LX S80 or ERA 80?

[Matt Herron Jr.]

looking for a nice electronic vario/flight computer. I have used a V7 in the past and liked it. Anyone want to share an opinion about the LX Nav S80 vs the LX Navigation ERA 80?

I have flarm core, so I don't need the GPS. I also use an Oldie II, so the moving map features are less interesting to me. I like the idea of an AH add-on in the S80.

Fire away...

[JS[_5_]]

On Friday, November 24, 2017 at 12:00:15 PM UTC-8, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
> looking for a nice electronic vario/flight computer. I have used a V7 in the past and liked it. Anyone want to share an opinion about the LX Nav S80 vs the LX Navigation ERA 80?
>
> I have flarm core, so I don't need the GPS. I also use an Oldie II, so the moving map features are less interesting to me. I like the idea of an AH add-on in the S80.
>
> Fire away...

Sounds like "My next glider" became "My current glider"...
Jim

[KEN]

On Friday, November 24, 2017 at 3:00:15 PM UTC-5, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
> looking for a nice electronic vario/flight computer. I have used a V7 in the past and liked it. Anyone want to share an opinion about the LX Nav S80 vs the LX Navigation ERA 80?
>
> I have flarm core, so I don't need the GPS. I also use an Oldie II, so the moving map features are less interesting to me. I like the idea of an AH add-on in the S80.
>
> Fire away...
Inquiring minds want to know... What glider did you decide to buy?

[KEN]

On Friday, November 24, 2017 at 3:00:15 PM UTC-5, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
> looking for a nice electronic vario/flight computer. I have used a V7 in the past and liked it. Anyone want to share an opinion about the LX Nav S80 vs the LX Navigation ERA 80?
>
> I have flarm core, so I don't need the GPS. I also use an Oldie II, so the moving map features are less interesting to me. I like the idea of an AH add-on in the S80.
>
> Fire away...

Inquiring minds want to know.... What glider did you decide to buy?

[Dave Springford]

The Era is more on par with the S100, not the S80, so that might be a better comparison to make.

Functionally, both the S100 and Era do the same things except the Era also has wifi capability and the option to connect to the Spot tracking network.

However, since you already have the GPS in the flarm, the S80 makes sense instead of the S100. You lose the back-up battery feature going to the S80 from the S100, but you also save a bunch not buying the second GPS and recorder. The Eos 80 gives the back-up function as well as built-in bluetooth and GPS/ IGC recorder.

All of them have optional AHRS add-ons, but unless you have an Instrument rating you shouldn't buy or use an AHRS to cloud fly.

Any one of the 4 options would be good, with the S80 coming in at the lowest price to do what you want it to do.

[Matt Herron Jr.]

On Friday, November 24, 2017 at 2:50:09 PM UTC-8, Ken wrote:
> On Friday, November 24, 2017 at 3:00:15 PM UTC-5, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
> > looking for a nice electronic vario/flight computer. I have used a V7 in the past and liked it. Anyone want to share an opinion about the LX Nav S80 vs the LX Navigation ERA 80?
> >
> > I have flarm core, so I don't need the GPS. I also use an Oldie II, so the moving map features are less interesting to me. I like the idea of an AH add-on in the S80.
> >
> > Fire away...
> Inquiring minds want to know... What glider did you decide to buy?

I ended up buying Wes's ASW27b in Florida, J3. Very happy with my decision. Thanks for all the helpful advice from the RAS community.

Matt

[John Ferguson[_2_]]

Unfortunately the Era is still under development, not quite a finished
product. Having said that both varios are pretty equal if you don't mind
being a bit of a tester.

The S80 core seems to be the new common core across the LX range, if you
have a Nano or other LX devices they all look the same across the software
interface, take the same files for airspace, TPs, etc.

John


At 20:00 24 November 2017, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
>looking for a nice electronic vario/flight computer. I have used a V7 in
>the past and liked it. Anyone want to share an opinion about the LX Nav
>S80 vs the LX Navigation ERA 80?
>
>I have flarm core, so I don't need the GPS. I also use an Oldie II, so
the
>moving map features are less interesting to me. I like the idea of an
AH
>add-on in the S80.
>
>Fire away...
>

[Alex[_6_]]

I flew the ERA this season.

My reason for choosing the ERA over the S80/S100 was mainly the user interface. I find that LX Navigation have come to be visually appealing as well as very easy to read/interpret since last year’s UI facelift. The airspace visualization is kept nice and simple – perfect as backup navigation without cluttering the small screen too much. The manipulating the UI is intuitive and screen brightness is great.

The Hardware allows for a very clean and simple installation. All interfaces come with their own socket and a nice little terminal adapter is included for easy hooking up of input signals (gear, flaps, cruise/climb switch). The GPS Antenna is a miniature version.

This year the ERA was still on beta software with new features and bugfixes coming with several software updates throughout the year. I believe that all advertised features are available by now.

The S80/S100 series devices are sure to have the more mature and robust software after being on the market for a couple of years. The ERA has turned out to have the edge in many details and will be a serious contender as soon as it reaches maturity. Especially when it comes to the interface design the ERA is nice and clean whereas the S80 tends to be more cluttered.

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

On Monday, November 27, 2017 at 1:34:31 AM UTC-8, Alex wrote:
> I flew the ERA this season.
>
> The ERA has turned out to have the edge in many details and will be a serious >contender as soon as it reaches maturity. Especially when it comes to the >interface design the ERA is nice and clean whereas the S80 tends to be more >cluttered.

What are then many details that the ERA has that are more advantageous than S80/S100?

[Jim White[_3_]]

At 03:58 28 November 2017, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
>On Monday, November 27, 2017 at 1:34:31 AM UTC-8, Alex wrote:
>> I flew the ERA this season.
>>
>> The ERA has turned out to have the edge in many details and will be a
>serious >contender as soon as it reaches maturity. Especially when it
comes
>to the >interface design the ERA is nice and clean whereas the S80 tends
to
>be more >cluttered.
>
>What are then many details that the ERA has that are more advantageous
than
>S80/S100?
>
Hi Guys

I was going to put an S80 in my ship when my club decided to fit all the
gliders with it. So I waited. Happy I did as I found the S80 to be too
complicated, too many settings, options, etc. and especially too many
buttons. It can be confusing in flight as pressing the right button at the
right time is a lottery!

I bought a 57mm EOS and I am really happy with it. Great vario and easy to
use. I believe that there is an 80mm one out now, or on the way.

Jim

[Alex[_6_]]

> What are then many details that the ERA has that are more advantageous than S80/S100?

Maybe I was a bit too enthousiastic when referring to the ERA having an edge in "many details". S100 and ERA are very very similar devices both covering an almost identical feature set. I believe the only real feature innovations of the ERA are Wifi and the SPOT option.

I personally put a lot of emphasis on visual appearance and feel that the ERA has set a new benchmark in terms of providing the most important information at a glans. In contrast I feel that the S100 tends too put to much information on the small screen and does not make good use of color coding to help quick perception of the information provided. The S100 does allow cleaning up the view with some configuration - but within limits.

In any case, this is a very subjective perspective. There are plenty of device screenshots available, allowing you to form an own opinion concerning the visual representation.

[Dirk_PW]

I've had the S80 for 2 years now. The user interface can be customized to be as complicated or simple as you like. For me... I don't like the thermal helper, so I turned that page off. I don't like the airspace markings on the small moving map, so I turned them off. I don't use the task page, so I turned that page off. I didn't need all the fields on the vario page, so I turned some of them off. I love the flexibility it gives you since I like to keep things simple. Of course, this requires some investment up front to figure out what you want and configure the instrument accordingly. If folks complain that the instrument is 'too cluttered', they simply left everything 'enabled' and decided not to learn how to customize the instrument.

For me, the best feature of the S80 is the customer support from LXNav. In the past, I've made some complaints about certain features missing or minor bugs and LXNav has responded with software updates. Awesome!

[[email protected]]

On Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at 11:42:32 AM UTC-7, Dirk_PW wrote:
> I've had the S80 for 2 years now. The user interface can be customized to be as complicated or simple as you like. For me... I don't like the thermal helper, so I turned that page off. I don't like the airspace markings on the small moving map, so I turned them off. I don't use the task page, so I turned that page off. I didn't need all the fields on the vario page, so I turned some of them off. I love the flexibility it gives you since I like to keep things simple. Of course, this requires some investment up front to figure out what you want and configure the instrument accordingly. If folks complain that the instrument is 'too cluttered', they simply left everything 'enabled' and decided not to learn how to customize the instrument.
>
> For me, the best feature of the S80 is the customer support from LXNav. In the past, I've made some complaints about certain features missing or minor bugs and LXNav has responded with software updates. Awesome!

I've had the S80 for 2 years also. I like it much much more than the 302 that I had before and I think it is the perfect vario for me, a fun-fly x/c pilot (without a clearnav, Ultimate, or LX90XX) that follows the good wx for distance. It's changed the way I use my navigation tools in the cockpit much to the better. It does require a lot of setup and experimentation up front, mostly because the manual is so bad (better for non-English users?). Most of the fields, options and parameters have only the most basic description, so if you don't know, you don't know, and have to experiment. That said, the basic features are straightforward and the vario was very useable on the first day. With the large S80 display, I use it for almost everything, speed to fly, waypoint selection, task, and thermal assist (the best I've seen imho). The biggest benefit is that I look in the cockpit much much less. Instead of tapping at my oudie, I much prefer hitting the buttons on the S80. It's much faster and the button gets the result I want, where a tap on the oudie in a bouncy cockpit might not. I know it's much faster to select the waypoint I want to go to. Nearest, spin the dial to the waypoint and push, done. I don't look at my Oudie much anymore, only for big picture things when I have the time, and that is the way I like it. Now I just need a stick controller...

[[email protected]]

I agree about the S80- Nice unit! I've been using it with the stick controller, and I highly recommend it over the panel buttons and knobs. Setup is also key, as there are more features than I need. I have complained about the manual to LXNAV, and apparently, they finally did something about it. Just downloaded Version 6.01 (October 2017), but haven't looked at it yet. The previous version (5.46) was unchanged from the time I bought the S80 until this latest edition, even though the software went through several upgrades. I guess documentation in the software industry hasn't changed much over the years since I got out of it. It still lags way behind the product and is written by people who developed the software. They know it intimately, but can't communicate it to users very well.

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

A little off point, but I fly with an LXNav 90XX with V80 (not the stand alone S80). I have had very good factory support, the combination is highly programable to fit your needs, or wants. I have also had an occasion to ask LX Navigation for information and they were extremely prompt in replying, with much information. Bottom line is both companies and instruments are top shelf with very good factory support. I do not think you will be disappointed whichever you choose.

On Wednesday, November 29, 2017 at 7:15:58 AM UTC-8, wrote:
> I agree about the S80- Nice unit! I've been using it with the stick controller, and I highly recommend it over the panel buttons and knobs. Setup is also key, as there are more features than I need. I have complained about the manual to LXNAV, and apparently, they finally did something about it. Just downloaded Version 6.01 (October 2017), but haven't looked at it yet. The previous version (5.46) was unchanged from the time I bought the S80 until this latest edition, even though the software went through several upgrades. I guess documentation in the software industry hasn't changed much over the years since I got out of it. It still lags way behind the product and is written by people who developed the software. They know it intimately, but can't communicate it to users very well.

[MNLou]

I installed an S8 two years ago. At the smaller 57 mm size, the navigation screens aren't much help but I really like the 4 data options in each of the task and navigation screens.

I have linked the S8 to my Flarm and an Oudie 2. As opposed to a previous post, I use the Oudie 2 almost exclusively for navigation with the S8 as a backup (I think the Oudie 2 "programming on the fly" is much easier than the S8.)

I use the S8 primarily for vario functions and some Flarm display. (Flarm is also shown on the Oudie 2.)

I tried really hard to fit the S80 into my panel but just could not make it work.

As always, YMMV -

Lou

[Matt Herron Jr.]

is the resolution of the S80 good enough to support the larger screen size? Any pixelization visible?

[[email protected]]

On Thursday, November 30, 2017 at 5:39:22 AM UTC-7, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
> is the resolution of the S80 good enough to support the larger screen size? Any pixelization visible?

Not to my eye. And it is bright! That's actually the best thing about it, I can always see it clearly, never any glare on the screen in my glider.

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

On Thursday, November 30, 2017 at 4:39:22 AM UTC-8, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
> is the resolution of the S80 good enough to support the larger screen size? Any pixelization visible?

I fly with a V80 (same as S80, but slaved to computer, not stand alone) and it is very bright, no pixelization.

[[email protected]]

Any new user experiences in the past 3 months that would be relevant for a purchase decision ?
3U

[Matt Herron Jr.]

On Saturday, February 17, 2018 at 1:45:41 AM UTC-8, wrote:
> Any new user experiences in the past 3 months that would be relevant for a purchase decision ?
> 3U

I have flown 4-5 times now with the S80, and am quite happy with it.

Matt