Garmin Pilot for Android -- Tech Support, Tips, Tricks

Another + vote for the new GP Android 4.3.1. Flew two IFR legs with it today (both ending in LPV approaches) and all was fine. I think this release is arguably the best update since I have owned this product. Now my dual Nexus 7s (mounted on the yokes) look just like the GTN-750 screen. :)
 
RotorDude said:
Another + vote for the new GP Android 4.3.1. Flew two IFR legs with it today (both ending in LPV approaches) and all was fine. I think this release is arguably the best update since I have owned this product. Now my dual Nexus 7s (mounted on the yokes) look just like the GTN-750 screen. :)
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Where's the "Like" button? :)

Two years ago, when I posted a picture of me flying with two Nexus 7s velcroed to the panel, emulating the sacred six and an EFIS, I was blasted by curmudgeons on POA. Today, we are closer than ever to that reality.
 
GP Android version 4.3.2 out, correcting "problem loading obstacles after upgrading the obstacles database."
 
Matthew said:
Just saw that too.

It says you need to upgrade GP and reload the obstacles.
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It says you *may* need to uninstall and re-install the obstacles to see them on the map, but at least in my case they seem to be showing OK despite my having loaded the obstacle update before the latest software release.
 
RotorDude said:
It says you *may* need to uninstall and re-install the obstacles to see them on the map, but at least in my case they seem to be showing OK despite my having loaded the obstacle update before the latest software release.
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As happened on the last upgrade, I seem to have lost the ability to display real-time ADS-B radar in flight. Uninstall/reinstall fixed it last time. Fingers crossed that this ridiculous kludge of a "fix" works again.
 
In case anyone is curious, here's an email I just sent to Garmin support. Anyone using the Baron MobileLink for XM weather in GP on Android may find it interesting, especially the video. I had previously complained about this issue several months ago, with no reply other than "we'll forward your email to the developers". I hope it's obvious from the video how this could be a real safety problem:

"Hello,

Just following up on this issue [Previous email thread regarding MobileLink weather disappearing sometimes]. Here is a short video I made of my tablet this past weekend, flying between North Carolina and New York state, running GP 4.3.1 on my Android 4.4 tablet, with MobileLink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdyS7XZB5UE

As you can see, there are two problems:

1) The weather is clearly "cut off" on a very straight line; obviously the actual weather is not doing this, it is just not displaying all of it.

2) When zooming in or out, the weather completely disappears.

What you can't tell from the poor quality video (sorry about that, it was a bright day and my phone's camera sucks), is that the timestamp in the lower right corner was showing current radar and so there was no indication whatsoever that the weather was missing (i.e. no crosshatches or anything).

After the video was taken, I played with some settings, disabled/re-enabled Mobilelink, exited and restarted GP, and eventually it worked again. But IMHO it's vitally important that if the weather is not displayed for some reason (and I do understand that sometimes the satellite weather can be corrupt and not received from time to time), it's important to mark it with crosshatches or something, so that you know that "blank" = no weather received rather than "blank" = no weather present.

Thanks,
Steve Lin"
 
Took GP Android latest 4.3.2 to a serious shakeout today, three IFR legs, 95% IMC, lots of rain and turbulence (though no ice), one extra tough approach, two of the three approaches to near minimums.
Bottom line: definite improvement over the old versions, terrain/obstacles are nice to have, but a pile of niggling bugs mar what could have been a hit.
(Note: I have two independent Nexus 7 2013 tablets, one on each yoke.)
First, the ADSB NextRad WX depiction is plagued by artifacts, similar to what Steve mentions above with the Baron Mobile, except this is the bread-and-butter ADSB radar. Two different problems: one is lots of missing strips of data, and two is apparent truncation of the display area (e.g. if your route is 300 nm, the weather sometimes disappears after say 150nm). Both problems were intermittent, sometimes better and sometime worse.
Second, the "stay on" mode is quirky. If I choose "auto" (which stays on at 40+ kts) it seems to work when flying, but on the ramp and while taxiing it keeps turning itself off. If I choose the "on" mode (which used to work perfectly in the past), it now switches itself to "on" *and* "off" (even though these are supposedly exclusive radio buttons) and then just times out in flight.
I used to use a separate app to keep GP on before they added the "always on" feature, and now I might need to revert to it if they can't fix this pesky bug (you know that Murphy says that it will turn itself off during the most critical part of a tight approach!)
Third, after landing the "auto safe taxi" comes on (if selected) but is tiny, not normalized to the screen, so I generally don't use it, but in heavy weather the weather depiction superimposes distracting huge blinking boxy "pixels" on top of the taxi diagram (the normal zoomed map, not the safe taxi).
Fourth, the geo-referenced approaches used to have some controls to center the airplane and select north/track up. Both controls seem to have disappeared (at least most of the time), requiring manual moving of the chart during the critical approach phases, when you have other more important things to do. Similar controls are missing in the zoomed-map taxi diagram mode.
There were more issues, but this will do for now.
I wonder if there is any GP developer who flies single pilot hard IFR using this app. I tend to doubt it.

Edit: attached sample wx image showing both artifacts (from ADSB ), missing strips and truncated area (straight cut shows truncation).
 

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I've been running Pilot on a 2013 Nexus 7 for a little over a year. It's been working great, but while coming back from an airshow recently, one of the other pilots on board was running Foreflight on an iPad with cellular access. We were dodging some storm cells and the real time weather updates were truly a blessing. I'm strongly considering replacing my Nexus with an LTE tablet. I'm also considering upsizing a bit - something in the 8"-9" class while I'm at it. Any suggestions?
 
Tradford said:
I've been running Pilot on a 2013 Nexus 7 for a little over a year. It's been working great, but while coming back from an airshow recently, one of the other pilots on board was running Foreflight on an iPad with cellular access. We were dodging some storm cells and the real time weather updates were truly a blessing. I'm strongly considering replacing my Nexus with an LTE tablet. I'm also considering upsizing a bit - something in the 8"-9" class while I'm at it. Any suggestions?
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Cellular access for your tablet won't get you weather in the air.

What you were seeing while airborne was either ADS-B (free) or XM weather (subscription based).
 
There is no ADS-B and he doesn't have an XM subscription. Why wouldn't the app update via cellular data?
 
Tradford said:
Right. No problem at 500'.
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Right, at 500' over a city you'd be OK, but in rural areas coverage is spotty at best. And once you climb higher, even over a city your reception will suffer, and once over the countryside it will likely disappear with any appreciable altitude.
So not a good idea for live weather tracking, and ADSB is free (once you get the receiver).
 
I use only the internal GPS on my Nexus.

What are some external receivers that are recommended? GPS antenna, ADSB receivers, XM receivers, etc. that can add good extra functionality to GP on a Nexus?
 
Matthew said:
I use only the internal GPS on my Nexus.

What are some external receivers that are recommended? GPS antenna, ADSB receivers, XM receivers, etc. that can add good extra functionality to GP on a Nexus?
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For a real external GPS only the GDL39 and GDL39-3D, I suspect but do not know that you could use the mock-location function on the tablet and then BT or WiFi to another GPS receiver - been able to do that in the simulator with GP using GPS over BT or similar apps as intermediary but never tried it in actual flight.

'Gimp
 
AcroGimp said:
For a real external GPS only the GDL39 and GDL39-3D, I suspect but do not know that you could use the mock-location function on the tablet and then BT or WiFi to another GPS receiver - been able to do that in the simulator with GP using GPS over BT or similar apps as intermediary but never tried it in actual flight.

'Gimp
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Yes, external BT GPS works fine with Nexus and GP (in mock mode), but I think it's a waste of money, since (at least in my experience) the internal GPS works fine. Of course that depends on aircraft cabin shielding, which varies by type and installation location. But if you are already getting reasonable GPS reception, there is no advantage to add the external GPS.
OTOH, I think the GDL39 (optionally 3D) is a great investment, even for pure VFR, since it will show you the in-flight weather and (at least) the big iron traffic. So no more need to get close to your destination to get the scratchy ATIS for the latest winds/ceilings there (though you will need the ATIS for the official landing runway).
 
RotorDude said:
Yes, external BT GPS works fine with Nexus and GP (in mock mode), but I think it's a waste of money, since (at least in my experience) the internal GPS works fine. Of course that depends on aircraft cabin shielding, which varies by type and installation location. But if you are already getting reasonable GPS reception, there is no advantage to add the external GPS.
OTOH, I think the GDL39 (optionally 3D) is a great investment, even for pure VFR, since it will show you the in-flight weather and (at least) the big iron traffic. So no more need to get close to your destination to get the scratchy ATIS for the latest winds/ceilings there (though you will need the ATIS for the landing runway).
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My experience with the Nexus 7 internal GPS - I have lost signal twice that I can remember, both on the same flight, a local sightseeing flight with a lot of maneuvering in a Warrior. The Nexus was either in my lap or in the side pocket. It seemed to have trouble reconnecting until I flew straight and level for a few minutes with the unit sitting on top of the glare shield. Other than that, it's been pretty solid. I'll use it again on an XC in a couple of days.

Where I have never had any success is on a commercial flight. For some reason I can get a good signal when we are on the ground, but once we get airborne I lose it, and once it's gone, it's gone. I have an app, GPSTest, that displays the GPS signal bars and it shows little to no consistent signal while airborne, but then picks them up again on the ground.
 
I looked into ADS-B a while back, but I read a post that said they don't work below a couple of thousand feet. If it doesn't work @ 500-600', it's useless to me (and expensive). I used to occasionally lose GPS lock on my Nexus, but I've never had an issue since I bought that little GPS-150. Always rock solid now.
 
Tradford said:
I looked into ADS-B a while back, but I read a post that said they don't work below a couple of thousand feet. If it doesn't work @ 500-600', it's useless to me (and expensive). I used to occasionally lose GPS lock on my Nexus, but I've never had an issue since I bought that little GPS-150. Always rock solid now.
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When you use that, do you turn off the internal GPS on the Nexus?
 
Tradford said:
I looked into ADS-B a while back, but I read a post that said they don't work below a couple of thousand feet. If it doesn't work @ 500-600', it's useless to me (and expensive). I used to occasionally lose GPS lock on my Nexus, but I've never had an issue since I bought that little GPS-150. Always rock solid now.
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ADSB ground station reception depends on your distance from the nearest station and the intervening obstructions (since it's line of sight). So in relatively flat areas with dense station coverage you'll start receiving the signal at a few hundred feet AGL (or even on the ground at some lucky locations). OTOH, you might get no signal even higher up when the stations are farther apart and there are more hills in the way.
So I'd ask people who fly with ADSB in your area what their experience is at a given altitude.
 
Matthew said:
When you use that, do you turn off the internal GPS on the Nexus?
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Once you sync with the external receiver, it automatically connects whenever you have it on. There's an 'external' selection in the GP menu. I bought the 150 for less than $100 on Amazon. They also have a 150A for closer to $150. Mine has always worked great.
 
Picked up a Trek HD tablet at the AT&T store yesterday. It looks just like a Nexus 7, but it's a little bit bigger - and it was just $200 with a two year contract. I downloaded Pilot while I was in the store to make sure it worked. Even downloaded it via LTE and it was really fast. I've since transferred my Garmin subscription and have it all configured. Very nice tablet for you Android users. Hopefully it will prove to be as solid as my nexus had been.
 
Jay Honeck said:
As happened on the last upgrade, I seem to have lost the ability to display real-time ADS-B radar in flight. Uninstall/reinstall fixed it last time. Fingers crossed that this ridiculous kludge of a "fix" works again.
Click to expand...
Version 4.3.2 works fine for me in the air without uninstall/reinstall.
 
Matthew said:
My experience with the Nexus 7 internal GPS - I have lost signal twice that I can remember, both on the same flight, a local sightseeing flight with a lot of maneuvering in a Warrior. The Nexus was either in my lap or in the side pocket. It seemed to have trouble reconnecting until I flew straight and level for a few minutes with the unit sitting on top of the glare shield. Other than that, it's been pretty solid. I'll use it again on an XC in a couple of days.

Where I have never had any success is on a commercial flight. For some reason I can get a good signal when we are on the ground, but once we get airborne I lose it, and once it's gone, it's gone. I have an app, GPSTest, that displays the GPS signal bars and it shows little to no consistent signal while airborne, but then picks them up again on the ground.
Click to expand...

So, it's not just me. I often have the same experience. I have gotten a signal enroute once or twice, but it has been the exception and not the rule.
 
Matthew said:
Where I have never had any success is on a commercial flight. For some reason I can get a good signal when we are on the ground, but once we get airborne I lose it, and once it's gone, it's gone. I have an app, GPSTest, that displays the GPS signal bars and it shows little to no consistent signal while airborne, but then picks them up again on the ground.
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Probably depends a lot on the specific hardware. I just returned to the east coast from a vacation in Hawaii & San Francisco, and while my tablet had intermittent reception in the commercial planes I was on, my phone (a Samsung S4 mini) was able to acquire a good GPS position within 30 seconds or so, each time I turned it on - multiple times during each flight - and then continuously during the taxi/taxioff/approach/landing phases.
 
Finally had a chance to fly GP 4.3.2 in the Yak with the GDL39-3D yestarday and really enjoyed it. The Yak had been down with an air system issue and yesterday was the Mx check flight. System checked out 100% on the ground and in flight - super happy!

GP paired right up with the GDL, and was rock solid, terrain and obstacles feature is a fantastic addition. Got a pop-up terrain warning a couple times in the east county (on purpose), might have to figure out how to integrate GP to my audio now to get the voice warnings.

Very impressed with this latest version - now all I want/need is synthetic vision and I will be happy.

Nice job on this update Garmin-Android team!

'Gimp
 
Garmin 7.4 is out for iOS. Nice new features including an electronic logbook, NRST function and some minor additions.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Marauder said:
Garmin 7.4 is out for iOS. Nice new features including an electronic logbook, NRST function and some minor additions.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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Can't wait to see those added to the android version!
 
Relocated the tablet mount and used a cord to port the GP audio warnings into my Clarity Aloft's aux input, volume could be louder but pretty cool. Might check about porting it into the GTR 200's Aux Input if I can figure it out, maybe better volume that way.

Renewing at the end of the month, hoping for Synthetic Vision later this year.

'Gimp
 
Effing ADS-B radar failed (again) in GP on the flight up to OSH. Luckily, I have it on my EFIS, but this sucks. We were picking our way around a line of storms, and radar was needed!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
Jay Honeck said:
Effing ADS-B radar failed (again) in GP on the flight up to OSH. Luckily, I have it on my EFIS, but this sucks. We were picking our way around a line of storms, and radar was needed!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Hey Jay,

What happens when it fails? Does it show connected but weather is not displayed?
 
Jay Honeck said:
Effing ADS-B radar failed (again) in GP on the flight up to OSH. Luckily, I have it on my EFIS, but this sucks. We were picking our way around a line of storms, and radar was needed!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I'd say you're lucky... GP completely hosed up and took my tablet with it on the way up to OSH. Took a lot of Nexus love via a full-on factory reset to unbrick it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
 
Some data points.
I have been flying two N7 2013 tablets, one per yoke, with latest version GP running on each, for the last few months.
Just got back from a trip (that included a mini-trip at the destination) and in general everything worked fine, except...
The older of the two N7 units crashed/restarted GP once each trip (twice total, afair), and since it was in mid-air I didn't/couldn't send the crash report.
The newer unit ran fine without a single glitch that I can recall.
This included continuous FIS-B weather/radar, metars/tafs, etc.
So I suspect the newer N7 2013 units might have some undocumented improvement(s) (you can tell the difference visually since the newer unit has EC markings visible in the lower back under the ASUS logo).
I do check the GDL-39 and ADS-B status periodically, to be sure there are nearby ground stations and that the BT connection is good.
Bottom line: I am reasonably happy with the N7/GP combination, and very pleased with the latest terrain/obstacle additions.
 
I've been ecstatic with the Samsung Galaxy 8.4" S tablet and Garmin Pilot combo, except for this radar overlay glitch. GP has NEVER crashed on this tablet.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
Spent some time at the Yakcave this afternoon and found that previous owner had wired the Aux input for the Garmin GTR200 and placed a regular 3.5mm jack at the headset jacks so I was able to port the GP audio warnings into the ICS channel and the volume issue I noticed the other day using the Aux input on the Clarity Aloft's is gone, great sound although the ICS setup currently mutes 2nd frequency monitor, Copilot and Aux inputs for the primary channel - might play around with the 3D sound and ICS settings but really getting to be pleased with the integration of the tablet into my flying and into the Yak in particular.

'Gimp
 
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