iFly GPS Forum

Wouldn't the ADS-B Status Instrument be easier to "read" if, instead of text ("Receiving" "Out of Range" etc.) it had a presentation like the GPS Status instrument?

That is, instead of text, it had 4 or 5 bars, all the same height. Red and no fill when no towers. Green with filled in bar for each tower. Dashes when no Stratux. (The fact that the bars are all the same height (and so don't reflect signal strength) differentiates it from the GPS Status instrument.)

Alternatively, green numerals for the number of towers, red zero when none. (But I prefer graphics. There are already a lot of numerical Instruments for flying and green digits are harder to read than black/white. Or the background color of the box fill could be green/red.)

I don't know if "pulsing" the Instrument to reflect receiving a heart beat would be of any value. But since I'm brainstorming, I submit the thought.

I don't know why the number of towers matter - does one get more data with 7 towers compared to 1? Or is it simply a bragging rights thing? Regardless, I figured that if one was receiving 4 or more towers, the display could simply max out at 4. A "plus" sign if more really matters to the user.

The number of towers doesn't matter but the type of tower does. For example, a medium altitude tower gives you metars located within 375 nm from the tower whereas a low altitude tower only gives metars 250 nm from the tower. If anything, iFly should show the type of towers so that you can try to understand why you are not getting certain data.