On Thursday, July 4, 2013 3:51:33 PM UTC-7, wrote:
I am contemplating a new panel. The Butterfly Vario looks like a very feature dense instrument that also works as a PowerFlarm display. I would like to talk with people who have both systems installed.

Guy "DDS"

Installing both. The Vario does display a Flarm page, but it does not seem to implement the full function (or even much of the function). I have not flown with it yet, but it does not appear to switch to the Flarm page when there is a conflict, or show any of the conflict information as a PowerFlarm display does. I can see ADS-B targets and I assume Flarm targets (aren't any flying overhead at my home) when viewing the traffic page as little triangles flying through the radar. There is some youtube video suggesting that the "bitchin' Betty" will warn you of traffic conflicts with an audio warning. There is no way to select traffic for display of altitude, climb rate, etc., nor is this displayed on the traffic page.

You do not need the Flarm display to manage the PowerFlarm, I was able to update the software, load the config files, etc. through the USB port with no problems.

The vario hooks directly to the PowerFlarm with an RJ45 connector and supplies power to it. Sentences from it are multiplexed with GPS and vario data through the NMEA interface box to your PDA - all that works well. I am using an Avier with WinpilotPro 12.5, and have found that if the Flarm sentences are enabled through the interface box, Winpilot gives up with "No GPS Data" even though it is there. LX8000 and SYM seem to be OK with it as nearly as I can tell. Not sure what the issue is there, I have looked at the RS232 output and it all looks perfectly good and legal to me.

So far, the vario seems like a very high quality, well done piece of kit. My only complaint is that the documentation is sparse, to be charitable.