Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Carl Orton on January 11, 2020 at 9:43am

Well, since no one's replied thus far....

I purchased a Sport EX at Oshkosh this year; received it about 2 months ago. Opened the boxes for inventory, but that's about it. The plane is not ready for it yet.

The installation / user guide documents are available at the GRT website. I suggest you download a copy and see what the analog setup considerations are. The GRT units are amazingly customizable, so I'll speculate IN IGNORANCE that anything that outputs a variable voltage can be connected and utilized. Other builders have noted that GRT tech support is great and that they've helped them through several installation challenges. They're a very small company, so they don't have 500 pages of documentation; sometimes a phone call will work wonders.

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Permalink Reply by Brad Payne on January 11, 2020 at 10:30am

Thanks Carl. 

I have downloaded the manuals and review them and they are incredibly unhelpful.  The section on analog inputs in the installation manual gives you possibilities of  what you can do with them (SALES Material basicly). It's about 4 sentances long. 

It looks like a great product, but a mystery what you can do with it beyond the basics.  I have contacted their sales staff about how it works and got incedibly vauge responses. 

thanks again

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Permalink Reply by Carl Orton on January 11, 2020 at 12:59pm

Well, it looks like you did everything right! Did you stand on your left foot and blow bubble gum while contacting them?  Sorry....

Yes, it can be frustrating. When I was contemplating their system, I emailed some questions to them. Yup - horrible answers. After 2-3 iterations, I finally called them. Got great support then!

I'm not giving excuses here, but just remember they are VERY small. I think about 5 staff total. I can understand walking into the office and having an inbox with 54 support emails - you just want to get rid of the stack as quickly as possible, so I can see the situation where *they* think it's a straight-forward response, but it lacks.

Search these forums for GRT experiences and I think you'll find the same thing.  For me, it was either $12,000 for a Garmin or Dynon system, or $4200 for GRT. Now, that's not apples & oranges. The garmin & dynon prices (obtained at Zenith Open Hangar) included comm & transponder.  I purchased a used icom from my EAA chapter for $150 and a used Garmin 327 xpnder for $400 off ebay (that was then checked out by my local garmin installer). And my GRT system includes ADS-B in & out, engine monitor, probes, magnetometer (compass) and AHARS (positioning) sensors. I decided that with enough begging / forum-ing etc., I can get it working and smile at my savings.

After posting the above, I dug out my manual, and section 2-6 contained this exact quote: (May 2019 edition manual)

The Sport EX/Horizon EX includes four analog inputs and an audio output as an option. The analog inputs allow the EFIS to measure up to four individual voltages in the airplane. Typically, these inputs are used to display the trim and flap positions, but they can be user-defined for just about any purpose. For example, the inputs may be defined and used to display fuel levels, fuel pressure, water temperature or even ignition advance (if compatible with your ignition system).

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Permalink Reply by Brad Payne on January 11, 2020 at 2:49pm

LOL!  Sorry If my response seemed negative to you.  I appreciate your help. It is frustrating to me they dont do a better job promoting their unique features and helping people use them.  Thats business school 101.   The quote you have at the end is more then is in the downloadable manual on the website and certainly gives me some more thoughts on it.

I already bought some MGL gear and have had nothig but problems with support and the hardware. I ended up removing it and now have some pretty expensive hanger decorations!  I was a little afraid going to GRT might be jumping out ofthe frying pan and into the fire.  I sure do like the price for all those features and it continues to tempt me.

Thanks again for your help

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Permalink Reply by Carl Orton on January 11, 2020 at 7:30pm

Sorry to hear about your MGL experience. I used an MGL Enigma in my Sonex in 2009. Of course, 6 months after I bought it they came out with systems that had much greater resolution on the screen.  MGL was nothing but helpful to me. *I* screwed up while installing it, using a 12V power supply. This was before I had finished the wiring. System worked great, then one day I reversed the leads. Poof. 'Fessed up, sent it back, and in 2 wks and $50 I had my unit all repaired. Not bad for MY screwup. While I had it flying (2012-2015 - sold it), it was bulletproof.

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Permalink Reply by John Austin on January 12, 2020 at 7:09am

Like Carl's experience, my MGL equipment (XTreme EFIS, EMS and V6 radio) has been bulletproof, too!  Great technical support from Matt at MGL.  The biggest problem is that it is so adaptable/versatile, the manual doesn't cover everything in detail - it helps to be a bit of a techy-type to figure it all out, but it works great!  However, years ago I had some GRT equipment (EIS6000) and the equipment and support was top-notch, too!

John

N750A

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Permalink Reply by Brad Payne on January 12, 2020 at 3:23pm

After looking further at the MGL site and reviewing their documentation, I really like all the customizations they show.  They even have a simulator which I downloaded and worked with.  The GPS Functions appear to be better on the GRT, but the MGL looks pretty good. 

I might look again at the MGL and ask them for some trade in on the stuff I removed that never did work right.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Davis on January 24, 2020 at 7:30pm

I went with GRT and have received great support! We worked through issues with the Zenith supplied fuel senders and voltages needed to power the analog  inputs for fuel gauges. They were also extremely helpful when I had setup issues where the mini wasn’t showing the same data as the Hxr. They are small but have been very responsive to me and I’m extremely happy I went with them.

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