Wifi for updating database
Printed From: Avidyne
Category: Avidyne General
Forum Name: IFD 5 Series & IFD 4 Series Touch Screen GPS/NAV/COM
Forum Description: Topics on Avidyne's IFD 5 Series and IFD 4 Series Touch Screen GPS/NAV/COM
URL: http://forums.avidyne.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=651
Printed Date: 27 Apr 2024 at 6:54am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Wifi for updating database
Posted By: Trokita
Subject: Wifi for updating database
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2015 at 9:29am
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I am a prospective customer. The avidyne sales rep said I should check the forum on this to see if AviJake has commented. I can't see that this has been discussed, so here it goes: Can the wifi be used to upload the monthly jepp aviation database updates? It would be nice to download the update to an iPad and then wifi it into the box or even better to connect the box right to a website for direct downloading. You could taxi up to a ramp, in range of the fbo's wifi, and do your update, or connect via a mifi. Given that the usb connection takes 15 minutes to update the entire U.S. , and presumably another 15minutes to download the jepp update to the thumb drive in the first place, it is a more time consuming than swapping data cards in the Garmin. The wifi ability could solve that for me. |
Replies:
Posted By: roltman
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2015 at 10:03am
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I can't speak for Steve or Avidyne, but first Jeppesen is a terrible company when it comes to innovating, so I doubt you'll ever get to download from Jeppesen to your iPad. I've spoke to some of Jeppesen's younger engineers and the senior staff has no desire to go to a web based or cross platform setup. They are the poster child for a monopoly. The best thing that could happen is Avidyne support a non-Jeppesen solution. Second downloading from Jeppesen takes seconds, but it is a function of your internet speed. Charts and data for entire US are about 200mb. Programming the fob takes about 20-30 seconds as Jeppesen currently manipulates the downloaded data when it programs the fob. The format Jeppesen currently uses for their customers embeds the USB fob S/N in 4 bytes of data at hex offset of ~0x78 into the file on the fob. This is all done by Jeppesen JSum software. This is also why the files can't be copied from fob to fob without "fixing" those 4-bytes. What this gets Jeppesen I don't know as its not secure, just makes the average Joe suffer on their tech support line or think their fob is special somehow. Jeppesen does have other formats that will work with the IFD540s that does not tie files to a specific key fob S/N. Jeppesen appears to control what format we download from them. Finally the upload to the units takes so long, not because of the file size, but I'm guessing and Steve can comment, due to the non-volatile memory which is flashed to store the data. This memory is more robust than SDCard or USB fob style memory, and as such it is slower to write. It's akin to the old Garmin memory cards, which required a higher voltage and slow write speeds to copy just 8MB of data to the card. So while a WiFi update would be great, I can't see it being a something Avidyne could implement due to Jeppesen being involved. |
Posted By: brou0040
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2015 at 11:10am
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I agree that it probably wouldn't save any time, you'd still have to download into a buffer first then upload to the non-volatile memory. I don't think I'd want to be uploading straight in to the non-volatile memory based on wifi if that download could fail. That just seems to be asking for corrupted data. That would also require the 540 to have additional memory to buffer the download before uploading it to it's non-volatile memory. It could however be much more convenient. Not everybody has a device with a USB slot readily available and not every airport has an available pilot lounge computer.
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Posted By: Trokita
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2015 at 11:37pm
| Thanks for replies so far.. |
Posted By: AviJake
Date Posted: 26 Apr 2015 at 9:10am
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Well.....the capability clearly does not exist yet for the IFD series of units. But, it is absolutely one of the goals of our wifi capability. There are an entire host of variations on how to use wifi to get data like nav/chart/obstacle updates (and flight plans and user waypoints and etc, etc, etc) into the IFDs. We are either currently working on those or plan to in the not-too-distant future. We have Jepp on-board and we're optimistic. But, until it's done and fieldable, it's all big talk. ------------- Steve Jacobson sjacobson@avidyne.com |
Posted By: MysticCobra
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2015 at 6:22am
I think the primary reason the upload from USB-to-IFD is so slow is because the interface chosen was http://www.avidynelive.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=338&KW=usb&PID=2116&title=ifd540-data-upload-time-ships-power-issue#2116" rel="nofollow - USB 1.1 . There is reason to hope that a wi-fi update solution in the future would be significantly faster...as long as they're not planning to only support a circa-1998 version of wi-fi, too. ;-)
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roltman wrote:Posted By: BobsV35B
Date Posted: 28 Apr 2015 at 8:52am
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Good Morning Steve and All. I still would like to see Avidyne add enough memory to the box such that it could hold two sets of data. One that is in use and one with the new data. That way all that would be required of the pilot would be to change from old data to new on the appropriate date and time. We had that capability on the Boeing 767 that I was flying in the Spring of 1982. Certainly NOT new science. Happy Skies, Old Bob ------------- Old Bob, Ancient Aviator |
Posted By: brou0040
Date Posted: 28 Apr 2015 at 10:25am
+1
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Posted By: Awful Charlie
Date Posted: 28 Apr 2015 at 4:35pm
+2 The G 480 does this - I can load the new data as soon as it is available, and the unit selects the correct version. Avidyne could do it better by allowing the upload of the new data to the 'B' side whilst the unit is running |
Posted By: BobsV35B
Date Posted: 29 Apr 2015 at 11:21am
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Hmmmm! If those good folks up at UPSAT were able to do it that long ago, why is it that Avidyne cannot handle it today? Happy Skies, Old Bob ------------- Old Bob, Ancient Aviator |
Posted By: oskrypuch
Date Posted: 29 Apr 2015 at 12:01pm
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Steve did comment on this some time ago. The way that the R9/540 software was designed, it would take a lot of recoding to make it work. It is certainly doable (and a cool feature), but I don't think we'll see it any time soon. * Orest |