Compatibility with FADEC

[pboyce]

The proposed 10" product is exactly what I've been looking for!  

Currently for my RV-7A, I have a Teledyne Continental (formerly Aerosance) FADEC electronic ignition system on a Superior XP360 engine.  For engine monitoring, the system outputs all the engine parameters using RS485.  I am using a Compaq PDA as the engine display, using pcflightsystems.com software to format and display the data.

Will the FADEC engine data output be compatible with the proposed EMS box?

Paul

 

[dynonsupport]

We definitely won't have support for FADEC systems in the beginning. It may be something we work on over time, but we don't have any idea when they would be (if ever).

 

[pboyce]

Do you think it would be possible to build box that could take the FADEC RS485 signal and convert it to something that the Dynon box could recognize?

I would have to find someone to do this since I'm not an electrical/electronics type person.

 

[dynonsupport]

The Dynon units do not take digital engine data. They hook to analog inputs from sensors. So while it's possible (anything's possible!) it's really not financially viable. It would be much cheaper and faster to just put a second set of sensors on the engine.

 

[pboyce]

I appreciate your ideas on this.

The FADEC system is basically collecting all the data from the CHT, EGT, fuel pressure, manifold air temperature, manifold air pressure, rpm sensors then adjusting fuel flow to each cylinder and engine timing. The adjustment are made by the engine control units. These control units output the sensor data via RS485 which I then display to the PDA.

From what you are saying, there is no obvious way to make this work. Adding second set of sensors would be an extremely difficult task and only complicate things. Can you think of any other possible solutions?

 

[dynonsupport]

The real solution is to get us to support FADEC modules directly. There isn't any other economic way. Yes, someone could take the FADEC data and then create simulated analog signals, but I promise it would be cheaper, easier, and faster to just add redundant sensors.

Given that you might be the third person ever to ask for it, we don't have a great business case to add it. Get all your friends that have FADEC engines to contact us and convince us they'll spend $10K on avionics with us if we just had FADEC support, and then we'll bump it way up the list.