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Anyone using the echoUAT - ADSB?


DJ Todd B

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On 4/11/2020 at 5:18 AM, IndianaCTSW said:

My gps is mounted on the front of the glare shield inside the cockpit. Then I mounted the UAT unit just behind the panel on the pilot side. That made it so I was able to keep all of my wiring short since my ADSB antenna wasn’t far away and my circuit breaker and power supply was all right there. Haven’t had any problems from it. I talked with UAvionix and they are the ones that suggested those locations. 

Do you have a photo of the UAT mounted?  How long is your ADSB antenna cable?

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2 hours ago, Isham said:

Do you have a photo of the UAT mounted?  How long is your ADSB antenna cable?

I don’t have a picture of it right now. I can try to get one. I had a little work I was planning to get done on the plane later this week. 
I think my antenna cable ended up being 3 or 4 ft. The gps cables only ended up being about 2 feet with it on the glare shield. 

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So simple it is hard to believe.

Go to my old post and I have pictures of the UAT and WAAS receiver mounted in a CTSW  and I got a MRA for it too.

Works great with a 740  IN and OUT traffic. Friend passenger brought his IPad the other day on a flight and he could also receive the traffic with forflight.

I hav a 327 transponder that talks to the unit which is one of the things the PAPR report looks at. Transponder does not need a wire to the unit, connects somehow or other I don't know but works great.

Larry

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Thanks for the info on the good post. 

I am trying to find the best mounting location for the echoUAT for the wiring without having to run longer wires from the tunnel to the avionics. 

I have a GNS 530W which will provide the GPS signal to the echoUAT.  I also need to put the echoUAT antenna farther back on the bottom of the fuselage to get it away from my GTX 330 transponder antenna.  If I can keep the echoUAT under the panel all of the wiring will reach and connect to the radios and power but I will have to install a 4 or 5 foot antenna cable. 

Also, I need to make sure the echoUAT box is grounded to the airframe ground.  I have not torn into it yet but assume there is a main ground post somewhere under the panel.

Lots of good ideas on here, just trying to sort out which works best with the easiest mounting solution.

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16 hours ago, Isham said:

Thanks for the info on the good post. 

I am trying to find the best mounting location for the echoUAT for the wiring without having to run longer wires from the tunnel to the avionics. 

I have a GNS 530W which will provide the GPS signal to the echoUAT.  I also need to put the echoUAT antenna farther back on the bottom of the fuselage to get it away from my GTX 330 transponder antenna.  If I can keep the echoUAT under the panel all of the wiring will reach and connect to the radios and power but I will have to install a 4 or 5 foot antenna cable. 

Also, I need to make sure the echoUAT box is grounded to the airframe ground.  I have not torn into it yet but assume there is a main ground post somewhere under the panel.

Lots of good ideas on here, just trying to sort out which works best with the easiest mounting solution.

On the ctsw there is a grounding terminal behind the passenger side panel. It will just be one bolt, maybe two. That all of your grounds run too. 
As for the antenna ground plane. I found some really thin aluminum and actually had enough threads to get the antenna through the ground plane and the fuselage. Barely but it went on. 
My UAT box is mounted behind the panel and everything worked out great. I was worried about not being able to see the lights on it but UAvionix said that was pretty common. 
Also they were very helpful when I had questions on that side of things. 

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On 4/13/2020 at 4:30 PM, Isham said:

Thanks for the info on the good post. 

I am trying to find the best mounting location for the echoUAT for the wiring without having to run longer wires from the tunnel to the avionics. 

I have a GNS 530W which will provide the GPS signal to the echoUAT.  I also need to put the echoUAT antenna farther back on the bottom of the fuselage to get it away from my GTX 330 transponder antenna.  If I can keep the echoUAT under the panel all of the wiring will reach and connect to the radios and power but I will have to install a 4 or 5 foot antenna cable. 

Also, I need to make sure the echoUAT box is grounded to the airframe ground.  I have not torn into it yet but assume there is a main ground post somewhere under the panel.

Lots of good ideas on here, just trying to sort out which works best with the easiest mounting solution.

On the ctsw there is a grounding terminal behind the passenger side panel. It will just be one bolt, maybe two. That all of your grounds run too. 
As for the antenna ground plane. I found some really thin aluminum and actually had enough threads to get the antenna through the ground plane and the fuselage. Barely but it went on. 
My UAT box is mounted behind the panel and everything worked out great. I was worried about not being able to see the lights on it but UAvionix said that was pretty common. 
Also they were very helpful when I had questions on that side of things. 

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Thank you for the photos.  I think I will do mine with the same mounting that you did.  Sorry for all of the questions, where did you end up getting the power for the echo?  I wanted mine to turn on with the avionics master or the transponder.  Thanks.

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1 hour ago, Isham said:

Thank you for the photos.  I think I will do mine with the same mounting that you did.  Sorry for all of the questions, where did you end up getting the power for the echo?  I wanted mine to turn on with the avionics master or the transponder.  Thanks.

The echo calls for its own 3 amp breaker so I just put a breaker in line with the rest of the breakers coming off the master avionics. 
I had some extra amperage to play with since I switched my landing light to LED. So I wasn’t concerned with the extra breaker. But it is nice that it comes on with the rest of the avionics. 

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I think I have a technical issue with the echoUAT, maybe it's not an issue.  I decided to power up the echo before I close the panel and drill the hole in the fuselage for the antenna. I do not see any lights on the echo when power is applied.  I assume the lights are the tiny holes in the top cover of the unit.  Should the light come on when power is applied?  I have everything connected except the GPS input to the echo.  I have checked power and ground to the echo harness and everything is good there.  Antenna is connected.  When do the echo lights come on?

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Is,

I can't specifically answer your question about the lights. Check the manual or send an email to uAvionix. They have a super customer service team.

But just as a general rule, for everyone in the group, never allow any device to transmit unless it's properly attached to an antenna. Modern avionics may handle this better than in the old days... but I wouldn't bet on it.

Mike Koerner

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Good point on the antenna.  I would never power any electronics without the full hook up.  I wasn't clear enough on my prior post.  I do have the antenna and ALL wires hooked up before powering.  Just have not drilled the hole in the fuselage yet.  I am having trouble programming my Garmin 530W to send the RS 232 signal to the echoUAT.  I talked to uAvionix last week a couple of times but since they are not open on the weekend I was hoping someone knew about the echoUAT lights.  Their manual lacks a lot of info. 

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Never was able to see any lights but uAvionix said this was not a problem since it was connecting to my iPhone okay.  Closed it up today and will try the test flight tomorrow if weather is good.  My airplane already has GPS for the Garmin GNS 530W so I added a pin to the Garmin to feed the GPS signal to the echoUAT.  A lot of work but everything checks out on the ground test.  Hopefully it will pass the flight test.  In hindsight I think I would have installed a tail beacon as it would have been much easier.  I appreciate all of your inputs.

One thing, my battery died yesterday during the ground troubleshooting.  I did not have a charger for a Lithium battery so ended up buying one this morning.  Worked really well.  Less than an hour to get it from 40% to 92%.  The battery charger is a Schumacher 6 Amp Part Number SP1298.  Very happy with it.

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fyi: My PAPR test failed one item "Baro Alt".  uAvionics wanted me to adjust the Threshold but commented it was unusual for just one element to fail.

After doing some research I think that it was pilot error.  I found online where others had failed this item and the fix was to make sure the transponder was set on ALT.  Of course, I turned mine on at takeoff, but did not use the ALT button so I believe that is the problem.

I plan to retest tomorrow.

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I agree, if turning on the altitude function of the transponder does not work.  I learned that the GTX330 does not transmit altitude for the echoUAT to read if it is not on.  I adjusted the threshold at the setting uAvionics said and since it's an easy adjustment I will start changing it if this does not correct the issue.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Just got my PAPR with 100% on BAlt, after a lot of tinkering, and settling on Threshold of 1325 on the EchoUAT.  I have a 2008 CTLS, with Dynon 100/120, Garmin portable 496 GPS, and EchoUAT with SkySFX.

Thanks to http://ctflier.com/profile/8-coppercity/ and http://ctflier.com/profile/1985-isham/ for helpful suggestions.

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