Remote navs or nav/coms?

[sbalmos]

Over in the Glass Cockpit forum, there's a nice thread going on about remote-mount equipment, headless or not. It sparked a question in the back of my head.

Obviously there's a growing realm of headless remote COM boxes out there, or even COMs that are mostly remote but still have faces that fit in a standard 2.5" circle. But I don't know of any (mostly) remote NAV or NAV/COM boxes.

Do such boxes exist? Or is it just because everyone sticks with either GPS-integrated (as in the GNSs and GTNs), or the pizza-box form factor (SL30 and such)?

 

[rleffler]

There are actually several offerings to pick from.

AFS/Trutrak announced their Com unit at OSH and I believe it is now shipping.

MGL has some offerings, but I think that they only work with devices that speak CAN bus.

Garmin just announce several new products. The SL30 has been able to be remotely controlled by most EFIS vendors.

I'm sure that there are going to be some interesting discussion regarding the risk/reward of totally remote units versus units with a panel display that can be controlled remotely.

There is no silver bullet or correct answer to what is better. Only what fits your mission and budget is all that matters.

 

[sbalmos]

Bob,

I think you misread my post. I'm aware of the AFS unit, as well as MGLs offerings. The AFS unit is COM-only. And the SL30 is a horizontal rectangular box (hence the pizza-box in-joke from anyone who's dealt with 1U rackmount servers). I was more curious about the existence of headless, or square, NAV or NAV/COM radios.

 

[rleffler]

The new Garmins have a faceplate as well.

Also, just because a unit has a faceplate, doesn't mean it can't be mounted remotely.

My personal opinion is that vendors will be slow to release completely remote (headless) radios. My thoughts are that they won't want to maintain two products, if the the standard unit can be located remotely.

 

[Mark Albery]

Becker do a remote mount Nav receiver.

They are popular in the sailplane world where panel space is at a premium.

 

[GrayHawk]

MGL Nav Radio in progress for a long time now, may eventually show up. Probably serial interface just like the MGL V6 & V10 COM radios.

Set a V-6 and a V-20 side by side for a Com/Nav. Mount side by side in a bezel for 'stack' mount.

GH

 

[Rainier Lamers]

MGL Nav Radio in progress for a long time now, may eventually show up. Probably serial interface just like the MGL V6 & V10 COM radios.

Set a V-6 and a V-20 side by side for a Com/Nav. Mount side by side in a bezel for 'stack' mount.

GH

We are working to have a NAV radio out at Oshkosh. Hold thumbs...

Also we will be releasing a 2.1/4" remote head soon. This unit can be configured as needed by selecting "applications".
Currently we have the following applications completed:

a) Generic remote control: This works in a simple fashion - it gets sent a digital video image of what should appear on the display from a remote box and all rotary control and button pushes get sent to the remote box. Currently this has been implemented for the V6 and V6R radios but this will also be used for the NAV radio.

b) MGL VHF radio remote control protocol. This supports the older remote control protocols like that used in the V10 radio.

c) Sandia Aerospace transponder control.

d) CAN bus based mode-s transponder (currently Garrecht, Dynon/Trig to follow with a small CAN interface).

e) MGL SP10 Flap/Trim controller.

Further applications are in development such as autopilot controls.

The remote head has the same appearance of a V6 radio with two rotary controls. The head allows simultaneous control from one or more EFIS panels for a particular item.

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics