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WiFi SD card on G3X?

rdamazio

rdamazio

Well Known Member
Patron
Hi all!

I'm wondering if anyone has tried using one of the SD cards that supports WiFi on the G3X? I'd love to be able to download logs and upload them to Savvy or other services automatically when I get near the hangar's wifi range (and yes I know about AirSync but I'm not paying $500/yr to do something that I can write a script for in 15m :) and don't need their cell connectivity).

I noticed some of them have (official or not) APIs and tools for downloading and uploading data:
https://github.com/vicmortelmans/ezshare-raspberry
https://github.com/TadLeonard/tfatool

What I don't know is if the G3X will be happy with any of these cards - has anyone tried?
 
Interesting

Interesting thought.

My experience is that the garmin is pretty picky about SD card formats. I use Mac and did not have much luck formatting the cards such that the garmin liked them. I ended up using an ancient pc laptop to format the cards. Not sure if it would like the wifi card but definitely post a result if you try it!
 
rocketman1988 said:
Interesting thought.

My experience is that the garmin is pretty picky about SD card formats. I use Mac and did not have much luck formatting the cards such that the garmin liked them. I ended up using an ancient pc laptop to format the cards. Not sure if it would like the wifi card but definitely post a result if you try it!
Click to expand...

I formatted my cards on a Mac without problem. The trick is that they need to be formatted FAT32, or whatever the proper name is, not the Mac format.
 
Some

Ed_Wischmeyer said:
I formatted my cards on a Mac without problem. The trick is that they need to be formatted FAT32, or whatever the proper name is, not the Mac format.
Click to expand...

I use a Mac also. Some of the cards worked, others didn’t. I ordered the cards in bulk; I have 8 cards total, now. The funny thing is that the ones that did not work in the Mac via disk manager, also did not work using a dedicated sd card formatting app, DID work in the ancient laptop.

Not sure why but they are all working now.

The 8 cards amount to one pair for each gdu460, one pair for the gtn650, and a pair for the EFII controller. That way I always have a backup for a previous version.
 
rdamazio said:
....

I noticed some of them have (official or not) APIs and tools for downloading and uploading data:
https://github.com/vicmortelmans/ezshare-raspberry
https://github.com/TadLeonard/tfatool

.....
Click to expand...

i also investigated this a bit (use case would be downloading datalogs from the AFS3400 efis, not G3x, but it's essentially the same application... Ideally, this would also be capable of uploading map data.)

first problem, the original toshiba flashair wifi sd cards which are hackable/moddable are hard, if not impossible to get (the ones that can be scripted/modded, there were several hardware revisions)
product is unfortunately long discontinued, you can only get leftovers/second hand on sites like ebay, usually without knowing whether they're of the hackable type or not.
so the solution is not mid-term sustainable.

the other makes/models you can get these days are essentially useless as they are strictly targeted e.g. to jpg images from a camera / DCIM folder or *.mp3 and not flexible enough/moddable to handle efis log files, which is a shame, really. it's simple text, after all...

another problem is that for operation without corrupted data, those storage devices should only ever be in either wifi up/down mode or connected to the host (EFIS), not both at the same time, which appears impossible in the case of sd slots... unlike usb, where this is doable (pulling power while logically being disconnected).

the other issue was e.g. with the AFS not handling hot-plugging of sdcards very well, at least my older generation EFIS. if you don't want trouble, you have to wait with unplugging until after EFIS shutdown. i once had an EFIS depleting the backup battery for some time as there was no other way to shut off, after removing an in-use (synthetic vision) sd card. heard similar stories from other manufacturers.

what i was successful with a few years ago however is with the same use cases, but using a raspberry pi zero W! only that my EFIS doesn't have USB ports yet... but newer dynons e.g. do...
did a proof of concept, but nothing rounded or finished.
with the later zero's, it should even be more flexible (speed, bluetooth etc...).
one tricky aspect is the "hot-plugged" switching between wifi/standalone and usb OTG modes = connecting/disconnecting the virtual usb mass storage device while still keeping the admin interface up..

as to the SD format/size issues mentioned here:
some older devices are only able to handle pure SD cards due to witin, or SDHC but with limitations on the FAT size / format.
most larger and newer cards (SDXC etc...) will not be supported.

good luck and keep us posted!
 
Toshiba Flashair wifi SD card

Have been using a Toshiba flashair wifi SD card (Purchased on Amazon) for about 3 years now. So easy to transfer FPL files (export from your EFB) or pull the CSV log files and screen shots from the G3X. I just use a simple iPhone/iPad app called “FileBrowser” and you point it to the IP address of the SD card once its connected, G3X powers up iPad/iPhone then automatically connects to the SD cards wifi hotpsot and away you go.

Not had any formatting issues using the card at all.
 
FileBrowser ?

BoyRacer said:
Have been using a Toshiba flashair wifi SD card (Purchased on Amazon) for about 3 years now. So easy to transfer FPL files (export from your EFB) or pull the CSV log files and screen shots from the G3X. I just use a simple iPhone/iPad app called “FileBrowser” and you point it to the IP address of the SD card once its connected, G3X powers up iPad/iPhone then automatically connects to the SD cards wifi hotpsot and away you go.

Not had any formatting issues using the card at all.
Click to expand...

The one you need to pay for? or the other one?

The card is almost 400 bucks. Why not bring the SD card (10 bucks) home once a month? Seems a lot less aggravation but I'm old school.
 
dmattmul said:
The one you need to pay for? or the other one?

The card is almost 400 bucks. Why not bring the SD card (10 bucks) home once a month? Seems a lot less aggravation but I'm old school.
Click to expand...

DITTO. As others have said, the cards are inexpensive and having two sets allows a pretty easy swap out process, while keep the previous sets available in the event of an unrecoverable error with the new cards. And then I take the exchanged cards home, download the data from them and then run through Savvy's analysis to see if I missed anything from the previous month.

Seems like a pretty easy process. The only real time involved is that it can take 15-20 minutes (it can vary from a couple minutes to around 30 depending on chart selections) to update IFR data to the G3X - but you'd have that issue either way, whether from a card or wirelessly transferred. I simply include this in my monthly aircraft inspection process.
 
I don't use Garmin's iPad app but my understanding is that if you have it paired to your GDU 4xx display you can set it up to stream flight data automatically, no special cards required.
 
if you have it paired to your GDU 4xx display you can set it up to stream flight data automatically
Click to expand...

Anyone here with a clue as to how to achieve the above?
Sounds very interesting to me :)
 
Thanks for the alternative solutions - I'm aware of them, I was just hoping for something automated (and without requiring additional subscriptions) so I can focus on the flying part :)

flyvans.com said:
another problem is that for operation without corrupted data, those storage devices should only ever be in either wifi up/down mode or connected to the host (EFIS), not both at the same time, which appears impossible in the case of sd slots... unlike usb, where this is doable (pulling power while logically being disconnected
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's actually a great point and you've likely just saved me a lot of time. I wonder how upset the EFIS would be if the SD card "disappears" at the very end of the flight (when I taxi close to the hangar and wifi connects). I guess that's something to test with the G3X, and I can probably do it by unplugging a regular SD card, so I'll try that.
 
(and btw my alternative solution will indeed be to plug a RPi or similar to a G3X serial port)
 
FDL Streaming

Good Morning Rodrigo,

If you use the Garmin Pilot app, you can connect your portable device to the G3X Touch display via Bluetooth and the flight data logs will stream to the portable device, and be loaded to your flyGarmin account. From there, you can either use flyGarmin to analyze the data, or export the .csv to your desktop and load it into your program of choice.

Thanks,

Justin
 
FDL Streaming

Dan 57 said:
Anyone here with a clue as to how to achieve the above?
Sounds very interesting to me :)
Click to expand...

In the Logbook Settings menu, there is an option for "Stream Flight Data Log In-Flight", this must be enabled. As long as that is set up correctly, you simply need to keep the device connected via Bluetooth to the G3X Touch display during flight, and the logs will be automatically uploaded to your flyGarmin account.

Thanks,

Justin
 
rdamazio said:
Hi all!

I'm wondering if anyone has tried using one of the SD cards that supports WiFi on the G3X? I'd love to be able to download logs and upload them to Savvy or other services automatically when I get near the hangar's wifi range (and yes I know about AirSync but I'm not paying $500/yr to do something that I can write a script for in 15m :) and don't need their cell connectivity).

I noticed some of them have (official or not) APIs and tools for downloading and uploading data:
https://github.com/vicmortelmans/ezshare-raspberry
https://github.com/TadLeonard/tfatool

What I don't know is if the G3X will be happy with any of these cards - has anyone tried?
Click to expand...
I’ve noticed on my G3X it has a WiFi MAC address. So I assume they’ve built in WiFi but haven’t been able to find any info on it. I was hoping to be able to download logs and upload databases via Garmin Pilot but doesn’t give an option for the G3X or 375 (pilot says connect via wifi).
 
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