Wireless conectivity

[southtarnation]

There are a lot of avionics out there now using bluetooth and wifi tech for various aplications. One of the other efis manufactures has the abuility to send and receive wirkess infi for their radios, pfd, map and engine screens all from an android. Perfect for an inexpensice second screen, sreen for gib and touchscreen solution. I know you would rather sell me a second screen instead and im commutted on this plane, but im building another and without a move or addition in that direction by Dynon I may consider the other. My camera ,gps, adsb, headset, audio panel.. ...all have bluetooth.

With that said, is it possible to add a module or dongle to get spme wirless conectivity if only for the transfer of flight pland or as a simple repeater of an existing screen? Ideally of course it could receive commands too.

Is there any info coming through the serial lines that contain engine or display info?

 

[Dynon]

We're always looking at wireless and bluetooth, but currently don't have any product announcements to make on that front.

There is serial information available from any of SkyView's 5 serial ports. The format is documented in the SkyView System Installation Guide.

 

[airguy]

There is serial information available from any of SkyView's 5 serial ports. The format is documented in the SkyView System Installation Guide.

That sure sounds like an open invitation for someone to develop a 3rd party device to handle that task...

 

[jdubner]

[

We're always looking at wireless and bluetooth, but currently don't have any product announcements to make on that front.

Any update on that?  Reason I'm asking is that I'd like to do an Android app to put EMS data on my Android tablet and am holding off on wiring in an external Bluetooth converter.  I'd rather buy a Dynon solution (even if it costs twice as much because I know it will be integrated and work well.

--
Joe

 

[dynonsupport]

No updates. There is no work in progress to send out EMS data via WiFi or Bluetooth.

How much is twice as much? $8 for the Bluetooth adapter or $18,000 for your time?

 

[jdubner]

There is serial information available from any of SkyView's 5 serial ports. The format is documented in the SkyView System Installation Guide.

That sure sounds like an open invitation for someone to develop a 3rd party device to handle that task...   

That's how I interpreted it  

I bought a cheap Bluetooth adapter on eBay and teamed up with another software engineer to develop an app that displays EMS data on my 7-inch Android tablet.  Then I can turn off the EMS screen and display larger PFD and Map screens.  The difference between a 40% Map screen and a 50% screen is, ... well ... , 25%.  But effectively it's even more given the "overhead" of the  fixed info on the screen that often obfuscates map data.

So far we only have text-based widgets but are working on round and bar gauges.  This is what a prototype in my RV-8A looks like in cruise:

With most of the important stuff on the tablet (or a phone), I'm quite comfortable turning off the EMS display unless I want to investigate an alarm.  The space on the right side will eventually be filled with the remaining EMS widgets and possibly some PFD items.

More to follow ...

--
Joe

 

[southtarnation]

Wow joe, that's awesome! I assume you will market this or are you giving it away? Will you develop an iOS version?
With the release of the wifi today, will that effect your efforts in anyway?

Jesse

 

[jdubner]

Thank you, Jesse.

Yes, I believe we will market this.  (My partner is the marketing brains of our partnership -- as well as the Android programming brains.  Not sure what I contribute <g>).

Sorry, this will be Android only.  My understanding of the WiFi is that it won't output EMS data so no, this won't affect our efforts and we'll stay with Bluetooth.

The way I envision this, you can purchase an inexpensive Android tablet to display EMS data and retain your iPad and SkyView screens for navigation and PFD.  Or the Android tablet can act as a rear cockpit "repeater" display if desired.

--
Joe

 

[southtarnation]

Thanks for the reply Joe.
I have my old htc evo that is android based and I don't use it but it works, is android and has Bluetooth so I would just use it as a devoted ems screen. awesome! If you need another tester :
Put me down for the first run anyway!
Thanks,
Jesse

 

[southtarnation]

Does the BT dongle have to have a devoted serial pair or just "out"? Could it be doubled up with another device on the same serial stream supposing the same baud rate?

 

[GalinHdz]

Awesome. Keep us posted on this.

 

[ihab]

Hi Joe,

... you can purchase an inexpensive Android tablet to display EMS data ...

Here is my feedback to your Android-ey friend:

1. Create an app that registers a Service. The interface should be such that any other app can register for updates, and receive Parcelables with known data fields, on the same schedule as the Dynon sends the data. Nothing fancy.

2. Study the Dynon data formats (they are all slightly different) and design the data packets to be a generalization of those -- i.e., generalize GPS coordinates, generalize IAS, make sure all is in user-friendly units without conversion factors specific to the wire protocol.

3. In your app, make sure all Dynon devices and all the popular RS232-BT dongles are supported. Add a Settings page that deals with baud rates and other such truck as may be necessary. Add some simple output that ensures the connectivity is there and data is being transferred.

4. Sell this on the App Store!

5. Build the EMS stuff as a separate app, and sell that too!

Good luck,

Ihab

 

[jdubner]

Thank you for your feedback, Ihab.  And I must say: your Airball project looks very interesting.  (I missed your posting on it until just now.)

Airball and our app (named SkyView Assist) are very different and also quite similar.  SkyView assist is primarily a display of EMS data although PFD data (to include) AOA could also be displayed in a follow-on version.

I conceived of SkyView Assist because my single 10-inch SkyView display has become too crowded for all of the wonderful features Dynon has added over the past few years, especially overlaid ADS-B traffic and weather.  Ideally, a second 10-inch display would be dedicated to the Map page but that isn't going to happen in my tandem cockpit airplane (lack of panel space).

But if the EMS data can be "off-loaded" to an Android phone or inexpensive tablet (see the image in posting #5 above: http://dynonavionics.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1368312481/5#5), the Map and PFD screens can be expanded from 40% to 50%.  This is huge in terms of the additional pixels available.

The similarity of Airball and SkyView Assist is in the RS-232 over Bluetooth to an Android device and parsing the Dynon serial data stream.  Installation of the the Bluetooth adapter is probably the most challenging user task but we're working with MakerPlane (http://makerplane.org/) to develop a fully-configured serial-to-Bluetooth adapter to make that job easy.  I can't think of a reason the MakerPlane adapter wouldn't work with Airball too if your users so desire.

To address some of your specific feedback: yes, we intend to put the EMS monitor (SkyView Assist) in the Google Play store.  We are deeply in development now so changing to a Service architecture is not feasible at this time but it might make sense in the future.  And although we intend to recommend the MakerPlane Bluetooth adapter (for ease of setup), any BT adapter that will pair with the Android device in slave mode and work reliably at 115,200 baud will suffice.  (Currently I'm using a cheap Chinese unit from eBay but have also tested two other models.  All required specialized configuration commands, DIP or other switch settings, and in some cases wiring to supply power.)

Thanks again and good luck with Airball.

--
Joe

 

[ihab]

Thank you for the kind words Joe. I look forward to seeing your app. I agree with you that offloading to extra screens is a great idea!

One additional thought while you're at it might also be to figure out how to add the GPS coordinates that come through from SkyView as a

LocationProvider

so that mapping apps can use this data.

Cheers,

Ihab

 

[rvator51]

As additional WiFi request would to be to allow Skyview to update its databases through WiFi instead of using a USB stick to update them.