Wifi adapter requirements

cbretana

Active Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
319
Can any Wifi adapter (Assume limited to USB 3.0), be used with SkyView HDX? If not what properties/features/capabilities does a commercially available adapter need to have to work with SkyView?
 

Foxlees

I love flying!
Joined
Dec 31, 2018
Messages
14
My experience is it needs to be one supplied by Dynon, I have tried other commercially available ones and they don't work

No, you cannot use a generic off-the-shelf Wi-Fi adapter with your Dynon SkyView HDX display. [1]
The SkyView operating system runs on a closed, proprietary Linux-based architecture. It only includes pre-installed software drivers for the exact internal chipset utilized by Dynon's officially branded hardware. If you plug in a standard third-party Wi-Fi dongle, the display will fail to recognize the device, and the Wi-Fi configuration menus will remain completely grayed out. [1, 2]

The Only Direct Hardware Match
If you are looking for an exact generic replacement to avoid ordering directly from an aviation catalog, aircraft builders on the Van's Air Force Forum discovered that Dynon’s original hardware shares an identical FCC ID and layout with the Edimax EW-7722UTn v2 N300 USB adapter. [1]
However, attempting to source this specific consumer model comes with serious risks:
  • The Version Trap: Consumer electronics manufacturers frequently change internal chipsets (e.g., switching from Realtek to MediaTek) between manufacturing batches without changing the retail model name. If the internal chipset doesn't match precisely, the SkyView software will reject it.
  • Firmware Flashing: Dynon occasionally writes custom vendor firmware to the USB sticks to identify them uniquely to the system OS.
 

cbretana

Active Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
319
Foxless,

Thanks for this info... I suspected as much.

I had (back 7 years ago) installed a complete HDX suite with the older compact WIFI adapter. I sold that plane and am now installing HDX Skyview in my new plane, (it's a pusher canard aircraft called a Berkut), but I don't like the newer WIFI adapter Dymon sent me. The older adapter I had previously was more compact than the new one is (with its attached antenna). It did not take up any space or interfere with anything else in my cramped cockpit. I could mount the new one with its attached antenna in front of the instrument panel (in the nose somewhere) where it will not be visible or interfere with anything in the cockpit, but will the aluminum instrument panel block or attenuate the WIFI signal?

.... Oh well...
 
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