MLB Weather on Aspen MFD
Printed From: Avidyne
Category: Avidyne General
Forum Name: SkyTrax Series ADS-B Receivers & Transceivers
Forum Description: Topics on the Avidyne SkyTrax 978 MHz Receivers & Transceivers
URL: https://avidynelive.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=838
Printed Date: 26 Mar 2026 at 5:41pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.07 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: MLB Weather on Aspen MFD
Posted By: ddgates
Subject: MLB Weather on Aspen MFD
Date Posted: 12 Oct 2015 at 7:42am
|
Had a conversation with an Aspen executive today. Their own ADS-B offerings aside from their "partnership" with Lynx are delayed, particularly WRT the dual band receiver only product (which he said would be Q1 2016 - but I've heard that for 2 years+). He said that they currently have an unlock availability to display Freeflight ADS-B outputs on the Aspen MFD. The unlock fee is $795. He "thinks" they did some compatibility testing with the Navworx offerings and they worked "with some limitations", which he didn't remember. He thinks that since the MLB is a rebranded Navworx product one might be able to display the MLB100 out, particularly wx, on the Aspen MFD, with an unlock. Has anyone tried this? Does Avidyne have any info on this? ------------- David Gates |
Replies:
Posted By: DavidBunin
Date Posted: 13 Oct 2015 at 2:44am
|
The NavWorx ADS600-B and the Avidyne MLB100 share the same hardware, but not the same software. Aspen is correct that the ADS600-B works with their unit. The "limitation" is that they don't make $795 because their unit seems to recognize the data even without the unlock code. (They'll probably "fix" that in a future software release of their own.) I don't know what the MLB100 (Avidyne software) unit would do with an Aspen display. There are three possibilities; it works as-is, it works with an unlock code, or it doesn't work. I don't know if Aspen has tested the pairing. I know that NavWorx has not tested it. David Bunin |
Posted By: pilotgeek
Date Posted: 14 Oct 2015 at 6:58am
I was the guinea pig (so to speak) for the ADS600-B to Aspen setup. You are correct that with the 2.7.2 release Aspen was excluding FreeFlight units rather than including the Aspen branded unit. Big oops. This was "fixed" in 2.8. 2.7.2's ADS-B support was pretty buggy, and had somewhat dangerous traffic and NEXRAD issues. While 2.8 is much better there are still a lot of issues with that is there. For example, it only displays METARs for sites that also are supported on XM (oops). The traffic support is flaky, most traffic is shown as the diamond instead of directional, and no traffic shows trend vectors. That said, what is there is most certainly worthwhile. I expect Aspen will polish what is there (traffic, NEXRAD, and METARs) and add the remaining promised functionality in future releases. In the mean time I receive all of the ADS-B data on my tablet. Regards, Neal |
ddgates wrote:Posted By: ddgates
Date Posted: 14 Oct 2015 at 7:42am
|
Neal: Did you have to do an unlock to do this? Did the Navworx unit "kind of" work on the Aspen MFD? My subterranean question is what would happen (3 possibilities as David B pointed out) if one tried to port MLB100 data to the Aspen MFD. David G ------------- David Gates |
Posted By: pilotgeek
Date Posted: 14 Oct 2015 at 2:27pm
Yes, though I did not use it for 2.7.2. I did use it for 2.8.
Yes. It worked with both the MFD and PFD. There were no bugs present that would have been any different on the FreeFlight branded unit (guess I should have mentioned that).
If the output from the MLB100 is per Capstone it will work just fine. Both Navworx and Avidyne should be able to tell you if that is the case. You will need to check the STC in use to determine if output to a generic display is covered (it is for the ADS600-B) in order to stay legal. Regards, Neal |
Posted By: ddgates
Date Posted: 14 Oct 2015 at 6:39pm
|
OK, Jake (or Simpson): Is the MLB100 weather output following Capstone protocol? ------------- David Gates |
Posted By: n7ifr
Date Posted: 01 Nov 2015 at 4:30pm
|
MLB issues, hopefully ? to be resolved with 540 v10.1.1 - 1. Still no TFR's. 2. Although Wx OK on 540, No Wx from MLB100 to Aspen MFD (v2.7-need to upgrade to v2.8), . May need to pay Aspen "Unlock" $$ fee. 3. ADS-B traffic from MLB seems "marginal" at best: . Intermittent "Flagging" of traffic on Aspen . Cycling UAT (MLB) Circuit Breaker after 540 GPS position brings back traffic in flight, but doesn't last. . Own ship Traffic shadow in Yellow, frequent - Is this related to lack of auto-population of 540 from Pressure Altitude from Aspen encoder? Tom Wolf
|
Posted By: ddgates
Date Posted: 02 Nov 2015 at 4:20am
|
Tom: I spoke with a highly placed Aspen rep, with same issue. He says their engineering team has not tested the MLB on the Aspen MFD - "may or may not work, you're on your own for this one". May buy an unlock which does nothing. Quote: "This interface has not been documented or vetted by Aspen … no engineering evaluation, no bench integration, no aircraft level integration or flight evaluation. You’re on your own if you opt to head down that road.
The ADS-B IN unlock for non-Aspen branded equipment is P/N 913-00005-001. List price is $795." I too would like MLB wx displayed on my Aspens. David ------------- David Gates |
Posted By: DavidBunin
Date Posted: 02 Nov 2015 at 5:10am
|
This is the first time I've heard that the power cycle wasn't a good fix for the whole flight. I hope the new software is a more permanent solution for you. David Bunin |