Hi, guys,
That IS a very interesting question, and I'd love to be an alpha-tester for any investigation undertaken in trying it out. Mr.Indian, that is a terrific looking price for what might be a suitable dongle. Mr. Boyd, I can understand how it might be a touchy business implementing a marriage between the dongle and the iFly. Will the dongle slow down or sap resources in the tablet? Will it break other functionalities? Could it interfere with other common avionics in a variety of cockpits? Is this a feature better implemented on a future iteration of the iFly platform using an internal chip?
Bottom line: any alpha testing of a dongle wifi set up as a link to the Radenna box should be undertaking very carefully, and in VFR conditions. Systematic observation of other electronics, especially NAV and COMM boxes should be recorded. I doubt any serious issues would arise, but it should be approached cautiously. Of course, it would be terrific, too, if an update interface were developed in a simple GUI, for use at open-wifi zones in FBOs.
It might work something like this: Insert wifi dongle. Dongle detected, activated, and a dialogue box opens with some choices: Link to ADS-B? , Link to Internet for Update? Choose ADS-B, "Is this the device you want?": lists devices found. Select Radenna device. "Connecting... Connected to <device>" "Return to Navigation". <select> , then the dialogue box closes. Wouldn't that be sweet?
An update interface for a wifi dongle might be similarly GUI-driven, and very specific to AdventurePilot's ftp servers, or it might be simpler to implement a simple browser, and have the user navigate to the familiar website. I'd be just as happy with lynx running in a bash shell, but I doubt others would. :-) Does WinCE even have a shell-driven command line browser? Beats me, I don't do Windows. And then there's the cumbersome touch-screen keyboard issue. Not fun for command-line browsing. So, a simple script to launch a task oriented GUI makes the most sense to me.
Fun to think about. Anyway, like I said, I'd love to be a part of that process as a tester. Put me on the list, Walter...
Elliott
ps- my discounted Radenna box is reported as shipped, but not yet arrived. Looking forward to it.