Tango Kit Built Composite Aircraft ... EFIS 1200 Info

EFIS 1200

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Complete Electronic Instrument Panel for Experimental Aircraft for $8,500

Displays: Dual Custom 12.1" Displays Optimized for aviation applications - 2000 NIT High contrast (1000:1) sunlight readable - 4 times brighter than other displays. Dual 3D Graphics Display processor.

CPU Processor module: (5" x 10" x 2"), 1 Ghz Pentium Processor, 512 MB Ram, 4 GB Flash Memory Solid State Drive.

MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP EMBEDDED OS: optimized specifically for extremely high reliability use with solid-state drives - during operation system uses only ram memory - system does not write to solid-state drive during normal operation.

TRACKBALL USER INTERFACE, 9 USB PORTS, RS232 SERIAL PORT, PARALLEL PORT, STEREO AUDIO PROCESSOR, ETHERNET INTERFACE.

Sensor Modules: Modular system - all modules use USB interface and plug into processor module with single USB cable.

eGYRO-GC PLUS GADAHRS Module: Gyro, Artificial Horizon, Turn Rate, Slip Skid Ball, Air data, Airspeed, Altitude, Rate of Climb, Mag compass, Magnetic Heading, Slaved Directional Gyro/HIS.

GPS Receiver Module: 20 Channel GPS Receiver.

eMON Data Interface Module: Engine interface module: Fuel Flow, Fuel Levels, Manifold Pressure, Tach, System Voltage, Oil temps and Pressures, CHT and EGT sensors.

XMWX Receiver Module: XM satellite weather receiver, requires weather data link subscription from XM radio.

Software: EFIS display software: Displays flight instruments simultaneously as EFIS and "Round Gauge" displays. -eMON engine display software: Displays engine instruments simultaneously on analog and digital gauges.

- True Map GPS software: Full GPS navigation system, with instrument approaches and weather display.

- All flight and engine data can be continuously logged to an optional USB thumb drive. Over 1000 hours of flight data can be continuously logged (10 data points per second or faster) to a singe USB thumb drive.

Environmental Specifications:

· 6-28 VOLT POWER SUPPLY

· 20 to 70 DEGREE C OPERATING TEMP RANGE

· 1,000 to 200,000 FT OPERATING ALT RANGE

· 0 to 98% OPERATING HUMIDITY RANGE

· 100% SOLID STATE COMPONENTS - NO MOVING PARTS

OPTIONS

Traffic Alert System: Includes hardware and software module (uses Zaon module) Provides realtime display of nearby aircraft positions, including direction and altitude.

MountainScope 3D synthetic vision moving map software.

SINGLE OR MULTIPLE DISPLAY OPTIONS (UP TO 6 SIMULTANEOUS DISPLAYS) 6.5 TO 15 INCH DISPLAYS, 3 GHZ PENTIUM PROCESSOR, MULTIPLE CPU PROCESSOR MODULES, DUAL GADAHRS, 2 MB RAM, 32 GB SOLID STATE MEMORY, 1GB USB THUMB DRIVE, 8 GB USB THUMB DRIVE, BLUETOOTH WIRELESS, WIRELESS LAN, WIRELESS WAN, VIDEO IN/OUT, SYNTHETIC VISION SYSTEMS, HUD, AUTOPILOT INTERFACE, AUTOPILOT SERVOS, KEYBOARD, JOYSTICK INTERFACE.

EFIS 1200 FAQ's

1. What are the operating limits, such as altitude, temperature, voltage, attitude, and other conditions that can break it?

· 6-28 VOLT POWER SUPPLY

· 20 to 70 DEGREE C OPERATING TEMPERATUE RANGE

· 1000 TO 200,000 FT OPERATING ALTITUDE RANGE

· 0 TO 98% OPERATING HUMIDITY RANGE

· 100% SOLID STATE COMPONENTS - NO MOVING PARTS

· No attitude limitations - works through any attitude - can handle 100 G's and roll/pitch rates greater than 1000 degrees/second, WITHOUT ANY DAMGE.

2. How do you avoid problems that similar systems have had, at any price?

The system uses all industrial "off the shelf" proven components that have been proven in the industrial instrumentation marketplace for over 15 years. We do ot "reinvent the wheel" by trying to design components, such as processor boards, displays, etc. Instead we rely on use of existing proven components.

3. How long have the individual components been in use in the field?

All components have been used in the field - in aircraft applications for over 10 years. Some of the components have been used for industrial and medical instrumentation applications for over 15 years.

4. Can the system lock up in flight and how do you fix it?

Any system can lock up in flight. The system runs from "read only" solid state memory, so if a lockup occurs, you simply turn the system off and then back on again. System will come back online in less than one minute.

5. Is there an equivalent of a cage button?

The system performs automatic continuous calibration so a cage button is not needed. Aerobatic maneuvers do not cause any damage to the system so there is no need to cage the system.

6. Can you perform an inflight alignment?

The system performs automatic continuous calibration so an inflight alignment is not really needed, but the system does have a feature to allow inflight alignment. The system performs a manual inflight alignment in approximately 15 seconds.

7. How many input channels are there and what does that mean to me?

The system is modular. All modules use a USB interface. Each USB module can have up to 128 input channels. The system can support up to 128 USB modules, so the maximum number of input channels for the system (without customization) is 16,384. This means that the system has an unprecedented amount of input channels and can be configured for virtually any engine, or aircraft application. Also the system can be easily modified to add future features without any changes to the basic system. To add new features, you just plug in a new USB module to add the desired feature. For example to add a traffic warning function, you simply plug the traffic warning USB module into the system and load the appropriate software module. No other changes are required. This is true for any other functional modules you wish to add to the system in the future. Since the system uses modular USB components, it can be easily enhanced by simple addition of new USB components to add new features. In many cases this just requires connecting the new feature module to the system with a single USB cable, as the USB cable provides the power and data interface in a single cable.

8. What failure would take out one and then both screens? What are the odds?

The basic system uses a single processor box, which contains a single power supply and solid-state disk drive. Damage to the power supply or solid-state disk drive will take out both screens. The MTBF of the power supply is over 50,000 hours. The MTBF of the solid-state disk drive depends on if the drive is allowed to be written to. If the drive is written to, the MTBF of the solid-state disk drive can be less than 1000 hours. To address this issue the system uses a proprietary enhancement to the software operating system which uses the disk drive in "read only mode" when the system is used in the aircraft. The MTBF of the solid-state disk drive in this mode is greater than 50,000 hours. This unique proprietary enhancement eliminates any damage to the solid-state disk drive during normal operation, even in the event the system is randomly powered off, or even when power spikes occur. In summary, a hard failure that would permanently take out both screens should not occur within 50,000 hours. A soft failure may occur, but this failure will be recoverable by simply turning off the system power and then turning the system back on. The system will power back up within one minute.

Each screen is driven by an independent display driver, each display and driver has an MTBF of greater than 50,000 hours, so a hard failure should not occur within approximately 50,000 hours. The most likely cause of failures is a loose wiring connector. The reliability of these connections is a function of the quality of the system installation process. A well installed system should work for the life of the aircraft. There are no life limited components.

Because of the large amount of configurability of the system, the most likely failures will be operator induced, where the system configuration is modified by the operator to an inoperable configuration. The risk of this problem must be minimized by appropriate operator training, and possibly, by limiting the number of system options/configurations. The most likely failure mode is damage to the software files on the solid-state disk drive. This is mitigated by use of a proprietary software lock, which does not allow the disk drive to be written to during system operation. This very effectively eliminates the most predominant failure mode associated with other systems that are currently on the market. The design philosophy of the system is the KISS principle which basically says to keep the system design as simple as possible. If a function is not needed, then it should be eliminated to prevent any unnecessary failure modes. For this reason the system does not have a mechanical hard disk drive, does not have a CD drive, or keyboard.

9. What does 20 channel GPS mean?

The GPS receiver has 20 active GPS channels, this means that theoretically the system can track and receive up to 20 satellites simultaneously. The more satellites that the system can receive, the more accurate and reliable it will be. A 20 channel GPS is approximately 25% more accurate and reliable than a 16 channel GPS system. It should be noted that the Garmin G1000 uses only a 16 channel GPS, so essentially the EFIS 1200 provides up to 25% better GPS reliability and accuracy than does a Garmin G1000.

10. How do you calibrate items such as the fuel gauges?

A calibration program is used to do this.

11. How do you adjust limits such as cht, oil temperature?

A calibration and setup program is used to do this.

12. How do I add the second software option later on if I decide I want it? (Mountain Scope or True Flight).

For reliability reasons the system does not have a CD drive, so to install any additional software you simply copy the CD (or any other desired software source) to a USB thumb drive. You use a PC to copy the software to a USB thumb drive. You then connect the USB thumb drive to one of the EFIS 1200 USB ports. You then "UNLOCK" the EFIS 1200. This enables "write" access to the EFIS 1200 solid-state drive. You then install and configure the software. Upon completion of the software installation you then "LOCK" the EFIS 1200. This locks the EFIS 1200 solid-state drive. When the drive is locked the system can no longer write to the drive, ensuring that it can't be inadvertently damaged during normal operation. You have now added your new software option to the system. This same technique can be used to update software databases.

13. This sounds too good to be true for the price. How do you do it?

Use the KISS principle, use proven "off the shelf" components, do not reinvent the wheel, keep our business overhead low (e.g. no expensive advertising), use a modular design that uses previously designed modules (this greatly minimizes engineering costs). We developed proprietary Windows XP embedded software enhancements to enable reliable use of an "open" PC system design approach, so the system can use third party PC software applications (such as TrueMap and MountainScope). Use of our proprietary Windows embedded operating system enhancements eliminates the reliability problems associated with using the Windows OS in aviation applications. This unique system design approach enables reliable systems to be cost effectively developed. These systems allow easy, low cost future enhancements through the use of new PC based aviation software applications that are currently being developed by many companies around the world.

In summary, our systems essentially have a worldwide community of software developers working for them. Virtually any aviation software developed for the Windows OS can be run on our systems. Our proprietary OS enhancements ensure that this third party software runs more reliably than it would on a conventional PC system. This enables us to provide truly state-of-the-art EFIS system without the need to employ a large engineering staff. This provides our customers with the lowest possible cost state-of-the-art EFIS systems, which are easily upgradeable. Unlike competitors systems, our EFIS products are not obsolete the day the first one is sold. Our EFIS systems allow new features and technologies to be added by simply plugging in new hardware and software modules.

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