funke TRT800H and SW v5.2 for ADS-B

[DaveWhite]

Hi all - a question a for owners of the TRT800H transponder with software v5.2 who have managed or attempted to set it up for ADS-B OUT.

The funke website says that v5.3 is required (and it is £300 for the upgrade), but there are several people elsewhere on various forums (Flyer, BMAA) who claim to have successfully connected a GPS to a software v5.2 transponder and to have had it signed off as acceptable and working. Unfortunately the posts are quite old and the posters aren't responding to messages.

Other posts elsewhere hint that v5.2 doesn't correctly deal with some data, but aren't explicit.

So, if you are one of those people with a TRT800H v5.2 and either have successfully - or just as useful to me - have been unsuccessful, I'd very much appreciate it if you would share your experience.

The reason I want to confirm this is because we know we would need to buy another £140 connector for the transponder (we have the wrong one, currently), but it is only worth doing that if the existing v5.2 software will work.

Thanks very much.

[s.laughter]

An alternative that you could consider to test this without costing very much money at all would be to keep your existing cable and for the purposes of ground testing, make up a jumper connector whereby you can remove your cable from the transponder insert your cable into the jumper and the jumper back into the rear of the transponder. I am making the assumption that the problem with your cable is that it simply doesn't have the data lines coming out of it to feed the GPS stream into. This approach for GROUND testing this has the advantage that you break or invalidate nothing.

Without looking, I think you will only have positive and ground in a basic setup, so a 15 way jumper would need the two power lines bridged and a pair of flying leads for the GPS data bought outside of the jumper. So a male and female 15 pin D-type and a couple of short lengths of wire would do it - and soldering skills of course.

There is little chatter on this subject on the tinternet and what exists is inconclusive as you say.

How would you test it's working out of interest?

I have an interest in this as I have an older TRT800 with no letter suffix, but the manual supplied with the unit suggests for ADS-B out connect data to pins etc. etc. Doing the above test has not reached the top of my a/c todo list yet.

[DaveWhite]

Thanks, Mike.

Unfortunately that doesn't work, because funke (in their wisdom) have elements of the transponder setup and memory contained in the connector and not in the transponder unit itself.

I hadn't realised this until I recently came to connect GPS wiring from a Garmin G5 to the transponder and found that I didn't have the wiring from the connector that the manual told me I needed. A bit of investigation then showed why - the connector comes in three flavours, and one (ours!) doesn't have the functionality.

A new connector is £140 but I don't want to spend that only to find that I then need to pay another £300 for a software upgrade. (Which I suspect I will do, but some postings suggest I might not, hence the question in the event there's anyone here who happens to know from direct experience).

Also, I am reluctant to break into the D-Sub connector shell because (a) I don't think it will help due to the connector memory standard noted above, and; (b) it has a security seal on it, so opening it up voids the warranty. I could make up a new D-Sub connector for ground testing as you say, but am 99% sure it will do me no good because of (a) above, and because I have already tried to get the relevant menu page up on the unit with no joy - again I think because of (a).

If I do get it apparently operating, I would test it in the first instance with PilotAware or a SkyEcho - fortunately I have access to both.

[tnowak]

Dave,

I think I know someone who has done this and I am fairly sure he is on V5.2.
He has connected PAW as his GPS source and his flights are visible on FR24.
The only thing is the groundspeed displayed by FR24 is all over the place and may be because the software needs upgrading to 5.3, but I am not sure.
I will contact him to see if he can provide some info.

Tony Nowak

[s.laughter]

Thanks, Mike.

Unfortunately that doesn't work, because funke (in their wisdom) have elements of the transponder setup and memory contained in the connector and not in the transponder unit itself.

I hadn't realised this until I recently came to connect GPS wiring from a Garmin G5 to the transponder and found that I didn't have the wiring from the connector that the manual told me I needed. A bit of investigation then showed why - the connector comes in three flavours, and one (ours!) doesn't have the functionality.

A new connector is £140 but I don't want to spend that only to find that I then need to pay another £300 for a software upgrade. (Which I suspect I will do, but some postings suggest I might not, hence the question in the event there's anyone here who happens to know from direct experience).

Also, I am reluctant to break into the D-Sub connector shell because (a) I don't think it will help due to the connector memory standard noted above, and; (b) it has a security seal on it, so opening it up voids the warranty. I could make up a new D-Sub connector for ground testing as you say, but am 99% sure it will do me no good because of (a) above, and because I have already tried to get the relevant menu page up on the unit with no joy - again I think because of (a).

If I do get it apparently operating, I would test it in the first instance with PilotAware or a SkyEcho - fortunately I have access to both.

Dave,

I see from page 21 of the current FUNKE TRT800H manual - Document-No: 03.2126.010.71e / Revision: 1.00 - and from posts on the PAW forum there is an EEPROM in the cable for aircraft ID. Didn't realise, my older unit has a plain connector with nothing inside except positive and ground.

Strong evidence from ANO who has done it is clearly your best reassurance, however, should that not come to pass, you can still test with a jumper cable inserted between the existing connector and the TRT800, it just means you have to connect all 15 pins together to maintain the a/c ID functionality!

If you don't solder, consider two of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DB15-Male-D- ... rk:11:pf:0 screw terminal 15 pin D-type breakout connectors, just make sure you obtain one male and one female! If you have no wire, butcher an old telephone extension cable but keep it short i.e. 20 cm. Connect 1-1, 2-2 ....... through to 15-15. Bring out an extra connection for pin 12 and ground and connect to your 4800 baud NMEA RS232 GPS data source. You don't need to destructively open any existing connectors or break into any existing wiring, other than unplug the feed to the TXPDR and insert the lashup in between.

I hope the URL in the text above works, if not search for eBay item 302800359785.

Yes, this is a dirty hack and for very cautious GROUND testing only but will cost a little time and < £5. Maybe of use if all else fails?

All the best

Mike

[Flying John]

We have an early version of Funke TRT and we just added the Brown data in wire to the 15 way D type connector - which does contain a small memory chip that carrys the aircraft data (Hex ID and Reg etc).
Funke said they couldn't guarantee ADSB would work unless we had V5.2, but we have 4.8 and it passes the tests fine.

[David White]

Thank you, everyone - that all sounds quite promising.

Mike, I have ordered a couple of D-Sub breakout connectors for a cautious ground test as you suggested, and shall report back idc

Sorry for going a bit silent for a while there - for some reason I had some log-on issues with the forum, which is why I have now become David White as opposed to DaveWhite earlier!

[T Wilcock]

FlyingJohn - you say you have an early version of TRT - exactly which version? I have a plain TRT800 (converted TRT600) with SW 4.8; tried connecting from my Pilot Aware without success and assumed that the SW upgrade was needed (though I have had conflicting statements from Funke). If you have had success with a plain TRT800 I might try harder.