snopercod
Well Known Member
I fly with a ACK E-04 ELT, but the GPS input isn't connected since I don't have a panel-mounted GPS (I'm a Stratus/ForeFlight guy.) Since I do a lot of flying over remote, mountainous areas, and don't usually file flight plans, I got to thinking it might be worth $70 to add a GPS signal to the ELT:
Has anybody done this? How painful is it?
For new generation 406 MHz ELT?s without GPS position information, the average time to process, and identify the aircraft location is 1-2 hours, with a search radius of about 2 miles or less. With GPS information, the time to locate the aircraft position is 10 minutes or less, with an accuracy of about 300 feet.
The Garmin GPS 18X looks like a hockey puck with wires and provides an RS-232 output for driving other equipment, plus power wires. The -PC version takes 8?30 Vdc and the others need 5V. The cost on amazon is $66.95. The ELT manual has instructions for hooking up the GPS 18X, but I can't find any information on programming it. Apparently it has to be hooked up to a comm port on a computer via some mystery adapter cable and some mystery software. Also, one must provide ship's power to the ELT - to power the RS-232 transceiver I assume.Has anybody done this? How painful is it?