30 May 2013 and new SAR Grid Downloads

The 30 May 2013 VFR charts, and approach plates are all updated. Additionally, we've added SAR grids as an option for our downloadable charts. This is the CAP(Conventional) and Cell Grid system we have available on our CONUS on-line charts now available for download. You can find them by going here: Chart Download choosing a format to download in the left box(KML/KMZ, OruxMaps, RMaps, or PDF) and the chart type on the right side, the gridded versions are at the bottom of the list for the 3 VFR chart types. And then click the 'Show Charts' button. For non-cropped charts the grids will extend into the margins due to limitations of our system. Like all of our charts these are created from the up to date versions currently loaded on our system. Grids are currently only available for the lower 48 states.

iPad Mini Power Use

After seeing several discussions of power use on tablets, I decided to start measuring some of mine. I have a 32GB iPad Mini WiFi only.

Testing Methodolgy:
Waited for iPad to charge fully when powered off to mostly remove battery charging impact. Used Garmin GLO and house WiFi access point(2.4GHz) for testing.

Result Summary:
Highest power user was the backlight, tripling the idle power when changed from minimum to maximum. Next highest was when CPU was at high load(moving screen quickly). WiFi and BT used minimal power except during large transfers(some of that was probably CPU not directly WiFi).

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Mode	Wireless	Amps	Watts
Min Backlight/Home Screen	Off	0.20	1.03
Max Backlight/Home Screen	Off	0.59	3.04
Home Screen	Wifi On	0.59	3.04
WiFi Download	WiFi On	0.68	3.50
BT Settings Screen	BT On, Discoverable	0.61	3.14
Home Screen	BT On, No Devices	0.59	3.04
Home Screen Garmin GLO	BT On	0.59	3.04
WingX Garmin GLO, Stationary	BT On	0.62	3.17
WingX Garmin GLO, Moving Map quickly by hand	BT On	0.78	3.98
WingX Sim via WiFi, Stationary	WiFi On	0.62	3.18
WingX Sim via WiFi, 170 Kts, Zoomed In	WiFi On	0.62	3.19

Notes: After Minimum Backlight test all were done with Backlight on Maximum. 'Sim via WiFi' is driving WingX via WiFi data from X-Plane.