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uAvionix echoUAT Weather

Piper J3

Well Known Member
I have an echoUAT displaying traffic and weather on a mini iPad3 running ForeFlight. The weather is depicted in very large block pixels. A friend has dual Dynon HDX and his in-flight weather is smooth contours with no pixilation.

I contacted ForeFlight and they tell me that weather from the ADS-B is normally the large pixelated version of radar. The nice high definition radar takes a lot of data to render and the ADS-B system needs efficiency.

See cell phone photo below of my in-flight weather. Is this what everyone?s ADS-B weather looks like?

 
The closer that you are to the radar image, the greater definition you should get. In other words, what you showed us here is what I'd expect to see when you're several hundred miles from the location displayed.

How far were you from Pittsburgh when this picture was taken?
 
The radar data is binary: if looking within 250 nm of your position, you should get higher definition. If more than 250 nm, you get the larger pixels.
 
I flew just a couple days ago and was ranging from 5-30 miles from some heavy rain in my area. The entire flight the ifly 740 display fed from uavionix echo UAT looked exactly like yours.
 
The radar data is binary: if looking within 250 nm of your position, you should get higher definition. If more than 250 nm, you get the larger pixels.
EXACTLY. Most people on this forum don't understand the RADAR data being transmitted to them and how it is displayed. :(
 
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All EFIS systems receive the same NEXRAD data streams. Some vendors believe that it should be displayed as is. In this case you will see a pixelated edge. Other vendors will use algorithms to operate on the data stream to smooth the contours.
 
Originally Posted by BobTurner View Post
The radar data is binary: if looking within 250 nm of your position, you should get higher definition. If more than 250 nm, you get the larger pixels.

The closer that you are to the radar image, the greater definition you should get. In other words, what you showed us here is what I'd expect to see when you're several hundred miles from the location displayed.

How far were you from Pittsburgh when this picture was taken?

About 90 miles away. This image is typically what I see even when receiving multiple ADS-B towers and weather is close.

My guess is ForeFlight chooses to display pixilated radar and Dynon, with their fancy HDX, chooses to smooth and contour the edges - each using same data stream from the ground ADS-B towers.

I wonder if ForeFlight couldn’t massage the data internally in the EFIS (in my case mini iPad3) and display a smoother image? I understand bandwidth and efficiency of ADS-B being sent up from the towers, but once the data is received maybe ForeFlight can pretty it up? Maybe some EFIS don’t have internal capability to manipulate data but an iPad is ideal for doing that. Perhaps FF, if running on an iPad, could do special radar rendering? User might need to stipulate what type of EFIS is being used just like user now chooses 4-color radar, etc.
 
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I think the pixelation is a good reminder of how inaccurate the picture can be. Artificially smoothing it out could give a false sense of detail and encourage somebody to shoot a gap that doesn?t exist.

Another question is, are you sure your buddy?s data is from adsb and not XM? My GRT displays radar the same as FF, for the record.

Chris
 
I think the pixelation is a good reminder of how inaccurate the picture can be. Artificially smoothing it out could give a false sense of detail and encourage somebody to shoot a gap that doesn?t exist.

Another question is, are you sure your buddy?s data is from adsb and not XM? My GRT displays radar the same as FF, for the record.

Chris

Good point on the pixelation. Probably some liability concerns on FF's part.

My friend doesn't have XM so the radar image depicted on the HDX is from ground ADS-B. I'll snap photo next time we fly...
 
uAvionix echoUAT - Weather Display Problem...

It?s a nice day in northern Ohio today so I took an hour flight. I have uAvionix echoUAT with iPad running ForeFlight. I show targets on the iPad even sitting on the ground because I?m locating in ?B? airspace. Once in cruise flight I zoomed out to check for weather and saw none even with tropical storm Barry moving up from the gulf coast. Weather finally showed up about twenty minutes into the flight. FF showed ADS-B as good and ground towers and traffic appeared right away but weather was much delayed to populate the screen. I have seen this in the past so today I paid closer attention and it seems to be as I describe above.

Anybody else see this?
 
It’s a nice day in northern Ohio today so I took an hour flight. I have uAvionix echoUAT with iPad running ForeFlight. I show targets on the iPad even sitting on the ground because I’m locating in “B” airspace. Once in cruise flight I zoomed out to check for weather and saw none even with tropical storm Barry moving up from the gulf coast. Weather finally showed up about twenty minutes into the flight. FF showed ADS-B as good and ground towers and traffic appeared right away but weather was much delayed to populate the screen. I have seen this in the past so today I paid closer attention and it seems to be as I describe above.

Anybody else see this?

radar data is sent only every few minutes (maybe less, but not constant like traffic data) for regional and CONUS is sent every 10 minutes, I think. Not all EFIS units will process the CONUS data. My GRT doesn't
 
radar data is sent only every few minutes (maybe less, but not constant like traffic data) for regional and CONUS is sent every 10 minutes, I think. Not all EFIS units will process the CONUS data. My GRT doesn't

Which model GRT? My HX certainly does process the data for the whole US.

That said, it shouldn’t take 20 minutes, as long as you’re receiving a ground station.
 
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echouat with sentry?

My apologies if this is a bit O.T. but I was surprised when I was looking at the UAvionix website that the list of compatible GPS on the site does not list the Sentry. Is anyone using the Sentry and foreflight with the Echouat from UAvionix?

I am considering this set up but want to make sure they are all compatible and it means more to me to hear it from been-there-done that folks..

Charlie
 
My apologies if this is a bit O.T. but I was surprised when I was looking at the UAvionix website that the list of compatible GPS on the site does not list the Sentry. Is anyone using the Sentry and foreflight with the Echouat from UAvionix?

I am considering this set up but want to make sure they are all compatible and it means more to me to hear it from been-there-done that folks..

Charlie

Sentry cannot be used as a GPS source to the echoUAT.

Sentry cannot be used simultaneously with eachUAS to feed ForeFlight because echoUAT uses WiFi, just like Sentry does, and WiFi does not allow simultaneous connections.
 
Sentry cannot be used as a GPS source to the echoUAT.

Sentry cannot be used simultaneously with eachUAS to feed ForeFlight because echoUAT uses WiFi, just like Sentry does, and WiFi does not allow simultaneous connections.

SPX,

WOW, thank you very much for the info.

Charlie
 
Echo from uAvionix uses its own Skyfx

for its GPS position source for the UAT "out", sniffing the transponder signal. Echo will output weather and traffic "in" by WiFi or wired connection to EFIS. I have that setup and my AFS 5600T uses the wired connection and I receive the WiFi to my iPad and iFly 740 -- I have WingX and FlyQ and iFly on my ipad -- they all work great with the uavionix setup.

Ron
 
for its GPS position source for the UAT "out", sniffing the transponder signal. Echo will output weather and traffic "in" by WiFi or wired connection to EFIS. I have that setup and my AFS 5600T uses the wired connection and I receive the WiFi to my iPad and iFly 740 -- I have WingX and FlyQ and iFly on my ipad -- they all work great with the uavionix setup.

Ron

Yeah, there really is no need for Sentry if you have an echoUAT...
 
Which model GRT? My HX certainly does process the data for the whole US.

That said, it shouldn?t take 20 minutes, as long as you?re receiving a ground station.

I have an HXr. I have zoomed out and looked numerous times and never see more than a couple hundred miles. There is always an edge with everything around it with hash marks.


Larry
 
The radar data is binary: if looking within 250 nm of your position, you should get higher definition. If more than 250 nm, you get the larger pixels.
This is a function of ADS-B FIS-B's weather data transmit scheme. Ground stations broadcast higher-definition radar returns only in the area they're located in order to save bandwidth.
 
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