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Old August 10th 12, 01:02 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Jim[_32_]
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Posts: 49
Default Powerflarm Brick feedback

My 2cents:

1- Installation. I was surprised at how much space the Brick actually needs with its octopus of cables and antenna wires. Since my glare shield is fiberglass I could mount the P-Flarm, ADS-B/PCAS and GPS antennae out of view under the shield on a wooden stick that now runs between the panel and the ship's nose.

I couldn't get P-Flarm to talk to both my ClearNav and external display regardless of wiring it correctly. Discovered I needed to enable the second port in the Flarm with:
$pflac,s,nmeaout2,61
$PFLAC,S,BAUD1,2
$PFLAC,S,BAUD2,5
#That was NOT obvious.

2- Configuration and firmware upgrade. I had no issues updating the Brick but unfortunately I couldn't tell if it was successful The Flarm support guys gave me a cute little command ($debug_out,fat,all,all) that dumps a config status back onto the USB stick. Nice.

I since updated my display to 3.0 and now it shows some config info at power up.

3 - Bugs: None.

4 - Display. I think the external display is a bit dim and has tiny fonts. Although that could just be my aging peepers.

5 - Audio alert. Barely detectable. I haven't had any P-Flarm alerts yet but the TCAS just gives a single timid beep.

6 - Flarm traffic detection and alerts. I only installed this a few days ago and haven't flown with any other Flarms.

7 - ADSB alerts. Same answer as #6

8 - PCAS alerts - GA traffic alerts ave very important to me! And, so far, like my PCAS better. Aside from the single short chirp, I cant glean any additional info out of that darn little display. Maybe I'll get used to it. Oh, I had already expanded my settings like some later posted here. Still does nothing for the lack of warning sound/display. My ClearNav doesn't seem to even know about GA traffic AFAIK.

9 - I got my ICAO ID in my config file. Now what? I guess I'll fumble my way through flarmnet like the rest of us...

-Jim