Connecting XCSoar, Oudie and other PDAs to Era, LX 10K and iris

An Era, an LX 10K or a Colibri X will happily feed a second device — an Oudie, a phone running XCSoar, a tablet — with the numbers it already has: indicated airspeed, vario, wind, altitude, GPS position and FLARM traffic. The instrument does the sensors; the second device does the moving map. This article covers the three links that carry that traffic — WiFi, Bluetooth and the wired user port — and the adapter that gets you into an iris.

The procedure is identical on the Era, the LX 10K and the Colibri X. Where this article says "the instrument", read whichever of the three is in your panel: the menus sit in the same places and the settings have the same names. iris and NAVIA work differently and get their own sections at the end.

What each link is actually for

The most common misunderstanding lives in that first row. WiFi is not the data link. On these instruments the WiFi connection exists to send flights to an e-mail address, and at present it does nothing else. If you want live data on a PDA, you want Bluetooth or the cable.

Sending a flight over WiFi

Four things must be true before a flight will go anywhere: an e-mail address is stored, a WiFi connection is established, a flight exists in the logbook, and you are not in flight mode.

1. Add the address. Setup › Network › Mail › Add mail, then type it on the alphanumeric keyboard. Caps are ignored here. Several addresses can be stored at once — mark the ones you want active, and the flight goes to all of them.
2. Join the network. Setup › Network › Wireless mode, choose WiFi Client. Go back out, open Wireless setup, and you will see networks listed under Available, with anything you are joined to under Connected.
3. Enter the password. Select the network, type the password — this one is case-sensitive — and choose Connect. The name shifts from Available to Connected when it works.
4. Send it. Logbook, select the flight, scroll down the Flight info page and choose Send to email. You get a Preparing data box, then an hourglass, then a confirmation. Then check your inbox.

For what makes that file worth having, see the academy article on IGC logs.

Bluetooth: putting the instrument in server mode

Everything on the Bluetooth side starts the same way, whichever device you are pairing.

Go to Setup › Network › Wireless mode and choose Bluetooth server. Back out of that menu and open Wireless setup: it shows the instrument's Bluetooth name and its password. You need both.

Pairing an Oudie or other PNA/PDA

1. On the Oudie, go to Menu › Settings › Input › Bluetooth… and press Lookup.
2. Your instrument appears in the list under a name like LX LX 10k 34xxx. Select it and press pair.
3. When prompted for a password, type 1234.
4. Set the port up exactly as follows.

Oudie port settings

Then, on the Oudie, Menu › Settings › Hardware › Device and select LX navigation (the manual marks this driver name as pending; if your version lists it differently, choose the LX driver offered). If you open the Terminal you should see NMEA sentences scrolling past. That is the honest test — a "connected" indicator is not.

Pairing an Android phone for XCSoar

Same shape, fewer steps. With the instrument in Bluetooth server mode, turn Bluetooth on, find the instrument in the phone's Available devices list and connect. Then in XCSoar, Config › Devices › B: › Edit: set the port to the one carrying your instrument's Bluetooth name, set the driver to LX navigation, and leave Passthrough device off.

When it works, XCSoar's connection state stops saying Not connected and starts listing what it has found: Connected; Baro; Airspeed; Vario; FLARM.

The NMEA sentences to switch on

This step is done on the instrument, and it is the one people skip. Go to Setup › NMEA, set the NMEA baud rate to 38400, and tick:

GPGGA · GPRMC · GPRMB · LXWPx · LXDT · LXBC · PFLAx

Between them these carry the GPS fix, recommended navigation data, flight and device parameters, broadcast data such as AHRS, and the FLARM traffic sentences. Unless something specifically tells you otherwise, this is the set you want.

What the other device can send back

The link is not one-way. Over Bluetooth a third-party device can push a task declaration into the instrument, and can change MacCready, ballast and bugs while you fly. That is why a declaration typed into the PDA on the grid lands in the recorder that actually matters, and why changing MC on the map changes the speed-to-fly ring on the panel.

The user port: a wired Oudie

The user port is a bidirectional RS232 link carrying the same NMEA traffic. The reason to use it is power: as long as the instrument has an external supply, the cable charges the Oudie. It is also how you run two PNAs — one on Bluetooth, one on the cable.

You need a power and data cable; for devices that take a micro USB feed there is the micro USB power and data interface. Set the Oudie's input to COM4, serial cable, and tick the same NMEA sentences on the instrument as above.

iris: configuring over CAN2WiFi

Gen 1 iris instruments have no display menus of their own worth speaking of — they are configured over the CAN2WiFi adapter.

1. Use the supplied CAN bus cable to connect the CAN port on the iris device to the CAN port on the CAN2WiFi.
2. Power up the iris. The CAN2WiFi takes its power from that same cable — there is no second supply to find.
3. The adapter comes up as an access point with SSID LX CAN2WIFI XXXXXX, where XXXXXX is its serial number, and key lxnavigation.
4. Join it from any phone, tablet or laptop. Your browser is normally redirected to the web interface; if it is not, go to 192.168.4.1 by hand.

iris Gen 2 has WiFi in the instrument itself and needs no adapter. Documentation for the adapter lives on its download page.

NAVIA: a phone is a screen, not a client

NAVIA does not need any of this. A phone or tablet joins the aircraft's own network and becomes an additional screen with its own profile — see NAVIA accounts, roles, profiles and screens.

When nothing arrives

Where to go next

• Getting the instrument itself set up: Era setup and first flight.
• Talking to the instrument in code rather than through an app: LX NMEA sentences for developers.
• Manuals and firmware for your device: the download centre.
• Anything that behaves differently from this article: your dealer first, then LX navigation.