LX Era 80 vs S80/S100

On Wednesday, October 2, 2019 at 9:44:55 AM UTC+3, Senna Van den Bosch wrote:
I'm thinking of upgrading my SDI C4 e-vario this winter in my DG-100. With limited space, I would be going for an 80mm one.

I've seen some different options, like the LX S80/S100 and Era 80, but fail to see many differences.

For what I do know from the cumulus-soaring.com comparison page is that the Era 80 has GPS built in, is IGC approved and has a built in backup battery. Also, the Era seems to support 1 needle at a time, while the S80/S100 can do netto/relative/McCready needles at the same time.

Would you suggest one above the other? Any other features to compare that I'm missing?

Help would be appreciated!

I've flown S80 and first thing I did was to get rid of clutter of several needles.

I would add Air Glide S to the list. You get the very good inertial netto that is not availabe on others, and a product that is made to look and feel like real aircraft instrument.

Op woensdag 2 oktober 2019 10:18:31 UTC+2 schreef krasw:
On Wednesday, October 2, 2019 at 9:44:55 AM UTC+3, Senna Van den Bosch wrote:
I'm thinking of upgrading my SDI C4 e-vario this winter in my DG-100. With limited space, I would be going for an 80mm one.

I've seen some different options, like the LX S80/S100 and Era 80, but fail to see many differences.

For what I do know from the cumulus-soaring.com comparison page is that the Era 80 has GPS built in, is IGC approved and has a built in backup battery. Also, the Era seems to support 1 needle at a time, while the S80/S100 can do netto/relative/McCready needles at the same time.

Would you suggest one above the other? Any other features to compare that I'm missing?

Help would be appreciated!

I've flown S80 and first thing I did was to get rid of clutter of several needles.

I would add Air Glide S to the list. You get the very good inertial netto that is not availabe on others, and a product that is made to look and feel like real aircraft instrument.

The Air Glide looks amazing, however, the display is € 1499 and if I'm not mistaken, requires the € 1499 sensor unit as well, making the Era 80/S80/S100 well over € 1000 cheaper.

I fly with S80 in club aircraft and with LX EOS in my ASW27. My
contribution to your questions in that the S80 has too many knobs and
buttons. The EOS has one knob and one button.

Despite flying with the S80 for 2 seasons I still end up hitting the wrong
buttons and twiddling the wrong knob. The LX offerings are much easier to
operate.

Both are very good varios and provide all the data you need (and much
more).

Op woensdag 2 oktober 2019 12:45:04 UTC+2 schreef Jim White:
I fly with S80 in club aircraft and with LX EOS in my ASW27. My
contribution to your questions in that the S80 has too many knobs and
buttons. The EOS has one knob and one button.

Despite flying with the S80 for 2 seasons I still end up hitting the wrong
buttons and twiddling the wrong knob. The LX offerings are much easier to
operate.

Both are very good varios and provide all the data you need (and much
more).

Would you say the S80 is less accurate or about the same in performance? The Era 80 also features 2 knobs and buttons, but performance or feature wise I can't find many differences.

At 11:17 02 October 2019, Senna Van den Bosch wrote:
Op woensdag 2 oktober 2019 12:45:04 UTC+2 schreef Jim White:
I fly with S80 in club aircraft and with LX EOS in my ASW27. My
contribution to your questions in that the S80 has too many knobs and
buttons. The EOS has one knob and one button.

Despite flying with the S80 for 2 seasons I still end up hitting the
wrong
buttons and twiddling the wrong knob. The LX offerings are much easier
to
operate.

Both are very good varios and provide all the data you need (and much
more).

Would you say the S80 is less accurate or about the same in performance?
The Era 80 also features 2 knobs and buttons, but performance or feature
wise I can't find many differences.

They are both very good varios. My EOS tracks my Sage Vario pretty much
exactly. I am not sure how you would check 'accuracy' in climb or glide
except by doing a Johnsonesque long glide in still air.

On Thursday, October 3, 2019 at 2:15:06 AM UTC-7, Jim White wrote:
At 11:17 02 October 2019, Senna Van den Bosch wrote:
Op woensdag 2 oktober 2019 12:45:04 UTC+2 schreef Jim White:
I fly with S80 in club aircraft and with LX EOS in my ASW27. My
contribution to your questions in that the S80 has too many knobs and
buttons. The EOS has one knob and one button.

Despite flying with the S80 for 2 seasons I still end up hitting the
wrong
buttons and twiddling the wrong knob. The LX offerings are much easier
to
operate.

Both are very good varios and provide all the data you need (and much
more).

Would you say the S80 is less accurate or about the same in performance?
The Era 80 also features 2 knobs and buttons, but performance or feature
wise I can't find many differences.

They are both very good varios. My EOS tracks my Sage Vario pretty much
exactly. I am not sure how you would check 'accuracy' in climb or glide
except by doing a Johnsonesque long glide in still air.

I alway check altimeter too. More than once 3-4 knots on vario but reality, as told by altimeter was another story. When I turn into a thermal I note altitude.

I have actually used the s100 in my DG 100 for 1 season. I popped for the AHRS as well. 80mm is the way to go.

I ordered the lx navigation Eros first and then returned it. I preferred the simplicity of the S100. I found the era to be slightly less user friendly but it’s basically the same unit.

You will be happy with the S100. It has all the bells and whistles and is easy to use. I have it on electronic compensation though and it creates an overly sensitive and optimistic vario. Adjusting internal settings has minimal effect on this. On the DG 100 I would use the traditional TE compensation. I think you need the combo probe to get good performance with electronic compensation on the S100. I find myself waiting on the winter to confirm a thermal before turning. The S100 is usually right about the thermal and quick to identify it, but screams like it’s going to be a 5 kt climb until you exuberantly turn and find it to only be 1.5 kts. Yes, I have tuned it for stick thermals Properly. The winter stays honest throughout. I think this is due to the location of the static holes...

The $800 AHRS option sure is cool eye candy and could come in useful on that wave day where it closes in below you but Otherwise, you won’t use it.

My last comment is that you have one option for tone. Yea you can adjust it slightly but it’s doesn’t change much. For $2,000 you should have 10 options for types of sounds for the vario. It blows my mind that nobody seems to care and it’s not even discussed in reviews. The tone should be highly adjustable just like the face of the vario. Instead you get a standard beep. Cambridge and Tasman had some nice option. The industry needs to pamper attention to this as we all have to listen to it for hours on end

On Wednesday, 2 October 2019 11:21:17 UTC+3, Senna Van den Bosch wrote:
Op woensdag 2 oktober 2019 10:18:31 UTC+2 schreef krasw:
On Wednesday, October 2, 2019 at 9:44:55 AM UTC+3, Senna Van den Bosch wrote:
I'm thinking of upgrading my SDI C4 e-vario this winter in my DG-100. With limited space, I would be going for an 80mm one.

I've seen some different options, like the LX S80/S100 and Era 80, but fail to see many differences.

For what I do know from the cumulus-soaring.com comparison page is that the Era 80 has GPS built in, is IGC approved and has a built in backup battery. Also, the Era seems to support 1 needle at a time, while the S80/S100 can do netto/relative/McCready needles at the same time.

Would you suggest one above the other? Any other features to compare that I'm missing?

Help would be appreciated!

I've flown S80 and first thing I did was to get rid of clutter of several needles.

I would add Air Glide S to the list. You get the very good inertial netto that is not availabe on others, and a product that is made to look and feel like real aircraft instrument.

The Air Glide looks amazing, however, the display is € 1499 and if I'm not mistaken, requires the € 1499 sensor unit as well, making the Era 80/S80/S100 well over € 1000 cheaper.


Correspoding LX Nav would be S100 with AHRS option, priced very close to it..

On Wednesday, October 2, 2019 at 9:18:31 AM UTC+1, krasw wrote:
On Wednesday, October 2, 2019 at 9:44:55 AM UTC+3, Senna Van den Bosch wrote:
I'm thinking of upgrading my SDI C4 e-vario this winter in my DG-100. With limited space, I would be going for an 80mm one.

I've seen some different options, like the LX S80/S100 and Era 80, but fail to see many differences.

For what I do know from the cumulus-soaring.com comparison page is that the Era 80 has GPS built in, is IGC approved and has a built in backup battery. Also, the Era seems to support 1 needle at a time, while the S80/S100 can do netto/relative/McCready needles at the same time.

Would you suggest one above the other? Any other features to compare that I'm missing?

Help would be appreciated!

I've flown S80 and first thing I did was to get rid of clutter of several needles.

I would add Air Glide S to the list. You get the very good inertial netto that is not availabe on others, and a product that is made to look and feel like real aircraft instrument.

Air Avionics are stopping making the Air Glide vario/nav systems - as reported on https://streckenflug.at/

The Airglide announcement
https://translate.google.com/transla...ooperation.pdf

from last paragraph
AIR Avionics wants to support interested parties and the open source community to further exploit acquired knowledge and software components.

Wonder if they intend it to become an open source instrument?