Chelton Radios

I just looked at the new Chelton Radios. I like the design of the transponder with the keyboard. I am stimied as to why a manufacturer will not incorporate a keyboard for direct entry onto the com or nav. There is a lot of wear and tear on the knobs when you have to crank them around all of the time. Is there anyone out there on a design team for one of the manufacturers that can fill me in on this mystery?

Overall the design of these radios looks great. Curious about the pricing. If it says Chelton I would expect that it will be a little higher than the norm. Any insisght from Osh on this topic?

Radios look great.

Bill,

Any links, specs, prices, or pics of the new Chelton radios / transponder?

I didn't see any facts about it, but here's the link from Doug's site:
http://d2av.com/Radios/

ww2planes said:

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Is there anyone out there on a design team for one of the manufacturers that can fill me in on this mystery?
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Don't ALL (Garmin, King, etc) new transponders have direct entry keypads?

Not affiliated with any manufacturer but Garmin offers a cordless keyboard for the G1000 which is offered by Columbia Aircraft.

See Here:
http://www.flycolumbia.com/Columbia_Aircraft/Columbia/Aircraft/G1000_Close_Up/

I wanted to add to my post that I think that the system looks awsome and better than anything that I have seen so far. After a few are out there and proving themselves I hope that I can order up a short stack.

ww2planes said:

I wanted to add to my post that I think that the system looks awsome and better than anything that I have seen so far. After a few are out there and proving themselves I hope that I can order up a short stack.

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Ya think so huh? Those look like 5.75-inch wide "Dzus rail" mounts similar to this Garmin 165.


These were/are typically used in commuter class aircraft. I don't think they were thinking of GA when they designed these-and will probably be priced as such. That Chelton transponder, Nav and com will take as much vertical space as a GNS-530, but just a little less horizontal space.

But then "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

ww2planes said:

I am stimied as to why a manufacturer will not incorporate a keyboard for direct entry onto the com or nav. There is a lot of wear and tear on the knobs when you have to crank them around all of the time. Is there anyone out there on a design team for one of the manufacturers that can fill me in on this mystery?

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I'm an engineer, but I don't design GA avionics for a living. If I did, though, and someone suggested using a keyboard, I'd ask the following questions

- How well will that work in turbulence?

- How do you make corrections? In other words, you wanted 132.20, but you typed 122.20. Do you delete the whole thing and start over? Or can you backspace and just change the 2nd digit? Are there cursor keys?

- In a nav/comm should you have one keypad for comm and another for nav? The nav/comms I'm used to have two sets of knobs...one for the nav side and one for the comm side. There's never any doubt about which I'm tuning. With a keypad, I'd be space constraints as well as aesthetic considerations would force you to have one keypad. The user would then have to "send" the frequency to the nav side or to the comm side.

Just my quick thoughts.

mgomez said:

- How well will that work in turbulence?

- In a nav/comm should you have one keypad for comm and another for nav? The nav/comms I'm used to have two sets of knobs...one for the nav side and one for the comm side. There's never any doubt about which I'm tuning. With a keypad, I'd be space constraints as well as aesthetic considerations would force you to have one keypad. The user would then have to "send" the frequency to the nav side or to the comm side.

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The plane I fly now and the last plane I flew both use keypads for nearly all of the nav and comm interfaces. The turbulence is a non-issue as long as there is somewhere to rest your wrist, thumb, or other fingers to stabilize your "typing finger," and as long as the keys are not a flush keypad; the keys need to be raised at least as much as a computer keypad with a lip around their edges. A simple "CLR" key works well as a backspace key. Click CLR twice and that clears the entire entry.

Once you've input the information you want on the "scratchpad" you simply click beside the radio you want that frequency in. Type 1 - 2 - 2 - . - 0, then press the button beside VHF1 and that frequency is tuned. 6 keystrokes. Type in 113.9, then press the button beside VOR1 and that's tuned. You're right - you have to "send" the frequency to the proper radio, but there's no confusion where it's being sent. Plus, if you try to put a comm frequency in a nav radio or vice versa, it simply won't let you and gives an error message.

Compared to a single nav/single comm setup, the keypad setup certainly takes up more space. We're using the same keypad to tune 6 navaids and 8 comm radios which are located elsewhere in the aircraft (i.e. it eliminates the need for 14 control heads within arms reach). But a lot of guys are running at least dual comm and dual nav in their GA aircraft so the space savings would probably be realized with even as few as 4 panel-mounted control heads.

I agree that the Chelton system will likely be marketed towards the corporate/transport crowd, but a keypad interface is not illogical for a GA panel.