With some help from Joe Campbell we have finally found AR (Augmented Reality) Glasses that actually work in a light aircraft. After my years in F35 Flight Test including personally testing the F35 HMD in our CATB flying test bed I have been obsessed with bringing this capability in some form to the Experimental Aircraft world. Its my belief a working Gen-1 HMD system is finally here. Of course it wasn't designed for aircraft use but here we are. These are true high quality AR glasses that connect directly into our Raspberry Pi 5 HUD computer providing HDMI video and displaying a very usable aircraft HUD picture. We recommend using the XReal Air 2 PRO glasses (others may work but haven’t tested them), they weigh about 3 ounces, they fit great under my LightSpeed headset, and project a clear bright HUD display in front of my eyes while allowing a full outside world and inside cockpit view through the HUD image. I’ve updated our “FlyOnSpeed.org/HUD” web page with additional information on these AR Glasses including a shopping list to order them, how to download and install our free HUD software on a Raspberry Pi 5 microcomputer, and other information and pictures on our overall HUD project. These Smart Glasses are in the middle of the AR Glass cost range at about $500 complete. We currently don’t have head tracking but we believe we have a path to add a cheap but reliable head tracking solution. But these HMD (Head Mounted Display – also called Helmet Mounted Display) glasses work awesome as is. The attached below HUD display picture taken through the glass display was very difficult to get but does show roughly what you can see. The HMD image is focused at about 12 feet. Not perfect but close enough that you don’t really notice any focus difference unless you think about it. Also there are prescription lens inserts (including Bi-Focal) available for these Glasses (see the shopping list on the web site) if needed.
The glasses are powered by a small USB-C connector (power and video) that fits tight against your head so the Headset can fit easily over it. These glasses have 3-levels of Electrochromic Dimming (electronic) dimming, adjustable screen brightness and other control functions on the ear frame. Our HUD graphics software provides a clear, bright, easily read image even with the electronic dimming turned totally off on a sunny day. No Wi-Fi is required for connection to the display and it doesn’t have any bulky batteries. The system just boots up and runs our HUD software display at power on. Head tracking if it works as we think it should will use a micro video camera mounted on/under the aircraft dash aimed back at the pilots face which will track your left/right/up/down head movements. Again no Wi-Fi issues. The only WI-Fi connection we use is sharing the aircraft ADSB data which is processed by the Raspberry Pi for traffic and target (GunFight Mode) display.
We will also soon integrate our OnSpeed M5 AOA display into the Raspebrry Pi 5, but the software can currently display the G3X, Dynon, and MGL AOA graphics. The new Raspberry Pi 5 processor has lots of extra power which has upped our FPS (frames per second) display rate to over 30 FPS. These AR glasses have many additional display capabilities but we are only focused on aircraft use as a HMD.
The FlyOnSpeed HUD software is programmed (Python 3) for a Raspberry Pi5 Micro-CPU and currently supports serial EFIS data from Garmin G3x, Dynon Skyview & D100, MGL, and recently added (but not fully tested yet) GRT Grand Rapids. We also simultaneously support Aircraft & ADSB data via WI-FI from Stratux, iLevil BOM, iLevil 3, uAvionix Echo/PING UAT, Dual XGPS190, and Dynon ADSB Wi-Fi. And can use an Analog to Digital interface for 150 mv analog Nav Needle inputs. The system being processed used is selected through the Software configuration file.
Cecil "TRON" Jones
Built RV8 Flying
Built RV6 with Son Chris-Flying
Sling 4 TSI Under Construction
Member FlyOnSpeed Team
15 Years F35 Avionics/CATB Flight Test
USAF Retired
The glasses are powered by a small USB-C connector (power and video) that fits tight against your head so the Headset can fit easily over it. These glasses have 3-levels of Electrochromic Dimming (electronic) dimming, adjustable screen brightness and other control functions on the ear frame. Our HUD graphics software provides a clear, bright, easily read image even with the electronic dimming turned totally off on a sunny day. No Wi-Fi is required for connection to the display and it doesn’t have any bulky batteries. The system just boots up and runs our HUD software display at power on. Head tracking if it works as we think it should will use a micro video camera mounted on/under the aircraft dash aimed back at the pilots face which will track your left/right/up/down head movements. Again no Wi-Fi issues. The only WI-Fi connection we use is sharing the aircraft ADSB data which is processed by the Raspberry Pi for traffic and target (GunFight Mode) display.
We will also soon integrate our OnSpeed M5 AOA display into the Raspebrry Pi 5, but the software can currently display the G3X, Dynon, and MGL AOA graphics. The new Raspberry Pi 5 processor has lots of extra power which has upped our FPS (frames per second) display rate to over 30 FPS. These AR glasses have many additional display capabilities but we are only focused on aircraft use as a HMD.
The FlyOnSpeed HUD software is programmed (Python 3) for a Raspberry Pi5 Micro-CPU and currently supports serial EFIS data from Garmin G3x, Dynon Skyview & D100, MGL, and recently added (but not fully tested yet) GRT Grand Rapids. We also simultaneously support Aircraft & ADSB data via WI-FI from Stratux, iLevil BOM, iLevil 3, uAvionix Echo/PING UAT, Dual XGPS190, and Dynon ADSB Wi-Fi. And can use an Analog to Digital interface for 150 mv analog Nav Needle inputs. The system being processed used is selected through the Software configuration file.
Cecil "TRON" Jones
Built RV8 Flying
Built RV6 with Son Chris-Flying
Sling 4 TSI Under Construction
Member FlyOnSpeed Team
15 Years F35 Avionics/CATB Flight Test
USAF Retired
