Thoughts on the Zaon MRX

Had been considering some traffic detection equipment for my RV9A. I fly a very busy corridor quite often here at 60J, located along the NC beach, at Cape Fear. Evening flights are irresistible along the strand, for me, and a bunch of other aviators. Sandwiched closely between 2 other busy airports, with different CTAF freqs, further complicates the issue. To be sure, it is a bit dangerous, and attention to traffic in the area is paramount.
So....I got a fair Ebay deal on a lightly used MRX. Thought I would give one a try. After a couple of hours flying with it, I am truly amazed. Hard to believe you can miss so much traffic. An advisory causes you to look twice, and an alert, accompanied by ranging and trends gives you an instant assessment of the traffic situation.
I realize that it has limitations (Xponder equipped and squawking) and by no means does it relieve a pilot from his traffic scanning duties, but this amazing piece of technology has added a new layer of awareness whenever I fly.

Just a thought...
Chris

pcas

My Dad (85 yo WWII vet) bought me one of these for my -9A project.

In his flying days, he always worried about the traffic. He preferred night flying for this reason. Said he could see traffic at night better.

I've had the little MRX powered in the shop (my house is right under an approach to a busy airport) while hammering rivets.

It seems to do a pretty good job.

I think I'll be glad to have it sitting on the glare shield.

Just another set of "eyes" on the lookout.

Dave
-9A finish kit
N514R reserved

Flying in and around DFW Class B, it's invaluable.
Wouldn't be without it.

Under Class B and several skinny corridors to two different non controlled airports. The Zaon helps a lot. Picks up those F-16's too!

L.Adamson --- RV6A

Traffic

I went with the Garmin 330/696 combo, works great!

I've been flying with an MRX for over two years and see a lot more traffic with it than before. Sometimes it misses planes without transponders, mostly crop dusters, and others with their antennas in the wrong orientation. Occasionally it signals traffic that Flight Following says is not there. I swivel my head a lot when it indicates traffic is near, but I was unwilling to pay another $1500 to get traffic direction.

Walt said:

I went with the Garmin 330/696 combo, works great!

Click to expand...

Which was our initial plan .... But, there are so many areas that we fly where there is no radar coverage and therefore no traffic services. Switched to plan B ... the XRX.

MauiLvrs said:

Which was our initial plan .... But, there are so many areas that we fly where there is no radar coverage and therefore no traffic services. Switched to plan B ... the XRX.

Click to expand...

Doesn't the XRX depend on ATC radar to trigger transponders to transmit?

PCHunt said:

Doesn't the XRX depend on ATC radar to trigger transponders to transmit?

Click to expand...

Or any TCAS, or any other reason the transponder get a hit to fire...

To start the cycle, an interrogation is sent out from ground-based RADAR stations and/or TCAS or other actively interrogating systems in your area. This signal is sent on 1030 MHz. For TCAS, this interrogation range can have a radius of 40 miles from the interrogation source. The Ground RADAR range can be 200 miles or more

The transponder on any aircraft within range of the interrogation replies on 1090 MHz with their squawk code (known as Mode A) and altitude code (or Mode C). The altitude information is sent in an encoded format.
Mode S transponders also reply on this frequency, and encoded within the Mode S transmission is the Mode A (squawk) and Mode C (altitude) information.



http://www.zaon.aero/content/view/52/1/


providing this coverage:




as opposed to something more like this for TIS:

Which provides good coverage for the east and south, but rather sparse for the west...


http://www.zaon.aero/content/view/51/1/

Do you guys have problem with locking on your own transponder? I talked to Zaon a few times and took their advise to change the setting. However, it still show phantom traffic a lot. I have a stub transponder antenna near my right gear leg and MRX on glareshield on the pilot side. It often show traffic on my level 1/4 m away. It is probably just my transponder antenna setup (too weak a transponder signal?). I am not using it now.

Does anyone have a pic of the XRX on an RV glareshield? I'd like to see what it looks like.

What's about interfacing it to a GRT? How well does that work?

Kills the billion $ view. U. Can now remote locate the unit in the back and send the signal to a display like GRT or Garmin. They need a lower price unit that doesn't waste $ on the display if u r going to send the signal remotely like that. Be nice if they had an external antenna option so it wouldn't block the view if u were going to mount it on the glareshield.

Zaon

"What's about interfacing it to a GRT? How well does that work?"

I have the XRX tied into my GRT and it works very well. I have my XRX mounted on the baggage wall.

I have mine on the glareshield.... I bought the 396 cable and did that for a while, but looking down at the 396 when you should be looking for traffic is a bad idea, also, the scale on teh 396 that I like for WX and navigation (20 or 30nm) is not the right one for traffic (.1-5nm) Those ranges are not the range of the screen, but the range of the scale in the corner.

So I unhooked the 396 interface and hooked the audio from the Zaon into the AX button on my PS eng audio panel. I like the Zaon audio warnings and I like having the info on the glareshield where I can see it without looking down. After a couple hours it disappears from view.

I have had it for about 2 years and I sent it back for an upgrade and to get the black case so it doesnt glare on the Windshield. the newer software version is much better. if you have an early one, I recommend the upgrade.

Tailwinds,
Doug Rozendaal

Question

So is the functionality of these any greater than a Garmin GTX-330?


Hans

nucleus said:

So is the functionality of these any greater than a Garmin GTX-330?


Hans

Click to expand...

It's different. It provides traffic in many location where the 330 says "traffic not available" because it gets much of its data from other transponders instead of receiving its data from radar data uploaded to the 330.

As we fly a lot where there is no radar coverage, the performance for us is greater.

" I have the XRX tied into my GRT and it works very well. I have my XRX mounted on the baggage wall. "

Tom, so the built in XRX antenna get a works fine under the canopy? I presume you built a bracket/shelf for the XRX. Your implementation sound very appealing - much better then having the XRX on glareshield.

XRX mounting

I have mounted the XRX to the baggage wall with a RAM mount as shown in this picture.



The traffic is displayed on the GRT EFIS on the map screen. When traffic is within 2 miles a popup circle alerts you with direction and altitude + or - from your altitude. It seems to work pretty well, but then if it misses the traffic and I do not see the traffic, then I do not know it.

ZAON MRX and RFI

I have a ZAON MRX. Best $400 I've spent in a long time. Spots traffic you never see, and helps with avoidance. But one little quirk I noticed was that the ZAON would show my transponder code and/or alitude incorrectly at times. I first suspected my transponder was going intermittent, but realized this condition was only occurring with the ZAON hooked to airplane power. Running the ZAON on internal batteries and all ops normal. I'm assuming that I'm getting RFI in via the external power line to the ZAON and somehow that scrambles the code/alt unit displays for your transponder. Hope this saves anyone else with the same condition a lot of troubleshooting time.

I have a MRX and really like it. BUT....you will be surprised at how many airplanes are flying with transponders off.

wv4i said:

But one little quirk I noticed was that the ZAON would show my transponder code and/or alitude incorrectly at times. I first suspected my transponder was going intermittent, but realized this condition was only occurring with the ZAON hooked to airplane power. Running the ZAON on internal batteries and all ops normal. I'm assuming that I'm getting RFI in via the external power line to the ZAON and somehow that scrambles the code/alt unit displays for your transponder. Hope this saves anyone else with the same condition a lot of troubleshooting time.

Click to expand...

I've had my MRX running on aircraft power for several years and it works great. I also have the external antenna on the belly 1/2 way between the wing trailing edge and the horizontal stab leading edge.

A real safety improvement

I've had the MRX for about 3 years now. They did have some initial issues with the multifunction switch breaking off, but they fixed that for free. A couple years ago, mine suddenly started complaining about traffic at the same altitude, minimum distance. It was my transponder it was seeing, and when I explained it to Zaon, they seemed to know of a specific failure that they must have seen before. In any case, they fixed it no charge. Another possibility for this happening is when your transponder's encoder is not properly calibrated. The MRX has its own internal barometer, and it uses that to ignore replies from the host aircraft. If there is enough of a disagreement, it will think your transponder is another aircraft. Yet, if flying formation, it will squawk endlessly about the other aircraft until it is turned off (surely someone will point out that only one transponder should be on in the formation...).

Anyone who thinks they are seeing much of the traffic nearby by just looking around has not flown with one of these, or is much better at it than I.

I piped the audio warnings into my audio panel as others have done.

the MRX works great on everything except Biplanes which is the reason i am selling mine since I get of false signals. Same for the XRX I got to try for free....!! I guess Traffic detection sytems were never intended for bi planes.....Hmmm?

If interested in a barely used MRX, see my FS post here http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=54109

To members Leland and TC1234C.. neither system likes oil in the Xponder antenna. This might be the cause of your phantom traffic and locking into your own transponder. My.02 cents.

Have you considered an external antenna?

mv031161 said:

the MRX works great on everything except Biplanes which is the reason i am selling mine since I get of false signals. Same for the XRX I got to try for free....!! I guess Traffic detection sytems were never intended for bi planes.....Hmmm?

Click to expand...

Hey Mitch,
Do you think that it may be because the antenna is between the wings?
I have my antenna mounted on the belly and it works great. I don't think the extra wing would blank it out. It DOES pick up traffic straight ahead and above where you might expect a blind spot.

MRX Installation With External Antenna

I am installing the ZAON MRX in my RV-7 and ordered the external antenna install kit. I'm using a RAMI blade antenna mounted on the belly. Included in the kit is a 3dB attenuator that gets installed at the antenna. Also in the kit is a fixed length (15 ft I think...) of coax cable. I'm not sure if this setup is required for proper calibration of the distance measurement of te MRX or to help mask out my own transponder. Any thoughts?

Sparky said:

I am installing the ZAON MRX in my RV-7 and ordered the external antenna install kit. I'm using a RAMI blade antenna mounted on the belly. Included in the kit is a 3dB attenuator that gets installed at the antenna. Also in the kit is a fixed length (15 ft I think...) of coax cable. I'm not sure if this setup is required for proper calibration of the distance measurement of the MRX or to help mask out my own transponder. Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Everything is set up for that antenna lead and the attenuator.

Mel said:

Hey Mitch,
Do you think that it may be because the antenna is between the wings?
I have my antenna mounted on the belly and it works great. I don't think the extra wing would blank it out. It DOES pick up traffic straight ahead and above where you might expect a blind spot.

Click to expand...

Hey Mel...Good idea....let me try the belly... on the XRX is definetelly the cabane and upper wing...remember they ask you in the instructions to place the unit above the cowling level. I dont have that option.

I have a plexiglass bottom, I think I can put the antenna and see if it works that way.

in regards to the oil in the regular xponder antenna from the smoke system, do you have any idea?

mv031161 said:

in regards to the oil in the regular xponder antenna from the smoke system, do you have any idea?

Click to expand...

Oil or grime on the transponder antenna definitely affects the transmission quality. If the transponder antenna is dirty, the MRX sees a somewhat weaker signal and thinks it is from another aircraft. Try to keep it as clean as possible.

Mel said:

Oil or grime on the transponder antenna definitely affects the transmission quality. If the transponder antenna is dirty, the MRX sees a somewhat weaker signal and thinks it is from another aircraft. Try to keep it as clean as possible.

Click to expand...

With a smoke system....wishfull thinking....LOL!!! Check your PM in a few minutes

Disappointing Zaon Experience

After reading this thread several months ago I purchased a MRX for a trip I was planning from Duluth to Denver. It arrived and I mounted it in my RV9A, spent several hours reading the manual and used it several times to familiarize myself with it.

Several days before my trip, the unit died. The display went completely blank. I talked with Customer Service at Zaon and found out that there was just too little time to get my unit repaired or replaced before my outgoing trip to Denver, but was assured that if I could get it to them by the end of that week....it would be no problem to repair or replace it and get it to me at my Denver address during the week or so I was going to be staying there. To make a long story short, even though I FedEx'd the unit to them and they received it 1 or 2 days later...Their part of the deal never happened. After 8 days in Denver, I've been back in Duluth for 4 more days and just found out the unit is still in Addison, Tx. Hopefully it might get shipped to me today.

As I explained to them, my disappointment doesn't necessarily come from the 2 weeks that it took to repair the brand new unit....that's pretty normal. The disappointment is from being mislead that they could repair or replace it and get it back to me in 8 or 9 days. As I told their customer service rep....I felt like you brought me up to the 10th floor and then dropped me out the window.

Their only "explanation" was that they're sorry and they don't know how my unit fell through the cracks (Apparently it sat there for 4 days before getting to the repair station).

If you choose to buy an MRX, and ever need service on it....I hope you have better luck that I've had. I can only hope the unit works well and has a long service life for me.

Anyhow, it feels a little better to vent. Sorry if I wasted your time reading this or violated any forum rules by speaking negatively of a company.

Rick Luck
RV9A

mine works pretty good, but...

when I put full flaps down, I get phantom targets, especially near or over cities. My theory is that the flaps are reflecting my transponder replies, and confusing the unit.
Despite that, I have both the MRX and XRX, and love having them. The XRX is mounted on the glareshield of my 7, with the velcro tape being just thick enough to allow me to see the whole screen, minus the bottom framing of the unit. I have Ryan TCAD in my Cessna, and the Zaon XRX is more useful to me. I put the sound into my headphones, also. Having pretty reliable direction sure beats the system I used to have on an old Viking which simply lit up a blue light whenever another transponder was near.
My experience is that some guys must be flying with transponders off, and some that have just taken off must be remembering to turn them on during climbout. But with an XRX, you can easily find traffic and visually confirm that the unit is working correctly.

RS232 Pinout

A friend and I purchased 2 XRX units at S&F and I want to pre-wire the aircraft. We haven't received the units yet. I'm remoting the unit in the baggage compartment of my RV-7 to use with an Avmpap EKP IV or a Samsung Q1 running APIC. The other unit will be swapped with the same Garmin 496 between a RV-8A and Wheeler Express, probably mounted on the glareshield. Does anyone have the RS232 pinout for the XRX? I couldn't find the information in the manual I downloaded.

Thanks
Rocky