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Stratux RXWX Mount


FlyingMonkey

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Hey all...

Since I removed the 496 from my panel I lost XM weather.  I wanted to have some weather capability for the upcoming Page trip, and until I make the move to full ADS-B.  I bought a Stratux RXWX to give me ADS-B weather and limited traffic; for $200 it's hard to go wrong.

I was trying to figure out how to mount it, and I think I found a great spot.  I made a bracket out of thin sheet aluminum, and drilled holes to allow it to mount to the top two screws of the compass mount.  The Stratux mounts to the bracket by making holes to mount to two of the six screws that hold the Stratux case together.  The mount is out of the way, does not obstruct vision, and the antennae have a great view of the sky.  I was getting traffic on the ground and ADS-B tower signals well before pattern altitude.  I was a little concerned about heat tucked up under the windshield, but it doesn't seem to be an issue.  I tested on a 90°F day, and according to the status wifi page, it never got above 59°C, and it has an operating limit to 111°C.  I can make a little sun shield for it if heat turns out to hurt it.  It does have a temperature-activated fan in the unit.

The Stratux comes with a battery pack that straps to the bottom of the unit, and with that in place the unit is too thick and would rub on the windshield (and there would be no good way to mount to my fabricated bracket).  I was going to mount the battery beside the unit to the bar (as seen in first pic below), but I found that the vendor was "mistaken" when they said the battery would do pass through battery charging & powering of the Stratux.  The unit would be on fine as long as the battery was connected, but would shut off the instant that a cable was connected to the battery to charge it.  I decided to forego the battery and just power via the 12V socket.  I ran the charging cable up to the unit along the A pillar and along the bar using some stick-on cable management bits and zip ties.  I might figure something more elegant later, but this works great, it's out of the way, and it comes on with the master switch.  If I want it off for some reason I can just reach up and pluck the cable from the unit.

This will work very well until I end up with a full uAvionix (my preference), Garmin, or whatever solution sometime in the next 12 months.

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1 hour ago, FlyingMonkey said:

Hey all...

Since I removed the 496 from my panel I lost XM weather.  I wanted to have some weather capability for the upcoming Page trip, and until I make the move to full ADS-B.  I bought a Stratux RXWX to give me ADS-B weather and limited traffic; for $200 it's hard to go wrong...

Where is the weather and traffic displayed? Does Garmin Pilot see it?

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6 hours ago, Captain Charles said:

VERY close to the compass.

Usually a minimum of 3 feet from magnetic sources is recommended.

Make a note of the heading, then remove the Statux and see if it changes, if not, you’re probably ok.

I was talking to Bill Ince last night, and I said "somebody is going to yell at me about the compass..."   ?  (not that you're yelling)

I did check the compass with the unit operating, no change in the heading at all.  And honestly, if I'm down to the whiskey compass for navigation, something has gone terribly wrong in a number of ways, and I'm landing immediately anyway.  And I do have another magnetometer for the D-100 that is remote mounted under the passenger seat.

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5 hours ago, Ed Cesnalis said:

Where is the weather and traffic displayed? Does Garmin Pilot see it?

No, Garmin is annoying in their steadfast refusal to allow other vendors to talk to their app.  I display traffic on the iFly 740b in my panel that replaced the 496, and I can also display on the iFly app on the iPad as well if I wanted to.  My plan was to run Garmin Pilot in Vector map mode on the iPad, and a sectional on the iFly.  I found that the traffic targets are hard to pick up against the sectional map on the iFly, so I will probably reverse that and run vector mode on the iFly and a sectional on the iPad.

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Looks like Garmin is expanding their horizonts a bit ( so to speak) - the latest GDL 52 can actually provide data to Foreflight and FltPlan Go and not just GP and their hardware devices.

Maybe one day even the GP app will be able to feed itself off of external devices like stratux etc ...

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1 hour ago, FlyingMonkey said:

No, Garmin is annoying in their steadfast refusal to allow other vendors to talk to their app.  I display traffic on the iFly 740b in my panel that replaced the 496, and I can also display on the iFly app on the iPad as well if I wanted to.  My plan was to run Garmin Pilot in Vector map mode on the iPad, and a sectional on the iFly.  I found that the traffic targets are hard to pick up against the sectional map on the iFly, so I will probably reverse that and run vector mode on the iFly and a sectional on the iPad.

Okay,

If  you don't mind me asking, what would be the cheapest way for me to see ADSB stuff on my droid tablet that currently runs Garmin Pilot?  Stratux RXWX  still the right reciver?

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2 hours ago, Ed Cesnalis said:

Okay,

If  you don't mind me asking, what would be the cheapest way for me to see ADSB stuff on my droid tablet that currently runs Garmin Pilot?  Stratux RXWX  still the right reciver?

For Garmin you are struck with a used GDL39 or the newer GDL50/GDL52 series.  Expensive, sorry.  :(

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FlyingMonkey said: "to mount to the top two screws of the compass mount."

If one had a LS, you have the option of putting this on the hat shelf. On the SW, real estate is even more limited. I thought this was a clever solution to the problem that just never occurred to me. I guess that shows how often I look at my compass!

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23 minutes ago, BravoFoxtrot said:

FlyingMonkey said: "to mount to the top two screws of the compass mount."

If one had a LS, you have the option of putting this on the hat shelf. On the SW, real estate is even more limited. I thought this was a clever solution to the problem that just never occurred to me. I guess that shows how often I look at my compass!

Haha, thanks.  You could put it on the hat shelf for sure.  The only concern there is how well the 978/1090MHz antennas are going to receive back there.  *Probably* okay, but you'd have to do some testing to know for sure.

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11 hours ago, BravoFoxtrot said:

FlyingMonkey said: "to mount to the top two screws of the compass mount."

If one had a LS, you have the option of putting this on the hat shelf. On the SW, real estate is even more limited. I thought this was a clever solution to the problem that just never occurred to me. I guess that shows how often I look at my compass!

Compass? Is there a wet compass in my CTSW??:thinking-1376:

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11 hours ago, JohnnyBlackCT said:

I think the 978 and 1090 antennas are supposed to be vertical.  If it works OK for you, then maybe not.

The instructions do say to point the antennae upwards.  But they have been working fine in this orientation, and I can't imagine why it would make a difference...especially when you're receiving signals from the ground.

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