TWX operation with IFD550

I just installed my new IFD550 and it seems like everything booted up just fine, except for my TWX 670, which is giving me 'lightning sensor' errors.

There are a couple of storms passing by today, and at one point I heard an audio 'lighting at 8 O'clock' notification, which suggests to me that the lightning might be working but flagging the interface as a fail.

The RS-232 config has that port set to TWX for both input and output, just like it was on the IFD540.

This seems similar to the old data framing issue that a few of us saw on the MLB100 for a while...

Has there been any engineering or other discussion about potential issues in this area? Is there a new TWX670 software version I need to load? Different config I should use?

Thanks,

Very interested in this as I have access to purchase a 670.

Edited by ddgates - 09 Jun 2017 at 10:07pm

As it turns out, Avidyne will be glad to sell you a hand held strike generator. It's a little plastic box with a label and a button, as I recall... not a terribly impressive piece of gear.

However it will generate strikes on the unit much better than a spark gap. The TWX670 is a pretty good box... where a stormscope or strikefinder can be tested with a noisy electric drill, I'm told, the Avidyne will reject those kinds of electromagnetic noises as not being lightning.

We did a lot of work on my installation in initially, based on some additional recommendations from the factory, which greatly increased it's sensitivity and performance. So I'm not worried about the detector, in fact last weekend it did a great job of seeing lighting 150 plus miles away while on a trip to Kansas.

It's just the data transfer errors that I'm hoping to resolve.

Thanks,

Any one willing to share how much it cost to install the x670?  I like the concept, but will would like to know what one really cost to install.

Thanks,
Tom Goodwin