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Micro-Trak 300

V

VHS

Well Known Member
Okay, I promised you that I would let you have first dib's on any Micro-Trak 300's, so Byon set up a place place just for you: http://tinyurl.com/54kbkd

They are not on the regular web store, this is just for you guys, and they will probably not be available again for about 3 months after these units sell out.

Best regards,

Allen
VHS
 
VHS said:
Okay, I promised you that I would let you have first dib's on any Micro-Trak 300's, so Byon set up a place place just for you: http://tinyurl.com/54kbkd

They are not on the regular web store, this is just for you guys, and they will probably not be available again for about 3 months after these units sell out.

Best regards,

Allen
VHS
Click to expand...

Grab 'em while you can! :)

Even though I use the MT-8000, in my opinion the MT-300 is still the absolute best bang for the buck in aviation APRS trackers.
 
More info please

O.K., I admit I have been a casual outsider looking in as far as APRS is concerned.

I know I will have to get the license, should not be a problem.

If I get one of the above Micro Track 300 units, then I also need a GPS antenna. And an output antenna.

The antenna link in the Micro Track 300 description has a warning about the voltage used by the GPS antenna, and therein lies my question.

And considering the folks who supply the units dont seem to be open to phone contact, I figured to check with the VAF database.

Does the Micro Track 300 have the correct voltage output to drive the GPS antenna, or is there other stuff that needs to be acquired also???

Besides the output antenna, that is.

Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
Whatcha need to make it work....

Mike,

In addition to the Micro-Trak 300 ( and a ham license) you will need a GPS receiver. If you have one in your aircraft, it may already have an output that can feed the Micro-Track the standard NMEA serial data that it uses. If not, the GPS receivers ( which include an antenna) from Byonics are plug and play with the Micro-Trak ( well, this is a little white lie;you do have to solder on the DB-9 serial connector to the Printed circuit board) I suggest the GPS-2, its a Siirf III with Waas,......oh, never mind, its really good... and will plug in and work. The voltage issue with the GPS receivers is that some run on 3 volts and some run on 5 volts. We have 5 volt units and support them in our designs. Pete Howell was making some nice inexpensive transmitter antennas that install in the wingtip. They seem battle proven. Sam Buchanan wrote a treatise on installing a system in his airplane, which has a lot of great info.

So this is what you need:

GPS receiver (Byonics GPS2 or tap your airplanes unit)
Micro-Trak 300 (Byonics)
Serial Cable for programming ( big pile of computer cables in garage)
Null modem/gender changer (Byonics, or computer store)
Programming software ( free download-Byonics)
Transmit antenna (Pete Howell, or homebrew) ( we sell rubber duck antennas, but that's not really the best choice for an aircraft.)

The MT-300 is sold as a mostly assembled printed circuit board. You can package it up real nice, or wrap it in tape and stick it down, or don't install it in anything at all. Most people use the plastic tubes I ship them in as an enclosure.

There are a lot of peopl eon this baord with more direct experience in installing these in aircraft than I, but let me know if you have any questions and I will hope out. Even if I have to talk on the......<<<<<shudder>>>> phone!


Allen
VHS
 
Thanks

Allen, thanks for the info.

I am a bit concerned about the "gender changer" item you listed, however.

Are you Byonics as well as VHS??? The Napa/Las Vegas thing is a bit confusing.:confused:

As I see it, I need to get the Micro Trac 300, and the GPS --- Byonics GPS2, from Byonics.

Thanks for the reply.
 
Micro-Trak

Mike,

I am VHS. I manufacture the Micro-Trak product line, distributed exclusively by Byonics, and relying on Byonics technology. A Micro-Trak has a Male DB-9 connector, so to use a null modem, you need to convert its gender over. Its not a transexual thing....I think its a $5.00 part. Personally, I use a null modem serial cable to program my TinyTrack gear, but you won't find it at Radio Shack.

Byonics is in Las Vegas, I am in Napa, California, where temperatures are usually less that 105 degrees.

Best regards,

Allen
VHS
 
Mike S said:
I am a bit concerned about the "gender changer" item you listed, however.
Click to expand...

Guys, thanks for the replies-----------however, the comment was made in jest.:D

Think personal, :eek: not electrical.

Obviously I need to work on my humor delivery.
 
USB-serial a valid option?

I have recently gotten my APRS trackers up and running just fine thanks to the help on this forum (Sam Buchanan and Pete Howell in particular - thanks a bunch!) and a fellow pilot and APRS tracker here locally (Hey James) :)

One thing I would love to see is more support from Byonics or VHS for fixing the obvious USB to serial cable problem. We here never got one to work on an XP or Vista box, so we had to make the Sam B. serial to serial cable and locate a computer with a serial port. It worked great! These days serial ports are scarce. Lucky for us we had someone at the airport that had a laptop with a serial port. And I found that our younguns' old computer at home has one. But it would be nice and very convenient to have the USB version working.

Thanks again to Sam, Pete, VHS and Byon for the knowledge base and product, and for making APRS work for folks like me.

Regards,

Mike
KJ4FEU
N2878L on aprs.fi - Cessna 172, in case you check my speeds ;) I'm still building my RV-9A
 
USB Ports

Mike,

I get E-mails all the time from people having USB to serial adaptor problems. Its pretty hard for me to know what your computers error messages mean when your USB adaptor does not work...., or how to tell people how to make their computer recognize their adaptor.

Adding a USB port to a Micro-Trak is not a trivial affair. There are two side to a USB conection, with one side, the computer, being the "host". To make a Micro-Trak read a USB GPS would require the Micro-Trak to be a host. There is not enough room on the Micro-Trak to add that pentium processor!

We could add a USB port to a Micro-Trak for programming, which would increase the size, complexity, cost, and power consumption of the units, but it would really, really **** people off after they found out they could not plug in their GPS!

The newest generation of Micro-Trak, the MT-TT4, will have a keyboard input, and we will be developing software that will allow you to do all the programming through the keyboard and LCD display. This will eliminate the need for a P.C.

I have always found the USB-serial dongles to be problematic. I have a Belkin unit working perfectly now, after finding al the downloads and upgrades from Belkin to make it work with Vista. I am still keeping a few old PC's around to run radio and TinyTrack programming software!

Allen
VHS
 
I have found the targus PA088UZ usb to serial dongle to work just fine with vista no software required. The little led's on the dongle were helpful in determining which com port was posting to the usb I was using.
 
Can the antenna be a simple wire of the correct length connected to the center portion of the antenna plug on the board. I would like to use this setup on an all composite plane, then possibly in the composite tail cone of an RV10.
Can the antenna be mounted horozontally, or must it be kept vertically?

Lynne
 
Horizontal will be just fine for airborn operations.
No reason why a straight wire would not work also.
 
lmb118 said:
Can the antenna be a simple wire of the correct length connected to the center portion of the antenna plug on the board. I would like to use this setup on an all composite plane, then possibly in the composite tail cone of an RV10.
Can the antenna be mounted horozontally, or must it be kept vertically?

Lynne
Click to expand...

Lynne,

A wire makes a fine antenna if it is the correct length.

An antenna of horizontal orientation is definitely not recommended. However......many APRS rigs use a J-pole, intended for vertical installation, that is looped around the interior of a wingtip. This shouldn't work very well as it violates all sorts of "antenna rules", but in our application is working quite nicely.

So...how well will a horizontal antenna work for you? Hard to say without trying, so get the antenna as vertical as possible but more than likely you will have a workable rig regardless of which way the antenna points. Being airborne overcomes several antenna sins. ;)
 
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