On Mar 4, 11:56*am, Darryl Ramm wrote:
On Mar 3, 7:19*pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:



On 3/3/2011 5:28 PM, Dave White wrote:

This is the article from the EAA newsletter:

http://www.ksallink.com/?cmd=display...13&format=html

This is the manufacturer:

http://www.aaicorp.com

Wonder if they might consider adapting this thing to gliders?

Pro: the "power box" is about half the thickness of a Trig power box.

Cons: The power consumption is greater than a Trig according to their
data sheet, it's not TSO'd.

It would have to be several hundred dollars cheaper the Trig than to
appeal to me enough to dump my Becker, based on those pros/cons.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)

Unlike the Trig TT21/TT22 the encoder is not built into the control
head, its a separate box that appears to be be bolted onto the RF
unit, its not clear if the same encoder can be used separately
connected via a cable or if third party encoders are supported. The
Trig scheme is really nice for gliders since you just run one control
cable from the panel area to wherever the RF box is mounted (hopefully
close to the antenna).

Sage is obviously a small company, their product data sheets seem to
show hand made prototypes and although things like "FAA TSO" show on
them but nothing from Sage is FAA/TSO approved. The January 2011 data
sheet says "We are accepting orders for non-
TSO certified Mode C transponders now." The difference in complexity
between a Mode C and Mode S transponder is enormous, so it would be
interesting to know the actual state of their Mode S product
development. Anybody know where their Mode S development is at?

The RF unit looks impressively small but I would have concerns about
the use of a surface mount SMA connector vs. the standard panel mount
TNC coax connector and how fragile this will be in practice, specially
if connected to a larger adapter. But a fine tradeoff for a small UAV
installation done at a UAV manufacturer.

Darryl

Also the list price on the Mode S transponder (which as mentioned is
not yet apparently available even for pre-order) is shown on their
price list as $3,587 which does not seem to be too competitive
compared to the current street price of ~$2,200 for the Trig TT21. Of
course comparing a future list price vs. current street price may not
be that useful. And $3,587 not say $3,600, curious price specificity
there.

Darryl