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Display Winds Aloft on D-180 EFIS

Piper J3

Well Known Member
I?m trying to get Winds Aloft to display on my D-180 using RS232 data transfer from the Garmin 296.

I de-cluttered the D-180 to show Winds Aloft and there is now a blank space for the display below the trim indicator. My problem is getting the two units to ?talk? to each other. I have been in contact with Dynon and they gave me instructions on protocol and baud rate ? still no joy. Maybe my problem is in the Garmin. I?m trying to set both com1 and com2 to output either NMEA or Aviation at 9600 baud. I?m not sure if the Garmin is accepting my settings. Perhaps only one of the com channels should be programmed and the other set to ?none?.

Anyway it?s a long shot? but does anyone have idea how to get this to work?
 
Try this

In the D180
Efis/ems data port
-efis serial-
INPUT: AUTO
BAUD RATE: AUTO

-EMS SERIAL-
INPUT: SERIAL
BAUD RATE: 9600

Select the same in the 296
If there is any magenta print on the HSI page in the D180 then they are communicating.
Wind arrow may not show unless you are flying, can't remember for sure.
 
There is what looks to be a white wire that goes from the control board fuselage pin 21 to the ELT. Some builders did not connect that wire to the ELT.
That wire is actually a coaxial shielded wire. If not properly terminated, the shield and center conductor may be shorted together which shorts out the GPS RS-232 data. The shielded wire should be connected to the ELT so that the ELT can broadcast latitude longitude in case of a high G force landing.
When the D-180 and GPS are communicating, the D-180 HSI page has magenta displayed. See page 6-7 of the FlightDEK-D180 Pilot?s User Guide.
 
In the D180
Efis/ems data port
-efis serial-
INPUT: AUTO
BAUD RATE: AUTO

-EMS SERIAL-
INPUT: SERIAL
BAUD RATE: 9600

Select the same in the 296
If there is any magenta print on the HSI page in the D180 then they are communicating.
Wind arrow may not show unless you are flying, can't remember for sure.
Question - when you say select "same" in 296... which "same"?

Input - Auto or Serial and Baud Rate - Auto or 9600?

Also Com1, Com2, or both?
 
Update... I tried settings as suggested and just about ever other combination I could think of with no luck. No magenta on HSI.

I looked at the ELT and only coax I see is for the antenna. I need to investigate further. Looks like there should be a coax with GPS Data Out in the same Sub-D connector shared with telephone cable leading to ELT remote switch on panel. At first glance I don't see this cable.

I think I'll put Winds Aloft on the back burner for a while (although I do enjoy a challenge). I'll trace wires next time I open up the instrument bay which might not be until next summer when I'm planning ADS-B installation.
 
Update... I tried settings as suggested and just about ever other combination I could think of with no luck. No magenta on HSI.

I looked at the ELT and only coax I see is for the antenna. I need to investigate further. Looks like there should be a coax with GPS Data Out in the same Sub-D connector shared with telephone cable leading to ELT remote switch on panel. At first glance I don't see this cable.

I think I'll put Winds Aloft on the back burner for a while (although I do enjoy a challenge). I'll trace wires next time I open up the instrument bay which might not be until next summer when I'm planning ADS-B installation.

Jim,
Don't give up until next summer, removing the instrument cover is no big deal. I have taken my cover off many times for issues less than the one you are researching. If you don't have magenta on the HSI you are missing out on a lot of useful information:
i-9Zrxkn6-L.jpg

In addition to the wind arrow it gives you the X-wind component, useful when on final approach. Also the course deviation indicator, the glide slope indicator, course, track, etc. I encourage you to find the problem.
I don't have my D-180 or Garmin GPS so I not going to be of much help but a lot of guys had this exact problem early on, circa 2010-11, and there should be information on all the settings somewhere on this forum. I'm sure some of the guys like BigJohn, Marty S, Jetguy will look up the exact settings for you. I do remember the the Garmin GPS had default settings that had to be changed. For instance the Serial Data Format had to be changed from "NMEA In/NMEA Out" to "Aviation In/NMEA & VHF Out". I don't remember the other settings and may have them somewhere in my old notes but that was 6-7 years ago. Once you get the correct settings it will probably work fine. If it doesn't then you'll need to find the end of the ELT Gps wire and check for a short there and/or pull off that instrument bay cover. Good Luck.
 
I just got my Dynon D-10a receiving from a Garmin 295...!
The Garmin is set to NMEA and 9600 baud out. The Dynon D-10a was even easier. I used the smart keys to go into the sub menus as per the instructions, but when I got there, the D-10a recognized the input and took it from there?
Anyway, my contribution is: My remote compass hasn't been set up yet, so the winds aloft data and the heading to intercept the course line on the HSI are screwed up.
The HSI on the Garmin 295 is good, the D-10a is not, and looking at the compass tape across the top, compared to the GPS heading reveals a lot more than normal magnetic deviation.
I've got some work to do on the D-10a at the airport compass rose.
So once you get the Dynon receiving from the Garmin, you may still have work to do...
Also, I would only pick one com port, preferably Com 1 unless there is a reason.
 
Last edited:
Fixed... Thanks to Joe Gores. White coax wire that splices to blue wire at ELT had one strand of ground shielding touching the center conductor per Joe's post #3 above. Won't be able to flight test for a couple more days but the HSI has lots of magenta color and powers up with message - waiting for GPS to acquire satellites.

This is going to be cool...
 
Flew the plane yesterday and Winds Aloft works great. This will be a nice feature to have.

For what its worth, I have Winds Aloft displayed on both the primary D-180 and D-100 on the right side of the panel. It appears that each IFIS does its own calculations for Winds Aloft as they display slightly different values at times. I would have thought that the math would be done in the D-180 and then shared over to the D-100 via RS232 link.
 
For what its worth, I have Winds Aloft displayed on both the primary D-180 and D-100 on the right side of the panel. It appears that each IFIS does its own calculations for Winds Aloft as they display slightly different values at times. I would have thought that the math would be done in the D-180 and then shared over to the D-100 via RS232 link.

An EFIS uses GPS ground speed, GPS ground track, TAS, and magnetic heading to compute wind speed direction and crosswind. If any of these have error, the computation will have an error.

I am pretty sure your two screens operate interdependently (since each is capable of doing this computation them-self if they were the only unit in a panel.

Since they both receive the same GPS data, most likely the magnetometer or ASI calibrations are slightly different between the two.
 
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