Apollo SL70

tonycondon

tonycondon

Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
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Tony
Now i've got a line on an SL70. Anyone know anything about it? ive done a lot of googling. seems to be a nice transponder. fairly low current draw, .65 amps at 28 volts. I asked elsewhere but anyone have any idea if that would scale linearly, i.e. 1.3 amps at 14 volts?

thanks everybody,
 
well i found a user manual. looks like .5 amps (7 watt input) at typical operation, and 1.4 amps at max power (20 watts). very tempting...
 
tonycondon said:
well i found a user manual. looks like .5 amps (7 watt input) at typical operation, and 1.4 amps at max power (20 watts). very tempting...
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The SL-70 is the predecessor to the GTX327. Both were designed by Apollo/UPS AFaIK but the SL-70 was dropped when Garmin acquired UPS. I'd be surprised if the SL-70 drew less power than a 327 because the LED display consumes more power than the LCD on the Garmin, at least with the illumination turned down. The main differences between a 327 and a SL-70 are the aforementioned LED vs LCD, the ability of the 327 to automatically sequence between standby and alt modes based on GPS ground speed or a squat switch, and the code selector buttons on the 327 which make enterring a new code far easier than when done using the two rotary knobs on the SL-70.

Since I doubt you'll be switching squawk codes often in your glider I doubt the differences would matter to you.
 
It is a nice transponder especially if you have an SL30 or SL40 in the stack with it. The only problem is that is it still has a cavity tube and they are not cheap to replace.
 
GigG601XL said:
It is a nice transponder especially if you have an SL30 or SL40 in the stack with it.
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"The stack", Tony's Cherokee.

I'm sorry, but that's REALLY funny!!!

Ok - I gotta be clear - I ain't diss'n Tony's ride. No way, no how. I'd love to drive one of those someday.
 
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GigG601XL said:
It is a nice transponder especially if you have an SL30 or SL40 in the stack with it. The only problem is that is it still has a cavity tube and they are not cheap to replace.
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I'm almost 100% positive that the SL-70 is entirely solid state with no cavity tube. IIRC it was the first GA transponder to make that claim.
 
gismo said:
I'm almost 100% positive that the SL-70 is entirely solid state with no cavity tube. IIRC it was the first GA transponder to make that claim.
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Not true. The first all solid state transponder was the GTX320 in 1999. The GTX327 came along in early 2000. The GTX330 shipped in 2002, all solid state units. The GTX327 was designed by Garmin engineers and UPS Apollo was purchased in August 2003, after all the Garmin Transponders were already shipping, so it was not designed by UPS Apollo..
 
everything i've seen indicates that the SL70 is in fact solid state. im thinking if i can get a good enough price for this one i'll buy it. about half of what a new one would cost. i can handle recharging batteries a little more often.

and you laugh about my "stack" but if i can find a transponder the Cherokee will be as advanced or more than many typical trainer 150's etc. a new com radio and a nearly new transponder. all digital. past meets future.
 
The SL70 seems to be all solid-state, according to this article.

While Googling around on cavity tubes, I found this interesting website for a tester. Get a load of the DIP microprocessor in one of the pics of that BK transponder. I can't believe they used a socket on that thing! :hairraise:
 
John Collins said:
Not true. The first all solid state transponder was the GTX320 in 1999. The GTX327 came along in early 2000. The GTX330 shipped in 2002, all solid state units. The GTX327 was designed by Garmin engineers and UPS Apollo was purchased in August 2003, after all the Garmin Transponders were already shipping, so it was not designed by UPS Apollo..
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OK, that does pretty much eliminate the possibility that Garmin's transponders were originally Apollo designs. One thing confuses me though, the GTX327 is remote controllable by a CNX-80 which AFaIK was released well before Garmin swallowed UPS. The data format for the GTX327 is different than the SL70 so I suppose it's possible that Garmin directed the Salem team to add the ability to control the GTX series after purchasing UPS. Perhaps the original CNX-80 could only interface with SL70 transponders.

In any case while I haven't found any official Apollo document that claims the SL70 is totally solid state, I did find the SL70 installation manual and it does say that no warmup is required and that clearly indicates to me that there's no cavity tube. It appears that the SL70 came out in 1999 as well, but I don't know which was officially available first between the SL70 and the GTX320.

www.digitalblast.net/N6307L/sl70-install-rev0a Folder/sl70-install-rev0a.pdf
 
Very cool, Tony. Having avionics in a glider is a good thing.

Wonder if you could do a little ram air turbine to generate some power to charge the battery? Not that it's really a big deal for you. So long as you've got 5-6 hours of battery life, you've got plenty of time.
 
drag Ted...I think running two batteries will be in my future to insure that the radio and transponder both have plenty of juice.
 
gismo said:
OK, that does pretty much eliminate the possibility that Garmin's transponders were originally Apollo designs. One thing confuses me though, the GTX327 is remote controllable by a CNX-80 which AFaIK was released well before Garmin swallowed UPS. The data format for the GTX327 is different than the SL70 so I suppose it's possible that Garmin directed the Salem team to add the ability to control the GTX series after purchasing UPS. Perhaps the original CNX-80 could only interface with SL70 transponders.

In any case while I haven't found any official Apollo document that claims the SL70 is totally solid state, I did find the SL70 installation manual and it does say that no warmup is required and that clearly indicates to me that there's no cavity tube. It appears that the SL70 came out in 1999 as well, but I don't know which was officially available first between the SL70 and the GTX320.

www.digitalblast.net/N6307L/sl70-install-rev0a%20Folder/sl70-install-rev0a.pdf
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Sorry, I wrote the wrong date for the GTX320, it was 1997.
 
thats a good idea ted, and a lot of glider guys are using solar panels to supplement their batteries. unfortunately ive got no extra area under canopy to put one. i think i might use one for between flights battery charging. then the only fossil fuels i'll burn will be in the car to get to the airport, and the towplane. I'll be like the anti-Ted!
 
Tony, you could go with a flexible solar panel and mount it on the outside of the turtledeck flush with the skin
 
I really like the idea of the Solar Panel, and I have the perfect place to put it. I would just put a plexiglass window in the Turtle Deck behind my canopy and mount the Panel under the window. I may do this in the next year or so.

I really like the idea of a transponder as well but I don't have good place to put it and a good low power one would cost more about twice my annual soaring budget. I only fly the sailplane about 50 to 100 hours per year.

Brian
 

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you could always get rid of a vario and slide a microair or becker transponder in the hole. i hear you about the cost but ive decided to ignore the fact that my instrument panel will be worth ~1/3 of the total value of the glider. I'd rather dump some money than get waxed by a KC-135.
 
tonycondon said:
you could always get rid of a vario and slide a microair or becker transponder in the hole. i hear you about the cost but ive decided to ignore the fact that my instrument panel will be worth ~1/3 of the total value of the glider. I'd rather dump some money than get waxed by a KC-135.
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Yes, I figured I could make something work to get a Becker transponder installed. I replaced the Terra Radio with a used Becker Radio last year, since the Terra required so much power to run.

I have had a vario fail about 80 miles from home and had to soar back home on the backup. That is why I put the Borgelt in, It replaced a Winter, so my backup would have an Audio. Plus the Borgelt will work as an Averager if I want it to.

I may end of with a PCAS MRX, The KC-135 may not see me but at least I can see them for about 1/5th the cost of a Transponder.

Brian
 
PCAS is a good choice. I dont really have a dash or anything that would be anywhere in my field of view to set one.
 
tonycondon said:
then the only fossil fuels i'll burn will be in the car to get to the airport, and the towplane. I'll be like the anti-Ted!
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:rofl:

I'm more trying to think of a solution that would provide you with longer range while in the air. I remember your glider being rather cramped and not having a ton of space inside, and obviously anything outside isn't ideal since increased drag is bad.

You could tape one to your canopy. ;)
 
well there is the whole visibility issue, but you knew that ;)

securing some thin film to the area right behind the cockpit wouldnt be bad. it would probably be as smooth or smoother than the fuselage skin anyway. thin film is spendy though. one i found online was 5 watts like the cell you posted, but 3x the cost.
 
Well I was wrong about the SL70 not being Solid State. Sorry.

I had a search on Ebay for a year for SL30, SL40, SL70, GTX320A and GTX327.

I only saw one SL70 during that time and I ended up getting a like new 320A from a guy in Germany that had to upgrade to Mode S. Got it for about $500. That ttok some work though lots went for as high as $1400. This was over 6 months ago and there were lots of non-Mode S transponders for sale out of Europe. I don't know if the deals are still out there or not.
 
there are still a few tranpsonders coming out of Europe. I picked up this 320 (no A) for 600 and am not complaining at all.
 
brcase said:
I really like the idea of the Solar Panel, and I have the perfect place to put it. I would just put a plexiglass window in the Turtle Deck behind my canopy and mount the Panel under the window. I may do this in the next year or so.

I really like the idea of a transponder as well but I don't have good place to put it and a good low power one would cost more about twice my annual soaring budget. I only fly the sailplane about 50 to 100 hours per year.

Brian
Click to expand...

If you don't intend to squawk anything but 1200, you could put it almost anywhere. If you expect to need to set discrete codes a GTX327 can be controlled remotely via RS-232, perhaps you could get someone to generate a pocketPC app to do that and hide the transponder out of the way.
 
gismo said:
If you don't intend to squawk anything but 1200, you could put it almost anywhere. If you expect to need to set discrete codes a GTX327 can be controlled remotely via RS-232, perhaps you could get someone to generate a pocketPC app to do that and hide the transponder out of the way.
Click to expand...

That's a great idea, Lance. Lots of glider guys have PocketPCs in their cockpits, anyway. And a 327 costs a heck of a lot less than the average remote-mounted transponder from Becker (et al.).

M
 
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