Engine Instrument DIsplay Style

[sunfish]

While I am stilll building and yet to use my Skyview in anger, there is one thing that bugs me - the style of the engine instruments in Skyview.

The wide scales and rounded ends look clumsy to me. I would prefer a more Boeing/Collins professional style of gauge scale and pointer like the one below.

While I am not an expert in interface design, I suspect that the narrower scales would provide more "black space" (ie white space in printing terms) around each gauge and make the resulting display less likely to be misread.

What do you think? Could this be a future Skyview option?

 

[William_Ince]

As compared with other designs (SkyView, MD, Boeing and Airbus), I must admit, I am not particularly fond of the one you posted.  To each his own, eh?

I suggest you do more experimentation.  That is what my installer advised me to do.  Though limited, I finally inserted a setup I could live (fly) with.

The great thing about Dynon is, they keep giving us more flexibility and choices, which is really a good thing. . . . 

 

[mmarien]

You can modify the engine gauges quite a bit. While tic marks are still not available, the width and shape of the bar and arc gauges can be modified by hand tweaking. White is also an available color. I can't remember but I think if you use a width of zero for the arcs they are just a single white line. See the documentation here:

http://www.digitalmapping.sk.ca/EMS_Gauges.pdf

One example below.

 

[purlee]

Maybe I am being dumb, or having a blonde day, but I have been sitting looking at the engine display above and trying to work out what the top center gauge label AFR is telling me. It has completely escaped me.

Can someone elucidate or refresh my memory

Thanks

 

[dynonsupport]

Air fuel ratio. Mmarien has a custom sensor set up for this- it's pretty unusual in an airplane (and 100% unheard of in a certified plane)

 

[mmarien]

The AFR reading comes from an oxygen sensor that I installed. It's an easy way to determine mixture for maximum power or best economy. Maybe unusual for conventional aircraft engines but pretty standard in automobiles. Searching this forum for AFR will give you an idea of how to install one and why you would want to.

 

[NASA515]

The wide scales and rounded ends look clumsy to me. I would prefer a more Boeing/Collins professional style of gauge scale and pointer like the one below.

While I am not an expert in interface design, I suspect that the narrower scales would provide more "black space" (ie white space in printing terms) around each gauge and make the resulting display less likely to be misread.

I think those thin scales with hard to see tick marks to be far less clear than the Dynon "clumsy" fat scales which are color coded for instant analysis and understanding.  But - those thin scales are, er "stylish."

It would be hard to beat the Dynon customization capability - round ones, horizontal ones, vertical ones, big, small and then you can go in and tweak them yet further if you're ambitious.

What could be clearer than a color coded dial, with digits that change color as well, to correspond with the dial.  The shown example looks like a perfect way to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what the dial is telling me, and then maybe misinterpreting it.

Maybe Boeing and Collins should check out the Dynon engine indication scheme with an eye towards improving their presentations?

Bob Bogash
RV-12
N737G

 

[vlittle]

There has been a lot of discussion on this in the EMS thread. I'm a fan of the 'Star Trek' med-lab style, but there are human factors experts who have other opinions.

IMHO I think there needs to be more customization supported to allow for individual preferences, and font size needs to be much larger for D700 displays.

Vern