I’ve had my Skydemon MD for a week now and I thought I’d post my thoughts on it and suggestions for improvements. Overall it’s a great piece of kit. It integrates with Skydemon Plan seamlessly and I like the configurable airspace, obstruction and terrain warnings. Having NOTAMs displayed on screen is great and it’s invaluable if you suddenly have to divert. I’m not aware of any other gps that displays NOTAMs. I can vouch for the 4 hour battery life. After 3 h 48 min I got the 20% battery warning, and after 4 hours and 5 min it was still running, but I decided to stop the test at that point and charge it up. Now for the not-so-good and suggested improvements:



1.   The screen brightness is still not quite bright enough. I used it in a Firefly yesterday on a bright sunny day. I had it mounted so that it was just to the left of the instrument panel, just below the level of the DI, angled upwards towards my face. It wasn’t too bad with the sun ahead, but on the return flight with the sun behind the screen got really washed out. I could still make out the magenta line, but I couldn’t see the mini-HSI or the data boxes on the left. In full HSI instrument mode I couldn’t see the heading bug. I had my Garmin III GPS mounted on the dash and its black-and-white screen was still crystal clear. I will play around with different positioning next time, but the curved canopy makes suction-mounted options limited. Suggested improvement: have an option to make the data boxes (GS, ETA, etc) on the left bigger and the map smaller. Interestingly, on my Garmin III which only has a 2.75” screen the data boxes are larger than on the Skydemon MD. Also, I would like the option of displaying the fly left/right box (‘Course Correction Indicator’) bigger. These changes would all help in bright sunlight conditions.



2.   I was initially disappointed with the screen resolution. I played around with the demo version in Plan for a while and I was expecting the screen resolution on the actual MD to be the same, but it’s not. It’s more pixelated on the actual unit. The screenshots you see in the ads and on the skydemon website are misleading. But after the initial disappointment I’ve got used to it.



3.   I was also initially disappointed by the touch-screen technology. Having used an iphone quite a bit I was expecting similar sensitivity, but I think the MD uses older generation touch-screen technology that relies on pressure. It takes some getting used to but I’m getting the hang of it and it’s no longer a big issue. Using the back of your nail to scroll works better than using your finger.



4.   In route view the font size of the distance and track is far too small. There’s plenty of space on this screen to make them bigger so this should be a simple fix.



5.   I had the HSI set to give me an ILS with a 3 deg glideslope but it didn’t work flying into Sandown. It didn’t even display the localiser guidance and I couldn’t really troubleshoot it while flying the approach.



6.   On approach to Old Sarum the MD lost its ‘precision fix’ so the aircraft symbol disappeared. I was surprised by this. The unit had a very good view of the sky. I see that I have the option of turning off the ‘precision fix’ but what are the consequences of this? What is the accuracy with ‘precision fix’ turned off?



7.   After the flight I downloaded my tracks into Plan and it was nice to see the vertical profile as well as the track profile. It would be nice to have the option of clicking on the track to see the groundspeed and altitude at any particular point, like you can in Memory Map.



8.   It would be nice to have a simulator mode built-in to the MD. The simulator in Plan is not entirely representative of the MD.



9.   The MD needs a protective case. I’m going to go shopping for one today.



So overall it’s a nice bit of kit, but it suffers in bright sunlight. Having the option of making certain fields bigger should help to alleviate the problem.

Thanks for the feedback, it's always appreciated. Where there are suggestions for future software improvements we always make notes of these and prioritise our development efforts based on the level of demand across our whole customer base. I'll briefly respond to each of your points individually.

1. We're considering a high-contrast map theme, but this is currently just something we are considering. We are also looking at ways to make the screen even brighter.

2. The resolution is perfect for an aviation GPS of this size. We could easily have "upgraded" to 800x480 for a matter of a few cents more, but when you consider there would be around three times as many pixels to redraw every time the map moves, you can see why this isn't the great idea it initially seems. We have an 800x480 5" prototype, and we have played with our competitors' devices with this resolution, and we are very happy with our choice.

3. Resistive touchscreens work differently that capacitative touchscreens. You cannot use capacitative touchscreens (like the iProducts) with gloves on so we decided they are not appropriate for aviation in our case. They are simply different technologies and it's a matter of getting used to your device. We do mention in both the documentation and welcome guide that lightly using the back of a fingernail is a great way of using your Mobile MD, particularly when moving the map around.

4. We'll bear this in mind for the future.

5. We can only present a pseudo-ILS if the exact runway coordinates are part of our data. They are not always available (and verifiable), but I can see that we do have them for Sandown. It's easy to verify using the simulator. If ILS didn't switch on it's either that it was disabled, or you were not within 5 degrees of the extended centreline and flying towards the threshold.

6. We have removed the "require precision fix" checkbox and streamlined some of the GPS input in the forthcoming 2.2.1 version and this may resolve this issue. GPS accuracy is hard to measure but we reflect it roughly speaking with the colour of the GPS satellite icon.

7. You don't need to click; just move your mouse over and observe the status bar.

8. We have never had anybody ask for a simulator mode in the MD. Can you provide some scenarios where this would be useful please?

9. We are working on a protective case option for the Mobile MD.

Hi Tim,

Thanks again for your responses.

1. Yes, a high contrast map theme is a great idea - with the option for larger data boxes and a larger 'fly left/right' arrow please.

2. Yes, the res works fine; it's just not what you see in the ads.

5. The ILS was enabled and I was within 5 degrees.  Maybe I was too high.  I'll try again.

6. Is it okthen to use the MD at the moment with 'Require Precision Fix' de-selected?

7. thanks will try that

8. A simulator mode would be useful for learning how to use the MD and practicing how to use it.  The Plan version was helpful but not entirely representative.  Also, indoors I can't get a good gps signal, so I end up turning the gps off but then you lose the virtual radar.  Maybe a simple gps signal sim like you get on the garmin III would help.

9. Re my other post, the Logik 2.5 hard drive case from Curry's works well.

Stuart

Thanks.

6. Yes

4. Route view.  I agree that the font sizes (or removing of white space and getting more lines showing) would improve this very useful feature.  One small semantic niggle is that it is described as a "view", but in reality there are only two views of Chart or Instrument in SD Mobile 2.2.0 and that selecting "Route View" opens the route page and the Chart or Instrument view remains when you go "back".

A great real practical use of this page when I was transiting Solent yesterday and they asked me to route via "Totton" and "Romsey", the Garmin 430s didn't have them, but a quick insert on SD mobile quickly established our revised routing. Great product even when you are flying a fully loaded plane of screens, gpses etc.

One further suggestion for route view, is to scroll to show current leg at top when opening.  Slightly annoying to have to scroll down to see the current and future legs which are the most important when in flight.

I can confirm that some of the font sizes in the Route View have been increased and that the current leg is ensured visible when the window is opened, ready for the forthcoming 2.2.1 version.