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Dynon GPS Antenna

ltn6a

Active Member
Hi All

I have my dynon GPS antenna positioned on a bracket mounted on the engine frame between the fire wall and engine baffles . Most posts on placing it here report it functioning ok . We are currently in the test phase and have had GPS signal fail message on the Dynon SkyView .
I do have room to raise it an inch or two but is there any thing else I can try before disconnecting it and finding another location .

Many thanks

Mark Harris
Slow build RV6A
 
Bad environment for a GPS receiver (it is not just an antenna).

Mount it on top of the glare shield. Did this with four RVs and all work perfectly.

Carl
 
Mine is on the glareshield as well, with a very light coat of flat black. Works perfectly, don't even notice it. Mine is as far forward as possible, close to center on the passenger side of the center support (slider).
 
Hi All

I have my dynon GPS antenna positioned on a bracket mounted on the engine frame between the fire wall and engine baffles . Most posts on placing it here report it functioning ok . We are currently in the test phase and have had GPS signal fail message on the Dynon SkyView .
I do have room to raise it an inch or two but is there any thing else I can try before disconnecting it and finding another location .

Many thanks

Mark Harris
Slow build RV6A

If it's easy, raise it up to get as high as possible so it has the best field of view of the sky.

I've had my SV and Garmin GPS antennae mounted on a shelf attached to the firewall, supported on engine mount, for nearly 800 hours with no issues. YMMV.

Somebody should do a survey sometime on this, as it seems to come up a *lot*, with as many people saying it's fine vs. it's horrible.
 
All E-AB and E-LSA RV-12's have the GPS ant. mounted on a shelf fwd of the firewall (it is mounted just below the level of the cowling so that there is nothing to cause any angular blockage of signal).

I am not aware of any heat related failures and I imagine the environment temps are similar to what they would be with a Lycoming.
 
Hi All

I have my dynon GPS antenna positioned on a bracket mounted on the engine frame between the fire wall and engine baffles . Most posts on placing it here report it functioning ok . We are currently in the test phase and have had GPS signal fail message on the Dynon SkyView .
I do have room to raise it an inch or two but is there any thing else I can try before disconnecting it and finding another location .

Many thanks

Mark Harris
Slow build RV6A

Mine is mounted on the glare shield and I would mount it anywhere but the glare shield if I built the plane. Evidently the visual implications are a personal preference, but having it there really annoys me. I like a clean glare shield w/no reflection. When I rework my pannel, I intend on moving it to a shelf on my firewall. I would check you wiring and raise it as high as you can before relocating it.
 
Mine is mounted on the glare shield and I would mount it anywhere but the glare shield if I built the plane. Evidently the visual implications are a personal preference, but having it there really annoys me. I like a clean glare shield w/no reflection. When I rework my pannel, I intend on moving it to a shelf on my firewall. I would check you wiring and raise it as high as you can before relocating it.

There is no reflection in the wind screen problem if the glare shield is black and you paint the ant. flat black.

I know the antennas always say "do not paint" on them, but flat black has no effect. I have even sprayed flat black paint on an ant while looking at the signal strength data page with it connected to a GPS receiver, and saw absolutely no change in signal strength. If you painted it with a metallic paint, that would probably cause issues.

The down side to this location is in some conditions, cleaning the canopy can produce a bunch of static charge build up on the wind screen. I have seen that cause reception problems for a while until the charge dissipates.
 
Hi all

Thanks for the inputs, I will have a look at raising it before I have to do any re wiring

Mark
 
800+ hrs RV-6 w/ Garmin WAAS GPS antenna and remote handheld GPS antenna on a platform behind the baffles, no issues. I have it as high as it can go, nearly touching the cowl.
 
There is no reflection in the wind screen problem if the glare shield is black and you paint the ant. flat black.

I know the antennas always say "do not paint" on them, but flat black has no effect. I have even sprayed flat black paint on an ant while looking at the signal strength data page with it connected to a GPS receiver, and saw absolutely no change in signal strength. If you painted it with a metallic paint, that would probably cause issues.

The down side to this location is in some conditions, cleaning the canopy can produce a bunch of static charge build up on the wind screen. I have seen that cause reception problems for a while until the charge dissipates.

I realize painting the antenna is an option to "mask the problem" but my strong [personal] preference is to find another, suitable mounting location.
 
For mounting antennas on the glare shield, I don’t paint the antennas black. I just wrap with some dark cloth, the edges folded under the antenna to hold the cloth in place. No reflections what so ever on the glass.

Carl
 
Add another voice to under the cowling. I’ve had two GPS antennas mounted there on a platform (for over 10 years), and no issues. I’d definitely try raising the platform first.

Mark
 
Hi All

I have my dynon GPS antenna positioned on a bracket mounted on the engine frame between the fire wall and engine baffles . Most posts on placing it here report it functioning ok . We are currently in the test phase and have had GPS signal fail message on the Dynon SkyView .
I do have room to raise it an inch or two but is there any thing else I can try before disconnecting it and finding another location .

Many thanks

Mark Harris
Slow build RV6A

Mark,

These GPS antennas are very sensitive, and I even get a good lock on in my hanger, where I don’t with my Garmin GPS until I get it outside. Even with the receiver an inch or two down, you should get at least 3 to 4 satellites to get a position. Go to the Setup > Local Display Setup > GPS Fix Status and check to see if you get any satellites. If not, check the following............

1. Check serial port 5. Is the correct GPS selected.
2. Check the RX and TX counter going up on serial port 5?
3. If not, check the wires and be sure it is wired correctly, if not, fix any that are wrong.
4. Check that Serial Port 5 is set for POS 1
5. If you are using the 2020 receiver, do you have the current firmware on the GPS? Check out the picture on page 8-11 in the install manual revision AF to see if you need the update. You need SkyView version 15.4 to show if you need the firmware update as the update is part of the SkyView firmware.

If you need my PDF file on my step by step instructions on how to update the GPS-2020, email me at [email protected] and I will send it to you. It is done differently than any of the other SkyView Serial Bus Modules.

Brian

24 plus years ago, I flew out of Luton for DHL.
 
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For mounting antennas on the glare shield, I don’t paint the antennas black. I just wrap with some dark cloth, the edges folded under the antenna to hold the cloth in place. No reflections what so ever on the glass.

Carl
Agree. Unless you really know what you are doing and what kind of "paint" you are using it is not a good idea to paint the antenna. The way I minimized the glare issue was to slide the antenna into a black sock then I installed the antenna while inside the sock.

YMMV

 
I realize painting the antenna is an option to "mask the problem" but my strong [personal] preference is to find another, suitable mounting location.

If you consider painting a glare shield black to minimize reflection on the wind screen "masking the problem" then I guess you would be correct, but I don't see painting the ant. being any different.
 
After reading lots of success stories about the FWF location for GPS antennas, I'd long intended to go that route for my -8. But I attended the Dynon systems planning webinar a few weeks ago (during pseudo-Oshkosh) and I was really surprised at how vehemently they recommended against this location. Their concerns were with blanking the view of the sky to aft.

It does seem obvious that mounting the antennas as high as possible would help mitigate this, and I wonder if people not doing this figured into their strong objections. Still, at this point I'm almost certainly going to put mine on the glare shield instead. I'm not too bothered by the idea of them being visible, and the routing of connections will be vastly simplified.
 
Their concerns were with blanking the view of the sky to aft.

That's a real consideration. My original shelf (see attached) had to be remade and moved forward about an inch to eliminate some of that aft shadowing effect I was getting on the 430W antenna, but not the Dynon or MGL antenna. Once you situate the shelf low enough to (barely) clear the cowl, the aft edge of the firewall is much more in view of the antenna.

By the way I've heard just as many horror stories about these antennae not liking to operate in close proximity to each other - but that has not caused any problems at all in the last 700 hours of operation. Yes I know they are powered/amplified/chipped antennae and can emit intermediate frequencies that mess with each other - I'm just saying that in my installation I've seen none of that.
 

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If you consider painting a glare shield black to minimize reflection on the wind screen "masking the problem" then I guess you would be correct, but I don't see painting the ant. being any different.

To be clear- my preference is to have a clean glare shield w/out anything at all mounted on it. Painting the GPS antenna may "mask" the reflection problem, but still leaves you with a clunky GPS antenna to look at (the other problem). Painting, cloth, stealth covering, etc is one step better, but IMO, the best solution is to find another suitable mounting location out of sight! Personal preference only, after looking at one for a few hundred hours.
 
I have heard the Dynon 250 antenna works well under the cowl (mine is there) but the Dynon 2020 needs a better signal and may not work there.
 
If you consider painting a glare shield black to minimize reflection on the wind screen "masking the problem" then I guess you would be correct, but I don't see painting the ant. being any different.
Some paints contain "mica" for UV protection. With the extremely weak signals the GPS receiver works with, the attenuation can cause problems.

 
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