Aircraft navigation light ADS-B radio
The ADS-B radio extracts Mode transponder data from parasitic oscillations on the aircraft power line induced by transmissions of ownship radar transponder reply signals. The radio is configured for replacement installation of an aircraft lighting assembly, and connection thereby to legacy onboard power sources without resorting to wireless or wired radar transponder, or pneumatic connections.
1. An Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light, said compliant transmitter electrically powered by an installed vehicle electrical system, said compliant transmitter not including: (i) either a pneumatic or electrical connection to a barometric pressure sensing device, (ii) a squawk code user interface system, (iii) an antenna and receiver for receiving a radar transponder output signal, and (iv) a wired signal connection to an output signal of a radar transponder, said compliant transmitter comprising:
(a) a vehicle replacement light, said vehicle replacement light having a size and shape at least partially conforming to a vehicle light to be replaced, said vehicle replacement light consisting essentially of:
(1) a pair of electrical connections for electrically connecting said vehicle light to the installed vehicle electrical system, said electrical connection pair including a power wire and a ground connection;
(2) at least one of a white, red, and green light emitting device electrically connected to said pair of electrical connections;
(3) an ADS-B transmitter for transmitting ADS-B signals on at least one of 978 MHz Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) and 1090 MHz Extended Squitter (ES); and
(4) a processor operatively coupled to said ADS-B transmitter and said electrical connections, wherein the processor is configured to reconstruct one or more data based on an induced signal on at least the power wire of said pair of electrical connections; and
(b) an antenna operably connected to and generally collocated with said vehicle replacement light, said antenna for transmitting compliant ADS-B signals from said ADS-B transmitter, said compliant ADS-B signals including at least one data from said induced signal from at least the power wire of said pair of electrical connections.
2. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light of claim 1 , wherein the processor includes a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).
3. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light of claim 1 , further comprising a radio-frequency choke.
4. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light of claim 3 , further comprising a band-pass filter operatively coupled to the transponder.
5. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light of claim 4 , further comprising a power detector operatively coupled to the band-pass filter.
6. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light of claim 1 , further comprising at least one data storage unit operatively coupled to the processor.
7. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light of claim 1 , wherein the one or more data includes at least one of an aircraft identifier, squawk code, and barometric altitude; and wherein the ADS-B signal includes at least two of the following key message bits: downlink format, capability, ICAO aircraft address, data, type code, and parity/interrogator identification; and wherein said ADS-B signal contains at least one of the following: aircraft identification, surface position, airborne position (e.g., barometric altitude), airborne velocities, airborne position (e.g., GNSS height).
8. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light of claim 1 , wherein the induced signal is in response to a radio-frequency interrogation received from at least one of another aircraft and a ground station.
9. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light of claim 1 , wherein the one or more data may include transponder reply information generated by at least one of a Mode-A transponder, a Mode-C transponder, and a Mode-S transponder.
10. An Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light, comprising:
a transponder configured to induce at least one parasitic oscillation on a power wire in response to at least one of a receipt of a radio-frequency interrogation and a transmission of a response signal;
a band-pass filter operatively coupled to the transponder;
a power detector operatively coupled to the band-pass filter;
an ADS-B compliant transmitter operatively coupled to the power detector; and
a processor operatively coupled to a universal access transceiver and the power detector, wherein the processor is configured to receive the parasitic oscillation from the power wire;
reconstruct one or more data based on the parasitic oscillation; and
transmit the one or more data to the ADS-B compliant transmitter.
11. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light system of claim 10 , wherein the processor includes a field-programmable gate array.
12. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light system of claim 10 , further comprising:
a radio-frequency choke operatively coupled to the power wire, the power wire operatively coupled with each of the transponder and the universal access transceiver, wherein the radio-frequency choke is configured to block radio-frequencies of the parasitic oscillation from the ADS-B compliant transmitter.
13. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light system of claim 10 , further comprising:
at least one data storage unit operatively coupled to the processor.
14. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more data includes at least one of an aircraft identifier, squawk code, altitude, roll, track angle, ground speed, airspeed, magnetic heading, rate of climb, and rate of descent.
15. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light system of claim 10 , wherein the radio-frequency interrogation is received from at least one of another aircraft and a ground station.
16. The ADS-B compliant transmitter vehicle replacement light system of claim 10 , wherein the transponder includes at least one of a Mode-A transponder, a Mode-C transponder, and a Mode-S transponder.