible that it’s actually missing some positions. In this case, if SafeSky traffic is more recent, it will take precedence until the new air-2-air signal comes to life again (if it comes).

One of the question is: what is the time to live for air-2-air traffic? If we receive a more recent position for the internet uplink (SafeSky basically), do we prioterise it? This is actually what is happening now. Priorities is driven by timestamps, not the source, my explanations from above were not totally right.

We are working on a general handling improvement, and GDL90 standard altitude is being addressed globally too as mentioned above, and the icon symbole.

Thanks a lot for your precious feedbacks.

Fly Safe,

Tristan