Hello everyone!
Hi, I am Leo, the other guy in the Puppy's "design team".
Quick overview. Zaon had 3 models: one for $1600, later $1300 showing proximity, altitude and direction. That's the one having 4 receivers.
The other model, most popular, for $450 showing proximity and altitude of the closes target. And one for $270 that only showed proximity. The later was a total disaster and nobody wanted to use it even after buying it. Their problem was that they were showing the smallest signal which corresponded to 5-7 mile radius. Yes, you guessed it right, it was always blinking. They had a line of 10 LEDs that 2-3 of them were always blinking.
Our device also shows proximity only, but we did a thorough job on determining what to show and what not. So, we show only signals that seem already dangerous as opposed to everything. So, Zaon discontinued that model long ago.
The 450 model id pretty good, but has one problem. Unless they can detect altitude, they don't show the target at all. So, if transponder is not in mode C, by chance, they don't show. The other issue with that is when there are many planes around, they interfere with each other and the altitude reading can be corrupted. We had many instances when a plane was on a parallel course head on (but to the side) and Zaon wouldn't show it till it actually passed already. Zaon is good tracking planes that are far, it shows altitude. We don't. We intended to be really inexpensive. And this simplicity makes it work very fast as soon as it determines that the plane is close. There is another feature we have: your own transponder transmits a strong signal. That signal reflects from any metal and then we receive it too. So, if you are flying into a water tower or TV antenna, or into a plane that doesn't even have a transponder (like J-3 Cub) you will get some alert 10-15 seconds ahead of collision. Neither Zaon nor ADSB will give you that.
Monroe is similar to Zaon with altitude and costs 700.
There was a question how we distinguish our own transponder. Well, for one it is a strong signal. But the level is not everything. We developed a method that we will patent if we go into production. So, sorry, no further details on that.
Try to reverse-engineer it if you can
As to the number of collisions per year, my numbers were very old. I guess, people are flying a lot less these days. We used to have 4 times the number of planes on our field. Collisions reduced too, a good side effect.
However, I have to say, a few months ago, I was flying without the device, simply forgot it on the ground. And I had a very close call. A plane came from the right side on exactly the same altitude 3000 and I had to pull up sharply to avoid it. I saw it about 5-6 seconds before we would have collided and he apparently didn't see me at all because he did absolutely nothing. So, the statistics doesn't count the grey hair people get in some flights.
Well, we will build a few units and let those who want to test them. And if you want to keep it, we will work something out. We are friendly people
Sorry if my message is a bit too long, I had to explain a lot.
Leo