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Gdl 39 under seat

lr172

Well Known Member
I had planned to mount my GDL 39 under the front seat. However, i am now concerned that the Bluetooth reception might be a problem. Has anyone mounted one under the seat? Did you get a reliable connection with a tablet?

Larry
 
I have my GDL39R under the baggage floor in my 9A and while I can connect to it and use it pretty reliably I do experience occasional disconnects with my iPad. Obviously that doesn't affect my G3X traffic.
 
Ours is under the right seat and works fine.

I no longer connect to it though. connecting to the G3X (GDU460) allows transferring of flight plans as well as ADS-B data.
 
I had planned to mount my GDL 39 under the front seat. However, i am now concerned that the Bluetooth reception might be a problem. Has anyone mounted one under the seat? Did you get a reliable connection with a tablet?

Larry

Larry,

I assume you’re using the portable 39 that used to be mine. Not sure about the RV-10, but that particular unit had no trouble connecting. It would connect even when I didn’t expect it. What you might try as a test is to slide it under your car seat and drive around with it and watch (in a safe way of course). I used to use that GDL when I was driving or riding in a car to learn the buttonology of Garmin Pilot and remember when I forgot to turn it off it would connect to my phone and tablet even when packed away in a bag on the floor of the back seat with the seats and center console of the car between it and the tablet. It would also connect through the airframe of my Warrior and across the hangar.

If the signal works through a car seat with all the steel and seat heaters and whatnot, it should work through an RV-10 seat; I would think the big bag of mostly water sitting in the seat might be the biggest interference.
 
Thanks for all of the replies. I will do some testing, but seems like this should work well. I got a little concerned when G3xpert indicated that metal could block the signal.

Larry
 
Under the seat I would expect it will work ok. May have some areas of reduced performance but it should work.

I would have concerns where the signal is blocked by sheet metal. If you put a transceiver inside a faraday cage, it will have reduced to no performance.

Its all about maximizing the overhead in the signals to reduce possible dropouts.
 
I made a fiberglass part to replace the aluminum plate under the copilot seat and mounted GDL39 to it. Works fine.
 
Under the seat I would expect it will work ok. May have some areas of reduced performance but it should work.

I would have concerns where the signal is blocked by sheet metal. If you put a transceiver inside a faraday cage, it will have reduced to no performance.

Its all about maximizing the overhead in the signals to reduce possible dropouts.

Does this apply to both ferrous and non-ferrous metals? In outher words does aluminum fall under "sheet metal"?

Larry
 
Anywhere

You can mount it pretty much any where you want if you use another antenna. I used my GDL 39 early on as a means to get traffic and weather to my portables so it sat on top of the glare shield for a couple of years. Then when I redid my panel I needed a ADSB-In source to that was not only hard wired but the signal had to be dependable. So, I took stubby antenna off, bought the appropriate MHZ antenna from Delta Pop, mounted the shark fin antenna on the belly and mounted the GDL39 behind the panel. I can reach it if I really want to get the bluetooth connection to an iPad but that will be rare. Basically, I turned a portable in to a permanent mount.
 
You can mount it pretty much any where you want if you use another antenna. I used my GDL 39 early on as a means to get traffic and weather to my portables so it sat on top of the glare shield for a couple of years. Then when I redid my panel I needed a ADSB-In source to that was not only hard wired but the signal had to be dependable. So, I took stubby antenna off, bought the appropriate MHZ antenna from Delta Pop, mounted the shark fin antenna on the belly and mounted the GDL39 behind the panel. I can reach it if I really want to get the bluetooth connection to an iPad but that will be rare. Basically, I turned a portable in to a permanent mount.

I will be using an external ant for the VHF signal. However, I am certain that the GDL39 has an internal bluetooth antenna and getting rid of the stubby does nothing to boost the bluetooth signal. In my initial post i indicated my question was related to the BT signal.

Larry
 
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