ADS-B in and out for under $1000

The FAA made a reasonable choice. Well, it was forced upon them, because of their own rules. The ADS-B specs were written such that certified ADS-B solutions must be installed using a supplemental type certificate (STC) process. There are some aircraft that aren't "type certificated", including experimental aircraft, that could be supplemented. The FAA has changed the rules to allow aircraft without type certificates to have avionics installed that are not certified to the technical standards order (TSO). Most nav/com radios in GA aircraft do not have TSO'd radios, but the FAA wrote the ADS-B rule to mandate TSO'd ADS-B equipment. TSO'd equipment is required on aircraft used for commercial operations.

To obtain the TSO, requires certification from the FAA. As things are, there are tests to be taken and paperwork to file, and the process takes time, and money to complete. That money ends up raising the price of the equipment beyond the bill of material (BOM) costs. In the end, you and I pay for this certification. The ADS-B equipment manufacturers were including this in the price we paid for the UAT or transponder.

Now without the need for the TSO certification, the equipment manufacturers should be able to sell equipment for a little less. One manufacturer, so far, has taken this to an extreme. NavWorx will sell a UAT for $699 for a limited time for experimental aircraft. This device is ADS-B UAT in and out, with built in GPS.   The data can be connected RS-232, Bluetooth or WiFi to a display including mode manufacturers MFDs and Tablets.

It will need a couple antennas, one for the UAT and the other for the GPS. There will need some "baro" aiding, to allow accurate altitude reporting. The baro input can come from the transponder encoder if it includes RS-232 output, or can come from a specific NavWorx TransMonSPE device for another $169.

Hopefully this is the start of the flood, but in the mean time, this is certainly welcome news. I knew it was possible, and hopefully NavWorx will keep going offering even better devices, at reasonable prices.

You gonna buy one? I am pretty sure I will.

Doing The Annual Inspection

The weather is getting nice, and I am wanting to work on the plane again. It should be put in condition to fly, and that requires an annual condition inspection. My airplane, being an experimental, and built by me mostly, I have the ability to do my own conditional inspection and sign it off. It hasn't flown for almost 3 years, so I haven't done a complete conditional inspection for some of those years. This one is going to be thorough, I am in no hurry to actually fly.

I've got everything opened up. There are items that need repair (IE drip rail in the front that I broke while storing a box inside the plane), and other things that need a good looking at. I am changing the oil, and sent a sample off to a lab for analysis, to be sure the last couple years of dis-use hasn't done significant damage to the engine. The lab will test the oil for elevated levels of metals that may be early signs of engine damage.

I am looking at the firewall extensively for the engine monitor, and where to attach the monitoring computer.  Most of the smaller wires between the engine and the firewall are for sensors. The wires around the oil filter are oil temperature and pressure sensors. The silvery wires are EGT/CHT thermocouple wires. Under the engine are the fuel pressure wires.  There are the ammeter wires on either side of the shunt (that is a bit of old fashioned technology).

In the annual inspection, I found the ammeter light is burned out. This light is only needed for night flying, since I can see the instruments during the day. Each engine instrument has it's own light bulb, so I am 1/6th of the way through needing to replace them all. It'll be good to replace all the engine instruments with a smart box to monitor all this, as well as display current state.

I've started on the bluetooth code. That is a bigger challenge than I thought, mostly because the Android emulator doesn't support bluetooth. I need to keep my phone plugged in and use that for the tester. It isn't bad, but the phone has lots going on, so the log files scroll fast (and this is my only phone right now.

Soon the annual will be done, and hopefully about that time, I'll be ready to put my arduino in the plane, and start testing some of this. In the mean time, I've ordered another arduino, a mega 256. It seemed I ordered that the same day the arduino zero came out. Why am I messing with 8 bit micros when 32 bitters are about the same price? I don't know, comfort maybe, or maybe it is all I need, the 32bits may not get me anything. (The zero only has the same number of IO pins as an uno, so there isn't a big win yet, some day there may be a mega zero, until then, I'll keep using the mega).

The Future of Avionics.

In the last two weeks a couple articles have hit my in box, showing me why the avionics market is about to make a huge change. The current system of all-in-one boxes is not gonna work, and we need to accept that. It is time to go component with the avionics.

The electronics in the boxes have a life. They don't really wear out, unless you believe in the smoke theory of electronics. The other parts do wear out, knobs, displays, and other mechanical parts. The manufacturers aren't making some of the components any more (chips, knobs, etc). J. Mac McClellan who writes a great blog for the EAA pointed out that the Garmin radios are starting to go obsolete. So 10 or 15 years ago, you spent $20,000 updating the panel in your airplane, and now you need a new radio. There are no slide in replacements, so do you glue on something for now, until you can afford a whole nuther panel?

Another company was mentioned in the Canard Squadron email I get where they are using Android tablets and phones for a PFD. The company is called Talos Avionics. The product is a-efis, and can be bought today! No nothing certified, but probably good enough for daily use, with steam gauges as backups. Sure why you can't use certified instruments as backups to your non-certified panel? Well, the non-certified panel is more functional.

Another project I am working on is based on the STMF429 discovery board. This board has a display, CPU, gyros and accelerometers, and costs under $25. Have a look at the picture on page 9, and how detailed the graphics are. Why couldn't a small AI or better device be built for about $100 using this technology. It would be aviation throw away ($100 hamburger range). Right now any hole in the panel will cost at least $500 to get filled. The 6 pack that IFR pilots rely on costs a minimum of $3000, could we take that cost down to under $1000, I think so.

I've been talking about doing engine monitor on Android for about 3 years, what is so hard about it. (I've had a few distractions...). There are challenges, certainly, but giving people a full time job to do this stuff, and it should be quick and easy.

Prove me wrong, until then, it is time to change the world.