Garmin vs dual question

[Ozone]

I am curious to know if anyone has experience with the Garmin GDL39 3D and/or the dual XPS 190. I will be using either one in a glider plane and I also favor the use of Bluetooth over Wi-Fi for transmitting the data to my iPhone.

My airplane partner and I have a stratux system that we are going to start using, but it seems as if the Garmin or dual devices might be a little bit more reliable.

Any suggestions or thoughts are welcome.

 

[bkspero]

No experience with the XGPS190, but do use an XGPS170 for ADS-B in with good results for several years. I'm is an area of high ADS-B tower density, so it averages about 3-4 stations at any one time. Can't comment on how it would do in a more sparsely served area.

 

[JohnAJohnson]

I owned a Dual 190 for a year or so and found the ADS-B IN (both UAT and 1090) to be reliable. The box stayed on the glareshield, plugged into a USB power source and never gave me any reliability problems. Not so much the ADHRS features though. I found that when rolling into a turn, the attitude was accurately reflected, but if you maintained the turn for more than a few seconds, the 190 would "false erect" to the new attitude, and when you rolled out to wings level, the device would show you still in a bank. Dangerous, and amateurish to put something like that on the market without at least doing verification of basic functionality. After one other user complained of the same issue, Dual finally realized there was a problem. I sold the unit before they came out with a fix so I don't know if it works properly or not. I also owned a 170 and found it reliable for ADS-B IN.

I have owned a Stratux for the past two years and find it 100% reliable, with ADS-B, GPS position, and ADHRS. It cost a little over $200 on Amazon. To me, is the best value for ADS-B out there.

 

[Ozone]

I have owned a Stratux for the past two years and find it 100% reliable, with ADS-B, GPS position, and ADHRS. It cost a little over $200 on Amazon. To me, is the best value for ADS-B out there.

I have a stratux, but the wifi connection is a pretty big battery suck ( I want to use it in a glider). I can connect it to the main battery, but I am wondering if anyone has switched their stratux to blue tooth for its broadcasting, instead of wifi?

 

[JohnAJohnson]

I keep my Stratux plugged into the cigarette lighter so I haven't noticed the drain from WIFI. I too would like to see more of these devices connect with bluetooth instead of WIFI. Little things, like my tablet unable to automatically connect to an FBOs (or my hangar's) WIFI are totally avoidable if using bluetooth. I think most of these devices started life as WIFI because there were problems and expenses connecting to iOS devices via bluetooth.

 

[MuseChaser]

I haven't found wifi to be an issue as far as battery drain on either my homebrew Stratux or Samsung 8" tablet. Using a 6000mAh battery pack to power the Stratux, three out of the four full charge indicator lights are still lit on the pack after a two hour flight, and there's plenty left on the internal tablet battery, too.
Another plus is the ease with which you can share the Stratux output with others via wifi rather than having to pair devices via blueooth. My wife can use the Stratux data on her tablet, my cfi can use it on his...this could probably done via BT too, but if the BT pairing between my phone and my car is any indication of reliability and bugginess factor, I trust wifi in my plane a LOT more.