SV and SL-30/40 Users Please Read!

[jc2da]

I was hoping there would be more voices to the chorus on this issue. I can't be the only one with an SL-30 or SL-40 radio out there. If you are one, please add your voice, as i think it is to our great benefit for what should be a simple feature request.

Our radios support a Remote Channel List (RCL) which can easily be programmed by an EFIS. Right now the APT->COM button only works for SV-COM and does nothing for us. Wouldn't it be nice if hitting APT->COM button would program the RCL with up to 10 of the airport's listed frequencies including the following labelled as such:
Tower, Ground, ATIS, CTAF, Clearance/Delivery, Departure, FSS, Unicom, etc.

The RCL's most common use is for the NRST airport frequencies, which is also useful for the #2 to #10 slots. However, wouldn't it be nice for the first slot #1 be one we could program directly?

Thanks!
Jae

 

[preid]

Re: SV and RCL

Although I have not been able to test this, I would agree that the current feedback I have seen for COM is not something I was expecting. For example, right now, using 5.0, I need to go through the numerous steps to get to a nrst airport and look for the freqs I want, than I need to manually dial in the freq into the SL-40, on the ground I have to twist the grnd freq. With 6.0 appears like it saves me from having to manually dial in the freq initially, but I have to reach to SWAP anyway, so no real benefit there, but on the ground it's just simply easier to dial in the freq than go through an extensive number of steps again.
I totally agree that a way to pull all the freqs in one step- nrst/ chose airport/COM does it all, than I have ATIS, TWR, GRND, all I have to do is turn the SL-40 RCL and the freqs are right there. NOW that would be beneficial.
I think Dynon is doing a great job every time they release firmware upgrades (granted I'm stuck at 5.0 due to EMS compatibility- but the EMS upgrade sounds great) So I am not diminishing their efforts, they are appreciated, but it sounds like a easier process is required if all the 6.0 does is save 1 step, simply not what I was expecting.

 

[schristo]

Nice idea, hopefully it gets implemented in some way. Right now I use a 696 to drive frequencies to an SL-40 while the Skyview is limited to a remote display mode.

 

[DrewSwenson]

Yes please---would love the feature. Of note---I see that SL-30s and SL-40s are no longer being produced (May 2013). You can still buy and get repaired while supplies/parts last.

 

[Jeff_R]

I like the new COM feature. I agree it may be easier to manually enter the frequencies -- provided you know what they are and have them written down. If you don't know, then it takes less time to look them up on the SV than it does to dig out a Sectional and look it up, especially if you are bouncing along.

 

[preid]

Jeff- you are right on, it is easier than pulling out a sectional, but not so much AOPA's FlyQ pocket app! Dynon is doing the requested COM load to their Skyview COM radio and we are asking that it also be done for the SL-30/SL-40. Just going through so much work to get one freq sent to a COM radio is truthfully not all that much of a benefit, I'll just pull the freqs from an Ipad and leave my GPS/PFD fully visible (without a INFO window covering it) and do the selections manually. If the feature was added, as requested, the PFD view blockage would be minimized and the benefit of having all the ARPT COMs would be significantly more valuable, especially if you are bouncing along.

 

[TRCsmith]

As of now I don't see the need to display the primary and standby frequencies on SV. With 3 taps on my anywhere map I have all the freq's I need. Then dial them into the SL-30, no need to play with the screen on SV.  

 

[ttreat]

That's where Dynon missed miserably on 6.0. Whomever does the screen layouts at Dynon missed the target this time. It is strange. Every previous upgrade from Dynon was great. In 6.0 we got a clunky radio upgrade and a horrible battery test upgrade.

I have faith that dynon will quickly get these resolved. The radio tuning needs to be faster than a 3x5 card of hand written freqs and the number of button presses needs to be LESS than the manual method. (I have 100 airport storage in my MGL. Recall ->scroll -> select)

Suggestion: The NRST button should be moved to a dedicated button on all screens. Whether I am flying along or have an engine out, I want to look down and press ONE button to bring up the nearest field. Then, the COMS should be the FIRST tab, not 3 or four over. Follow the process of how we really fly - the biggest workloads should be made easier in order of priority. I listen on standby to every airport I fly over, landing or not. It helps me avoid other aircraft. I also tune UNICOM for weather as I fly along to adjust my altimeter and check winds.

Better yet, let us program one button to anything we choose!

I want Dynon to focus more on SAFETY to rebut the industry opinion that glass panel pilots crash more. Dynon stubbed it's toe on 6.0 but I'm sure 6.1 will fix it.

 

[DonFromTX]

This old guy with less than perfect eyes and unsteady hands, only wants to be able to touch what I see to easily tune the radio. Have you noticed how much smaller the knobs and numbers are on radios these days?

 

[Dw1oakes]

I too would like to drive frequency to my SL30 also.
Dave

 

[aerofurb]

It might be me but I can't help feeling that it's a tad harsh to criticise free upgrades just because it doesn't do exactly what you'd personally like it to do!

I loaded v6.0 in and it all worked fine. Both screens, all fine.

Personally I find that it's certainly easier to load frequencies via SV than look up a frequency from a chart etc written in a small font whilst in turbulence and you can keep your eyes outside the canopy for longer. And yes, I have flown with v6.0...

Having the frequencies displayed on the screen with an identifier is a useful confirmation that you've got the right one set.

My personal observations....

 

[DonFromTX]

I don't think any of us (at least me) were being harsh and critical of Dynon or their upgrades. If we don't express our desires, how will Dynon ever know what we think we want?

 

[dlloyd]

Missed miserably, clunky upgrade and horrible sounded a tad harsh to me. Some of this stuff has taken more time than desired but Dynon has added a lot of features and continues to do so based on customer input.

 

[jc2da]

My take on the APT-COM issue is that I had been waiting on this feature since SV was first released. My radio has been wired for two-way TX/RX since the very beginning. Being able to push a freq over to the radio, without having to manually dial a frequency seemed to be a very basic minimal feature to me. Thus, I am happy to see it available but would definitely like to see it go further in terms of utility and ease of use for those of us with "older" radios who have been waiting patiently for a long while.

I would think the COM features would receive a near highest priority because of how frequently radios are used. I use the radio multiple times on every single flight. I am sure that is the same with most people here. Even small improvements here would go a long way considering the number of users and multiple uses per flight COM receives. Compare this to other features like ADS-B weather or even the auto-pilot (which i LOVE) but neither of which is guaranteed to be used on EVERY single flight.

Thus, i think a lot of feedback seen here stems from the great utility we could get from even small improvements in COM features. I am glad we are able to voice our opinions here, which is one of the reasons I chose Dynon in the first place, as opposed to big blue which basically ignored the experimental market when i started. Anyway, I am grateful you are here to hear us out! Keep up the good work!

Jae

 

[jc2da]

Also, i just flew 3 hours in some challenging weather conditions this past weekend. I realized a better way that RCL could be used.

I think having RCL store nearest airports (its original intention) is a waste because SV already has a NRST button with a list of nearest airports. RCL would simply duplicate SV in this respect.

Instead, I would love it if RCL would simply save airport frequencies in a recently used list I program using APT->COM. That would be much more useful I think than an duplicated nearest list.

 

[DrewSwenson]

I second what jchang just said---more useful feature for SL30 is to push the airport freqs (with freq IDs) via the APT-COM button----using the nearest button to push all of the nearest freqs would be of little utility to me. All of my comments are meant to push Dynon from good to great (to sort of quote a book). For those who are not a customer----Dynon is fantastic at listening to their customers and taking action. They don't take action on all comments---and who could? But if there is enough interests, they go for it. Keep it up!

 

[dynonsupport]

We don't get to re-program the SL-30. The SL-30 only allows you to send a frequency list to it that is based on airports. You send it the airport, then a group of frequencies, each one with a type (TWR, ATIS, etc). You are limited to 10 airports. You can't ask it to make a list where KPAE TWR is first, KBFI ATIS is second, then KPAE ATIS is third. It sees KPAE first, then the list of TWR, GND, ATIS frequencies, and groups these. Then you send the KBFI info.

So there is no magic way for us to send something to the SL-30 that doesn't first require you to choose the airport. Really, the only option we have is the nearest airports, and you have to scroll through the airports until you find the one you want, then scroll through the frequencies to find the one you want. All on a small, one line display rather than SkyView's big screen.

Unfortunately, this means that if you really count the operations required, the SL-30's nearest list doesn't get you to a frequency faster than the SkyView screen does.

The SL-30 has a user memory which you can put your own frequencies in but cannot be uploaded from a serial port. This requires even more knob twisting to access than the remote nearest list.

The SL-30 also has a "most recently used" list. This sounds a lot like what is being asked for. If you tune the radio via SkyView's "TUNE" button, then that will be in the recent list on the SL-30, and getting back to that frequency may be more quickly done via that feature on the SL-30. We can't program that list via SkyView.

 

[DrewSwenson]

I was asking about sending one airport at a time---so push KPAE followed by KPAE freqs----all with the APT-COM button.

 

[jc2da]

Dynon, yes, sending frequencies grouped by airport would be great using the APT->COM button, just like with the SV-COM.

See my reply #14 where i agree, duplicating the NRST function in the radio is a waste since SV does it better with a bigger display like you say.

Instead, i think it would be more useful to populate the RCL list with ONLY airports I have programmed with the APT->COM button. In this way, it actually does the SV-COM one better, by allowing up to 10 frequencies grouped by up to 10 airports to be stored. That is up to 100 potential frequencies directly programmed by the pilot into the radio.

Also, you mention that the SL-30 only has a single line display as if that is necessarily a bad thing. I would argue that a simple display is sometimes better than a complex one, esp. for a simple function like the radio. I think choosing the airport id, then twr gnd atis or atc is just fine with a small display. That is probably EXACTLY why the SV-COM has a similar "simple" display, too.

 

[jc2da]

I had a scenario last weekend dealing with some challenging weather - lots of overcast layers and clouds. Thus, I was tuning into ATIS/AWOS for several airports along my route. I would listen to AWOS at APT1, then APT2, then APT3, and then go back to APT1 for maybe winds or altimeter i had missed.

Each time, I had to go into SV INFO for that frequency info, hit the TUNE button, hit the SWAP. Then I got confused very quickly dealing with so many frequencies. Am I listening to the right one, did i hit swap or not, etc. It was a royal pain and a lot of confusion I did not need while dealing with challenging weather at the same time!