iFly GPS Forum

While this is generally a positive post (for a short time I appeared to have a working SkyRadar / iFly combo! Yippee!), it comes with three caveats: (1) I don't know for sure what changed to make it work, (2) in 30 minutes I got only one Nexrad frame (with no echoes in the area) and never saw an update or received any TAFs/METARs, and (3) I have so far been unable to duplicate my brief success!

Note also that after 30 minutes with no updates, I unplugged the USB cable from the iFly, and 10 minutes later it still indicates "ADSB live weather" mode and that port 0 is connected to a SkyRadar, so that tells me that you can lose the connection and not know it.

Since then I have tried multiple reboots of the iFly and SkyRadar and reconnection attempts, and have been unable to again see the two devices connected.

Here are the detalis of what's happened since my last post:

I talked to Ed on the phone this afternoon, and he suggested a test (that Shane has posted elsewhere on this forum today): Plug the USB cable from the SkyRadar into a Win7 machine and see if Win7 recognizes the device and loads the correct driver (it should recognize the SkyRadar as a FT232R UART, which is the USB-to-serial port interface the SR uses).

I performed this test, and it worked: That means the SkyRadar's USB port is functional.

I then tried to plug the SkyRadar back into the iFly. The last time I tried this (see Update 3), the iFly seemed to find multiple serial ports trying to connect, and eventually had 15 virtual serial ports established, with none of them talking to anything.

When I tried it this time, it was different: The iFly detected a single port (port 0), but said nothing was connected to it. I tried connecting the SkyRadar with two different USB cables, but from what I could see they were both of the 5-pin variety that is required. I got the same results after at least four or five attempts: The iFly recognized a single port 0, but there was no communication happening.

So I put it down and walked away for a while. Next came the one thing that changed that could have had an effect.

I have been using an external battery pack with a cigaretta adapter to drive the SkyRadar. Two of the rechargeable AA batteries out of the 12 used in the battpack are "flaky" and don't hold a charge very well. While the two LEDs on the SkyRadar both behaved as expected, that was my only insight into the SkyRadar unit...which isn't much!

So I took all the batteries out and recharged them for several hours. I then put them back into the battery pack and tried connecting the SkyRadar to the iFly, and that's when I had success.

I also notice that the SkyRadar is broadcasting an ad-hoc wifi network signal that I can see on my laptop that I could not see before (it is called "skyradar0001" in my list of available networks). (This ad-hoc network name is NOT visible via my Android phone, btw.)

After playing around with the SkyRadar and the iFly for about 45 minutes, I'm again having trouble getting the iFly and SkyRadar to talk to each other, and I noticed that the "skyradar0001" network no longer appears on my laptop. Suspecting a power problem, I just pulled the batteries our of my battpack and stuck them in the charger, and they're showing a lower charge than I would have expected. I'm going to top them off again before doing any futher testing.

I wish I had a stable power source for the SkyRadar for testing, but I'll have to get by with my battpack...

I too have been trying to check out my new SkyRadar. I still get the popup message for a USB driver. Haven't heard anything from AP yet about my serial number.

I also tried two different USB cables and the second one I verified had 5 contacts (visual inspection of tip). This cable has been used for multiple devices including Garmin GPS units and Logitech Harmony programmable remotes so I knew I had a good one this time. Same old story about USB drivers. I plugged my SkyRadar unit into my Windows 7 laptop USB connector and allowed Windows to find the driver automatically. It do so fine so that ought to rule out the cable and the SkyRadar.

Since I've become an unwilling beta tester for the iFly/SkyRadar thing and can go no further with that combo at this point I figure what the heck and grab my wife's iPod Touch and remove enough music to make space for the SkyRadar application (free iTunes download). So now I've downloaded it and have it up and running. I found the skyradar01 SSID and connected it via wifi to the Touch. It seems happy but I can't tell if a weather signal is in fact coming in. One thing that's nice is the SkyRadar unit has an integral WAAS GPS receiver that seems very sensitive (picked up sats through metal hangar doors open about 20"). I think that maybe I need to be up around 2000' AGL before I can pick up an actual ADS-B singal (kind of like a VOR). So I'm going to drive around a while with the SkyRadar in my car and maybe tomorrow take a flight. If it works good I'll buy the wifey a newer generation 4 Touch and keep this one in the cockpit. Of course now I've strayed completely away from the iFly and had to drink the Apple Kool-Aid in order to get weather in the cockpit, which misses the whole point of the new iFly feature -- which is what I really want.

UPDATE:

Drove around under ELP Class C (the ADS-B nextgen map shows a radio station near ELP). Once I gained elevation and got within about 6 miles of the field I received an ADS-B signal on the iPod Touch running the SkyRadar app. I flight planned a route from ELP to SEA as I saw on my Android there was weather up in the Puget Sound area. The only weather I got on the iPod app was surface winds at ELP. Never saw any Nexrad up around SEA. I panned over to the central Montana area as I knew there was weather there too and got no information. That may have been folly on my part because if I understand how they describe the system on SkyRadar web site ADS-B in gets data for about 150 mile radius of the aircraft's position. On a few occasions I did see FIS-B indicator show up (probably what gave me the wind info at ELP). I never did see any METARS package for ELP, Biggs Army Airfield or any other local airports. A view of the national weather map shows no weather anywhere over or near Texas today so it's a poor time to be testing Nexrad.

One nice surprise was that I did indeed get traffic. Apparently one of the aircraft in the area had ADS-B out because I got about 4 targets, one with an N-Number (must have been the interrogator). On the iPod app each target was a 3-legged star with two swept-wings and a nose pointing in the direction of flight who length was in proportion to the target's speed. While the N-numbered guy was doing 145 knots there was a 500-knot target with a very extended nose. It was really cool to see traffic and to be able to tap on each and get their speed, direction and height above/below my altitude (ground level). When I purchased the SkyRadar I gave no thought to the traffic features as my interest was more in the weather data. But today's experience has me looking forward to those occasions that air traffic does show up on the display (said occasion being dependent on whether there is another airplane around with ADS-B out triggering the returns). The interrogator must have been a Cirrus or something.

I haven't given up on the iFly in the least. I suppose I am being an impatient bratt with a new toy and therefore may come off sounding disgruntled. But that's not the case. I only crossed over to the dark side (iPod Touch) to test my SkyRadar unit since my iFly isn't ready to play. Based on my update (two posts above) I am excited about the prospect of combining what I glimpsed the SkyRadar can do with the superior display and functionality of the iFly.

About the calling thing. I called first. Only got voice mail but left message (including my name, problem, OS version and S/N). Went to iFly site and under help saw where AP suggests posting to the forum before all else. In fact they numerically say to post to the forum first, email them as a secondary, and call them as a last resort. I kind of did it backwards. Saw this thread and your informative posts. So I posted on forum. I also emailed customer support with full description and pertinent details. Have yet to hear back directly from any of these avenues in the past 5 days. I suppose I should have been calling every day rather than once. Last time I talked to them in person (a year ago) they were extremely friendly and informative. I must have just fell through the cracks. I see another post by desertflyer in the general questions area where he was able to call in and has a new SD card on the way also.

I am going flying tomorrow morning (alas with the iPod Touch since I havent' seen an iFly SD card yet). My ADS-B reception should be much better at altitude and maybe complete weather will show since I can get line of sight with the ground-based antenna. I travel to Corpus Christi area quite often and think there is full implementation of ADS-B in the Gulf of Mexico so that will be a real good test of the system.