On Wednesday, September 12, 2012 8:13:54 AM UTC-7, Marc - Butterfly Avionics wrote:
Gentlemen,



please let me give you some short details.



Support:

PowerFLARM Displays are sold and supported in the US. Butterfly as a brand has nothing to do with PowerFLARM Displays and its support. The display design of course comes from us (Butterfly). The FLARM USA team answers all your questions and has good knowledge on the product.



Sounder Volume:

Yes, the sounder volume is limited. This is a design decision because of the very limited current that FLARM (mostly the classic one) delivers to external displays and because of size. Most pilots like it, in Europe we have sold quite some displays even to powered aircraft pilots with good results (way louder than in gliders).



Light-leakage:

This happens due to production variances in the display components we use.. It neither affects performance nor power consumption and is absolutely normal.



Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve our products.



Best wishes

Marc

Butterfly Avionics, Germany







Am Dienstag, 11. September 2012 22:19:30 UTC+2 schrieb Andy:

I received a Butterfly external display with my US PowerFLARM core (brick). I also ordered a PowerFLARM Portable so have been able to compare the two.







The alerter volume of my Butterfly external display is much lower than the alerter volume on my portable, even when the Butterfly is a maximum and the portable is at reduced level.







My Butterfly external display also has light leaks along the entire top and bottom edges. These show up as light bars that are significantly brigher than the display itself. The portable display has no visible light leaks.







I contacted Butterfly and asked for comment as I did not wish to approach my dealer until I know whether these characteristics were typical of all production displays.







Butterfly declined to answer my questions and forwarded my enquiry to Lee Kuhlke of FLARM USA. It seems that Butterfly is taking no responsibility for displays that were exported to USA. Lee has so far declined to provide any answer.







So, if you have a Butterfly external display, will you please let me it it has light leaks, and also if the alerter volume is similar to, or significantly lower than, the portable.







Photos of the light leaks available by email.







thanks,







Andy.

Mark, thanks for your reply.
Since you mention that our feedback helps, and there is no other forum we are aware of to provide it, here are some more feedback/questions:
1 - Are there any differences in display and volume between the rectangular display and the in panel display?
2 - Is it possible in next release to remove volume limit for Powerflarm bricks?
3 - Can the manual be updated to explain the various elements in the display for all possible alerts? I am still not clear how ADS-B traffic is displayed.
4 - There seem to be a bug which result in the latest call sign received continuously showing on subsequent alerts including Mode C alerts, long after the flarm target is gone.
6 - The polarization is such that the display can only be read in vertical mode when using polarized glasses. Any plans to provide a horizontal polarized version?
7 - Instead of the long chirp for nearby PCAS alert (added in latest butterfly version I believe), is it possible to change it to a series of short chirps, similar to the MRX? Even with the low volume, I find the continuous long chirp while thermaling with another transponder equipped glider a bit distracting.
8 - Does butterfly implement some kind of filtering which prevents targets from disappearing momentarily due to loss of signal? This seem the case when comparing to the flarm radar in XCSoar for example.

Ramy