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GNS 5870 MFI Bluetooth GPS

B

bharral

Member
Any PIREPS on these units?

Amazon reviewers say the GPS works good, but there are a lot of complaints about the On/Off control.

What say you VAFer's that bought this unit?

Blake Harral
RV4 N72RV
 
My experience matches what you already know. I wish it had a normal mechanical on-off switch.

Erich
 
MFI Review-

I like it.

So far I have only flown with it on commercial flights. If you are sitting in the window seat, the MFI will pick up a signal on a 737. Then you get to follow the aircraft using Sky Charts Pro (or your favorite app). I can see airspeed, altitude and look out the window to compare with the moving map display on my iPhone. It really gives us pilots geeks something to do when flying commercial.

The on/off can be tricky at first. You swipe your finger across the unit to toggle the on/off. When I first powered the unit up I didn't quite get it. But it didn't take long to understand a slow straight swipe across the LED panel will toggle the power. Not a big deal.
 
On off

Works great acquires signal and locks on. If you put it in your shirt pocket or backpack the slightest movement will turn it on and you will find a dead battery for next use.

Had the wife make me a pouch to put it in so no longer a issue. Easier to turn on than off for me with the swipe of a finger.
 
Stick some Velcro on it and throw it up on the dash. Mine works great. I am using skycharts pro. It works as advertised. The charger that comes with it can also be used to charge the IPad.
 
@ flyindoorman
Just a small hint regarding the 5870 MFI
Don?t worry about if it turn?s on.
If the GPS has no BT connection it switch off automatically after 15 min.
so you will not have a dead battery ;-)

@all

the complaints about the Switch in Amazon are correct
in the beginning... that means first devices just had a firmware bug.
It could be happen that the slider switch stop working
Sometimes a RESET helps but generally you have to update the firmware
This devices where all delivered directly from Germany
So if you have a device which is shipped directly from Germany in December 2010
you can directly contact me.
We very apologize that there was a bug in the firmware but....it was random and again sorry could be happen.
At least let me point out that the bug is fixed since End of December 2010.
All devices which are shipped via Distri like Sporty or directly from our Warehouse US
are not effected.....only a few shipped directly from Germany via Amazon are effected
Sorry again

Bill
 
Erich, if you have problems you can udate the firmware
by sending the GPS device to the GNS Servicecenter

Smartphone Experts
http://www.SmartphoneExperts.com

Smartphone Experts
3151 E Thomas St
Inverness, FL 34453

Toll Free: (888) 599-8998
Local: (352) 400-4400

regards

Bill
 
Does anybody know if the GNS 5870 will link up with the ipad in the front cockpit and the ipad in the rear cockpit of my RV-8???
 
craigvince said:
Unfortunately, the bluetooth GPS will only "pair" with one device at a time.
Click to expand...
There may be a way... I have both an iPhone4 and a (WiFi Only) iPad. My iPhone4 is Jailbroken, and I run a program called MyWi to share the data connection out over WiFi so I can surf with my iPad when i'm away from a land-based WiFi signal. To the iPad, my iPhone just looks like a regular WiFi internet access point.

When connected this way, my iPad can make use of location-based features in programs. It finds locations in the Maps app, and Skycharts picks it up too. I wouldn't be surprised if the same were true if you connected an iPad to another iPad. Connect the first iPad to the GPS, use MyWi to connect the second iPad to the first, and the second iPad should get location data from the first.

I haven't tried this though, it's just a theory. Anyone have two iPads and want to try it?
 
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