Introduction.............................................................................. 1

Basic Operation....................................................................... 2

Sound..................................................................................... 4

Graph Display Selection............................................................ 5

Basic Displays..................................................................... 5

Altitude vs. Time 5

Temperature 5

Lapse Rate 5

Airspeed.............................................................................. 5

Glide Path 5

Airspeed 5

Glide Polar 5

Global Positioning System.................................................... 5

Travel Path 6

Groundspeed 6

Groundpolar 6

Using Radio Buttons to Facilitate Display Navigation............... 6

Calibration and Configuration..................................................... 7

Alarms................................................................................ 7

Select Aircraft 7

Select Alarm 7

Sound Selection 8

Alarm Threshold 8

Notes on alarms 8

Pitot Tube Installation............................................................... 9

GPS Connection...................................................................... 9

RS-232 Serial Connection 10

OEM Interface 10

Troubleshooting Serial Connections 10

Frequently Asked Questions.................................................... 11

History................................................................................... 12

GameBoy® is a registered trademark of Nintendo Corporation
FlyBoy is a trademark of Robert Ramey Flight Instruments

Introduction

The Flyboy vario is a flight instrument for hang glider and paraglider pilots. It is packaged as cartridge compatible with a Nintendo GameBoy® game player. It can be inserted into almost any GameBoy® to create a full featured flight instrument.

Basic Operation

With power off, insert the FlyBoy vario cartridge as you would any GameBoy® game. Attach the nylon pitot tube and orient it in the desired direction. Turn on the power. The FlyBoy starts with a calibration phase which lasts about 30 seconds. During this time one should keep the instrument sheltered from windy conditions. After about 30 seconds, the display should look like this.

· Vario – a “sliding” scale indicating climb/sink rate in either 100’s of feet per minute or meters per second. When the instrument is turned on – this will show 0 at the pointer.

· Altitude – will show altitude to the nearest foot or meter.

· Graph Display will be blank except for a “clock” icon in the lower left hand corner and a “creeping” line from the right which will advance at one dot per second. The icon identifies this display as altitude vs. time. The line shows relative altitude for the last 128 seconds at the rate of one dot per meter change.

The vario is now ready to use.

Sound

Whenever an increase in altitude is detected, the Flyboy will emit a beeping sound through the GameBoy® speaker or headphones. As climb rate increases, the beeps will increase in frequency and pitch. When sink rate is below 600 feet per minute, an AAAOOGA sound is emitted. The volume can be adjusted by means of the volume control on the GameBoy®. If this volume is not sufficient, the best solution is to purchase a booster speaker. Search the web for “GameBoy® sound accessories” to find one appropriate to your GameBoy®.

Graph Display Selection

Basic Displays

All FlyBoy varios include the following three basic displays. One can navigate between the displays using the left/right buttons of the GameBoy joypad.

Altitude vs. Time

Altitude vs Time

Temperature

Lapse Rate

Altitude vs. Time

Each vertical dot represents one meter of altitude change. Each horizontal dot represents one second. The graph is 128 dots wide so this graph shows the climb and sink for the last 128 seconds. A 45 degree slope will correspond to 1 meter per second (180 feet per minute).

Temperature

Current temperature in degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius.

Lapse Rate

Temperature vs. Altitude. Each vertical dot represents 10 meters of altitude and each horizontal dot represents 1/16 degree Celsius. Since the graph is 96 dots high, this shows the temperature for the 960 meters (3168 feet) around the current altitude.

Airspeed

If the pitot tube is installed and airspeed sensing is enabled, the following displays are also available. One can navigate to between this group and the basic one with the up/down joypad buttons

Glide Path

Airspeed

Glide Polar

Glide Path

This is similar to the Altitude vs. Time graph above. The difference is that each dot on the horizontal axis represents 10 meters (33 feet) travel through the air at the current airspeed. So the slope of the line will represent the current glide ratio and, by implication, current Lift/Drag ratio of the glider. Using this display, the pitch of the glider can be adjusted to maximize the glide ratio. Note that the vertical scale is 1 meter per dot while the horizontal scale is 10 meters per dot. So a glider with a glide ratio of 10 to 1 will show 45 degree angle on this display. Also note that this display will vary in lift and sink and be can be used to maximize glide in these conditions. However, wind direction is NOT taken into account. So if there is significant head or tail wind, the glide ratio shown in this display will be significantly different than glide over the ground.

Airspeed

Current airspeed in either miles or kilometers per hour. Note that this is a very accurate measure of airspeed. This can be verified by walking with the instrument indoors and reading your airspeed. It can be handy for checking wind direction before launching.

Glide Polar

To Do.

Global Positioning System

If a GPS unit has been connected to the FlyBoy and GPS option has been enabled, the following group of displays are available. One navigates

Travel Path

Groundspeed

Ground Polar

Travel Path

This is the true glide path over the ground. It is differs from the glide path in that the horizontal distance is taken from the GPS input. Adjusting glider pitch to “flatten” the slope of this line will maximize distance traveled over the ground for the current air conditions. That is, Lift/Sink as well as Tail/Head wind will be taken into account. The path traced by the graph is the path the glider follows as seen from the ground.

Groundspeed

Speed and compass heading over the ground as determined by the GPS.

Groundpolar

To do.

Using Radio Buttons to Facilitate Display Navigation

So far we’ve described three groups of displays of three displays each. One can navigate from group to group via the up/down buttons on the joypad. The small icon on the lower left of the graph display indicates which group is currently selected. Within a group one can change displays via the left/right buttons on the joypad. That is, the displays are arranged as a three by three table selects the next display with one of the joy pad buttons. This is easy enough to do in flight. To make this even easier, one can assign each of the A and B radio buttons to one’s favorite displays. Once such an assignment is made, one can jump directly to the display with one press of the assigned radio button. Pressing the same radio button again will return to the original location.

To assign a radio button to a particular display:

· Navigate to the desired display.

· Hold down the desired radio button.

· Press and release the “Select” button.

· Release the radio button.

Calibration and Configuration

		Calibrate altitude. Use up/down on joy pad to adjust current altitude.
	32	Calibrate airspeed. Note that this has to be done while flying with GPS on a still day. Best to start out with the factory settings.
		Select foreground color.
		Select background color.
		Select English or metric units.
	(see below)	Configure alarms

The Flyboy can be configured to taste. Enter configuration mode by pressing the Select button on the GameBoy®. One of the icons in the left hand column will be displayed. Using the up/down buttons on the joy pad, move up and down through the icons until the row corresponding to the desired setting is selected. Now navigate to the right to select this setting for modification. At this point, the display will match the second column. Using the up/down buttons, alter the setting as desired. When finished, return to the first column with the left arrow. At any time, one can return to normal operation by pressing Start.

Alarms

The FlyBoy has a complete set of alarms. These alarms are pre-configured to common settings. However, many pilots will want to set these alarms according to their own requirements. To begin the process of setting the alarms, navigate to the right from the alarm icon on the configuration screen (above).

Select Aircraft

To change the settings of one or more alarms, navigate to the right from the alarm configuration icon. The FlyBoy maintains four sets of alarms – one for each type of aircraft. This permits multi-wingual pilots to switch from one group of settings to another just by selecting a different aircraft. The last aircraft selected determine which settings are to be used. Navigate up/down to select a particular aircraft type.

	Hang Glider
	Paraglider
	Balloon
	Sailplane

Select Alarm

Now navigate to the right to select which alarm you want to configure. By navigating up/down will select the desired alarm from the following table