EchoUAT - SkyFYX Intermittent GPS Loss

[Mach-4]

Hello wise VAFer’s

I’m experiencing an intermittent loss of GPS position with my EchoUAT-SkyFYX, presented on the GRT as “GPS 1 LOST” while the reversion to the internal GPS of the GRT takes over to keep me from getting lost. I know this means I am no longer producing a valid ADS-B position report. The flag is sometimes present for only a few seconds, sometimes a minute or two, and sometimes for large portions of a flight. I’ve traced the antenna wire and there doesn’t seem to be any obvious issues. Is there a logging feature on the echo that I can retrieve to have an idea of what direction to go searching in?

[RONSIM]

Echo/SKYFX would provide GPS position to your panel --- thought it only provided position for the ADS-B "out" . Are you sure your GPS 1 actually comes from the Echo?

You can request a PAPR to determine if your ADS-B is working.

Ron

[charosenz]

If you learn what caused this please share. I am interested in purchasing the same system....

[sf3543]

I have had a similar issue on a couple of installs. One was installed in conjunction with a GRT Sport EX.
In this case, the GRT GPS antenna was mounted on a shelf on the firewall and the Echo GPS antenna was mounted on the same shelf right next to the other antenna.
I ended up building a bigger shelf, separating the antennas by about 1 1/2" and making sure I had a 1 1/2" border of aluminum on the shelf around the Echo WAAS antenna for a larger ground plane.
Everything worked fine after that.
As for the GPS1 signal lost message, it should also show ADSB just above that, which means the GRT is either seeing or not seeing the ADSB on that port.
If your GRT has an internal GPS, it will be navigating on that regardless of the message, unless you wired the control wires from the Echo into the GRT and programmed the GRT to use that as the primary GPS. If you want to do that, call support at GRT and they will walk you through the programming steps.

[Mach-4]

Just wanted to provide an update, my current theory is that the SkyFX antenna is being shadowed by the firewall since it is sitting on a small shelf attached to the firewall. Some days (if enough satellites are high overhead rather than low and towards the tail) I will have GPS lock with little or no loss of position, also banking will sometime change the shading pattern and allow the GPS to get a position.

I’m working on fabricating a new shelf that will be attached to the engine mount via Adele clamps and will report the results

[Papa]

Originally Posted by Mach-4

Just wanted to provide an update, my current theory is that the SkyFX antenna is being shadowed by the firewall since it is sitting on a small shelf attached to the firewall. Some days (if enough satellites are high overhead rather than low and towards the tail) I will have GPS lock with little or no loss of position, also banking will sometime change the shading pattern and allow the GPS to get a position.

I’m working on fabricating a new shelf that will be attached to the engine mount via Adele clamps and will report the results

That is exactly how I did mine...built a small platform that is attached to the engine mount with Adele clamps. I have not had any issues. I actually have two GPS antennas on the platform separated by 4 inches or so; both work fine.

[Mach-4]

How did you secure the antennas to the shelf to prevent them from sliding around? My current setup has the antennas zip-tied through a hole in the shelf. It may actually be the best solution since the antennas don’t have any integrated mounting holes for a screw to pass through, but wondering if it can be improved upon.