Northstar M3 & PC connection

28th December 2007, 02:41 PM

Has anyone interfaced an M3 with a PC?

I have a Motion LS-800 running Jeppview Flitedeck. I had succefully
interfaced it with my previous aircraft that had a Trimble 2000
Approach. Trimble uses RS-232 w/ King aviation data format for its
moving map output. I used an USB RS-232 coverter and Flitedeck was
able to receive flight plan data & GPS position just fine.

Now, I am installing a Northstar M3 to my new aircraft. Flitedeck
does have M3 in its setup GPS selections, so I assume they should be
able to talk in software if hardware connection is good. Unlike
Trimble, M3 uses RS-485 for moving map output. After google USB
RS-485, I found a converter from coolgear.com/usbgear.com (model USB-
COM-I) for about $50.

I wired the USB/RS-485 converter to M3 by connecting "Data-A", "Data-
B" & "Ground" (P15 pins 6, 11 & 5 on M3 and pins 1, 2 & 5 on USB-COM-
I). I then turned on M3 in demo mode. In M3's serial data spec (Doc
No. GM342), it says on page 2 that in "flight sim" mode baud rate is
9600. I then run Hyper Terminal on LS-800 w/ 9600 baud on COM-5 which
is assigned to USB-COM-I, but received no data from M3.

After that, I tried Hyper Terminal on 1200 baud, but no joy. I then
run Flitedeck Setup to test for GPS multiple times w/ different
setting. Still no joy.

Does M3 output its moving map data in demo mode?

Is M3 demo & flgiht sim the same mode?

Any comment on what else to try?

30th December 2007, 11:56 AM

On Dec 28, 11:41 am, "robin...@" <rm...m> wrote:

> Does M3 output its moving map data in demo mode?

I attached an GPS antenna to M3 and it did ouput to PC via the USB/
RS-485 converter just fine. I think M3 does not output its GPS data
in demo mode, and demo mode is not the same as flight sim mode.

But Flitedeck only gets M3's position data and no flight plan data.
Work in progress.

Robin