GRT Avionics

Good Day,

I recently was reading a page on the GRT website regarding your previous work with the HUDLY HUD Systems. I was fortunate enough to find a retailer that has about 20 of them NIB and I purchased one. Just received, very nice... it is the HUDLY Wireless Smart Head-UP Display (HUD).

I was speaking with Jon (GRT) and he pointed me to your documentation. This is where I found out I needed your "Compute Stick Package". Jon looked in back room and could not find any and of course this is a discontinued product line from HUDLY so you guys are not getting more in.
I understand I can simply use an Android Tablet with the GRT app on it, however do not wish to carry ANOTHER tablet around if I do not have to (and I am an Apple guy lol).

1. Can you advise which "Android Computer Stick" you used and I will search the normal sites for it? Or, can you check this one out and advise if this would work? Jon said if I can find one, I can send to you guys and have you upload your software/firmware to make it work.

https://tinyurl.com/Android-Computer-Stick

2. I would also like to know if you could reference a proper power supply and dongles/cables (or the info for the ones you used) also so I can try to source since I cannot get from you per above.

3. See photos: Can you advise if the "Computer Stick" in #1 above would replace the HDMI stick that came with the HUDLY and is shown in the photo of the back of the unit...or would the Android Computer stick simply be placed "in line"?


Photos of unit attached...

Thank you!

Gary E
VELOCITY XLRG
ARB, MI

That's not the Hudly in the diagram. Hudly made multiple systems over a few generations. The first one that is now sometimes known as the Hudly Classic was just a projector and it performed the best. Later they made the "Wireless" variant that didn't work as well. We have some of the Hudly classic projectors in stock but we don't have all the other stuff that goes with them. We were able to adapt some generic power and video cables for the classic projector, but we don't know anything about the Wireless model. We never sold or stocked that one. The classic projector wants a Mini-USB OTG Host cable (ID pin grounded) with vehicle/aircraft power on it (12-14V).

The biggest problem, as you are now finding out, is getting an Android device that can run our software and output it to the projector with HDMI (direct video for best performance). Hudly didn't make Android sticks and had nothing to do with them. The Hudly was made for cars with an app running on a phone. There were many generic Android TV sticks with MK809 chips on the market for several years that were popular for TV use, and they happened to have Bluetooth (or could use USB Bluetooth) and standard Android so they could run our software instead of a phone/tablet with all the special adapters they require. We would buy some and load our software on them. For whatever reason that line of products dried up. The last ones we tried wouldn't work.

An Android stick needs to be able to install and run our app at the projector's resolution, and connect to an EFIS with Bluetooth. There is no way to know if any of the devices you find will work without trying them. These devices are meant to run TV and streaming video apps on full size TVs with a remote control so this is far from their intended market.

We had a customer with advanced computer skills say they were able to get a Raspberry Pi 4 to run Android with our app, so that's probably the best long-term option, but we don't have time right now to try to make those work ourselves.