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ddgates View Drop Down
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    Posted: 12 Oct 2015 at 12:42pm
Had a conversation with an Aspen executive today.

Their own ADS-B offerings aside from their "partnership" with Lynx are delayed, particularly WRT the dual band receiver only product (which he said would be Q1 2016 - but I've heard that for 2 years+).  He said that they currently have an unlock availability to display Freeflight ADS-B outputs on the Aspen MFD.  The unlock fee is $795.

He "thinks" they did some compatibility testing with the Navworx offerings and they worked "with some limitations", which he didn't remember.

He thinks that since the MLB is a rebranded Navworx product one might be able to display the MLB100 out, particularly wx, on the Aspen MFD, with an unlock.

Has anyone tried this?  Does Avidyne have any info on this?
David Gates
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DavidBunin View Drop Down
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Points: 742 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DavidBunin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Oct 2015 at 7:44am

The NavWorx ADS600-B and the Avidyne MLB100 share the same hardware, but not the same software.

Aspen is correct that the ADS600-B works with their unit. The "limitation" is that they don't make $795 because their unit seems to recognize the data even without the unlock code. (They'll probably "fix" that in a future software release of their own.)

I don't know what the MLB100 (Avidyne software) unit would do with an Aspen display. There are three possibilities; it works as-is, it works with an unlock code, or it doesn't work. I don't know if Aspen has tested the pairing. I know that NavWorx has not tested it.

David Bunin

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Originally posted by ddgates ddgates wrote:

Has anyone tried this?  Does Avidyne have any info on this?


I was the guinea pig (so to speak) for the ADS600-B to Aspen setup.  You are correct that with the 2.7.2 release Aspen was excluding FreeFlight units rather than including the Aspen branded unit.  Big oops.  This was "fixed" in 2.8.

2.7.2's ADS-B support was pretty buggy, and had somewhat dangerous traffic and NEXRAD issues.  While 2.8 is much better there are still a lot of issues with that is there.  For example, it only displays METARs for sites that also are supported on XM (oops). The traffic support is flaky, most traffic is shown as the diamond instead of directional, and no traffic shows trend vectors.

That said, what is there is most certainly worthwhile.  I expect Aspen will polish what is there (traffic, NEXRAD, and METARs) and add the remaining promised functionality in future releases.  In the mean time I receive all of the ADS-B data on my tablet.

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Neal
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ddgates View Drop Down
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Neal:


Did you have to do an unlock to do this?

Did the Navworx unit "kind of" work on the Aspen MFD?

My subterranean question is what would happen (3 possibilities as David B pointed out) if one tried to port MLB100 data to the Aspen MFD.


David G
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Originally posted by ddgates ddgates wrote:

Did you have to do an unlock to do this?


Yes, though I did not use it for 2.7.2.  I did use it for 2.8.

Originally posted by ddgates ddgates wrote:


Did the Navworx unit "kind of" work on the Aspen MFD?

Yes.  It worked with both the MFD and PFD.  There were no bugs present that would have been any different on the FreeFlight branded unit (guess I should have mentioned that).

Originally posted by ddgates ddgates wrote:


My subterranean question is what would happen (3 possibilities as David B pointed out) if one tried to port MLB100 data to the Aspen MFD.


If the output from the MLB100 is per Capstone it will work just fine.  Both Navworx and Avidyne should be able to tell you if that is the case.  You will need to check the STC in use to determine if output to a generic display is covered (it is for the ADS600-B) in order to stay legal.

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Neal
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ddgates View Drop Down
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Points: 1100 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ddgates Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Oct 2015 at 11:39pm

OK, Jake (or Simpson):

Is the MLB100 weather output following Capstone protocol?
David Gates
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MLB issues, hopefully ? to be resolved with 540 v10.1.1 - 
1. Still no TFR's.

2. Although Wx OK on 540, No Wx from MLB100 to Aspen MFD (v2.7-need to upgrade to v2.8), . May need to pay Aspen "Unlock" $$ fee. 

3. ADS-B traffic from MLB seems "marginal" at best: 
     .  Intermittent "Flagging" of traffic on Aspen
     .  Cycling UAT (MLB) Circuit Breaker after 540 GPS position brings back traffic in flight, but doesn't last.
     .  Own ship Traffic shadow in Yellow, frequent - Is this related to lack of auto-population of 540 from Pressure Altitude from Aspen encoder?

Tom Wolf
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ddgates View Drop Down
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Points: 1100 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ddgates Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Nov 2015 at 9:20am
Tom:

I spoke with a highly placed Aspen rep, with same issue.  He says their engineering team has not tested the MLB on the Aspen MFD - "may or may not work, you're on your own for this one".  May buy an unlock which does nothing.  Quote:

"This interface has not been documented or vetted by Aspen … no engineering evaluation, no bench integration, no aircraft level integration or flight evaluation.  You’re on your own if you opt to head down that road.

 

The ADS-B IN unlock for non-Aspen branded equipment is P/N 913-00005-001.  List price is $795."


I too would like MLB wx displayed on my Aspens.


David
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Points: 742 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DavidBunin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Nov 2015 at 10:10am

Originally posted by n7ifr n7ifr wrote:

 Cycling UAT (MLB) Circuit Breaker after 540 GPS position brings back traffic in flight, but doesn't last.

This is the first time I've heard that the power cycle wasn't a good fix for the whole flight.  I hope the new software is a more permanent solution for you.

David Bunin
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