Panel Upgrade

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painless
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Re: Panel Upgrade

Post by painless »

Whelp.... the beat goes on.....

Got the magnetometer calibration completed, and have the EIS engine monitor limits set up. I’ve also configured the Echo UAT, but I will need to update the firmware as has been discussed elsewhere.

The current hurtle I am experiencing is that my Safefly GPS that is coupled with the Echo is not playing nice with the EFIS. I’ve configured it to communicate on serial port 3 and have the baud rate configured per consult with GRT. The setup instructions say to set the baud rate at 115200, but after emailing GRT, the apparent correct rate is 38400.

Still, after correcting the baud rate, no joy. The serial in data counter for serial port 3 is ticking over, but the data isn’t making it to the display. I’ve checked all other settings to the best of my feeble ability, but I can’t figure it out. There are 3 wires coming from the Safefly/EchoUAT (other than power and ground). One is for Ads-b data, which I have going to port 5 at 115200 baud, and two are for GPS in and out, which I have on port 3.

Not that I’ve ever done anything stupid or anything like that, but I’m wondering if I could have switched the in/out wires. Out from the Safefly/EchoUAT going to the out from the Sport SX.

I have an email, again, into GRT and should hear back tomorrow to see if that is a possibility before I take things apart. They’re probably going to say, “Oh jeeze. Not THIS guy again!”
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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Re: Panel Upgrade

Post by bullojm1 »

Painless,

Here are the settings I used:

115,200bps was the correct speed for my setup
Image

On the serial port combiner (SBC)setting, 38400 is the correct baud to talk to the uAvionix box.
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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painless
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Re: Panel Upgrade

Post by painless »

Yeah, I saw that Mike. Can’t figure why GRT is having me use 38400 baud. Talked to them today and apparently since I have an internal GPS that is designated at serial port 3, I can’t use that port for Rx/Tx of my Safefly. Who knew??! Also confirmed with them that I am to use 38400 vs 115200. I’m going to do as the Mother Ship instructs and see how it goes. If 38400 doesn’t do it, I’ll do as Bullock does and switch back to 115200. :P

So I’m off to the airport tomorrow to switch the Safefly from port 3 to port 4.
Jeff Orear
RV6A N782P
Hatz Classic, Welding fuselage
Hatz build log. https://eaabuilderslog.org/?blproject&p ... GNCwv&sid=
Peshtigo, WI

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painless
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Re: Panel Upgrade

Post by painless »

Image

Houston, we have GPS! Switching the GPS to serial port 4 (getting it off serial 3) did the trick. I set the baud rate to 38400 as instructed by GRT, but no joy. So I did the Bullock and went back to 115200 and voila!

Long Live Mikey! Now I suppose I'm going to have to buy him beer for life. :mrgreen:



Image

Ads-b is also.... Ads-b'ing as you can see some traffic down by Green Bay. This is sitting on the ground in front of my hangar. Did the updates on the Echo so I should be good to go. Only thing I'm not seeing are metars. I'm assuming I won't see them on the ground?? Test flight tomorrow hopefully.
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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Re: Panel Upgrade

Post by bullojm1 »

painless wrote: Ads-b is also.... Ads-b'ing as you can see some traffic down by Green Bay. This is sitting on the ground in front of my hangar. Did the updates on the Echo so I should be good to go. Only thing I'm not seeing are metars. I'm assuming I won't see them on the ground?? Test flight tomorrow hopefully.
Painless - correct. You have to typically be in the air and within reception distance from a FIS-B tower. The traffic you're picking up is directly broadcasting it's position to you without going through any intermediate towers.
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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Re: Panel Upgrade

Post by painless »

A quick update regarding the upgrade.

I’ve flown the airplane and really like the presentation of the GRT Sport SX. The 8.4” screen seems to be a good fit for me. I can see that it will be some time before I am utilizing all it’s functions. Need to learn my way around a bit yet.

Some squawks still are challenging me, mostly because I am slightly avionics-challenged. Ok.... really avionics challenged!

A test of the Trio EZ pilot autopilot showed that the wing leveler function was rock solid. In the original panel/installation, I was getting a very slight but persistent oscillation when it was engaged. A little twitch left-right-left-right. Never figured out what the cause was. No trouble now. But the Trio was not receiving GPS data from the SX. I had sent my Trio in for repair of the display a couple years ago, at which time they upgraded it to receive data ether from NMEA, at 4800 baud, or via Aviation data at 9600 baud. I had the Trio on port 1 at 9600 baud, but set to receive NMEA0183 data. I’ve since changed over to Aviation data and there is no “no gps” warning on the Trio. Still have to test fly, so will report the results.

The other challenge I’ve had is figuring out how to enter a flight plan. Long story short, even tho I’m using the Safefly as GPS1 and not the internal GPS in the SX, it still needs to be designated as internal flight plan source. This is what Jeff DeFouw at GRT responded to my question about proper set up:


t sounds like the flight plan source is set to External, but the GRT GPS modules don't store the flight plans in the modules. The flight plan source for any GRT GPS should be "Internal". Settings for a Safe-Fly GPS as GPS1 and an internal GPS as GPS2:

SET MENU, General Setup:
Serial Port 3 Input: NMEA0183 GPS2/Global Positioning
Serial Port 3 Output: NMEA0183 GPS2 Configuration
GRT Safe-Fly GPS: GPS1
GPS from ADS-B Receiver: No / Not Independent (the Safe-Fly is directly connected to the EFIS)
GPS1 Flight Plan Source: Internal (use the internal flight plan functions of the EFIS)
GPS2 Flight Plan Source: Internal (use the internal flight plan functions of the EFIS)
Virtual GPS2: Off


Jeff DeFouw <jeffd@grtavionics.com>
Programmer
GRT Avionics, Inc.



I haven’t had a chance to get out to the airport yet to get these settings changed, so again, stay tuned.

Last thing is that I have my lower limits for CHT’s set too high. That and the fact that it was really cold, as in close to single digits F, had the EIS warning light going off. Minor problem that even *I* can handle!

So there you have it. As I said, I’ll report back with results of the tweaks I need to make.
Jeff Orear
RV6A N782P
Hatz Classic, Welding fuselage
Hatz build log. https://eaabuilderslog.org/?blproject&p ... GNCwv&sid=
Peshtigo, WI

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painless
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Re: Panel Upgrade

Post by painless »

A quick up date:

The Trio EZ pilot is now playing nice and is tracking a flight plan. Solid as a rock

I can now set up and follow a fight plan after entering the settings I posted earlier.

Still need to do some homework and tweak the EIS. After I acknowledge a messages that a value is out of parameter, the flashing red light goes to steady on and stays on regardless if the function, for example CHT, returns to a normal value. Gotta be something I haven’t set correctly. Like that’s ever happened before. Phhhhhfft. :roll:

I also installed a switch for the Sport SX. I hadn’t installed one, and the previous flight I had it was very cold. The starter drew a ton and caused the EFIS to go below voltage, causing it to blink off. Now, I turn on the EIS before engine start, per GRT’s recommendation to confirm the warning light is functional, start the engine, then turn on the Sport SX.

I submitted for a report on the function of the ADSB. Was a short flight, and they only had me in their sights for a couple minutes. Baro Alt reported a 50% fail. Can I assume that a longer flight, perhaps at higher altitude (I was mostly at 2800ft msl) will result in a pass?

As I said before, I need to find my way around the functions of the EFIS. As the squawks are eliminated, I’ll get there.
Jeff Orear
RV6A N782P
Hatz Classic, Welding fuselage
Hatz build log. https://eaabuilderslog.org/?blproject&p ... GNCwv&sid=
Peshtigo, WI

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painless
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Re: Panel Upgrade

Post by painless »

Image

The Painless Possumworks has been at it again with continuing the panel upgrade

Image

Completed panel, now with the next gen Hudly HUD. Also synthetic vision on the Ifly.

In order to get the Hudly to talk to the GRT EFIS, other components need to be assembled. First, you need an android device, such as a phone or a tablet, to run the GRT HUD ap. I'm an Apple guy, so I bought a RKM V5 android computer stick.

Next, GRT recommends a powered USB hub connected to the EFIS, namely the Startech STA4200USBM. To this you insert a bluetooth dongle, again GRT recommended the IOGEAR bluetooth 4.0 USB Micro adaptor.

I'm powering my micro computer with a 5v cellphone cigarette socket charger. I had to order a power chord with a USB end for the cellphone charger and a barrel end, with a yellow tip, for the computer stick end.

One thing that I ran up against is that the Hudly asks for the screen from your android device to be cast to it on power up. I could only figure out how to do that when the computer stick was connected to a monitor and a mouse. My current solution is to hardwire the computer stick to the Hudly with a HDMI cable. There is a dongle/computer stick connected to the Hudly at a HMDI port, so I removed that and connected my cable to the stick there. I'm not sure if the computer stick that came with the Hudly is just acting as a WIFI dongle, or if it is a true computer stick that could conceivably be loaded with the GRT HUD app, thus eliminating the computer stick. Something to look into.

When hardwired to the computer stick, the Hudly boots up and goes right to the PFD screen. Only thing it does differently than the wireless connection is that it starts out at the lowest brightness for the screen. Minor inconvenience.

I'll post a flight impression as soon as I can.

Somebody pinch me. I'm having way too much fun with this stuff...... 8) :lol:

“That’s Hudly......Hudly Lamar!” :mrgreen:
Jeff Orear
RV6A N782P
Hatz Classic, Welding fuselage
Hatz build log. https://eaabuilderslog.org/?blproject&p ... GNCwv&sid=
Peshtigo, WI

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painless
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Re: Panel Upgrade

Post by painless »

The beat goes on.

Still troubleshooting. Had a setback, so haven’t been in the air much until lately.

I’ve gotten the EIS programmed and now seems to be behaving itself. Nice to see that dang red light go out now!

I am having trouble with the HUD crashing on me. Starts up great, shows proper info. Takeoff run all is well until a few seconds into climbout and the image goes blank followed by the computer stick startup screen. Today I rebooted the stick in flight, screen came back up, then poof....back to the startup screen. Sent an email into GRT, but Greg Tomin had not yet evaluated the wireless Hudly. Sounds like the app needs to be updated, but then again, what do I know??

The last two flights I’ve had trouble with losing GPS navigation. Cuts out, then moments later it’s back. No rhyme nor reason.

Tried to duplicate on the ground. My guess is a loose connection to the gps antenna. It has a goofy connector that is just pressed on, and seems loosey-goosey to me. Next visit to the hangar is more trouble shooting. Something is loose, be it the antenna or some wire. I’ll find it, just hope it’s in the first place I look! I had to have GRT send me my two gps antennas, one for the Safefly and one for the EFIS, separately since they did not send then with the original order. One is larger than the other, and I was using the smaller one for the Safefly. Wondering if that could be a factor. Would be nice if it’s a simple fix like that. Thing is, with all the on again, off again I’ve done with the connectors for both antennas, they have partially broken. These things are really delicate. Don’t understand why they didn’t use a standard threaded on type. I have new connectors on order from Digi-Key and will get them replaced pronto.

Really like the readability of the SX big screen. Just need to get past these glitches.

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

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painless
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Re: Panel Upgrade

Post by painless »

Quick progress update

The GPS trouble was indeed a TU antenna connector. The antenna I was using had a threaded connector on the cable, and then an adapter that converted it to an MCX push on connector. The problem was with the crimp holding the threaded connector to the antenna cable. When I pulled the antenna out to check things, that threaded connector seperated from the cable. GRT sent a new antenna with an MCX connector and all is good again.

I’m slowly getting my transponder to talk with the EFIS, after finally figuring out what settings are needed for both the EFIS and the GTX 327. I’m getting 50% failure for baro alt, mostly caused by being stupid and not having things set right, and also caused by not being close enough to Green Bay airspace to be interrogated by radar. Hope to pass the test next try.

Still working to get the Hudly wireless up and running. GRT has an update for its remote app that includes a fix for the app crashing. Got that downloaded and will try it out next flight in a couple days.

Starting to get to know the Sport SX, and liking what I see. An example. You can set a target altitude that you want to descend to, and the EFIS projects a green arc depicting your estimated position when you will reach that altitude based on your current rate of descent, among other things. Neat stuff.

I’ll get things “sorted” one of these days.
Jeff Orear
RV6A N782P
Hatz Classic, Welding fuselage
Hatz build log. https://eaabuilderslog.org/?blproject&p ... GNCwv&sid=
Peshtigo, WI

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painless
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Re: Panel Upgrade

Post by painless »

Image

Success with the Hudly. It was indeed an app issue that GRT has sorted out.

So now my first impression flying with it. As others have noted, including GRT, the fact that the image is not at infinity makes use of this particular hud limited. Having said that, I do like it. Take that with a grain of salt as I am not ex-military and am not an ex F-18 driver.

On the up side, I like having it there acting as another screen. Cheap and effective in that regard. It is visible in sunlight, (the included picture does not do it justice) and the brightness is adjustable. I did some air work and having airspeed and altimeter at "eye level" while looking out the window was very helpful. I also liked it on initial approach to landing. Downwind entry, base and final.

Down side. I don't see me using it during round out and flair on landing. Its the focusing thing due to the image not located out in front of the airplane. I found either I was focusing on the image or down the runway, but not both at the same time.

So mixed bag so far on the Hudly. Understand that these impressions are after only one flight with the thing, so I'll have to take some more time to really evaluate it. So far, its pretty cool.

I continue to explore the EFIS capabilities. Set a flight plan course and the Trio Autopilot was working great with the GRT. On return I armed the synthetic approach with the HITS boxes. Pretty neat. As usual, I was high on final approach and the boxes showed that. Cut power, slid into the box and re-applied power and I was on the money. Neat feature. Better thing for me to do is not be high on final tho!

Tested the ADSB as I was closer to Green Bay. Did not call them up tho and ask for a squawk code. Came back with a 38% fail for baro alt. I have seen where you can fine tune the sensitivity of the sniffer, so I will attempt that next and also call them up and get a code while I enter their airspace and really give this thing a good workout. Everything else is coming back great in the report. Stay tuned on that one.

I think I am finally seeing the finish line!!
Jeff Orear
RV6A N782P
Hatz Classic, Welding fuselage
Hatz build log. https://eaabuilderslog.org/?blproject&p ... GNCwv&sid=
Peshtigo, WI

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