Could someone please describe how this works? Mine is currently set to Automatic. I had an instance last week where easyvfr was showing me about 2 miles wrong. My skyview was showing the correct location confimed visually by both myself and passenger as we both know the area well. I'm guessing either my ipad GPS was giving poor data or it was the pilotaware feeding traffic info in. How does the Auto setting prioritise the GPS feed - would it choose the internal GPS first or the Pilotaware? Is there any checking of GPS signal recieved in terms of it's potential innaccuracy? Is there a loss of GPS signal warning and / or a poor GPS signal warning in EV4 yet?
I have ocassionally noticed that Ev3 has a point/place slightly different compared to the map depiction in Dynon Skyview. I may be wrong but my suspicion is that this is just mapping discrepancy differences and nothing to do with GPS at all.
Like you though I think it would be useful to know exactly what 'Automatic' means. Does it mean that it automatically changes to the stronger GPS unit?...i.e to the Dynon Skyview GPS unit?
Perhaps Rob can enlighten us?
Alan.
Are you using your dynon GPS to feed location data to EasyVFR? if so how?
In Ev4 System/Location GPS Source/Dynon Skyview.
In Ev3 Menu Settings/Dynon Wifi Options select 'Use Dynon as GPS source'.
Is this what you require?
Alan.
Alan - I knew how to get EV3/4 to use the dynon gps - I just didn't realise the Dynon could broadcast data the other way I was under the impression that the wifi connection in the dynon was only available for transfer of flightplans and nothing else. Doesn't help me though I don't think as I use the wifi connection to get traffic data from my Pilotaware which also feeds the skyview via a wired connection. I guess I'll either have to use PAW gps or manually force it to use the internal gps which I think I'll do - pretty sure the issue I had was down to the feed from the PAW dropping out when I dropped my camera on the paw power switch 🙂
EV4 uses external sources for GPS and/or traffic much more transparently then EV3. EV3 requires a lot of manual settings, while EV4 has a number of preconfigs by default available. It listens continously for data on well-known UDP ports like SkyEcho, PAW, Dynon SkyView and stratux. As soon as it detects any of these sources, it colours the associated entry dark green in menu->System->Location (GPS) source to indicate EV4 has received and recognized the availability of that position and/or traffic data source.
When Automatic is enabled, EV4 will use any of the found GPS sources, where the external one (Dynon, PAW, Stratux etc) take preference over the internal GPS, and colours the associated entry bright green in menu->System->Location (GPS) source.
When the external location source stops feeding or signals its location isn't reliable, EV4 will switch to the internal GPS automatically.
The above automism works for all UDP based providers. Now a days allmost all external hardware uses UDP because it hardly puts and performance drain on the app and requires no configuration setup from the app. Only FLARM still requires TCP and some configuration, so to make that work the user must first enable set the FLARM settings using menu->System->Electronic Conspicuity settings->When using FLARM options (enable Monitor for FLARM equipment, FLARM Pincode, Flarm IP address).
If the user wants to explicity use a specific location source, then simply select it from menu->system->Location (GPS) source. Please be aware if this location source isn't working, then EV4 will not function in flightmode.
There is still no warning for lost or unreliable location data. I realize that is a big issue, so use EV4 with care and always try to verify its map position with outside references or a backup instance of EV3.
Thanks Rob - that's a big help, I think I'll force mine to stick with the ipads internal gps for now.
Thanks for the comprehensive enlightening reply Rob. Great stuff!
Hi Rob, I use SkyPro external gps which connects via bluetooth gps provider app - requires mock gps location to be set.
This doesn't appear in the list in Easyvfr4; does it see it as an internal source?
Cheers
Robert
Hi Robert,
If I am correct then such a configuration works transparent as if its an internal GPS? I suspect the [Internal GPS] option in menu->System->Location GPS Source will be coloured as indication EV4 receives data. It could be it will be dark green or red instead of bright green if no positon accuracy data is available (I vaguely remember this as an issue, we might have to create a workarround in EV4 too).
