I modified the earlier Airconnect (one with a pin code). This was done using the user interface described for the Microchip WiFly module used in these earlier units. I turned off the detection of LF (0xA) and set it to instead send out a Wifi packet when there was a gap of 100ms or more in the datastream to force it to send the GPS data in fewer, bigger chunks. This seemed to work OK on the ground - capturing the input data to Airconnect from flarm and also the output data on wifi and comparing the two showed no differences whereas with the original set-up it had occasional errors. (The newer Airconnect unit without a pin code had errors every few seconds. This uses a design from a German company In-Circuit and is not configurable afaik ).
Our gliding airfield has been flooded for a while and so I only managed to fly with the modified Airconnect once. Whilst it was 100% reliable on the ground. it still caused a Skydemon error in the air during the flight - when I was close to some busy airspace, close to patchy cloud and a bit stressed. This was with a Powerflarm Core. I haven't tried it again.
I gave up at that point and bought some serial to Wifi adapters from ebay and used them to replace the Airconnects on both of the aircraft I fly with Skydemon - a Falke motorglider and an AA5. I tested the adaptor at home in the same way as the Airconnect units and didn't see any data loss or corruption. I also tried a second different Taiwanese adaptor and that worked OK too.
When I tried it last week in the AA5 with a Powerflarm (FlarmBat) it was perfect for the whole 1 hour flight. We had two android tablets running Skydemon connected to it as my passenger also used his. Both worked perfectly and showed all of the traffic as expected. It worked 100% reliably on the ground when tested - no data corruption. .
The adaptor I used is this one:
(I did try another adaptor from Taiwan as well and that worked fine too)
It’s simple enough to program it to emulate the Airconnect protocol – 192.168.1.1 and Port 2000. I set it to detect a gap in the serial data of greater than 100ms and send a Wifi packet out. I used a 9 way D-Type to rj15 adapter and then a bit of rj15-rj15 cable (6p6c) was quick and easy to knock up. It only needs +12V, 0V, TXdata and Rxdata connected.
A suitable adaptor plug is here:
I've chased Airconnect a few times but they don't have a fix for their units. Having said that several people seem to have them working without any issues - even on Powerflarms. Things tend to go wrong when I go near them I guess. Life it just too short to sort out other people's mistakes though.
Alastair