Matt's RV-8 Project



Matt Dralle's RV-8 Project
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Date:  4-26-2009
Number of Hours:  8.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Ameri-King AK-451 ELT w/ GPS Input - Part 4

The good news is that with the Aviation format at 9600 baud, the AK-451 ELT is successfully receiving the GPS position data. When triggered, the AK-451 ELT outputs a 30-byte data string that it transmits to the 406MHz satellite. In this 30 bytes is an encoding of the current LAT/LON received from the GPS. The ELT is always taking this information and storing it in flash so that once you've "crashed" and the ELT is triggered, it will continue to transmit the last know LAT/LON position. Supposedly its good to about 33'!

You can take the 30-byte string output from the ELT and plug it into the COSPAS/SARSAT web site:

http://www.cospas-sarsat.org/Beacons/decode.htm
It will decode the 30 bytes and give you exactly what would be given to the rescue team. I took the 30 bytes the ELT was outputting via the serial port in test mode and plugged it into the web site above and got a Lat of 37.68666666666667 Degrees North and Lon of 121.7388888888889 Degrees West along with some other data. Cool!

30-Byte Hex String: 97142CC6BA25EF3A2C1D750F00A7AD

But what could be cooler than that? If you go to Google Maps and put those coordinates in, it points you right to my RV-8 workshop!!! Check this link out:

30 Byte Data Decode Put Into Google Maps
Unbelievable; especially considering that those GPS coordinates came from my GPS modules while the plane is sitting here in the workshop with less that stellar antenna reception!
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ELT Mounted and Wired Up

ELT Mounted and Wired Up

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ELT Antenna Wiring (In Bundle) & Antenna Mounted

ELT Antenna Wiring (In Bundle) & Antenna Mounted

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ELT Antenna Mounted

ELT Antenna Mounted

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