On Sat, 5 Aug 2023 05:38:08 -0700 (PDT), Hank Nixon wrote:
On Friday, August 4, 2023 at 8:24:16 PM UTC-4, mrop...@gmail.com wrote:
On Friday, August 4, 2023 at 3:26:57 PM UTC-4, Hank Nixon wrote:
Can a remote display (Butterfly) control a FLARM portable so it can
be mounted remotely?
I can see the Butterfly show FLARM display info but can't make it
control such as turning on and off and changing pages like knob on
the front of the portable does.
Thanks in advance.
UH
UH,
I had that setup for several years using a Flarmview display.
I didn't like the portable blocking my forward view, so I used the
(forward) battery mounting clips on the floor (of my D-2b) behind the
instrument panel to hold the portable unit, and ran wires for the
antennas up to the glare shield. Because I have a tilt-up panel, the
portable unit was easily accessible before I got in for launch, so I
just pushed the button and powered it up that way.
In doing this I no longer used the portable's display while airborne,
so when I learned that the Brick might have better range, I traded the
portable for a Brick in the same location.
Hope this helps.
Mike Opitz RO
We may be able to do similar in the Libelle.
Thanks!
UH
Another possibility for a Libelle is to mount the FLARM antenna a few
inches in front of the instrument panel tray. I got this idea from
Thorsten Mauritsen, a Danish Libelle pilot: here's a picture:
https://www.gregorie.org/gliding/libelle/FLARM_dipole_mount.html
You'll need to experiment a bit to hit the sweet spot: the antenna should
be about half-way between the array of instruments on the panel and the
rudder pedals, but its exact position is fairly critical. When its in the correct position you'll get good 360 degree coverage, but if the antenna
is too close to the instruments in the panel or too far from them, you'll
find that the FLARM range BEHIND the glider is reduced, so presumably the
ratio of FLARM wavelength to the antenna distance from the metal in the instruments and/or the rudder pedals is critical.
I optimised the antenna placement by trial and error: making flights and analysing the traces from them by using the FLARM coverage analyser on the Flarm website. After each flight I moved the antenna along the piece of
fishing rod until the coverage was close to even round the full 360
degrees. From memory this only took 3 or 4 flights to get acceptable all-
round coverage, which surprised me because I was expecting it to take more
more like 5 or 6 flights.
Something similar may also work in other gliders with glass fuselages,
provided they don't have more metal in the vicinity of the instrument
panel than a Libelle, with its original glass panel, has.
--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org
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