Recently, I decided to tinker with my Dynon D10A EFIS — a compact electronic flight information system that had been collecting dust on my shelf for years. I originally removed it from the aircraft I purchased long ago and never reinstalled it, since newer EFIS models had become available and the D10A didn’t perform particularly well in my homebuilt plane (too much pipes).
After rediscovering it, curiosity got the better of me. While reading through the manual, I discovered that the unit can actually connect to an external GPS source. With a GPS input, the D10A can display additional flight data — including wind direction, ground speed, compass heading, and more.
At first, I considered connecting a Garmin 295/296 or a similar aviation GPS unit. However, I wanted to make the project a bit more interesting. As luck would have it, I had a generic “Chinesium” GPS module lying around, so I decided to see if I could get it working with the D10A.
With mini 360 DC-DC Step-Down voltage regulator, I adjusted voltage as required (it was surprisingly stable and accurate – in a range 5 volts to 30 volts – the output never exceeded 4.75, that I set)
Connecting was easy, and … did not worked.
GPS side:
D10A-EFIS side:
Actual connection:
It turned out, that GPS spews out more information, that it is required, and only GP* messages are needed.
With UBlox software, proper settings were set, all messages were filtered out and EFIS woke up!
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