Please write book

In addition to Dan's point about condor, you can also slave a variety of glide computers to the condor nema output. This lets you fly with, and tweak, your computer. You can be as heads down as you want with no danger. Except that crash noise can be surprising at times.

JD

On Saturday, February 27, 2016 at 5:23:24 AM UTC-5, JD Williams wrote:
In addition to Dan's point about condor, you can also slave a variety of glide computers to the condor nema output. This lets you fly with, and tweak, your computer. You can be as heads down as you want with no danger. Except that crash noise can be surprising at times.

JD

JD's right. I learned XC Soar on my Dell Streak (wireless connection) using Condor. I got a really good idea of which dialog boxes worked for me. When I got an LX7007, I learned it too (cabled connection).

If not online, CONDOR can also be paused - giving time to read the manual.

Nothing worse than watching a glider you know has a new computer in it wandering about the skies while the pilot is head-down trying to fathom what it is doing...

Dan, I agree that learn by doing with Condor would be a nice way to familiarize yourself with concepts such as McCready speed to fly and all the other features of XCsoar. But, even for me who likes technolgy, it is quite daunting to figure out how to hook up all the hardware and software. Would you be willing to write up a procedure?
Thanks for considering this.

On Saturday, February 27, 2016 at 9:54:37 AM UTC-5, Soartech wrote:
Dan, I agree that learn by doing with Condor would be a nice way to familiarize yourself with concepts such as McCready speed to fly and all the other features of XCsoar. But, even for me who likes technolgy, it is quite daunting to figure out how to hook up all the hardware and software. Would you be willing to write up a procedure?
Thanks for considering this.

I am a techno-bozo. I went to the XC Soar website forum and they have a "how-to" that even I could understand. It deals with connection, so once it's sorted, you're good to go.

Oh shucky darn!

I got so worked up about the Nook (I've been using a Streak) that I just
bid $15.50 on eBay and now I'm afraid I'll win the auction...

Dan

On 2/26/2016 4:28 PM, wrote:
I find the Nook Simple Touch (6-inch black-and-white e-ink screen) to be more readable in sunshine than anything else I've seen, at any price. These can be had for about $30 on ebay. It takes some fiddling to "root" it and install Tophat (a derivative of XCsoar), but I've gotten used to the procedure, done it for several fellow club members. I use it with a USB GPS "puck" and a Y cable, and external power via a 12v-5V converter.

Before that for some years I used an ancient B&W Palm PDA plus a clip-on GPS with the Soaring Pilot software (also free), worked quite well actually, and was easy on the battery, but the Tophat software is more modern and intuitive, and the Nook screen is much larger.

Seems like the original poster here though wants to learn about how to make best use of a glide computer, not brand-name recommendations. There is a lot to learn, although best done by doing it (carefully - keep your attention outside the cockpit). I found that transitioning from paper-map-and-whiz-wheel to a computer allowed me to shift from over-cautious glide-guesstimating to a more precise glide envelope around each landable airfield on the route, resulting in my flying a lot more XC. At the price of occasional landouts of course.

--
Dan, 5J

Relief I was outbid by $0.50!

On 2/27/2016 5:01 PM, Dan Marotta wrote:
Oh shucky darn!

I got so worked up about the Nook (I've been using a Streak) that I
just bid $15.50 on eBay and now I'm afraid I'll win the auction...

Dan

On 2/26/2016 4:28 PM, wrote:
I find the Nook Simple Touch (6-inch black-and-white e-ink screen) to be more readable in sunshine than anything else I've seen, at any price. These can be had for about $30 on ebay. It takes some fiddling to "root" it and install Tophat (a derivative of XCsoar), but I've gotten used to the procedure, done it for several fellow club members. I use it with a USB GPS "puck" and a Y cable, and external power via a 12v-5V converter.

Before that for some years I used an ancient B&W Palm PDA plus a clip-on GPS with the Soaring Pilot software (also free), worked quite well actually, and was easy on the battery, but the Tophat software is more modern and intuitive, and the Nook screen is much larger.

Seems like the original poster here though wants to learn about how to make best use of a glide computer, not brand-name recommendations. There is a lot to learn, although best done by doing it (carefully - keep your attention outside the cockpit). I found that transitioning from paper-map-and-whiz-wheel to a computer allowed me to shift from over-cautious glide-guesstimating to a more precise glide envelope around each landable airfield on the route, resulting in my flying a lot more XC. At the price of occasional landouts of course.

--
Dan, 5J

--
Dan, 5J

I am a techno-bozo. I went to the XC Soar website forum and they have a "how-to" that even I could understand. It deals with connection, so once it's sorted, you're good to go.

I am a professional technologist and experiment with all kinds of crazy tech, yet I too was daunted by setting up my XC Soar device with Condor, but it turns out these guys are right...it's a piece of cake. Just follow these directions very slowly and carefully: http://forum.condorsoaring.com/viewt...hp?f=1&t=12538

Here's the process in a nutshell:
1. Install the "COM Port" driver
2. Download and create a shortcut to a GPS / COM port "thingy" (easy, I promise)
3. Turn on the GPS "output" of Condor
4. Start Top Hat / XC Soar and setup the "GPS Port" device

FLY! It makes Condor even better.