Traffic Square and Traffic Monitor: setup, pages and updates

The LX Traffic Square and the LX Traffic Monitor are the same instrument in two shapes. Both are collision-avoidance displays that work with any FLARM device, both add two moving-map navigation pages and a logbook, and both run the same software with the same menus. What differs is the panel format and how you drive it: the Monitor has two knobs and two buttons, the Square has one four-way push-button.

This article covers both. Where they behave differently, that is called out; everything else applies equally to either box.

What differs, and what does not

The Monitor comes in 57 mm and 80 mm. The Square is one size, with optional 57 mm and 80 mm panel adapters.

What the device is for

The primary job is to warn you of an oncoming collision, with audio and visual alerts. The secondary job is to show every FLARM object — and every ADS-B object, if your FLARM has an ADS-B module — on a radar page. The tertiary job is simple navigation to a turnpoint and to an airport.

Keep that order in mind when configuring. Everything on the navigation side is optional; the warning side is why the instrument is in the panel. The background is in the academy article on how FLARM works.

Driving the Traffic Square: five gestures

There is one control, and it does everything.

The ten-second press is a recovery tool, not a shortcut. It exists for a device that has stopped responding.

Driving the Traffic Monitor: two knobs, two buttons

• PAGES, the right push-rotary: turn to change primary pages, turn to scroll, press to confirm or enter. Turning while pressed steps ten times faster.
• ZOOM, the left push-rotary: turn to zoom, press to cancel or exit. Turning while pressed steps a hundred times faster. Hold it for 3 seconds to switch an early unit on; hold it for 15 seconds to force a shutdown.
• VOL, the right button: opens volume and brightness from any primary page.
• BOX, the left button: hides and shows the NavBox line on the navigation pages and the FLARM radar page.

The pages

FLARM radar. Every object your FLARM reports, track-up. Objects shown as a plain dot are aircraft whose pilots have deliberately enabled privacy mode on their FLARM — they transmit a limited data string and cannot be drawn in full, but all warnings still appear regardless of privacy mode. Non-directional traffic, reported by FLARM devices with an ADS-B receiver that can hear Mode-S transponders, is drawn as a red range ring — the perimeter the object could be on — rather than at a bearing. Press in to select an object and its climb rate, horizontal distance, vertical distance and ground speed appear.

Turnpoint navigation. Navigates to a single turnpoint from the loaded .cup file, over a map showing turnpoints, airports and airspace. A long press opens the turnpoint info sub-page with bearing, distance, surface type and elevation where available.

Airport navigation. The same, from the .af file, so you can navigate to a turnpoint and an airport simultaneously. Filter by name or ICAO code. Selecting an airport makes the voice module read out the runway direction and the airport frequency.

Info. GPS status, position, UTC time and date, external supply voltage, FLARM connection status and the FLARM device ID — the ID you need to register the aircraft with the OGN network.

Logbook and flight statistics. Out of flight mode this page is the logbook, listing flights by date, take-off and landing time and duration. In flight mode it becomes the statistics page: take-off time, duration, maximum altitude, maximum indicated airspeed and an altitude graph.

A flight is finished five minutes after the device sees a GPS lock, a ground speed below 10 m/s and an altitude below 3000 m QNH. You can end it early from the statistics page by pressing in and confirming End flight?.

If the device loses external power in flight, the flight may not be logged at all. Fix the supply rather than working around it.

Unused pages can be hidden entirely under Setup > Pages, which is worth doing: fewer pages means less hunting with one thumb.

Databases and the microSD card

Navigation is only as good as the files behind it, and none of them are optional if you want airspace warnings.

The procedure is always the same: put the file on the root of the microSD card, insert the card, then Setup > Transfer, pick the file under Load to copy it into internal memory, then mark it active under Select. Multiple turnpoint and airspace files can be active at once; only one airport file can.

Keep files under 750 kB, except FlarmNET which may reach 5 MB. Use the supplied SanDisk Ultra card formatted FAT32 — cheap cards are a genuine and recurring cause of files simply not appearing. If a card is inserted and the files do not show, leave the transfer page and enter it again before assuming anything is broken.

The airport file carries the frequencies the voice module reads out, which is the strongest argument for keeping it current. Airspace files go out of date — the only expiry the device itself shows is the FLARM database's, under Setup > Service > Flarm info — and an out-of-date file is a warning system that is confidently wrong; see database hygiene.

With FlarmNET loaded, a FLARM object whose ID appears in the database is labelled automatically with its registration and pilot.

Setup worth doing once

• Voice — which announcements you want (on the Square also volume and mixer; the Monitor's volume is the VOL button): FLARM traffic, FLARM warning, FLARM obstacle, horizontal distance, vertical position.
• Graphics > Airspace — fill and outline colour and transparency per airspace type. Turning down everything you never fly near makes the ones you do fly near legible.
• Graphics > Map — north-up or track-up, text size, destination and track line colours, whether airport and turnpoint names are drawn. Airport icons appear up to a 25 km zoom level and turnpoints up to 9 km; above that only airspace lines are drawn, deliberately, for legibility.
• Graphics > Theme — white or black panel. On a transflective display the white theme is the recommendation, because it lets the panel reflect ambient light back at you and stay readable in any conditions. Changing the theme restarts the unit (the Monitor asks first), so it cannot be done in flight.
• Units, Aircraft, Localisation — units per parameter, aircraft category (which sets your icon), and language, time zone and daylight saving.
• NMEA — the device passes FLARM data through from DATA IN to DATA OUT; here you set the baud rate on both.

Updating

The Square's update file is downloaded from the support pages; for the Monitor, request it from LX support with your contact details, device type, target version and serial number. If the device asks for an update code, enter 00000. Copy the .lxu file to the root of the supplied microSD card, insert it, go to Setup > Service > Software update, select the file, and confirm afterwards in Setup > Service > Device info that the firmware version really changed. The unit restarts during the process, sometimes more than once.

A Monitor shuts down during the update and may need the PAGES knob pressed to turn it on again once the file has been copied.

Setup > Service > Flarm info is also where you find the connected FLARM's firmware, database and database expiry date — check it at the same time.

Never cut power, restart the device or pull the card while an update is running. Data corruption may occur; if it does, contact LX support immediately.

When it goes wrong

Never connect a CAN cable from another LX device to the FLARM port. The connectors fit and damage will occur. The RJ connectors are not reverse-polarity protected, and a wrong cable can also damage whatever is on the other end.

Where to go next

• Firmware and databases: the Traffic Square and Traffic Monitor download pages.
• Why the warnings behave as they do: how FLARM works. Why the files expire: database hygiene.
• Hardware: Traffic Square, Traffic Monitor, and the Traffic Square adapter for a round cutout.
• Anything that does not match this article: your dealer first, then LX support.