Head-up Display with SkyView Classic

[Felllow7000]

Hi all,

Just for fun - I finally created a Head-up display working with SkyView Classic

Wanted to have my airspeed projected on the windshield for several years but was too lazy to read documentation and find out that I can get live data v. UDP unless someone from Dynon told me this at Aero Messe in Friedrichshafen, Germany (thanks!).

Now the first prototype is finally working - I setup it for IAS and fuel pressure (bar * 100). Flew couple of times with it and should say, it's quite nice to have the speed all the time in front of you, especially on final.
RPM arch (not visible on the photo) is mapped to the % of the critical AoA but needs to be re-adjusted as it shows only first two bars out of seven once the aircraft is already almost in stall.

The numbers looks a bit "blurred" - actually special glass coating is used for HUDs to avoid reflection from both surfaces of the shield - internal and external ones. For this HUD there is a special film to stick on the shield which almost remove this effect but for testing purpose I decided to not put it on. Actually in the air the numbers look better even during very sunny day with nose pointing in blue skies.

Hardware used:
- Arduino R4 WiFi Uno
- CAN Shield with D-Sub9
- Aftermarket HUD
- Couple of cables

Here is the photo. Anyone has an experience with such stuff?..

Regards, Fellow7000

 

[Rhino]

Vern does I believe.

 

[vlittle]

My ears are burning…
www.huvver.tech
Vern

 

[Felllow7000]

Thanks, I saw his devices previously. My question was more related to an experience with head-up displays. I really like to have IAS in front of my eyes all the time and not to move them up and down back and forth.

This was quite a low-hanging fruit, most time I spent to reverse-engineer the aftermarket HUD to understand how to feed it with data

 

[vlittle]

Nice work. If you could display a representation of the OnSpeed energy display, it would be very interesting to our group (www.flyonspeed.org). We have published all the FOS code on github, plus I have developed a library of flight instruments, including the energy display, that I can provide.

Vern

 

[Dynon]

What a neat project!

 

[Felllow7000]

Nice work. If you could display a representation of the OnSpeed energy display, it would be very interesting to our group (www.flyonspeed.org). We have published all the FOS code on github, plus I have developed a library of flight instruments, including the energy display, that I can provide.

Vern

Thanks for comment! I though, you had already everything in your project. What exactly are you missing?

 

[Felllow7000]

Just a picture showing the hardware used on my HedUp. Id decided to use Arduino against of Pi just because it's cheaper and new R4 WiFi provides necessary connectivity.

Actually I could also use a smaller CAN transceiver but this shield was already available and features SD card which I will use now to store configuration to avoid re-build for some small changes in gauges / indicators / connectivity credentials.

The whole HW setup costs around 70 Euro, I believe.

 

[vlittle]

Thanks for comment! I though, you had already everything in your project. What exactly are you missing?

The primary function of OnSpeed is to represent aircraft energy states using audio tones. Recognizing that some folks like visuals as well, we developed a version of the F4 Phantom display based on my experience developing AOA indicators. In order to enhance sunlight readability, I developed a new platform (the huVVer-AVI MFD) with a larger bright screen display (actually brighter than SkyView screens). This can be mounted to the glareshield as a line of sight display.

The natural evolution of this is to develop a true HUD, with focus at infinity, like new automobiles. I can do this, but I live in a world where there is too much to do, with so little time. Hence, we are always recruiting volunteers with specific expertise to help.

Note: the instruments I developed are Arduino/ESP-32 based, work with the D10A, D100, SkyView, and of course, OnSpeed and other streaming sources. One of the best features is to get the WiFi streaming data from SkyView, so my displays only needs two wires (power and ground) to operate. So my glareshield display replaces my compass, powered from the compass backlight wires.

Vern

 

[Felllow7000]

Sorry for long delay - I have plenty of tasks outside of my hobbies (cars, aviation, hobby programming, sometimes guns) too

WiFi connection to Dynon is straight forward. If you abstracted your communication in a proper way, you will get in one hour. You will get the same string as per serial connection, so, you will not need any changes in parser.

HUD w. focus at infinity would be great but would require more costly HW. Probably automotive HW can be reused - it's anyway connected by some bus - the main obstacle will be the windshield, which, I believe, is specially treated / coated for such HUDs.

Unfortunately, I am not that good in HW dev, but can some SW Even developed an App for electronic checklists for phones / tablets.

Let me know, If I could help you somehow.

Eugen, EDTQ.