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Permalink Reply by Carl Orton on Monday

Sorry; I’m a bit confused. I have a GTX327 and EchoUAT adsb unit in my GRT suite. I only have one serial line from my EFIS to the 327 for the encoded altitude from my EFIS. The echo does not have any electrical connection to the 327. It “listens” to the 327 “ping” then adds the adsb data in a transmit from its own dedicated antenna. It’s a pretty simple interface. 

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Permalink Reply by charlie rosenzweig on Tuesday

Carl,

Thanks for the reply.   Yes, the wireless does work as you described.   But it only outputs data when interrogated.  Which if you live in a remote area, you are not going to get much Data our from you ECHO.   As a result, they created a Baro ALT for the ECHO.   The use a MUX cable to combine both. 

I am looking for someone who used the Echo ALT and MUX cable with their 327 and Echo.   

Thanks anyway. 

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Permalink Reply by Carl Orton on Tuesday

Ahhhh….you didn’t mention echoALT first time around. Yes. There is a service bulletin out for the loss of data in remote areas. I obtained my echoALT  from uAvionix at Oshkosh. It’s small and was affixed to the echoUAT with double sided tape. Now, I have the GRT system, which has the SafeFly gps as the position source and serves as the interface between the EFIS and echouat. I unplugged the cable connecting the echoUAT to the SafeFly, plugged the cable into the echoALT, then the echoALT into the echoUAT. No wiring or changing any wires other than using existing plugs to insert the ALT in line with the UAT. You don’t say what EFIS or system you have, so perhaps that’s why you’re referencing a mux cable. uAvionix had great instructions available to set it up. Unfortunately, I’ve slept since July and can’t recall. I’ll check my avionics library to see what I have on it. 

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Permalink Reply by charlie rosenzweig on Tuesday

Carl,

I appreciate your reply.  Our set ups are quite different.  Your is wireless while mins is hard wrired and I am using the Garmin 327 transponder with a serial encoder, the Uavionix SKY-FX-EXT WAAS GPS and the Uavionix Echo and if needed I have the Mux cable and the Echo ALT.  I do not have an EFIS.  I think my challenge is not so much in the wiring connections but rather in the configuration in the advance set up in the 327 in the RS232 in/Out options, as well as the various choices in the ECHO mobile app configuration.  

I have read the Uavionix manual and of course their service bulletin.  Unfortunately neither give advice on how to configure the mobile app, with the various components I am using.  Nor does Garmin give set up instructions in the RS232 in/out choices that are specific to a set up like mine.    I talked with Lou at Uavionix and told him I preferred to have just one device providing Baro ALT to both the Transponder and the Echo ADS-B.  Which is when he said I had to use the mux to be able to use the Serial Encoder to supply Baro ALT for both (but did not mention the need to also have the Echo ALT.).    There are two configurations in the ECHO installation guide and outlines the Mobile APP configurations but neither are similar to what I am using.  I have a help ticket in to Uavionix for a week now and left messages but now that we are in the holidays I suspect it will be several weeks more until I hear from them.  

The CFR says you should not use separate Baro ALT sources for the Transponder and the ADSB although I know a lot of folks who do.   Then there is the statement in Uavionix service bulletin that states (to the effect) that the software continuously calibrates the ECHO Alt against an encoder so they report the same altitude, which may suffice the CFR requirements......

 I primarily am hoping to find someone who has the same set up as I do so I can see how their software is set up in hopes it may give some  insight why I am not getting the baro on the Echo.   There are so many ways to "skin the cat: here.   Some use a MUX, some do not.  Some use the MUX and the ECHO ALT, while some use the ECHO ALT and no Mux.   

If you (or anyone else)  have time (If not no worries) to share the parameters in your 327 rs232 in/out set up and the Echo Mobile APP I would appreciate checking those against how I have mine set up.

Merry Christmas to you.

Charlie 

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Permalink Reply by Carl Orton yesterday

Hi, Charlie, and Merry Christmas to you, too....

I only have RS232 INPUT to my 327. One line.that provides the encoder data (regardless of source; mine is from efis) at 9600 baud. Personally, I'd just use the echoALT and, as the manual says, let it correlate between the encoder data being transmitted FROM the 327 during interrogation and that provided by the echoALT. Since you're just daisy-chaining the ALT into the UAT connection, it's pretty straight forward.

Did you update the echoUAT software with the two updates mentioned in the service bulletin?

I'm assuming you have the 1001006-001 install manual from uAvionix when you said you had the manual. Page 34 shows the uAvionix sky-fyx wiring so I assume that's currently working for you.

I'm happy to share my app settings; however, I don't have any pics of it on my phone, I won't be at the hangar until Saturday, and even then, I can't always pick up satellites in my metal hangar, and the echoUAT needs those inputs to give a valid position/altitude report, which may impact the other settings.  I'll get you something, though....

-Carl

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Permalink Reply by charlie rosenzweig yesterday

Carl,   

I really appreciate your help.    I just solved the mystery.    I played with Echo Moble app configurations a bizillion times and found one combination that worked!

I am going to post the set up that ended up working for me in hopes that anyone who has a set up like mine will not have to go through what I went through.  

Charlie Rosenweig ECHO%20GTX%20327%20set%20up%20that%20WORKS%20picture.jpeg

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Permalink Reply by Carl Orton yesterday

That’s great, Charlie!! Now you can enjoy Christmas without that issue nagging at you. 

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Permalink Reply by charlie rosenzweig 21 hours ago

I want to add that while I have it working, I have not ran all these settings by the UAvionix guys to make sure it is all spot on.  If not I will update this later. 

Charlie 

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Permalink Reply by charlie rosenzweig 34 minutes ago

Below are the latest set ups that work for my set up the previous one has one error in it. 

This works IF you have 

Garmin GTX 327 transponder with 2.13 version software

ACK 30.9 serial encoder

UAvionix ECHO

UAvionic Mux cable

Uavionix ALT with current software and know how to configure the settings using the Mobile APP. 

GTX327%20ECHO%20W-MUX%20Echo%20ALT%20config%20WORKS.docx

ECHO%20GTX%20327%20set%20up%20that%20WORKS%20picture.jpeg

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