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TAS605 with GNS530

I have few questions that are related to the cooperation between Avidyne TAS605 and GNS530 for the display of traffic.
I did not post this in the TAS600 thread in case the answers to my question are related to the GNS530

I have read the TAS manual but there is something I do not understand regarding the BELOW-ABOVE-NORMAL-UNRESTRICTED filtering modes as displayed in the GNS.

OK on start up at ground the TAS goes in GROUND mode and does not give proximity alerts.
Once it detects airspeed from the pressure switch it then goes off ground mode.

My questions are related to what the GNS530 displays then (when airborne) and if its a matter of TAS605 unit built in settings or how the GNS530 filters the traffic.

I have observed that in NAV page (Track Up) there is less traffic displayed.
In MAP page (North Up) it shows more traffic data (all diamonds and relative altitudes)
[Note: by reading again the 530’s manual I see that this may be related to menu settings on what to display on each page, I’ll check it up in next flight]

In the third TRAFFIC page then I get the dedicated traffic page which TOP LEFT gives me the option of switching between BELOW-ABOVE-NORMAL-UNRESTRICTED filtering modes.
When on ground it displays GND mode at top left which is logical. When airborne it defaults to ABV (Above) mode and stays there.

After several flights since we installed TAS605 in August,I have observed that the TRAFFIC page stays in ABV mode unless I change it BUT the traffic I have seen in NAV & MAP pages was not exclusively “above” me.

Question 1: The mode displayed in Traffic Page (top left) is what the mode GNS530 filters with in the other two pages (NAV & MAP) as well or just an option for the TRAFFIC page or is this irrelevant ?

Question 2: Are these modes of Traffic Page supposed to change automatically in the following sequence ?
While Climbing → ABOVE,

While in Level Flight → NORMAL
While Descending → BELOW

Question 3: If in TRAFFIC page I set UNR (Unrestricted) mode then do I get the max possible targets interrogated in the NAV & MAP page too or just the TRAFFIC page ?

And since we’re on the subject here’s an “interesting” encounter with a formation of three MIL jets flying opposite direction same path yesterday while I was flying IFR at FL100. We were well separated and maybe that is why ATC did not inform me. If I did not have the TAS maybe I would miss the nice spotting chance if I was looking inside the cockpit or the other direction

Last Edited by petakas at 08 Oct 08:24
LGMG Megara, Greece

I am surprised there are no answers to this.

I have the TAS605, interfaced to the Sandel SN3500 EHSI (two actually) and the KMD550 MFD.

None of the above display devices sends data to the TAS605. The data flow is purely one day, from the TAS605.

The interface is ARINC429 which is a sort of RS422 but the characters are 32-bit data packets with contents predefined for aviation use (whereas RS422 is normally the usual NRZ stuff i.e. a start bit, 8 bits/word, maybe parity, stop bits).

I found that knowing there is no data going to the TAS605 is the key to understanding how this works: the TAS605 data stream always includes all traffic it is receiving. It is on the display device that you select what you want to see.

There is the obvious option on radius. On the KMD550 the radius is whatever the map is zoomed to. On the SN3500 I normally have 3nm set and I set it up so that this 3nm never changes (there is an auto mode whereby it will switch to say 5nm if there is traffic at 4nm and this confused the hell out of me).

Then there is the above/below setting. I have this set to 2900ft above and below. One can have 9900ft above/below and some other combinations, and one can have “everything”. IMHO anything other than 2900ft above/below is pointless because it just shows airliners.

Petakas will probably see more interesting stuff on his kit, like F16s I failed to get a photo of one 1000ft below and heading towards me at 600kt+ closing speed when flying out of Skiathos

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

OK so for any settings I will look in to GNS530 functionality which handles the data as the receiving end as I understand. Makes it clearer now.

Off topic:
Yes Peter what you saw is a very often encounter with “600Kt flights” zipping west<→east across Aegean originating from LGBL AF base. Their path takes them right north/above/south of Skiathos and ATC there have extra work to keep them away from their heavy civil traffic. If it weren’t for your TAS probably you would have never known about them ! ATC keep you separated by info. coordinated via MIL and CIV controllers. These flights don’t come on your frequency to request zone transit etc. !
Most stuff is coordinated via ATC landlines. In some cases (if requested to) they may call CIV ATC on VHF but they’re all brief exchanges and in Greek.
In my case above they were three magnificent F4 Phantom’s actually part of a large ongoing exercise (was NOTAMed for many areas of Greece for that day and time).

LGMG Megara, Greece

GNS-530 uses RS-232 to receive information from the TAS-605. It also uses RS-232 to control the TAS-605, so in a GNS-530 / TAS installation communication is bi-directional. You manually have to set the filters if you want, it does not do that automatically. This is valid for all pages.

For the dedicated traffic page and the insert it is sufficient to have TRACK only. To be able to display traffic on the map page it MUST also have a valid heading.

JP-Avionics
EHMZ

What if you are displaying the traffic info on more than one device, @Jesse?

RS232 cannot be multi-dropped so you have to choose which device talks to the TAS box.

Also very interesting it is RS232. I got this info partly from Avidyne:

This would suggest that IF Petakas’s TAS is connected via RS232, he should see the tail numbers of N-reg aircraft.

The systems I had put in is here I don’t think I ever found out if anything is being sent to the TAS box, in any TB installation. Well, apart from the heading data (XY/400Hz or ARINC429) and pressure altitude (10-wire Gray code or ARINC429; the latter is Garmin-incompatible for reasons nobody would discuss). No user parameters (e.g. range) seemed to be sent to the TAS box.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Jesse wrote:

You manually have to set the filters if you want, it does not do that automatically. This is valid for all pages.

For the dedicated traffic page and the insert it is sufficient to have TRACK only. To be able to display traffic on the map page it MUST also have a valid heading.

Thank you @Jesse
So the selections ABV, UNR etc. in TRAFFIC page (top left) are the filters affecting also NAV and MAP pages or are these independent (from TRAFFIC page filter) ? and if so what filters (Normal, Above, Below, Unrestricted) do NAV & MAP pages use then ?

Yes my set up feeds Heading and Track data for MAP page.

LGMG Megara, Greece

Peter wrote:

What if you are displaying the traffic info on more than one device, @Jesse?

RS232 cannot be multi-dropped so you have to choose which device talks to the TAS box.

It has four independent bi-directional RS-232 ports. You can make settings from any display which talks to the TAS processor.

All trafic information received is send to the display. The display has a display filter, so from the received information it can display only traffic in the area of interest. The above setting does traffic from 2700 Ft below upto 9000 Ft above your altitude. Below is from 9000 Ft below upto 2700 above your altitude. Normal is 2700 Ft below upto 2700 Ft above your altitude. Unrestricted is 9900 Ft below upto 9900 Ft above your aircraft.

JP-Avionics
EHMZ

Jesse wrote:

All trafic information received is send to the display. The display has a display filter, so from the received information it can display only traffic in the area of interest. The above setting does traffic from 2700 Ft below upto 9000 Ft above your altitude. Below is from 9000 Ft below upto 2700 above your altitude. Normal is 2700 Ft below upto 2700 Ft above your altitude. Unrestricted is 9900 Ft below upto 9900 Ft above your aircraft.

Sorry for bombing you with questions @Jesse but you are my only source !
So the setting (limits) you describe changes ONLY via TRAFFIC page (top left), manually, and affects NAV and MAP pages of GNS530 as well, correct ?
Its the same filter (set in TRAFFIC page) that affects all pages of GNS530 that display traffic ?

LGMG Megara, Greece

To my understanding it is, yes. I am not 100% so will check this with Garmin on Monday, and will give you feedback.

I just send you an E-mail with the supplement applicable to your installation, not sure if you had that one.

Last Edited by Jesse at 11 Oct 07:57
JP-Avionics
EHMZ

Received thank you and no the installer did not provide me that supplement … all other Avidyne manuals and EASA minor. mod. documentation was included though.

LGMG Megara, Greece
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