Oh boy. I need to make a panel decision this month for my third build. I have been (more than) a loyal customer for 16+ years, including developing several custom avionics modules for the SkyView system and assisting many other builders. I've been looking at Advanced Panels to do a turnkey build for me, but there are critical missing SV features, specifically:
1: no support for uAvionics TailBeaconX (for mode-S diversity, recommended for non-US operations).
2. Not enough serial ports. Five is not enough to support the Advanced ACM, transponder, GPS-2020, ADSB-472, Panel GPS, ELT, COM (that's seven for those counting). By using a third-party transponder transponder/encoder, I could gain one port. By not using the ECB version of the ACM, I could gain another port. I still don’t get the extra serial port I need for driving my backseat EFIS or the OnSpeed box. Ideally, a new box to support serial port expansion would be a benefit, or the option to split the serial ports between displays .
3. Lack of third-party integration. See point 1, along with other examples documented on this site.
Turns out that AFS can handle all of these issues with their EFISs, but at a cost. A second $4000 display is required for the additional serial ports required. Using an ACM with a single display is just not practical.
For the simple bushplane that I'm currently building, I don't need two expensive, heavy EFIS displays. So if I can't crack this nut with SkyView, I need to look elsewhere.
Vern