IFD540 integration into training simulators?

No, it's on the back burner.

One of the disadvantages of choosing a challenger like Avidyne is the limited installed base which results in less accompanying products, in this case simulator add-ons.

There is such a huge Garmin installed base that companies like RealSim gear and Reality XP develop sim products for almost everything Garmin produces, and yet don't even produce anything for the most basic and important Avidyne products like the IFD. It is a shame that Avidyne has no ability to influence or financially support such product development as it would really be attractive to customers.

I had the Lonestar Commander unit shown in the video for my GNS430W, but sold it with the unit when I bought my IFDs. I got the Commander mostly to load waypoints at home due to the very time-consuming effort on those old devices. With the IFDs it is so quick and easy, that was not necessary. But mostly, I am no longer comfortable continually removing and reinserting the IFDs into the panel. The backplane jack pins are very sensitive to bending and constant in/out movement is just asking for trouble IMHO.

The video shows some rather fancy looking cabling in the background, and it would be of some academic interest to know details of the setup being shown. But for most of us, a more practical solution would be to have something like the Reality XP GTN for the IFDs. One of those on an x-plane touch screen with a knobster would be just the cat's meow.

I'm super excited for this.  I am currently flying XPlane with the Reality XP Gtn 750/650.  Hitting the back button is getting old :)

I only hope we can run the IFD simulator on an Ipad instead of needing the physical GPS.

It's too bad that the IFD devices aren't available, as well.

I am newly IFR rated....Flying family to Disneyworld a week ago tonight from KY to Disney (KISM) was given the Leese2 arrival and then the DME Alpha approach.  That thing had a arc in it.  I DID NOT turn 10/twist 10/ on that approach.  I dialed it in...both the STAR and the approach and the trusty 550 and trusty DFC90 flew all that beautifully while I tended to other important high workload matters in the dark at 10:30pm.  Brilliant hardware and software...and if I could have a time to practice that approach again at home......or a sim to practice that before heading out on a trip like that across the country in the dark on a flight plan....would all work together in helping me be a safer pilot.  Who cares If I can't log it....(well actually I care) so long as I get really good practice and skills/confidence.  

When the controller issued the instructions I was confident and knew exactly what to do. This flight management system just makes it so intuitive and easy.  Thanks Avidyne....hopefully I will read a post soon that these navigators are integrated into a sim.  Ya'll don't miss much at avidyne....and this would be another gap to easily close and one I am looking forward to.  Keep putting out these great pruducts and I'll keep buying then!

XPlane, by itself, is useful for practice but you can't log anything you do with it. 

Any word on having it run with L-M P3D?

* Orest

I'm happy to actually help work with the sim developer if they'd like to try and support external location input from x-plane.  Since the auto-pilot mode in the sim must generate 3D location (lat,long,alt) that is where a hook would be added to optionally listen for on a port for that data instead.  It's likely already an optional code path since the sim auto-pilot mode is something that obviously does not exist in the main branch of the code for the IFD.

AVI folks - PM me if you'd like to discuss.  Making the sim work with x-plane would be a great learning aid.  

And, there are versions of x-plane that are FAA certified for IFR flight training.  hint hint...

That is too bad.

* Orest

Roger wrote: ...Neat...it would also be awesome if my 550 could drive my DFC90 in case of a PFD failure...haha just write it on the list..thanks!

The STEC 55x can be wired to use either the "magenta line" feed from a GPS navigator, using its own GPSS circuitry OR using the output from an external GPSS unit or GPSS built into a PFD.

I would be surprised if the DFC-90 didn't have the same capability, given that it is a slide in replacement.

* Orest

How about data *input*?  It's already possible to get position information out of X-Plane via UDP, and some iPad programs (such as WingX) can use this to display ownship on a map.

Would it be possible to get GPS data off the network and into the IFD simulator?  I imagine that this is probably easier than setting up a new output.

 SMOP (Simple Matter Of Programming). :-)

Avi-Steve (or Simpson)?  Can you ask what, if any, of the ARINC 429 OUT code is buried in the iPad Sim?  If it is there, and your sim engineer simply spits the sentences out as TCP/IP packets on a dedicated port, I can decode that on the plug-in side and deliver them to x-plane.

The other part of the puzzle is to tell the sim where x-plane is flying in some GPS location format.  That would require the port to listen for this - probably on 5HZ refresh - in some agreed upon format.

The last piece would be to add a switch in the app settings to enable this sim-port option.

If the ARINC code lives in the sim the OUT should be pretty simple.  Driving the sim from external GPS (and testing the feature) will be slightly harder.

OFFER:  I'm an app developer (iOS) as well.  NDA me to modify the sim code and I'll help on both ends to implement this. Another side-benefit is that it'll probably work with the IFR certified version of x-plane as well and might help transition/refresh pilots while actually letting them log the time with a CFI in the sim.

I could have used this the other day on my IPC.  I ended up with so many white lines on the screen from obsolete approach legs that I had trouble seeing the approach I was on...