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Old December 17th 12, 05:02 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Power Flarm Display

On Wednesday, December 12, 2012 5:44:06 PM UTC-5, Richard wrote:
On Wednesday, December 12, 2012 10:28:43 AM UTC-8, bumper wrote:

On Wednesday, December 12, 2012 10:17:39 AM UTC-8, Morteza Ansari wrote: Not sure which butterfly display we are talking about, but the rectangular display that comes with the brick is anything but *useless* to anyone flying with polarized sun glasses. It is polarized incorrectly which means if you mount it in horizontal orientation you see practically nothing on the display. Yes, but it works just fine with my polarized glasses in the vertical mode. So I made a bracket to hold it at the edge of the glareshield to the left of center. Since the device and display are rotatable in increments of 90 degrees, and since all LCD displays I've seen are polarized in one plane or another, Butterfly had to pick one knowing full well that it would please some and offend others of the polarized sun glassed crowd. No way for them to win! bumper




The latest Firmware Version of the Butterfly display is out 3.01



It has:



New Features:

• Nondirectional traffic is shown permanently (PCAS)

• Supports PowerFLARM® CORE

• NEAREST-Mode, always automatically shows nearest target

• Units con"gurable

• Enhanced Menu

Improvements:

• Better stability with many received targets

• new dynamical menu for future extensions.

• 3.0.1: Better font readability



I just saw an ADS B target the fonts are much larger and readable.



You need a special cable to update the firmware.



Make the cable instructions and get firmware at



http://www.butterfly-avionics.com/in...upport-english



or send to your dealer or Craggy Aero.



Richard

www.craggyaero.com


All,

I looked at the update information, and although it specified what connector pins on the display connector (RJ-12) were to be connected to what pins on a PC serial connector, it didn't specify the connector itself or address the issue of how one determines whether or not the PC can supply 3.3vdc on pin 5. I emailed the Butterfly folks, and I have copied the reply here. You will note that the reply still doesn't directly address the 3.3vdc issue, but at this point I'm confident enough that its not going to be a problem that I plan to fabricate a RJ12-DB9 cable and give it a whirl.

Frank (TA)

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Aktualisiert von: Frank Paynter, 14. Dez 15:40 (CET):
Hi,

I would like to update the firmware on my PowerFlarm Butterfly display, but
I'm a bit confused by the directions for fabricating the required update
cable. Note that I'm an Electrical Engineer with over 40 years of bench
design and fabrication experience, so if I'm confused, I expect others are
as well.

The instructions provide a pinout for the display-end connector, with notes
as to where each pin should go on the PC end. However, the PC-end
connector isn't specified - is it supposed to be a DB9 serial connector?
If so, you must know that DB9 serial connectors aren't widely available on
modern PC's; I have 6 PCs in my home office, and not one of them has a DB9
serial connector. When I need serial port connectivity, I use a popular
USB-serial adapter. Will your display update properly when using such an
adapter?

Your specification calls for pin 5 of the RJ-12 connector to be tied to
+3.3VDC, but this isn't a common voltage for serial communications. What
happens if this line is connected to +5 or even +12 VDC?

Regards,

Frank

Aktualisiert von: Marc Foerderer, 17. Dez 11:54 (CET):
Dear Frank,

thanks for your message.

Yes a normal RS232 to USB adapter works fine, the connector depends of course on your use-case. Most PCs or at least RS232 serial adapters have a DB9 connector.

3v3DC is the supply voltage for the device itself, the RS232 pins are 12V tolerant.

If you have more questions, please contact me

Best regards
Marc Förderer
Butterfly Avionics GmbH

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