LX Zeus and PowerFlarm -- Communication Problem

[C-FFKQ (42)]

Hopefully someone has been through this exercise (successfully).

I just received my PowerFlarm today and I'm installing it into the panel (that's no problem). The plan is to use the Zeus for the target display.

There's a "Flarm" port on the back of the Zeus, but it's not RJ-45, like the port on the PF (wasn't planning on using the DB-9 harness that came with the PF, no idea where to wire it to the Zeus). However, the CAN port on the Zeus IS RJ-45, so I connected the PF to the Zeus using one of my cat5e LAN cables. The PF powers up, updates and the file it writes out tells me everything is ok.

Unfortunately, it seems that there's no communication between the Zeus and the PF. I'm at home, not near airways, so no targets to see. But I can check the Zeus system status for GPS function. No joy :( I've left my panel outside with the GPS antenna having a clear view of the sky for half an hour -- plenty of time to get a signal lock. Still nothing on the Zeus.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

[Dan Daly[_2_]]

On Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 5:50:40 PM UTC-4, C-FFKQ (42) wrote:
> Hopefully someone has been through this exercise (successfully).
>
> I just received my PowerFlarm today and I'm installing it into the panel (that's no problem). The plan is to use the Zeus for the target display.
>
> There's a "Flarm" port on the back of the Zeus, but it's not RJ-45, like the port on the PF (wasn't planning on using the DB-9 harness that came with the PF, no idea where to wire it to the Zeus). However, the CAN port on the Zeus IS RJ-45, so I connected the PF to the Zeus using one of my cat5e LAN cables. The PF powers up, updates and the file it writes out tells me everything is ok.
>
> Unfortunately, it seems that there's no communication between the Zeus and the PF. I'm at home, not near airways, so no targets to see. But I can check the Zeus system status for GPS function. No joy :( I've left my panel outside with the GPS antenna having a clear view of the sky for half an hour -- plenty of time to get a signal lock. Still nothing on the Zeus.
>
> Anyone have any ideas?
>
> Thanks in advance.

Cumulus Soaring has a Goddard cable for that.
"LXNAV-S7-GPS-PFCore
Cable from the Zeus's FLARM port to the
PowerFLARM's DB-9 connector
The Zeus powers the
PowerFLARM Core with 12V."

[Martin Gregorie[_5_]]

On Wed, 17 May 2017 14:50:36 -0700, C-FFKQ (42) wrote:

> There's a "Flarm" port on the back of the Zeus, but it's not RJ-45, like
> the port on the PF (wasn't planning on using the DB-9 harness that came
> with the PF, no idea where to wire it to the Zeus). However, the CAN
> port on the Zeus IS RJ-45, so I connected the PF to the Zeus using one
> of my cat5e LAN cables. The PF powers up, updates and the file it
> writes out tells me everything is ok.
>
> Unfortunately, it seems that there's no communication between the Zeus
> and the PF. I'm at home, not near airways, so no targets to see. But I
> can check the Zeus system status for GPS function. No joy :( I've left
> my panel outside with the GPS antenna having a clear view of the sky for
> half an hour -- plenty of time to get a signal lock. Still nothing on
> the Zeus.
>
> Anyone have any ideas?
>
Questions you need to work out answers for:

1) Does the PF also use an RJ-45 for a CAB-bus connection?

2) Is your CAT5e cable straight of cross-over?

It might be either because CAT5 can be wired either way and
modern switches are generally capable of figuring out whether
the cable is crossed or not and adjusting its internal pin usage.

3) Do your manuals have pin-outs for both the PF and Zeus sockets.

This web page shows CAN-bus pinouts for a variety of connectors including
RJ45 - http://www.interfacebus.com/Can_Bus_Connector_Pinout.html

Hopefully answering the questions and using that page that will get you
sorted out: there's enough info in it to let you make up a CAN-bus cable
for almost any set of connectors. Hope you have a DVM for wire tracing
and soldering iron: you don't need an RJ45 crimp because, if you need to
make up a cable you can chop one connector off the RJ45 and solder the
other, non-RJ45, connector onto that end.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

[Dave Nadler]

On Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 5:50:40 PM UTC-4, C-FFKQ (42) wrote:
> There's a "Flarm" port on the back of the Zeus, but it's not RJ-45,
> like the port on the PF (wasn't planning on using the DB-9 harness that
> came with the PF, no idea where to wire it to the Zeus).

Why not? Did you read the manual?

> However, the CAN port on the Zeus IS RJ-45, so I connected the PF to
> the Zeus using one of my cat5e LAN cables. The PF powers up, updates
> and the file it writes out tells me everything is ok.

A CAN bus has nothing to do with the RS-232 connections on FLARM.
You will have been extremely lucky not to have blown up one or
both bits of gear by connecting these two.

Blindly connecting stuff just because they happen to have the
same connector is really, really, really unwise...

[C-FFKQ (42)]

On Wednesday, 17 May 2017 18:53:10 UTC-4, Dave Nadler wrote:
> On Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 5:50:40 PM UTC-4, C-FFKQ (42) wrote:
> > There's a "Flarm" port on the back of the Zeus, but it's not RJ-45,
> > like the port on the PF (wasn't planning on using the DB-9 harness that
> > came with the PF, no idea where to wire it to the Zeus).
>
> Why not? Did you read the manual?

It had all these lovely plug-ins... and the Zeus manual just says it plugs in (granted, that was for Red-box and mini-Flarm, no specific mention of PowerFlarm).

> > However, the CAN port on the Zeus IS RJ-45, so I connected the PF to
> > the Zeus using one of my cat5e LAN cables. The PF powers up, updates
> > and the file it writes out tells me everything is ok.
>
> A CAN bus has nothing to do with the RS-232 connections on FLARM.
> You will have been extremely lucky not to have blown up one or
> both bits of gear by connecting these two.
>
> Blindly connecting stuff just because they happen to have the
> same connector is really, really, really unwise...

Yeah... additional research is indicating that.

I'm now looking at the pinout of the PF on the DB-9 and matching it to the CAN bus on the Zeus... I have my friend's RJ-45 crimper out. The joys.

[Dave Nadler]

On Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 7:29:10 PM UTC-4, C-FFKQ (42) wrote:
> > A CAN bus has nothing to do with the RS-232 connections on FLARM.
> > You will have been extremely lucky not to have blown up one or
> > both bits of gear by connecting these two.
> >
> > Blindly connecting stuff just because they happen to have the
> > same connector is really, really, really unwise...
>
> Yeah... additional research is indicating that.
>
> I'm now looking at the pinout of the PF on the DB-9 and matching it
> to the CAN bus on the Zeus... I have my friend's RJ-45 crimper out. The joys.

One more time: A CAN bus has NOTHING to do with RS-232 NMEA connection.
Do *NOT* connect these.

[C-FFKQ (42)]

> One more time: A CAN bus has NOTHING to do with RS-232 NMEA connection.
> Do *NOT* connect these.

I didn't get that the first time, sorry.

Dave Springford tells me that I should be using the RJ11 port on the Zeus and that it's pinout is the same as the middle 6 pins on the RJ45 from the PF. So, I'll get a RJ11 connector and make the cable.

Too many connectors, not enough brain power <sigh>

I'll be suggesting some updates to the Zeus manual after this.

[[email protected]]

I think the Zeus manual is pretty clear - it says the flarm port is an RJ11 using the IGC standard. The IGC standard is very easy to find on the web.

A straight cable with an RJ11 at each end and a RJ121/RJ12 reducer (link below) would also solve the problem.

https://www.jaycar.com.au/medias/sys_master/images/8949673263134/rj45-to-rj12-reducers-pk-5ImageMain-515.jpg

Nick.

On Thursday, May 18, 2017 at 5:58:01 PM UTC+9:30, C-FFKQ (42) wrote:
> > One more time: A CAN bus has NOTHING to do with RS-232 NMEA connection.
> > Do *NOT* connect these.
>
> I didn't get that the first time, sorry.
>
> Dave Springford tells me that I should be using the RJ11 port on the Zeus and that it's pinout is the same as the middle 6 pins on the RJ45 from the PF. So, I'll get a RJ11 connector and make the cable.
>
> Too many connectors, not enough brain power <sigh>
>
> I'll be suggesting some updates to the Zeus manual after this.