Referencing the above, is this upgrade actually available now, has anybody had it done, and does it work?
I am displaying on 2 x Sandel SN3500 and 1x KMD550… not that that should make any difference. The KMD550 has the ARINC429 interface card, which does the physical interface and the symbol generation AFAIK.
Are the two types of traffic identified differently on the display?
How long does the upgrade take to install (aircraft downtime)?
That $2k upgrade page is Error 404 now 
Peter wrote:
Are the two types of traffic identified differently on the display?How long does the upgrade take to install (aircraft downtime)?
That $2k upgrade page is Error 404 now
Yes, there will be a difference in symbology for ADS-B targets and TAS targets.
Installations will vary with aircraft but the TAS to TAS-A should require minimum downtime as it is just swapping processors. One thing to note is a GPS connection will need to be added for ADS-B functionality.
Yes, the $2,000 no obligation upgrade program ended some time ago.
Peter wrote:
I am told this upgrade is vapourware for the non-A TAS boxes like my 2013 one. Maybe @Avijake has an ETA?
I’m not AviJake, I’m way better looking, but I can help with that too. The hardware required for the TAS-A has been FAA approved. We are working on the software side (which combines TAS and ADS-B targets among other benefits) things now.
Many thanks @AviSimpson for replying and welcome to EuroGA
a GPS connection will need to be added for ADS-B functionality.
What does this involve? Can a KLN94 act as the source? Or could a Garmin 345 do it? Admittedly that unit means another GPS antenna needs to go somewhere and that antenna won’t be of any use for anything else.
there will be a difference in symbology for ADS-B targets and TAS targets
Will it be compatible with existing ARINC429-connected display devices e.g. the KMD550?
Peter wrote:
What does this involve? Can a KLN94 act as the source? Or could a Garmin 345 do it? Admittedly that unit means another GPS antenna needs to go somewhere and that antenna won’t be of any use for anything else.
It has to be a WAAS source, like an IFD540/440, GNS530W/430W, etc.
Peter wrote:
Will it be compatible with existing ARINC429-connected display devices e.g. the KMD550?
Yes and no, we will show the targets but we will not show directional symbology over ARINC429. We will show over ARINC429 a ground track barb in addition to the previous nondirectional symbology. More information is provided over RS-232.
The KMD550, or any other display, also has to be capable of displaying ADS-B symbology, I don’t know if it has that capability or not.
@Avisimpson you do document the TAS6xx as compatible with the KMD550 when fitted with the KAC504 ARINC429 interface card (details here – search for KAC504) so if this is not taken care of, anyone who installed this and then does your ADS-B upgrade will end up with a nonworking $10k-$20k TAS system, which they aren’t going to be too happy about…
When I was researching this for my TAS installation, the RS232 interface was not usable by anything except Avidyne MFDs. It did offer the additional feature that for N-reg aircraft one could see the tail number (the value of that is “fun” but really close to zero) but almost nobody will be installing an MFD today since that whole market segment is on its last legs. One can pick them up cheaply on US Ebay but the dimensions of most MFDs are problematic unless you just happen to have the space.
Peter wrote:
When I was researching this for my TAS installation, the RS232 interface was not usable by anything except Avidyne MFDs.
I do think you are incorrect here. The manual just says it has RS232 and ARINC429 output, and doesn’t mention any display type or manufacturer. It does say that RS232 is the prefered method. On RS232 is uses it’s own protocol, on ARINC 429 all labels used are publicated in the manual.
Likely you found in your KMD550 manual you could hook it up, using ARINC 429 with this board. It does seem to have serial traffic as well, do it is very shy on information on this.
In the latest manual, which includes the A model some approved displays are listed, the KMD550 is not on it, However it still can be approved from the KMD550 side.
Well, definitely, Jesse, if I could have connected the KMD550 via RS232 I would have done so because that ARINC429 card is damn expensive. I got an “overhauled” 
one for $1150.
Two of UK’s biggest avionics shops told me the KAC504 is needed.
Honeywell themselves (I believe the KMD550 was done at Skyforce Avionics at Chichester, UK, along with the near-idential KMD150 / Skymap 3C) didn’t supply any info.
The KMD550 has plenty of RS232 inputs and these are used for e.g. the WX500, the KLN94 flight plan, etc. But AIUI a TCAS display needs some sort of character generation (a legacy of the ancient EFIS-40 and similar 1970s avionics where the char gen was a physical box full of hundreds of TTL chips) and these “fonts” don’t come from the TAS box which merely emits the x,y position and such of each target. The protocols for all this are all under NDA – see here for another incarnation of this topic, so this is a case of “in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is the king”.
Peter wrote:
Well, definitely, Jesse, if I could have connected the KMD550 via RS232 I would have done so because that ARINC429 card is damn expensive. I got an “overhauled” one for $1150.
I can understand. I don’t know that one for sure. Yet this statement:
Peter wrote:
When I was researching this for my TAS installation, the RS232 interface was not usable by anything except Avidyne MFDs
Is incorrect, as GNS series have always been able to use RS232 input from these models for examples. So your statement that it can not be used by others is not correct. I just won’t work with the device you have got.
Peter wrote:
But AIUI a TCAS display needs some sort of character generation (a legacy of the ancient EFIS-40 and similar 1970s avionics where the char gen was a physical box full of hundreds of TTL chips) and these “fonts” don’t come from the TAS box which merely emits the x,y position and such of each target. The protocols for all this are all under NDA – see here for another incarnation of this topic, so this is a case of “in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is the king”.
This is nonsense as well, especially for the ARINC format. As this is all defined under ARINC standard. Sure it does have to generate display data, so does it for other things suchs as stormscope etc. It doesn’t make sense to send video format from all these devices to an display, while you can just inform the display, plot strike at that position, or plot target aircraft at that position.
Is incorrect, as GNS series have always been able to use RS232 input from these models for examples. So your statement that it can not be used by others is not correct. I just won’t work with the device you have got.
I should have known you at the time
I got that statement from either Avidyne or from UK’s 2 biggest avionics shops who were the only ones who quoted. I could go through my emails to check but it doesn’t matter now…
This is nonsense as well, especially for the ARINC format. As this is all defined under ARINC standard. Sure it does have to generate display data, so does it for other things suchs as stormscope etc. It doesn’t make sense to send video format from all these devices to an display, while you can just inform the display, plot strike at that position, or plot target aircraft at that position.
Sure; the TAS box is not sending NTSC video (like some older radar interfaces do – and the KMD550 has NTSC video already, just for that) it is sending the symbol position only. What is not clear to me is where that symbol is generated. I think it is generated on the ARINC429 interface card, which is a lot more than an ARINC429 UART. OTOH if the RS232 format works with say a GNS530 then clearly the symbols are generated by the GNS530 firmware.
But anyway Avidyne must know the answers to all this. They have the protocol docs.
Also to some extent this is historical because one day I will change my centre stack to 2×IFD540 or a 650+750, and then I will be asking other questions on compatibility What I don’t want to do is spend 5k $ now on upgrading the TAS605 to ADS-B and end up with a useless system. Especially as almost nobody (of relevance in the mid-air discussion context) is radiating ADS-B. I was flying this morning and 1/2 the traffic was not even Mode A…
