To communicate with MGL EFIS systems, the baud rate will have to be changed on the tailBeaconX to accommodate the 9600 baud rate that MGL systems use for the STX-165 transponder protocol. By default MGL sets the baud rate for this protocol at 9600, while tailBeaconX defaults at a baud rate of 2400.
**To perform this adjustment, a Windows 7 or higher operating system is required**
1: Connect to tailBeaconX
Apply power to the tailBeaconX (12-28V) and open up your wi-fi settings menu on the Windows computer. Connect to the network labeled as “Beacon-XXXX” with XXXX being a unique alphanumerical code assigned to your unit. Once connected, you may get a notification that says “No internet may be available.” This is completely normal, as the tailBeaconX uses wi-fi for programming communication and does not contain internet protocols.
2: Connecting to the Ping20XS control app
After verifying a connection has been made to the wi-fi, we then will open the Ping 20XS control app, you can download the app here:
https://uavionix.com/downloads/ping200x/ping200x_27.exe
Open the Ping20XS control app, it will place you on the “Control” tab by default, and this is seen in the upper left-hand corner. Directly under the “Control” tab there is a selection for “COM settings,” make sure that “Network” is selected as the “Conn Type.”
After making the selection to “Network,” we will then select the “Start” button to begin communication with the tailBeacon X.
You should now see the empty field at the bottom of the programmer start to populate with messages received from the tailBeaconX.
3: Changing the serial baud rate
Once tailBeaconX messages are observed in the communication field, we will now select the “Configuration” tab found in the top left corner of the app, next to the “Control” tab selection.
After selecting this tab, navigate down to the selections for “Get Configuration” and “Send Configuration.” Click on the “Get Configuration” button to load the current tailBeaconX configuration into the app. After loading configuration, we will then change the “Serial Port Baud Rate” to a rate of 9600.
Once the baud rate selection has been made, click the “Send Configuration” button. This will set the new baud rate for the tailBeaconX and we can now connect to the MGL EFIS via the TX/RX serial communication lines.
