Dynon NAV/COMM???

[Carl_Froehlich]

Several more months have passed so I’m again pinging. Dynon - any hints, like if this is being considerd?

I’d guess taking the Trig NAV/Comm and applying your SkyView software would be a low risk path to market. Perhaps you all have a better approach. I just don’t want to do a fourth panel with the clunky (and grossly overpriced) GTN-650 and the Dynon radio as Comm #2. Considering my experinece with the current batch of Garmin radios (horrible receiver front ends) I’d never consider using their NAV/Comm.

Carl

 

[Carl_Froehlich]

Pinging again on the hope that somewhere, someone at Dynon is thinking about offering a NAV/Comm.

Carl

 

[Dynon]

We don't have any updates to share here. But, in general, we don't talk about future or possible projects until we announce them.

 

[Bill Putney]

I hear you Carl, my ‘Apollo’ (UPS AT) ‘stack’ was the first flying here, excellent equipment & I still have my SL30 & MX20. The rest I sold earlier & the GX60 was last to go ( display/chipset manufacturer stopped supplying them for whatever reason) . IMO the big G bought the Apollo line to kill opposition & for the technology that was in the GNS480 to apply it to the 430/530 series - it still took them years for that to happen & now they don’t support the 480 anymore. Support cutoff has applied to many of their models It seems to be a common theme with many people being caught out & having to spend big dollars for replacements. So then the ‘anti’ G movement gains momentum.
Now everything else I have, except for my audio panel, is Dynon. Why - they have excellent support, 3 years warranty & excellent after warranty repair rates & terms, their “legacy” eg D10/D100 series design enabled a partial update to the SV units without replacing everything. Autopilot servos stayed the same & just needed an extra twisted pair wires & the engine sensor harness just plugged into the SV module with minor changes.
Then if one decided to change to the latest HDX units it is truly a “plug & Play” process (just have to easily add 2 x nutplates to the panel for each screen) what’s not to love about that!
My background ? I’ve worked in the avionics industry for 5 1/2 + years working with various manufacturers including Ps-Engineering, UPSAT (Apollo), Garmin, Honeywell, Bendix King, Narco & several others. Since then I still buy PS eng products as they’re the best GA audio IMO ( I’m not a Dealer as I don’t have a Licenced ‘shop) but now not any of the others. Now I have Dynon & Avidyne (excellent combination) with a couple of other items - don’t want to give up my ’dumb’ MX20 ( needs GPS to drive it) though as it’s a big screen, cost me a lot & I didn’t need to remove it to make room for anything so just kept it.
Dynon ‘rocks’ ! and I don’t see the need to go elsewhere for most system upgrade/changes, others opinions may vary.

Dynon (Advanced) already has a remote intercom that is built by PS Engineering (EFIS Controlled Remote Audio Panel) which is controlled by a serial port. Dynon would have to implement an interface for it in the Dynon line, but i bet a lot of the software blocks can be ported in part from Advanced. TRIG has a panel mount NAV/COM they market as a replacement for the SL30 but I don't know if they went so far as to implement the SL30's serial interface. If they have or if they could be persuaded to make a headless version of it, like they have for their transponder and comm radio, that would be a solution by a manufacturer with which Dynon already has a relationship. Dynon certainly has enough on its plate without developing new NAV/COM and audio panel hardware. Developing radios would probably require a new engineering group to develop things in the RF space they don't currently have. That has been deftly handled by Dynon so far by outsourcing those things to good 3rd party manufacturers like TRIG.

Then Dynon only has to write the new display software modules... As a former (and recovering) software developer, I can confidently say that anything can be done in software. As a former (and recovering) software development manager, I learned a project time estimation tool early in my career. Your developer (or team) will say that they can do the project in "X" amount of time, where time is measured in some common increment such as hours, days, months. The estimate you give your boss (or customers) should be 4 times X raised to the next higher increment. For instance; "Yeah boss, we can do that in 4 hours, no problem." could be translated for my boss as; "Yeah boss, my team can get that done in 16 days, no problem." If they tell you the project is going to take a year, abandon hope and find another way of solving the problem.

That all puts us squarely back to the "not enough serial ports" issue. IMHO SV-Net probably has a speed/distance/complexity limitation which is a good compromise for it's intended application. Adding an SV-Net module to provide a bunch more serial ports may be hard to do if the serial ports all want to run at fairly high bit rates. Perhaps a solution to this might be to have a 2nd SV-Net (an HSV-Net) that uses USB ports from each display and gives 8 more serial ports. The network could use all the same protocol hooks as the current SV-Net (reducing the software development time) but be restricted by the length of USB cables from the displays. That limitation could be overcome by creating a USB to fiber HSV-Net hub module. The fiber HSV-Net hub module could be mounted right near the panel and to collect a group of fiber ports. That could connect to a new group of Dynon modules that take advantage of the very high speed (~Gbps) single fiber full duplex connection at any distance to a remote module. No special tooling or skill would be required by the installer because pre-terminated fiber optic cables are available very widely at places like Amazon in a wide variety of lengths at very low cost. Using duplex fiber jumpers would make for a redundant network from the hub out if desired. Fiber optic has the added advantage of not emitting or being subject to electrical noise that is always a consideration when running high speed data over wires in an airplane. Fiber optic cable isn't as fragile as you might think. Once it's in place and tied down to the airframe, it is small, light weight and very resilient to the kinds of insults aircraft are prone to throw at things.

- Bill

 

[packetpusher]

Just pitching in to say I would definitely be up for an integrated NAV/COM upgrade to the Certified HDX with COM I'm currently flying with. The ability to integrate the NAV programming and display into the PFD would be worth the money to me. Auto-tuning a backup ILS for an approach is worth it alone.

 

[cbretana]

Have you succeeded in getting the secondary frequency bearing signal to display on Bearing Pointer 2 on Skyview? I read your comment that "secondary frequency on the MGL Vega OBS & tuning head will not display on SV PFD when the N16 standby nav frequency is selected for the SV #2 bearing pointer. ...", and am curious if it`s only the frequency that fails to display....?

 

[Wheel_Nerd]

Planning my panel now. Really sucks having to plan for a Garmin GNC 355 or GPS 175 in my Dynon panel. It seems like such a massive hole in their product lineup, that it would be a priority, but appears not to be the case. I think they would sell really well. Dual comm capability would be nice too If they went the NAV/Comm route. Come on, Dynon, why do you force us to use the other guys?

 

[Carl_Froehlich]

Planning my panel now. Really sucks having to plan for a Garmin GNC 355 or GPS 175 in my Dynon panel. It seems like such a massive hole in their product lineup, that it would be a priority, but appears not to be the case. I think they would sell really well. Dual comm capability would be nice too If they went the NAV/Comm route. Come on, Dynon, why do you force us to use the other guys?

Considering the very nice TRIG TX56A is showing it is compatable with SkyView perhaps this the path for Dynon. The current build will have the GNC 355 (least bad of all the bad options) and this TRIG NAV/COMM.

Now if Dynon and TRIG collaborated to have a remote mounted NAV/Comm and a panel control module like on the Dynon (TRIG) remote radio we would have the perfect setup.

Carl

 

[Bill Putney]

Considering the very nice TRIG TX56A is showing it is compatable with SkyView perhaps this the path for Dynon. The current build will have the GNC 355 (least bad of all the bad options) and this TRIG NAV/COMM.

Now if Dynon and TRIG collaborated to have a remote mounted NAV/Comm and a panel control module like on the Dynon (TRIG) remote radio we would have the perfect setup.

Carl

There isn’t a headless one now, but if Dynon offered to buy a bunch at a time, it would be worth Trig doing the work. Dynon already has a relationship with Trig to OEM transponders.

I haven’t seen any verification from Dynon, but it seems like you should at least be able to do what you can do with an SL30 in terms of controlling it and displaying Nav data from it on SkyView right now.

 

[jessesaint]

Considering the very nice TRIG TX56A is showing it is compatable with SkyView perhaps this the path for Dynon. The current build will have the GNC 355 (least bad of all the bad options) and this TRIG NAV/COMM.

Now if Dynon and TRIG collaborated to have a remote mounted NAV/Comm and a panel control module like on the Dynon (TRIG) remote radio we would have the perfect setup.

Carl

The form factor of the remote Transponder and Com that Dynon uses from Trig is much different than their panel mounted units, which the TX56A is. If Trig makes one that is intended to mount remotely, then Dynon could, if they see a big enough market, do the same thing as they are doing with the TY91 Com. Personally, I would go with the TX56A and let the Dynon control it. It will still need to be panel mounted, because there are certain functions that won't work without the display on the unit.