I'd skip that particular unit. I've had at least three false activations, all while sitting on the ground and prior to any flight that day. It's an intermittent issue so near impossible to determine the cause.
I am looking to upgrade to a 406mHz ELT. The ACK E-04 unit says that it can interface with a Garmin GPS through a pair of RS-232 wires (plus a power and ground wire). My question is 'what is the benefit of this interface?'
I have two of those ELTs and never a single issue. Both are also interfaced to GPS's.
Have owned at least three with no issue. As far a turning off the GPS in an emergency, I do believe the ELT will transmit the last signal it had. Now if your on fire and able to fly a hundred miles that could be a problem. I could be wrong on the last signal.
I installed a new E-04 last month. The GPS interfacing looks simple, but checking that it is working (see page 9 install manual) didn't work for me - could not confirm whether the LED flashed or not.
abuura said:Also, fetching the GPS data from a device you would possibly/probably turn off as part of an emergency procedure (master off) obviously provides no benefit. So...even though I put myself through the ***-pain of interfacing the E-04 with my GRT SafeFly GPS, it's probably for nothing in the end.
I was told by an elt manufacturer that the difference with gps was something like a couple dozen meters vs a couple hundred meters, so I chose to skip the hookup. I don't have that in writing though, so take it for what it's worth.
I installed a new E-04 last month. The GPS interfacing looks simple, but checking that it is working (see page 9 install manual) didn't work for me - could not confirm whether the LED flashed or not. Also, fetching the GPS data from a device you would possibly/probably turn off as part of an emergency procedure (master off) obviously provides no benefit. So...even though I put myself through the ***-pain of interfacing the E-04 with my GRT SafeFly GPS, it's probably for nothing in the end.