NAVIA Traffic: FLARM/ADS-B setup, firmware modules and the range analyser

NAVIA Traffic is a PowerFLARM OEM unit designed and built by LX navigation, with a second FLARM antenna for diversity, ADS-B in with collision warnings, an IGC and ENL flight recorder, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a USB port for moving files. Everything you configure on it happens through a Wi-Fi portal served by the unit itself, from a phone standing at the wing.

This article covers getting into that portal, the two firmware modules that are updated separately and are the usual source of confusion, how the unit attaches to a NAVIA Core Pro, and the range analyser — the one page that will tell you your antenna installation has quietly degraded.

What the unit does

FLARM works by broadcasting its own predicted flight path and receiving everyone else's. Each unit fixes its position with a GNSS receiver, and from speed, acceleration, track, turn radius, wind, altitude, vertical speed and aircraft type it computes where it is about to be. That prediction, with an identification number, goes out over an encrypted radio channel twice a second, and a motion-prediction algorithm scores the collision risk against every aircraft it hears from. When a collision becomes likely, you get the intruder's relative position in time to do something about it.

FLARM is approved by EASA for fixed installation in certified aircraft and has been referenced in several EASA publications, including approval as a Standard Change.

First power-up and the configuration portal

There is no power switch. Apply power to either of the two data and power ports and the unit starts; with adequate GNSS reception it is typically operational within a minute. Removing power is the whole shutdown procedure.

Once running, it raises a Wi-Fi access point named Navia Traffic followed by the unit's serial number, with the network key printed on the back of the case. Join it from a phone, tablet or laptop and the portal opens by itself — and when it does not, browse to 192.168.4.1.

The portal at a glance

On Status, green means good and red means bad for the FLARM and GPS indicators; two further indicators sit grey and blink green as each antenna transmits or receives. A 3D position needs signals from at least four satellites, and six or more is what you actually want.

Two modules, updated separately

The unit is built from two modules, and they do not update together.

The FLARM module

This is the part that performs the traffic awareness and collision avoidance. It takes three kinds of file — firmware, an obstacle database and a licence file — and all three are loaded exactly the same way, by USB key or through the portal.

By USB key: put the file in the root of the key, insert it, power the unit on and wait. It updates itself, typically in under five minutes, then restarts into the new version.

Through the portal: go to Transfer › Update FLARM module, choose the file, and press upload. Progress appears at the bottom of the page, and when it reports that it has finished, restart the unit yourself — the portal will tell you to, and it means it. Obstacle databases and licences go to Transfer › Update database and Transfer › Update license respectively.

FLARM firmware is published under Support on our website. Obstacle databases and licence files are not, and never will be: FLARM generates them against your module's serial number, so they come from FLARM rather than from us.

The Application module

This module provides connectivity and configuration — the portal you are standing in. It is updated through that portal only, at Transfer › Update Navia Traffic, with firmware downloaded from Support. The download holds two parts — an application file and a file-system file — and the manual asks for the application first: upload it under Application, wait for the unit to restart on its own, then upload the file-system part. Afterwards check that both Firmware version and File system version under System on System info show what you just installed.

Configuring it

Configuration is divided into three sets. FLARM settings are passed straight through to the FLARM module, and what appears there depends on the module's features and the licences loaded — ADS-B range settings, for instance, are only present when the ADS-B in licence is loaded, so a missing option is usually a licensing answer rather than a fault. System covers connectivity and the voice and audio features, including output volume and which warning types are enabled. Units personalises the traffic monitor display.

Audio warnings feed an audio panel, an intercom or an external speaker of up to 5 W.

The same FLARM settings can also be applied from a configuration file on a USB stick, produced with FLARM's own online configuration tool. The USB 2.0 A port is on the left-hand side of the device; insert and remove cables and sticks carefully.

Flights, the logbook and the cloud

The most convenient way to collect flights is a USB stick: with one inserted, the FLARM module copies finished flights from internal memory to it automatically, in .igc format. Leaving a stick permanently in the aircraft suits nobody, though, so flights can equally be browsed and downloaded straight to a phone from the portal Logbook.

Flights can also be synchronised to LX Cloud from Transfer. The unit lists available networks, offers to reconnect to one it already knows, and asks for the key of anything new. Enter your cloud identifier in the System configuration first, or nothing will happen.

While the unit is syncing, its own access point disappears and the portal goes with it. The network module can be an access point or a client, never both at once. Wait for it to finish and the hotspot comes back.

The same page holds the factory barograph from the unit's altitude test, downloadable as a PDF. If a later test is ever uploaded it overwrites the stored one, so download and keep the existing file before you replace it.

The traffic monitor

A bird's-eye radar page, useful when no dedicated display is connected, and useful for testing.

The traffic monitor shows traffic. It does not warn. It has no warning capability whatsoever, and it is not a substitute for a display that does.

The range analyser

This is the page worth opening once a year even when nothing seems wrong. It shows the measured range of each antenna across 20 sectors of 18 degrees, in green and blue, with a red line marking the minimum recommended range for each sector. A dent in one direction is an antenna placement problem you can see rather than guess at, which is exactly what makes it useful when deciding where the antennas should live.

It works from contacts — receptions from other FLARM-equipped aircraft. More contacts mean better statistics, but a recording period that runs too long works against you: a long history of good contacts buries a recent degradation under old data.

Reset the statistics at least once a year at the annual inspection, and again after any change to the aircraft's equipment.

Connecting traffic to a NAVIA Core Pro

The Core Pro accepts any traffic receiver that outputs NMEA traffic data in FLARM format or standard GDL90 traffic data, which it turns into traffic display and spatial audio warnings. Connect the device to a spare RS232 port, power it from a fixed power output so it lives whenever the avionics do, and assign the protocol under Airplane Settings › Devices.

Antennas, connectors and what breaks them

• Hand-tighten SMA connectors, never with tools. Over-tightening is invisible until somebody tries to remove the connector, at which point the receptacle spins inside the chassis and twists the internal coaxial cable apart.
• Respect the bend radius — typically six to ten times the cable diameter. A sharp bend crushes the dielectric, changes the impedance and quietly costs you range.
• RF does not pass metal or carbon fibre. In a metal or carbon airframe the antennas go outside, or behind a genuinely non-conductive window with a clear view out.
• Press the security pin fully when unplugging an RJ cable. Pulling without it can break the connector internals and rip them out.
• The RJ connectors are not reverse-polarity protected, and the unit supplies 12 V DC on its FLARM ports — so a wrong cable damages the unit, an attached device, or both.
• Keep the housing and its seal stickers intact. Under the sporting rules, visible external damage or a torn seal sticker can invalidate a competition, record or badge flight.

When something is not right

Where to go next

• How the technology works, and what it does not see: how FLARM works, FLARM in practice and transponders and ADS-B.
• Firmware and databases: the NAVIA Traffic download page and the seasonal firmware and database check.
• Wider system questions: NAVIA troubleshooting and updates, databases and remote support.
• The unit itself: NAVIA Traffic, and in the shop as FLARM only or with ADS-B.
• Mounting, antenna positions and wiring: the installation manual, then us.