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I've been following this for a few months and, as some others, decided that wiring in a generic BT-RS232 has its limitations.
Since I have a Trig TY91 radio I opted to design a plug and play unit for this radio. This module has the benefit of having two RS232 ports, one to talk to the trig and another to talk to other devices such as an EFIS or Autopilot. The data packets are handled such that they will be buffered and forwarded on uninterrupted, even if data arrives at the same time on multiple ports. This prevents any chance of packets being corrupted which can happen when you simply connect two devices to one serial port.
There is a Wifi access point which by default is only active for 100 seconds after device power up, and on the webpage you can choose baud rate for each serial port as well as select where data from each source is routed. You can also specify the device BLE/Wifi name, and also I have included Over The Air firmware updates so if the Skydemon BLE implementation is updated in future with more features, you'll be able to upload a new firmware file without having to remove or touch the module.
Hardware and software is fully custom as with the Swedish option posted above, and the casing is CNC machined aluminium, anodised black. The casing mounts to the back of the Trig radio in such a way that it fully strain relieves the connector on the Trig, which is already a weak design and should not have any extra leverage applied.
The same hardware also supports a standalone version however this is not yet available for sale as I am still refining some extra features on this version. The advantage of this standalone BLE module is that you can connect two totally different devices on different baud rates.
The modules are available for sale here, and the initial batch will be about 3-4 days for dispatch from the time of ordering.
Edit: Forgot to mention, but this will only work on firmware 1.5 and up on the Trig radios. 1.5 is already really old so if you had your unit updated in the last few years, it'll be fine.
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+x+x+xHello aviation friends! I have made a device for Bluetooth connection between radio and SD device. I wanted something solid and reliable but couldn´t find anything I liked so I made the product I wanted for aviation. Now it is available for everyone :-) It a small, robust and molded to protect from environment. It is protected from over voltages and have a fixed cable. It can be powered from 4 to 30 Volts. It communicates with RS232-levels. A solution that lasts. It can be bought here:
10 first customers get 50% discount :-) \Mikael P.S. I have been working professionally as electronics designer for 40 years. By the way, I have written the firmware for this device and can if needed modify it for coming needs. The firmware can be updated over Bluetooth. Hi Mikael, ...the connector doesn´t fit at all - at least on the pictures. How do you connect your device?  Different radios (and AP) have different connectors.
The normal way of connecting to them is by soldering/crimping necessary wires to the connector that plugs in to the radio.
So, for a normal installation you have to connect three (or four) wires to that connector. In the same way as you connect wires for headset, PTT, power etc. to the connector.
With Aviation Companion two alternatives are suggested:
1) Cut off the small connector and solder/crimp the wires to the radio’s connector. This gives an compact solution. If your radio has nothing else attached to the connector this is the way to go.
or
2) Solder/crimp the enclosed extension cable to radios connector and plug Aviation Companion in to the extension cable. This gives a solution where the Aviation Companion easily can be detached from not only the radio but also from the wiring harness too.
The small connector is carefully selected for small dimensions and low weight to match Aviation Companion.
The RS422 version comes with open wire ends or optionally with connector for Becker AR6201.
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Hi Tim, we are still struggling with transmitting GPS and traffic to our devices. GPS is working perfect, and traffic is 80% accurate - everything is coming through, but the airplane icon isn't showing. I've been in contact with Hannah, but we're not making any progress. Could you please help us?
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+x+xHello aviation friends! I have made a device for Bluetooth connection between radio and SD device. I wanted something solid and reliable but couldn´t find anything I liked so I made the product I wanted for aviation. Now it is available for everyone :-) It a small, robust and molded to protect from environment. It is protected from over voltages and have a fixed cable. It can be powered from 4 to 30 Volts. It communicates with RS232-levels. A solution that lasts. It can be bought here:
10 first customers get 50% discount :-) \Mikael P.S. I have been working professionally as electronics designer for 40 years. By the way, I have written the firmware for this device and can if needed modify it for coming needs. The firmware can be updated over Bluetooth. Hi Mikael, ...the connector doesn´t fit at all - at least on the pictures. How do you connect your device?
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+xHello aviation friends! I have made a device for Bluetooth connection between radio and SD device. I wanted something solid and reliable but couldn´t find anything I liked so I made the product I wanted for aviation. Now it is available for everyone :-) It a small, robust and molded to protect from environment. It is protected from over voltages and have a fixed cable. It can be powered from 4 to 30 Volts. It communicates with RS232-levels. A solution that lasts. It can be bought here:
10 first customers get 50% discount :-) \Mikael P.S. I have been working professionally as electronics designer for 40 years. By the way, I have written the firmware for this device and can if needed modify it for coming needs. The firmware can be updated over Bluetooth.
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Hello aviation friends! I have made a device for Bluetooth connection between radio and SD device. I wanted something solid and reliable but couldn´t find anything I liked so I made the product I wanted for aviation. Now it is available for everyone :-) It a small, robust and molded to protect from environment. It is protected from over voltages and have a fixed cable. It can be powered from 4 to 30 Volts. It communicates with RS232-levels. A solution that lasts. It can be bought here:
10 first customers get 50% discount :-) \Mikael P.S. I have been working professionally as electronics designer for 40 years.
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It's working in the 4.1 branch of SkyDemon but I don't know when that will be released yet. Sometime in the next few months.
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+xHello Tim, have you got any time schedule about programming ability to send AP+COM and receive traffic via single BT-RS232? Just to know if i should wire second BT device or you can get it to work in near future?
Vitek
Hello Tim, are there some news about this? Vitek
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+xHello, I received the DSD TECH module this afternoon and I just did the tests. The result is this with android phone:
$GPRMC,192851,A,4200.7607,N,00333.3039,W,0.0,-18.7,250225,0.0,E,A*19
$GPRMB,A,9.99,L,LETO,LEVD,4142.3667,N,00451.1167,W,178.673,272.2,0.0,V,A*46
$GPRMC,192852,A,4200.7629,N,00333.3044,W,0.0,-18.1,250225,0.0,E,A*1A
$GPRMB,A,9.99,L,LETO,LEVD,4142.3667,N,00451.1167,W,178.673,272.2,0.0,V,A*46
$GPRMC,192853,A,4200.7659,N,00333.3005,W,0.0,-17.8,250225,0.0,E,A*1F
$GPRMB,A,9.99,L,LETO,LEVD,4142.3667,N,00451.1167,W,178.676,272.2,0.0,V,A*43
That is, it works perfectly and does not truncate the data.
This is the HM-10 clone module that has the CC2541 chip, it does not work well.
 And this is the DSD TECH HM-18 chip, a CC2640.
 Now I'm almost sure that it may be a problem with the module's firmware, I'm going to see if I could change the firmware version of the HM-10, although it will be difficult since it is not original but a clone.
Regards. Hello, very good news. This weekend I was able to test the new DCD TECH module with the CC2640 chip and it works perfectly with a TRUTRACK DIGIFLIGHT II autopilot and with a Garmin GTR225 radio. With these latest tests, we can confirm that if the NMEA sentences come out well on the workbench without truncating, it is certain that they will work well on the plane.
Greetings.
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In response to the issues we were experiencing with truncated autopilot data sets, we decided to switch to Bluetooth 5.0. The Generic (Universal) Adapter is now the first SD-Link adapter to be delivered with BLE V5.0. The other products will follow. To be clear, setting radio frequencies also works with BLE V4.0 without any problems.
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