Work on our EFIS platform began at the beginning of 2000 and was based on the computing hardware that was available at the time. After the EFIS-D10 was released in 2003, it quickly became apparent that future software updates would be hard given the limited internal memory in the unit. We also learned a lot from the development of the EFIS-D10 and had some thoughts on how it might be changed to allow for better connectivity down the road. So the EFIS-D10A is a hardware refreshening of the EFIS-D10. They remain very close in terms of their feature set.
From a technical perspective, the EFIS-D10 does not have much free memory for future software feature improvements. Since the EFIS-D10A was designed a few years later,
Moore's Law allowed us to increase the amount of memory in the EFIS-D10A. This has enabled us to grow the EFIS-D10A over the last year. For example, the latest EFIS-D10A software has all of the magnetic calibration software on the EFIS itself. Instead of having to haul a laptop out to your aircraft to calibrate the compass, an EFIS-D10A running the latest software only requires button pushes on the EFIS to step through the calibration procedure. Soon, users with our AOA pitot will be able to set up the EFIS-D10A to output an audio alarm as your AOA gets high.
Additionally, all of our avionics, except for the EFIS-D10, have our yet-unused DSAB communications bus built in. In the future, this will allow different Dynon devices to hook up and talk to each other in some interesting and powerful ways. Early capabilities will include the ability to "swap" screens between our EFIS and EMS line, as well as to combine both sets of data from both of these devices in one "split screen" view (on our D100 7" line).
To the eye, there are a few noticable differences. The EFIS-D10A's screen is updated more times per second than the EFIS-D10's is. In your hand it's very noticable and makes for an awesome demonstration of our EFIS's responsiveness. There are some subdle display symbology differences as well.
We continue to support the EFIS-D10 for the forseeable future. We also have an upgrade program that will turn your EFIS-D10 into an EFIS-D10A if you want the "latest and greatest". The cost of this is $350 for the EFIS, and $50 for the EDC if you own it as wel (it also needs to come back for upgrade). Upgrades generally are turned around in a week or two. If this is something you are interested in, give us a call at 425-402-04333.
