NavWorx ADS600-EXP

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bullojm1
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NavWorx ADS600-EXP

Post by bullojm1 »

A couple of weeks ago I put in an order for the NavWorx ADS600-EXP ADS-B transceiver. For roughly $800, I will ADS-B out compliant and a fun project to work on for the airplane.

This transceiver should provide me with the following:
1) Traffic and Weather on my GRT EFIS
2) It has WiFi built into it to transmit traffic and weather to compatible tablets.
3) I like how it has an auto-stealth mode for when you squawk 1200. That has been the biggest fear for me with moving to ADS-B. I don't like the FAA keeping tabs on every move I make.

I was excited yesterday when the released a few pics of the transceiver. It looks to be nice and small!

Image

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I will update this thread with my installation and testing progress.
Mike Bullock
http://www.rvplane.com
RV-7 | Superior IO-360 | Whirlwind 200RV
Garmin GTN650 | GRT Dual Sport SX EFIS
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smittysrv
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Post by smittysrv »

I really like mine in my Cessna 172. Here's a video we did about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mioqZwwq-4

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bullojm1
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Post by bullojm1 »

Smitty,

Your video is great...I watched it a few days ago when you posted it on Facebook.
Mike Bullock
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smittysrv
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Post by smittysrv »

Thanks Mike! Anthony is a real natural on camera. He works on my airplane all the time. We're going to do some videos soon.

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bruceh
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Post by bruceh »

I love having the ADS-B weather and traffic info in my Skyview system. Hopefully, at some point before 2020 it will comply with the mandate.

It is amazing how much air traffic is out there. It really reminds you to keep looking for traffic, and when it ennuciates "Traffic!" you know you are close to someone else.

I haven't used the weather info much, but out here in SoCal, we don't have much real weather, and when it is cloudy, I don't fly.
Bruce Hill
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painless
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Post by painless »

Keep us posted Mikey. A panel upgrade is in my future.
Jeff Orear
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bullojm1
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Post by bullojm1 »

It's getting closer! NavWorx sent this to me today.
I wanted to take this moment to update you on the shipment status of your order.

We are in production of the ADS600-EXP units and will be ready to ship very soon. We have one issue with the software that has to be corrected before shipment however. On our other products, we use a RS232 serial channel to send configuration information to/from the PC. Configuration is the process of you entering aircraft specific information into the unit so that the FAA knows about you. In the ADS600-EXP however, we use the internal Wifi to communicate with the PC which is running our UAT Console program. It seems that Wifi is not 100% reliable as is a dedicated hard line RS232 interface. So, our engineers must change the process for configuration - slightly. This will take a few more days, and when done, we will then begin shipment.

I apologize for the delay and thank you for your patience.

Bill Moffitt
President
Mike Bullock
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RV-7 | Superior IO-360 | Whirlwind 200RV
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Post by smittysrv »

Well, the friggin' rain in DFW finally let up long enough for me to go out and try the Navworx setup. I'm really happy with it. I also purchased the Stratus 2 ADS-B Receiver for my iPad. The ADS-B Transceiver has WiFi for the WingX Pro7 app, which I haven't tried out yet, but it does give the copilot and passengers the option to use either the ForeFlight with Stratus 2 or the Wingx app using the Navworx wifi. On this particular day, we had an extreme crosswind, straight across the runway at 17 mph, gusting to 23 mph. I asked my instructor, who has over 5,000 hours of flight time, to take us up for this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZxufss2h_Y

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bullojm1
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Post by bullojm1 »

It's been nearly 4 months since I have ordered my ADS-B receiver and nothing much has happened. I was able to see the ADS600-EXP at Oshkosh and it is a very light and small unit. I called up NavWorx and was told they were waiting on new equipment to increase the production rate of the unit (ETA if the new equip was 3 weeks), and my estimated ship date is the end of August. I hope it arrives before 2020!
Mike Bullock
http://www.rvplane.com
RV-7 | Superior IO-360 | Whirlwind 200RV
Garmin GTN650 | GRT Dual Sport SX EFIS
Status: FLYING!

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bullojm1
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Post by bullojm1 »

256 days after I placed my order for the Navworx ADS600-EXP I have finally received a shipment notification email! By early November I was getting fed up with waiting, especially when I heard of other people receiving their. Every time I called up, I was told it would ship anywhere between 2-4 weeks from the time I called. Today I vented my frustration with being told of 5 different ship dates, and indicated I was considering cancelling my order. That seemed to be the key word, because a few hours later I received a UPS shipment notification email!
Mike Bullock
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RV-7 | Superior IO-360 | Whirlwind 200RV
Garmin GTN650 | GRT Dual Sport SX EFIS
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painless
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Post by painless »

Ever consider mentioning to them that you are the head banger at Rivetbangers???

I mean, talk about clout.

You just have to learn how to throw your weight around!

"Do you even KNOW who I am????!" 8)
Jeff Orear
RV6A N782P
Hatz Classic, Welding fuselage
Hatz build log. https://eaabuilderslog.org/?blproject&p ... GNCwv&sid=
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bullojm1
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Post by bullojm1 »

painless wrote:Ever consider mentioning to them that you are the head banger at Rivetbangers???

I mean, talk about clout.

You just have to learn how to throw your weight around!

"Do you even KNOW who I am????!" 8)
You'd actually be surprised at how often I pull the HRB card....and even shocked at how often it actually works! RB after all is the second most powerful RV forum.
Mike Bullock
http://www.rvplane.com
RV-7 | Superior IO-360 | Whirlwind 200RV
Garmin GTN650 | GRT Dual Sport SX EFIS
Status: FLYING!

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painless
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Post by painless »

bullojm1 wrote:
painless wrote:Ever consider mentioning to them that you are the head banger at Rivetbangers???

I mean, talk about clout.

You just have to learn how to throw your weight around!

"Do you even KNOW who I am????!" 8)
You'd actually be surprised at how often I pull the HRB card....and even shocked at how often it actually works! RB after all is the second most powerful RV forum.
Guess I'll have to start treating you with more respect.


Nah.... :)
Jeff Orear
RV6A N782P
Hatz Classic, Welding fuselage
Hatz build log. https://eaabuilderslog.org/?blproject&p ... GNCwv&sid=
Peshtigo, WI

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bullojm1
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Post by bullojm1 »

A short 259 days after I place my order for the Navworx ADS600-EXP ADS-B Transceiver, it has finally arrived!

Image
Mike Bullock
http://www.rvplane.com
RV-7 | Superior IO-360 | Whirlwind 200RV
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Status: FLYING!

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BSwayze
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Post by BSwayze »

Well, it's about time, Mike! Here just in time for winter weather. I'm very interested to see how this works out for you! Keep posting, please. :)
Bruce Swayze
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bullojm1
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Re: NavWorx ADS600-EXP

Post by bullojm1 »

I ordered my NavWorx ADS600-EXP ADS-B transceiver back in March or April of 2015. I understood NavWorx was experiencing some growing pains, but in late November I was finally fed up with getting the run around from them. After threatening to cancel my order, I promptly received my shipment tracking number, and a few days later my ADS-B transceiver was in my hands. This sucker is mighty small. The footprint is roughly the size of two dollar bills next to each other.
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It took me a solid 4-6 hours staring under my panel for the best place to mount the ADS-B transceiver. I finally elected to installed it underneath of my map box. Every other location behind my panel required a good amount of relocation of existing items. The only item I needed to relocate for this was my Garmin GDL-39 ADS-B receiver.
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In this location, the ADS-B transceiver shouldn't be in the way of the passenger.
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I used flush screws inside the map box to maintain the bottom of the map box to be smooth in order to easily put charts and other items into the map box.
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The next step was rewiring the transponder connector. The NavWorx box requires two inputs. One is the altitude encoding serial line which feeds the transponder, and the other is the output of the transponder to tell the NavWorx device which squawk code the GTX-327 is transmitting.
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After removing the transponder, I unscrewed the two small screws holding the DB25 connector to the back of the transponder tray.
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I soldered on a pig tail to the existing input to the GTX-327 transponder from the GRT EFIS which tells the transponder the airplanes current pressure altitude.
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One thing I wanted to try was a GPS splitter - this ingenious device allows you to split a single GPS antenna between multiple GPS receivers. In this case, I wanted to re-use the Glisson GPS antenna I had already mounted under the cowl to drive both the NavWorx ADS-B unit and also continue to drive the Garmin GDL-39 ADS-B receiver. I bought this used off of EBay for $35, so I was interested to see how well it worked.
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I temporarily wired up the NavWorx ADS600-EXP transceiver to make sure it was connected correctly. I connected to it through a Windows 10 laptop using Wifi. The UAT console I downloaded from http://www.navworx.com was very intuitive to use to set my call sign, altitude encoder and transponder type.
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I was also happy to see my GPS reception was fantastic through the GPS splitter. That thing really worked well!!! Money well spent because it was less than a new GPS antenna, and I don't have to worry about finding real-estate for yet another GPS antenna.
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The final thing I did today was mount my GPS splitter to the back of the map box. The only remaining items I have left are to finalize all of the wiring, and mount my UAT antenna.
Image
Mike Bullock
http://www.rvplane.com
RV-7 | Superior IO-360 | Whirlwind 200RV
Garmin GTN650 | GRT Dual Sport SX EFIS
Status: FLYING!

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bullojm1
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Re: NavWorx ADS600-EXP

Post by bullojm1 »

Some progress on the ADS-B installation - the UAT antenna has been drilled in the bottom fuse, right behind the baggage bulkhead. I went with RivetBanger's own, Don Pansier's of DeltaPop Aviation UAT antenna (http://www.deltapopaviation.com/UAT_Antenna.html). The thing is a piece of ART!!

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Mike Bullock
http://www.rvplane.com
RV-7 | Superior IO-360 | Whirlwind 200RV
Garmin GTN650 | GRT Dual Sport SX EFIS
Status: FLYING!

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