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Bier
Pulcino
Netherlands
19 Posts |
 Posted - 13/01/2012 : 13:41:26
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My unit arived this morning and I had some time to play with it. Fortunately the sun came trough giving me the opportunity to have a look at the screen under bright conditions. Before I elaborate on that subject I like to share my first impressions:
The unit arives in a plain box, accompied by a charger, a car charger , earplugs, an USB cable and holder in 2 parts (a clip in thing and a suction thingy). The stuff is very well protected in the package and Lawrence added a few layers on top of that. The manual is in Google translate english and only provides you with basic information.
The V1 feels very robust and actually looks good.
The desktop contains a GPS status application, I used that to verify GPS reception. Good reception takes a while the first time but once the unit realises it's not in China anymore, the GPS runs very well. The shortcut for navigation already points to the executable for LK8000 on the SD card. After inserting my micro SD card with the LK8000 demo files, it worked without any problems.
The speaker of the unit produces very clear sounds, I'm pretty sure that it will work very well in the cockpit.
The main problem I'm having with my current PDA is the reflection of myself in the screen. When I'm heavily lit by the sun during flight, the backlight of the HP PDA is not sufficient to outshine this reflection, making the screen unreadable whith full terain colors and hardly readable with white background. The screen of the V1 is very bright but I put it to the test by wearing a white T-shirt and sunglasses, having myself lit up in the sun and making sure my reflection was on the screen. The result was a much better readability than with the HP PDA. After that I changed to darker clothing (which is what I always do when gliding) and I can only say that there is a day and night difference between my old unit and the V1. Of course this is still not a real live test but I'm confident that the unit will perform much better than what I'm used to.
All this brightness does however come at a price. The V1 get's warm during use and the life of the battery seems short to me. Having this said, it is something we knew from the start. I will have to connect this unit to the avionics battery for daily use.
So far my preliminary review, more in April
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Fly fast, think negative |
Edited by - Bier on 13/01/2012 13:47:31 |
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elias
Pulcino
Germany
47 Posts |
Posted - 13/01/2012 : 14:21:26
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Please Please, when you write a review and make comparisons to other products, then NAME them and not only write "old unit" or whatever.... in this case its useless for other people!
Thanks, Elias |
Nimbus-2 D-7111 |
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Coolwind
Moderator
Italy
8957 Posts |
Posted - 13/01/2012 : 14:30:43
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Elias the pictures I have taken were comparing the V1 to Hp310, Mio400 and such.
You cannot compare them to the V1.
I could compare the CS61 from Holux, and it is as good as the V1.
Both devices made for outdoor-flight.
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Bier
Pulcino
Netherlands
19 Posts |
Posted - 13/01/2012 : 14:48:20
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| My current PDA is a HX2100 from HP. Absolutely old skool. |
Fly fast, think negative |
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Coolwind
Moderator
Italy
8957 Posts |
Posted - 14/01/2012 : 22:31:26
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Today I have flown with both CS61 and V1. Not only on ground, but also in flight in sunny day with no clouds at 12-2pm local time the visibility was excellent.
Tomorrow I am showing these devices to my airclub.
Many pictures will be posted tomorrow evening. |
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yplas
New Entry
France
3 Posts |
Posted - 15/01/2012 : 16:17:26
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Hello,
I did a test today about electric consumption of the VF1 unit :
battery fully charged, One hour with full light on
Then I charge again......
And the result is 432 mA/H
Yann
P.S My old PNA was about 350 mA/h |
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soarAK
Pulcino
USA
74 Posts |
Posted - 15/01/2012 : 18:04:16
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| How warm does it get after one hour? |
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Coolwind
Moderator
Italy
8957 Posts |
Posted - 15/01/2012 : 18:43:45
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Tests have been made on a period of 12 hours. I have asked Lawrence to extend the test to a burn-in of 24 hours. It gets warm, after 2 hours. But I remember also the other pnas did it.
So far nothing strange going on.
At the airport today we made a ground test, comparing the units with their older mio400,mio500 and 314. The pilots attending at the test will buy the new units as soon as they are available.
Pictures later on.
I could test the V1 lasting 1h50 minutes in SIM mode, full brightness, indoor no gps.
That's the same as Mio400. The CS61 lasted 2h15m . More or less, we need external power in any case. Only the funtrek does not need power.
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lawrence
Pulcino
United Kingdom
86 Posts |
Posted - 15/01/2012 : 18:44:44
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Hi Guys - I'm currently testing the V1 on constant power running LK8000 in flight more to stress test the unit. Also I was getting 1hr 50+ mins on battery power but I will verify this again and give more accurate surrounding temp readings for this. Either way for PG / Gilder use an external battery is a must. I will submit any data I've found with the external USB power packs that I buy in to test. I will be fairy busy with work till end of Jan but will check all emails at the end of everyday.
Kind regards
Lawrence |
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Bier
Pulcino
Netherlands
19 Posts |
Posted - 15/01/2012 : 23:05:55
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quote:
Originally posted by yplas
Hello,
I did a test today about electric consumption of the VF1 unit :
battery fully charged, One hour with full light on
And the result is 432 mA/H
Yann
P.S My old PNA was about 350 mA/h
That's an interesting test. I was about to do the same with my unit. What I would like to know, is if the car charger got hot or just warm. In a glider you're typically not looking for a solution where the 12 -> 5V conversion drains your battery on top of the power consumption of the unit itself.
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Fly fast, think negative |
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Coolwind
Moderator
Italy
8957 Posts |
Posted - 16/01/2012 : 00:42:37
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Dear all, on saturday I have been flying all day testing units, showing them to people at the airfield, comparing units under the sun. On sunday I could show the units to other pilots at another airport.
All of the pilots, testing the units themselves or watching them while installed in the cockpit walking nearby, said "it is perfectly readable".
Maybe because this people is used to Mio400, Hp314, HX4700, and all of the old-school PDAs and PNAs? Probably yes.
Let's start saying that to let people understand the difference, the only way is to show many units at the same time, in the same place, on the same glider. Then change orientation (on ground, but also while flying, for example in a thermal), and see how they look.
So here they areç
I did things seriously. I got these devices for this test, for this purpose, from Uk, Cz, Taiwan. I know there are a lot of expectations, many people have been working and is still working on the production and distribution of these devices.
Here we go with a bad sideview with sun on the back, which normally will result in blank view.
The mio400 is black
The 314 is black too
The CS61 is much better even at an impossible view angle
and in fact, at the same time, the view was this
On ground, people noticed the very bright display and came in asking for informations.
In flight, the same quality was easy to be checked.
I took these pictures trying to have the sun in front, side and back. But I must say, it did not make any difference.
Track 18 means the sun at 12:11 is on our back in this pic.
Going west, no reflection from the sun on the left.
This is while heading north-east (track is 48 deg as you can see in the gps), the shiny reflect on the bezel is telling you there is indeed some good sun in these days here!
Track 3 deg, sun is right on our back!
What happen when the sun is right in front of us? Track 209.
Which is the best unit? This was the common question in these two days at two different airfields.
I let pilots look, examine, swap devices, angles, and there was no possible answer.
The CS61 in my opinion has better colors than the V1. Both units have the same visibility in the sun. Both units, ONCE YOU WEAR SUNGLASSES!, will show the same colors. And we must wear sunglasses of course.
One unit has a more lasting battery and a lower power consumption: CS61 2h15, V1 1h50. Cs61 is 480x272 4.3, V1 is 800x600 5 inches.
Both units have rs232. CS61 need no extra cable because it is available (4 wires to be soldered) ready for installation.
V1 is thinner. CS61 is thicker and looks really solid being water proof. V1 is thinner, in metal, very light.
Honestly, the only conclusion was "both are excellent" and compared to old devices, night and day.
We still do need to check again results under a june sunlight, not in january! But the relative difference to HP314 and Mio400 against CS61 and V1 is the one you can see.
I must add that at my airport all the pilots that saw the unit asked to buy one immediately.
Nevertheless, let me say that I still consider (although very very small) the Funtrk 130 a jewel in flight for logging flights, emergency, backup, local flights, etc.
In the picture above, there is NO backlight on!!
The device was switched on at 9am and off at 17pm.
Battery remaining: 40% .
Ok guys, with this "reportage" I consider closed the problem of sunlight readable screens aboard a glider, at least.
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soarAK
Pulcino
USA
74 Posts |
Posted - 16/01/2012 : 02:36:19
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1) Isn't this a typo "V1 is 800x600"? The website says it is 800x400.
Thank you for all these pictures.
2) Is screen rotation supported in each of the devices?
3) What are supported baud rates in each of the devices? |
Edited by - soarAK on 16/01/2012 04:09:38 |
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Coolwind
Moderator
Italy
8957 Posts |
Posted - 16/01/2012 : 08:16:45
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1) Yes sorry, a typo. 800x480 , not 400 and not 600.
2) Rotation is supported by CS61 but not by Vertica
3) Rs232 tested from 4800 to 115k bps on V1, not tested on CS61 because it is native (meaning it is sold with an RS232 and thus it will work), however the db9 connector must be soldered and I had no time to do it.
Transparency is supported by both units, that are running CE 6.
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labelette
Pulcino
10 Posts |
Posted - 16/01/2012 : 10:19:55
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It's a great test . Thanks for the results. I think that i will invest in this unit when available.
I plan to install GPS support in all the planes of my club.
Where do you have find the support i see on the photo ?
Do you have one different support for each gps model or a universel model ?
Presently, people uses the gps Suction cup support but is not very good for the security.
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KarmaGianni
Aquilotto
Italy
283 Posts |
Posted - 16/01/2012 : 12:27:35
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| Rotation of Vertica screen: can you please test it with TestDep.exe? It should work for every winCE device... Thanks for the report and thanks in advance for testing the rotation! |
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Topic |
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Sunlight readable Screens