Issues with Displaying Weather and Traffic on Avidyne IFD 540

[SoCal 182 Driver]

I'm on the brink of giving up on the notion of having traffic and weather displayed on my IFD540 simultaneously with displaying same in Foreflight, via a Stratus 3.

I have been going round-and-round with Avidyne tech support and Appareo tech support (manufacturer of the Stratus 3), and nobody seems to have a definitive answer for me. Now, to be fair to both companies, the tech support personnel have been very patient and responsive, but the problems inexplicably persist. The last communication with Appareo was that they believed the Stratus to be working properly since the failures are limited to the IFD, and not Foreflight.

I have configured both the IFD and ForeFlight to the letter, as specified by Avidyne. What happens is that initially I will get traffic and weather on the IFD and in Foreflight, but inevitably the IFD starts to throw off errors such as "Datalink Receiver Fault," "ADS-B Traffic Sensor Fault," "Datalink Data Overdue," "GPS Fault," and others.

Sometimes traffic and weather come back and are displayed on the IFD, and other times not. There's no consistent failure pattern.

Has anyone had a similar situation? If so, were you able to resolve it? How?

Any help and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[phoenix86]

Thanks for posting this problem. I have had the same response with the same devices: IFD540 on SW10.3.1.2, Stratus 3, and Foreflight. I gave up on trying to have traffic/wx displayed on the Avidyne

 

[griggio]

Same problem for me with same devices also.

 

[pburger]

I'll chime in. I don't have the exact same setup as you, but I do have an IFD-540, and I am getting traffic and weather reliably on both the IFD-540 and on my iPad. So maybe this will give you hope, if nothing else.

I use FlyQ, not Foreflight, and I use a homebuilt Stratux for my ADSB-IN data. I used the Stratux with FlyQ on my iPad for years with no problems. When Avidyne finally released the firmware that allowed ADSB-IN over WIFI, I tried connecting the IFD to the Stratux network as another client alongside the FlyQ app. It would work for a few minutes then the FlyQ wanted to sync flight plans, or get GPS data from the IFD, or something like that and it would stop showing traffic, and the IFD would also stop showing traffic. After a lot of frustration, my simple answer was to build another Stratux. So now I have a Stratux for my iPad, and a Stratux for my IFD. I do not sync flight plans from the FlyQ to the IFD because although it works, it seems to mess up the traffic.

Overall, it works very well, but I do get some of those errors you mentioned from time to time on the IFD. I think it's when I don't have good reception of any ADSB towers.

 

[AV8R_87]

weather displayed on my IFD540 simultaneously with displaying same in Foreflight, via a Stratus 3

So... what I think is happening:
Foreflight by default switches the Stratus 3 into a proprietary communications protocol, instead of the open (and pretty much industry standard) GDL90 protocol.

I suspect your IFD540 cant't understand the Foreflight protocol, but will understand GDL90.

The Stratus 3 can be switched to GDL90 mode (called Open ADS-B mode, needs the Stratus Horizon Pro app), but usually Foreflight tries switching it to the proprietary mode when it connects.
If the IFD540 connects first, Foreflight can't switch the Stratus to proprietary mode. With older versions, it would just not work, but I think newer versions will be able to operate that way.

Give it a shot.

 

[SoCal 182 Driver]

So... what I think is happening:
Foreflight by default switches the Stratus 3 into a proprietary communications protocol, instead of the open (and pretty much industry standard) GDL90 protocol.

I suspect your IFD540 cant't understand the Foreflight protocol, but will understand GDL90.

The Stratus 3 can be switched to GDL90 mode (called Open ADS-B mode, needs the Stratus Horizon Pro app), but usually Foreflight tries switching it to the proprietary mode when it connects.
If the IFD540 connects first, Foreflight can't switch the Stratus to proprietary mode. With older versions, it would just not work, but I think newer versions will be able to operate that way.

Give it a shot.

Foreflight will nag to put the Stratus into Foreflight mode, but I regularly dismiss the nag screen. That keeps the Stratus in Open ADS-B mode.

 

[Jim_R]

If I had a nickel for every post I've read where someone had trouble using a Stratus 3 with something other than Foreflight....

One thing I've never seen explained anywhere is why Stratus even has a Foreflight-proprietary data mode if all the same traffic and wx data is provided just fine via GDL90, which as far as I can tell they are. Back in the day Stratus tried to use a proprietary data format to restrict its devices to only be useable with Foreflight but now they simply make it irritating to use with products/devices other than FF.