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#11
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Richard, thank you for posting the info on the xmradio weatherworx. I,
like many, have been searching for reliable in-cockpit weather solutions. The closest thing to affordibility so far has been anywhere wx from control vision, but even that is a bit pricey, and a rats nest of wires. I use the Palm i705, and you just can't beat it for portability and cost. However, as reliable as it is, even in flight, there are too many times, when I just didnt get a signal or reply when making an inflight weather request from CBAV or TurboWX. For that past month, I have been using a poormans version of the control vision solution... Globalstar SAT phone, $595 list/$495 with rebate/$395 reconditioned Ipaq H3635 pocket pc, on ebay for $100 (or any pocket pc), you can even hook to your i705 and switch back and forth between the wireless palm network and the SAT connection. I prefer the higher resolution and color on the Ipaq for maps. Globalstar data cable, $69; IPAQ Serial Cable (not a hotsync cable, they are not the same) $20; SAT phone is $35/month and .99/minute with 30 included min/month, or $50/month with 120 minutes/month, .75/minute after that. Control Visions deal is $25/month, first 100 mins free, then .99/min after that. A wide range of service plans to fit both budget and use. (I do not work for any SAT phone company or aviation product company) Data comes down at 9.6Kbps,plus I can make reliable, consistant voice calls in flight. I have not had any problem aquiring and holding a SAT signal in flight, as long as the antenna is held reasonbly close to a window. The glare shield is fine. Admittedly, this is a request/reply setup, and I typically use weathertap.com and flighbrief.com for inflight weather. Not that it is very useful or fast, I can browse the web in flight, including pop3 email, etc etc... The result is, I am juggling only a PDA, a short cable, and the sat phone. Not Bad. Did you ever notice how big and cumbersome even the smallest laptops are when in the cockpit? Screen visibility in sunlight is another concern. About the only thing I see that XMradio has to offer is its "broadcast" technology, and (I assume) greater bandwidth...not that these are bad things. BTW, I have a Delco Xmradio mounted on the pedestal of my mooney, with the low profile antenna hiding on the glare shield...works great...but I can't listen to Limbaugh. Jeff Doran Mooney N1159P ACY As far as WeatherWorx vs. Palm VIIx, I think the people who will pay $49/month for WeatherWorx and deal with the wiring clutter are people who use their airplanes fairly often for practical IFR travel. I think other people will stick with the simplicity, compactness, and economic advantages of the Palm VIIx. They each have their advantage. To hook up Weatherworx, you need to set up the computer, satellite receiver, and XMRadio box, certainly not something you could/would do on the fly in the air. The advantage of WeatherWorx is that once this is all set up, it updates automatically during the flight so it is a lot less distracting. The advantage of the Palm VIIx is that it can just sit in the side pocket of your airplane and you can turn it on basically on a whim if you see unexpected weather. On top of that, the Palm VIIx runs on just 2 AAA batteries, vs. WeatherWorx which requires either a freshly charged laptop/PDA battery or else a connection to the airplane's cigarette lighter power source. |
#12
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"Jeff Doran" wrote in message m... Did you ever notice how big and cumbersome even the smallest laptops are when in the cockpit? Screen visibility in sunlight is another concern. Yes, I am somewhat concerned about that, but I know a pilot whom I have worked with for recurrent training who swears by the WSI In Flight system with a laptop and he says it is not inconvenient at all.. we'll see in a month or two after some more pilots (include myself) get a bunch of practical experience using XMRadio in the air. Maybe one of the RAM computer mounts will be an option. Also XMRadio is supposed to support PDAs, but we will have to see the details how well that works and what features it can support on a PDA. About the only thing I see that XMRadio has to offer is its "broadcast" technology, and (I assume) greater bandwidth...not that these are bad things. I think the "broadcast" technology advantage is immense since this allows 5-minute updates without having to worry about cost. I think the automatic aquisition feature of XMRadio is a major advantage over the satellite phone setup you describe -- I have tried that myself and decided that logging onto the Internet in-flight and making regular requests for weather was just too much of a distraction in any sort of weather where I really wanted the datalink information... Here with WxWorx once everything is set up on the ground it updates the signal automatically and should not require any pilot input at all. -- Richard Kaplan, CFII www.flyimc.com |
#13
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Just a quick clarification/update as I have had time to test this system
some more and ask a few more questions from the manufacturer: First of all, the $629 price for the laptop-based WxWorx on Wings system by Baron Services does not include an additional $30 for the antenna, which brings the total cost to $659. Second, the power requirement for the XMRadio receiver is 9VDC; however, there is a voltage stepdown at the input to the receiver so it will accept between 9V and 23V and therefore they anticipate it will be compatible with most aircraft electrical systems.. .this is similar to the situation with battery-powered GPS devices, which need to accept varying input voltages. This is particularly important on 24V aircraft electrical systems which have a stepped down "12V" cigarette lighter output but where this "12V" may vary depending on the impedance of the connected device. Next, the PDA version of their system will be sold by a separate company called NavAiir. The PDA version apparently will be demonstrated at Oshkosh but will not be for sale for 2-3 more weeks. It will cost $999 without the PDA and is recommended to run on newer/faster PDAs only. It will use the same weather data as the Weatherworx/Baron Services laptop-based system. So my conclusions/plans a 1. Clearly there is quite a web of companies working with XMRadio to produce weather datalink systems; it may be hard to sort out the various relationships and there may well be new products and new companies formed over time. 2. Both the laptop and the PDA versions of the various XMRadio weather datalink products will clearly be memory/processor intensive and may not work with laptops or PDAs more than 1-2 years old - read the specs carefully 3. I am convinced that the quality of the data is well worth it in a GA cockpit, though I am concerned about the practicality of the various wires and power connections in the cockpit. I think what I will do for myself is to use the laptop-based version of the WxWorx system, buy a couple of A/C inverters at Wamart with rechargable batteries, and try to put together my own "weather datalink briefcase" which will contain my laptop computer, A/C inverters, XMRadio receiver, and assorted wires; this should then work in the airplane or the car (for learning purposes as I drive through thunderstorms) or anywhere else... the ultimate "nerd bag" for a weaher-addicted pilot. If anyone else does something like this, shared details would be helpful. -- Richard Kaplan, CFII www.flyimc.com |
#14
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See these sites for updated info the laptop and PDA versions of WxWorx:
http://www.wxworx.com http://www.airgator.com/Weather.htm -- Richard Kaplan, CFII www.flyimc.com |
#15
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"Richard Kaplan" wrote in message news:d108be18406396d73f7173e630ed03bd@TeraNews.. .
See these sites for updated info the laptop and PDA versions of WxWorx: http://www.wxworx.com http://www.airgator.com/Weather.htm Richard, Do you know if the WxWorx software has provisions to accept an NMEA GPS input from a serial port? It would be nice to see the weather displayed track-up and relative to present position. -Nathan |
#16
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"Richard Kaplan" writes:
3. I am convinced that the quality of the data is well worth it in a GA cockpit, though I am concerned about the practicality of the various wires and power connections in the cockpit. I think what I will do for myself is to use the laptop-based version of the WxWorx system, buy a couple of A/C inverters at Wamart with rechargable batteries, and try to put together my own "weather datalink briefcase" which will contain my laptop computer, A/C inverters, XMRadio receiver, and assorted wires; this should then work in the airplane or the car (for learning purposes as I drive through thunderstorms) or anywhere else... the ultimate "nerd bag" for a weaher-addicted pilot. If anyone else does something like this, shared details would be helpful. Errr.. what exactly are you trying to run from AC? My point being, if you have a laptop to run, you want a straight DC-DC adapter to power it. Radios Hack sells same, (All I see now is #273-1867, but there are others I think) as do various laptop speciality houses. They typically come with a mating plug for your laptop that not-so-incidently programs the output voltage. With such, everything should run off the aircraft. You could add a 2-4 AhH gelcell for independence, but that will build your arm muscles.. -- A host is a host from coast to & no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433 |
#17
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"David Lesher" wrote in message ... Errr.. what exactly are you trying to run from AC? Yes, you are correct... that would be better.. I do not have a cigarette lighter adapter for my laptop but it would certainly be easier to buy that then to deal with an A/C inverter.. the A/C inverter was suggsed by the WeatherWorx engineer but as I thought about it you are correc it makes do sense to go from D/C to A/C and then D/C with all the complexity involved. -- Richard Kaplan, CFII www.flyimc.com |
#18
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"Nathan Young" wrote in message om... Do you know if the WxWorx software has provisions to accept an NMEA GPS input from a serial port? It would be nice to see the weather displayed track-up and relative to present position. Yes, it does indeed have this provision.. that is an extra $100 or so as a software feature. For most handheld GPS systems you can use the NMEA/serial cable you normally use to update your GPS database. -- Richard Kaplan, CFII www.flyimc.com |
#19
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An update the PDA version of Weatherworx (see www.navair.com) : While I am extremely impressed with the laptop version (www.wxworx.com), I saw the PDA version and I am not impressed. I find it difficult to get enough data in range on the PDA to be useful for strategic purposes. In the best case it would require a lot of button pressing or stylus work on the PDA in-fligh to keep track of weather. With the laptop version (which is cheaper than the PDA version by the way), it is possible to get enough data on the screen so that you never need to press any buttons or do any other adjustments.. set up the wires and software before flight and then just look over to the laptop in-flight to get updates each 5 minutes with no extra pilot workload whatsoever.. this is really nice. There are also two features on the laptop version which in many ways exceed the abilities of expensive MFD-type weather datalink systems. First, it is possible to click on any portion of the radar image and get an exact readout of intensity from 0dB to 75dB; this is much better than the typical 6 VIP levels we currently use in interpreting radar data.. .this could really help to decide weather to fly in level 3 precip; there is a big difference between 25dB weather and 50dB weather and anywhere in between. Second, it is possible to click on the precip tops image at any point and get a readout of the cloud tops at that particular point... these are very powerful features to help interpret a radar image, and these features are not even in $10K to $15K panel-mount weather datalink systems. The only real downside to the WeatherWorx system is the wiring; I am going to try to work out a briefcase with a large DC power supply which is totally self-contained; I could then use this also in the car driving through thunderstorms or precip to get a sense of what the radar images are telling me. Finally, WeatherWorx has said verbally at Oshkosh that later in the year they are planning a reduced price subscription which will be "substantially less than $49 per month" and which will include METARs, TAFs, and Nexrad but not echo tops or lightnight or other advanced features. -- Richard Kaplan, CFII www.flyimc.com |
#20
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"Ryan Ferguson" wrote in message
... This would be a compelling reason for me to upgrade to a full-featured new color PDA if it works well. My Palm VIIx is still pumping out the budget wx, though. See www.navair.com for details on the PDA product -- I tried it and am not impressed; it is hard to get enough data on the screen for strategic weather and there would be a lot of button/stylus work in-flight to use it practically. I think the laptop version (www.wxworx.com) is much more usable in flight. -- Richard Kaplan, CFII www.flyimc.com |
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