Dynon Playback

From Eastham Labs LLC

Play back and visualize Dynon Avionics serial data

All Dynon products continuously transmit their data on the serial lines -- the same lines you use to update the software and checklists. When I was preparing my engine for first start, I figured I'd be too busy to clearly remember everything that happened, so I wrote this program which will play back that data, second-by-second.

Initially, it worked only for EMS data, but it was easy enough to extend it to handle the EFIS output as well.

This program was written in Python -- binaries are provided for Windows, and if you know a thing or two about Python you can probably get it running on other platforms as well. You'll need to download wxPython if you're not using Windows.

How to Use

Sorry, no fancy installer yet. Download the zip file and extract it somewhere. Inside the "Dynon Playback" directory, you will find "playback.exe"; run it.

Now open a Dynon data file with File->Open EMS Log or File->Open EFIS Log. Two example files are provided, EMS_SAMPLE_DATA.dat and EFIS_SAMPLE_DATA.dat .

Then hit Playback->Start, and enjoy. You can surf around in the data by moving the scrollbar at the bottom.

(If you want to run it natively in python, perhaps on some other OS, just execute "playback.py" in the src directory.)

Downloads

Current version 0.9: download .zip (Windows + source code)

How To Capture Data

Hyperterminal, standard with Windows, seems to work ok. Baud rate is 115200, the other settings are standard. Use the "log to file" option.

If you're looking for a more compact (in-flight?) solution, you might take a look at the Spark Fun Logomatic Serial SD Datalogger. I've ordered one but haven't received it yet; hopefully it will work too.

History

Feedback

If you have ideas about how to improve this program, or if you improve it yourself, please let me know! I'm at eastham (at) gmail.com.

License

GPL. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
Last modified: Mon Feb 26 11:48:28 PST 2007