Connection Garmin SL-30 to Skyview

[chrisbom]

I red a couple of posts concerning connection of the SL30 to the Skyview, but not really shure if I could connect it in that way I want to do it.

I like to connect the SL30 to Serial4 of the Skyview. There are only RX and TX coming from the Skyview. But the SL30 asks for Ground and also the shield to be connected to.
In the Skyview Manual its only written:

"If you are using a Garmin SL30 NAV/COM radio with SkyView:
1. Connect SL30 serial RX pin 4 (RxD1) to one of the SkyView serial TX pins on each display.
2. Connect SL30 serial TX pin 5 (TxD1) to one of the SkyView serial RX pins on each display.
3. Configure the serial port on each display appropriately under SETUP MENU > LOCAL
SCREEN SETUP > SERIAL PORT SETUP.
4. Configure the serial port on the SL30 appropriately. On the SL30, the Indicator Head
Type should be set to NON"


So, my questions:
1. Is it really required to connect Ground to the Skyview, if yes, which cable should be used?
Is there a Ground cable coming out of the SV-Display harness or do I have to install a Ground cable to a pin of that harness?
2. Garmin SL30 manual asks for a shielded cable for serial connection of the SL30. Is a shielded cable required and if yes, where should I connect the shield to the Skyview?

If anybody has experience in connecting the SL30 to the Skyview, your comment is highly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[mikehoover]

I am wondering the same thing. Should we just run the SL-30 pin #3 (serial ground) wire to the aircraft ground?

Also, I have the Garmin GPS 496 data out (blue wire) to pin #4 RxD1 on the SL-30 per the Garmin manual. So would you combine that wire with the Skyview Tx wire to the same pin (#4)?

Also, what data does the Skyview actually transmit to the SL-30?

 

[dynonsupport]

RS-232 communications are pretty robust. As long as your SL30 and Dynon are grounded to the same bus, they're effectively sharing ground, and you shouldn't have any communications problems. That said, you can absolutely connect the Garmin-specified ground wire to any of the ground wires (pins 21-24) on the SkyView D37 connector.

Shielding isn't something that we recommend strongly, but it never hurts. If other devices recommend it, you're free to follow the more conservative instructions if you'd like.

mikehoover - You can't have two transmitters going to one receive line with RS-232, so your proposed wiring won't work. We send course selection to the SL30, which the SL30 uses to send back course and CDI information. But you can also use the SL30's OBS button and knob to obtain a similar effect. So you get a choice here:

1) You can connect our tx to the SL30 if you want our course knob to spin the SL30's cours. But then you don't get freqs transfering from your x96 to the SL30.
2) You can connect the x96's tx to the sl30 to have frequencies transfer from the x96 to the sl30. Then you need to use the SL30's OBS button and knob to spin course, and there's one other thing: when the SL30 is tuned to a LOC/ILS frequency, that knob doesn't work. So you need to remember to spin your LOC/ILS course before moving off a VOR frequency (from the SL30's perspective, the "OBS" is a VOR-only settting). This can be confusing, but is manageable if you understand what is happening. When you use option (1) above, course just works all the time.

In a future version of SkyView software, SkyView will be able to send its own mapping frequencies over to the SL30 much in the same way that an x96 can. In that eventual scenario, you'd just hook up the SkyView to the SL30 and it would both spin the course and enable SkyView to send freqs to the SL30. Whether it passes the x96 freqs through to the SL30 is TBD.

 

[mikehoover]

RS-232 communications are pretty robust. As long as your SL30 and Dynon are grounded to the same bus, they're effectively sharing ground, and you shouldn't have any communications problems. That said, you can absolutely connect the Garmin-specified ground wire to any of the ground wires (pins 21-24) on the SkyView D37 connector.

All of the grounds from the Skyview 37-pin connector are allocated except the audio ground (pin #30) which will eventually be connected as Skyview functionality comes online. Can I combine that Skyview audio ground (pin #30) with the SL30 serial ground (SL30 pin#3)? The Skyview and SL30 both are grounded at the aircraft ground buss on the firewall. Perhaps I should just run the SL30 serial ground (SL30 pin#3) wire to the aircraft ground buss, or maybe it is not required at all? Thanks!

 

[jc2da]

As one datapoint, I am pretty sure i left the SL-30 GND wire open, and everything is working fine for me both TX and RX.

 

[dynonsupport]

Again, not required at all, but you can also parallel off of any of the other ground pins. They're all actually shorted together inside the box anyway.

 

[Edwardoc]

If I connect the Serial connections on the SL 30 to a serial port on the SV, can you use the SV to tune both VHF and NAV frequencies? Or just NAV Freq?  Is the 15 pin DB connector on the SL 30, which I have hooked to my PS 1000, just for audio?  The SL 30 manual does not show a serial connection on the 15 Pin connector.  Only the 37 pin connector.

 

[dynonsupport]

At the moment, SkyView can't tune any external radio. This is a future planned feature though, that will likely be implemented along with our own radio's release.

The SL30's serial port is on the 37 pin connector, that's true.