Today's Message Index:
----------------------
1. 09:30 AM - Re: Blue Mountain EFIS (Jesse Saint)
2. 11:01 AM - Re: Blue Mountain EFIS (Peter Lythall)
3. 08:24 PM - Interest in new EFIS/EMS (Dan Charrois)
Message 1
| INDEX | Back to Main INDEX |
| NEXT | Skip to NEXT Message |
| LIST | Reply to LIST Regarding this Message |
| SENDER | Reply to SENDER Regarding this Message |
|
| Subject: | Blue Mountain EFIS |
--> Avionics-List message posted by: "Jesse Saint" <jesse@itecusa.org>
Peter,
You might also look into Dynon's new EFIS/EIS combo unit. It should save
some money and will give you both units in one. I just saw it on their
marketing materials, so they should be shipping within a couple of months.
Jesse Saint
I-TEC, Inc.
jesse@itecusa.org
www.itecusa.org
W: 352-465-4545
C: 352-427-0285
F: 815-377-3694
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-avionics-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-avionics-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Peter Lythall
Subject: Avionics-List: Blue Mountain EFIS
--> Avionics-List message posted by: "Peter Lythall" <peter@nortech.bc.ca>
Hello,
I have sorted out my engine requirements and am now planning out my panel. I
have reviewed the Blue Mountain EFIS as well as the Dynon D100. I like the
size and definition of the BM however, the idea of having a Garmin 430,
D100, and a separate EIS sounds like it may be a better idea given that
there are now 3 separate parts as opposed to one. If you have any thoughts
on this I want to spec my panel for IFR - Canadian. There seems to be some
difference between the US and CDN side of things. However, Maurice at
Transport Canada did tell me that according the Canadian Regs we do not
require TCO instruments in the Experimental type aircraft. Any thoughts or
reviews would be appreciated.
Peter Lythall
RV7
Message 2
| INDEX | Back to Main INDEX |
| PREVIOUS | Skip to PREVIOUS Message |
| NEXT | Skip to NEXT Message |
| LIST | Reply to LIST Regarding this Message |
| SENDER | Reply to SENDER Regarding this Message |
|
| Subject: | Blue Mountain EFIS |
--> Avionics-List message posted by: "Peter Lythall" <peter@nortech.bc.ca>
I appreciate the input.
Any one out there using the Blue Mountain that would give it a reference.
I suppose that I am leaning more towards the GRT with a Garmin 430 as the
GPS. However, the Dynon product also looks good. Tough decisions, too bad I
can't convince each one of them to send me a setup to play with. What the
heck, they should have a loaner plane that they send out to prospective
buyers. :)
Oh well, wishful thinking. Any comments on the use of the GRT or the Dynon
or the Blue Mountain would be appreciated.
After reviewing the GRT EFIS, it seems like the one that I like the most. So
I am reviewing the GRT EFIS, a Garmin 430, SL40, and the GRT EIS.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Peter Lythall
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-avionics-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-avionics-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Jesse Saint
Subject: RE: Avionics-List: Blue Mountain EFIS
--> Avionics-List message posted by: "Jesse Saint" <jesse@itecusa.org>
Peter,
You might also look into Dynon's new EFIS/EIS combo unit. It should save
some money and will give you both units in one. I just saw it on their
marketing materials, so they should be shipping within a couple of months.
Jesse Saint
I-TEC, Inc.
jesse@itecusa.org
www.itecusa.org
W: 352-465-4545
C: 352-427-0285
F: 815-377-3694
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-avionics-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-avionics-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Peter Lythall
Subject: Avionics-List: Blue Mountain EFIS
--> Avionics-List message posted by: "Peter Lythall" <peter@nortech.bc.ca>
Hello,
I have sorted out my engine requirements and am now planning out my panel. I
have reviewed the Blue Mountain EFIS as well as the Dynon D100. I like the
size and definition of the BM however, the idea of having a Garmin 430,
D100, and a separate EIS sounds like it may be a better idea given that
there are now 3 separate parts as opposed to one. If you have any thoughts
on this I want to spec my panel for IFR - Canadian. There seems to be some
difference between the US and CDN side of things. However, Maurice at
Transport Canada did tell me that according the Canadian Regs we do not
require TCO instruments in the Experimental type aircraft. Any thoughts or
reviews would be appreciated.
Peter Lythall
RV7
Message 3
| INDEX | Back to Main INDEX |
| PREVIOUS | Skip to PREVIOUS Message |
| NEXT | Skip to NEXT Message |
| LIST | Reply to LIST Regarding this Message |
| SENDER | Reply to SENDER Regarding this Message |
|
| Subject: | Interest in new EFIS/EMS |
--> Avionics-List message posted by: Dan Charrois <danlist@syz.com>
Hi everyone. First of all, let me say that this is still years away
from happening. But I thought I'd put a bit of a feeler out now anyway.
I'm thinking of developing an "all-in-one" glass cockpit. You'd
probably wonder when I'd bother when there are already other good
options available for EFIS / Engine Management Systems, etc. It's
for the same reason we build planes when there are already good ones
available commercially - there is a great sense of satisfaction in
developing something yourself. And besides, that way you can ensure
that it does exactly what *you* want.
First, my background - I have a Bachelor of Science in Electrical
Engineering, Computing Stream, and have spent the past 10 or so years
developing hardened, reliable hardware and software systems. More
recently, I became a private pilot (VFR only at the moment, but that
may change), and even more recently than that, an RV-10 builder. I
also have the luxury of owning my own company (which develops the
aforementioned hardware and software), so I can work on pretty much
whatever project I like. As a result, the decision to develop my own
EFIS/EMS was pretty much made right from the get-go. Though I plan
on doing so for 1. The sheer enjoyment of it, and 2. To make it do
exactly what I'd like it to do, I thought I'd post a note here to see
if there are any others who may be interested in something like this
as well. Not that I expect to get rich from doing so, but if there
is more than one person who can benefit from what I'll be working on,
so much the better. Of course, remember this is years away - I want
to finish the plane I'm currently building first so I'll have
something to test and develop it in. And hardware is going to
continue improve in the meantime, so nothing is set in stone.
So here are the specs of what I'm hoping to accomplish. It won't be
cheap, but then very little in aviation is...:
- A good sunlight-readable display is paramount - perhaps a
transreflective display (or whatever technology is appropriate by
then). Likely 10 inch.
- The processing equipment will be housed in a separate box from the
display
- For stability, reliability, and performance, it won't be running
anything like Windows. Probably a variant of BSD customized for the
purpose, flash memory based (no moving hard drives or something
similar to fail)
- An external watchdog timer would be implemented to automatically
restart the system if it were to fail for any reason
- An internal rechargeable battery would power the unit (and attached
sensors) if desired when the avionics bus is off, or if there is a
power system failure on the aircraft
- CPU and associated hardware would be a ruggedized embedded system/
single board computer with extended temperature operating range (-40
Celsius to +50 Celsius)
- GPS (perhaps with RAIM) would be integrated into the unit
- flight display would include airspeed, altitude, VSI, attitude,
gyro-stabilized magnetic compass, turn coordinator, angle of attack,
G meter, clock, timer, moving map (with various displays, including
high resolution terrain and associated warnings, engine out glide
cones, etc), nearest airport lists, etc. Will be able to
automatically determine things like density altitude, pressure
altitude, TAS, true wind vectors, etc.)
- ability to control com/nav units that provide compatibility through
a serial port.
- engine management capabilities would include tachometer, manifold
pressure, voltmeter, ammeter, oil pressure, oil temperature, fuel
pressure, fuel flow and quantity (with range calculation), CHT, and EGT.
- sensors would include solid state gyros for attitude and
accelerometers mounted in the processing unit, and an external
magnetometer.
- would have serial, analog, and digital ports for interfacing with
other devices, and USB port for upgrades. You could connect it to
lots of external sensors (switches to sense cabin door positions,
gear up or down, flap position, etc.) to be able to display the
status of the aircraft at a glance, and allow the unit to alert you
if anything is wrong. Where possible and practical, opto-isolation
or current limiting devices would be used to isolate external sensing
circuitry so that something like a short in the wires to one sensor
doesn't cause problems for the unit as a whole.
- Would provide altitude encoder output for transponders.
- would be capable of other "non-flight" features, like weight and
balance calculations, "smart" user-definable checklists (appropriate
checklists would be quickly accessible based on the condition the
system considers the aircraft to currently be in), etc.
- ability to set green, yellow, and red "zones" for acceptable values
for any parameter, with or without audio cues. For example, the unit
could be set to pop up warnings (visually and/or auditory) if oil
pressure drops too low, or if you are inadvertently deviating from an
assigned altitude. The limits, as well as the parameters to monitor
in this way would be defined by the pilot
- it has to have a simple user interface that just "makes sense",
trying to be as "intuitive" as possible based on the conditions of
the plane as to the sorts of things you are likely to want to do.
- external ports for pitot and static lines, as well as GPS antenna,
It would also provide serial ports for control of compatible radios,
transponder, etc.
- the system would be continually determining position, velocity, and
acceleration in the 3 linear, as well as the 3 rotational axes. If
anything doesn't pass sanity checks (traveling too fast, too slow, or
too high for your plane's capabilities, if there are sudden
discontinuities in position or velocity, etc, or if pitot/static
sensing doesn't match GPS or gyro and accelerometer calculations
within a reasonable percentage, it would flag a warning to alert you
of the potential unreliability. The good thing is that with three
methods of sensing critical things like altitude and airspeed (pilot/
static, GPS, and accelerometer/gyros), the system in many cases
should be able to determine which components have failed and fall
back on the remaining two methods to continue to operate).
- since the screen is large enough, the pilot could switch from
several customized displays, showing different elements individually
or partitioned off into different virtual windows (of course, if
there was a failure or anomaly in any system, or exceeding limits in
a sensor, it would show a special pop-up display of the problem until
it's fixed or the alert dismissed)
And if that weren't enough, I intend on bundling two separate
computers in the same chassis (both tied into the same set of
sensors), with separate A/D converters, etc. They would communicate
state of the aircraft information continually between each other,
each independently (hopefully) arriving at a similar result. If they
disagreed with one another by more than a certain tolerance level (or
if their companion stops working and no longer is transmitting status
data), again, a warning would be displayed to that effect. The
capability would be there to switch the display to show the output
from either computer if one starts to act up for any reason. And the
side benefit is that with two completely redundant machines, it would
be trivial to drive two independent displays in the cockpit, so you
could have, for example, the primary flight display on the pilot's
side, with engine instruments and moving map on the copilot's side,
or whatever you like. Of course, a second display would be optional
- but the capability would be there.
In short, I want it all :-) I know it sounds like a Christmas wish
list ('tis getting to be the season :-), but since I'll be building
this myself I can make it do whatever seems useful or interesting to
do. As I said, I'm years away from having anything to show for my
plans, but I thought I'd put a (very) early word out. As I said, I'd
be primarily developing this for my own use, but does anyone else out
there think they might be interested in such a system? Obviously, I
don't assume anyone would be committing to anything (I wouldn't even
myself until it got much closer to fruition). But if there is an
interest, and I've missed on something that someone would find
useful, I'm all ears - this is the perfect time. And perhaps more to
the point, if this thing turns out to be as great as I'm planning,
how much would you be willing to pay for one?
Thanks for indulging in this description of my long term project.
Dan
--
Syzygy Research & Technology
Box 83, Legal, AB T0G 1L0 Canada
Phone: 780-961-2213
Other Matronics Email List Services
These Email List Services are sponsored solely by Matronics and through the generous Contributions of its members.
-- Please support this service by making your Contribution today! --
|