On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:56:36 -0700, Dan Marotta wrote:

I will continue doing research, but let me ask a couple of questions of
the board: Is there a FLARM unit which could be mounted, say, behind
the seat back bulkhead and provide alarms and display on my Android
running XCSoar? Would such a mount require penetrating my carbon
fuselage for an external antenna? Maybe an antenna (only) on top of the
glare shield considering vertical clearance with the canopy.

This may not help Dan or other folks who need PCAS-like abilities. As
Eric says, that needs PowerFLARM. However, the LX Red Box may be worth
considering if you have limited panel space and/or can't fit things that
stick out over the edges of the panel.

The Red Box electronics are in a small metal box measuring 50x27x97mm
(2"x1"x4") which weighs 150g and draws 60 mA at 12v. Antennae, display
etc. are all separate so the box can be placed anywhere convenient.

In addition the Red Box needs a display and two antennae, a GPS 'puck'
and a transceiver antenna. You have a choice for the latter: either a
160mm (6.5") dipole or an 80mm (3.5") rod on an 80mm diam ground plane.

The standard display is a 25x50x4.5mm (1"x2"x3/16") surface-mount unit
with an RJ45 socket in its back surface. You can also connect the Red Box
to a PNA running XCSoar or LK8000 if you can't squeeze that small display
onto your panel but already carry a PNA.

You can optionally add an SD card reader, which I'd recommend for two
reasons:
(1) I find it the easy way to update the FLARM firmware because it avoids
having to connect the FLARM to a PC.
(2) FLARM downloads logs to it, which can be uploaded to the FLARM
website to check your antenna placement.

The SD card and IGC logger are separate options: you can do the antenna
checks without needing the IGC logger option which is merely a firmware
upgrade and can be added later if you need it.

I have a Red Box installed in my Libelle with the dipole antenna, and as
many will know, the Libelle panel isn't the biggest one around and does
not allow anything to overhang its edges. Pictures of the front and rear
of my panel are he
http://www.gregorie.org/gliding/libelle/FLARM_panel.jpg
http://www.gregorie.org/gliding/libe...RM_install.jpg

The FLARM display is the small rectangle between the radio and the ASI.
You can just see the SD card reader to the right of the FLARM display,
half-hidden behind the PNA.

A description of how I made the dipole mount and the reasons behind its
design are he
http://www.gregorie.org/gliding/libe...ole_mount.html

I hope this is useful to other people with limited panel space.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |